Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Lesotho Part 2: Roma

Roma is a magical place, combining the hustle and bustle of a 3rd world city with the peacefulness of a mountain village. It was interesting to experience the juxtaposition of these atmospheres by simply walking a couple of blocks down the street. I was fortunate to experience this more so than some of the other teachers traveling with me because of the locations in which I was assigned to work. My mornings consisted of teaching in the primary school in the village, while my afternoons were spent working at a community center in town. I learned so much through this teaching experience, both about myself and the community in which I taught. It was an invaluable experience that has affected me deeply.

Now for what most of you have been waiting for....details about my time with the children. As I said, my mornings in Roma were spent at a primary school in the village. We started the days by walking the half mile or so to the school, where each group spent the mornings with a different grade level (5th, 6th and 7th grades). It was interesting dealing with students of a different culture and educational background. There were some challenges, such as language barriers, extremely large class sizes (70ish per class), lack of electricity and encouraging students to move away from their traditional roles as listeners and toward our expectations of active learners. Despite these challenges however, the children were incredibly well behaved, respectful and intelligent. Although we weren't able to spend as much time with the students as we would've liked, we had a lot of fun teaching, dancing and playing with the students.


































At the end of each morning at school, we returned to our guest house for a quick lunch and to change clothes, then drove the 10 minutes through the city to the community center on the other side of town. The community center in which I worked was called Bana Pele, which is Sesotho for Children First. Bana Pele is a shelter and center for AIDS orphans and was founded by the wife of the former Prime Minister of Lesotho, who spent her career as a pediatrician and now spends her time running the center and finding sources of funding for the center and the orphans who are a part of the center. The services this center offers are incredible, despite the economic hardships, lack of adequate facilities and the emotional distress that plague the director and volunteers.

Now, on to what I did there. In preparation for the trip, my partner and I prepared activities for 9 hours of work with approximately 40 children between the ages of 3 and 7. Unfortunately, as I've learned throughout my trip, things in Africa very rarely occur as planned. As the bus pulled up to the center on the first day, we were greeted not only by chaos, but also by approximately 400 children. A collective gasp, followed by some cursing and laughter echoed through the bus. After nearly an hour of trying to organize the children into age groups and figure out where to work with the masses, my partner and I took about 200 kids (all between 2-7) to a little barn where we taught them colors (in English) and led them in a coloring activity. Although the day was chaotic and pretty freaking stressful, the kids had so much fun, received some love and were fed, all of which are more important than anything.










The rest of the time at the center was quite different for me, as I was moved from the group of little ones and put into the position of dance teacher, which obviously was ok with me. I was then responsible for probably 100 kids between the ages of 7 and 15, all of whom I fell in love with. We had so much fun playing follow the dance leader, having dance circles and dance offs and learning an actual hip hop routine. Honestly, it was a blast. And let me tell you, those kids can dance!







Although I was assigned to Bana Pele, I briefly visited Leratong, the community center that is sponsored largely by Wittenberg and the center in which the other half of my fellow teachers spent their afternoons. The center has been decorated beautifully by Wittenberg students and, of course they left their mark by hanging flags and donating tshirts. It brought a smile to my face to see a connection to home in such a far away place.










Although we worked a lot while in Roma, it wasn't all work and no play. We had some free time to have a little fun, and we took advantage of that as much as possible. During our time in Roma, we celebrated the birthday of one of my fellow teachers by creating funny cards and posters, spoiling her with lavish gifts of booze and candy and having an evening bonfire complete with South African s'mores.




We had an opportunity to spend a wonderful day with some local artists. One was a traditional dressmaker, another was an artist who uses natural resources to create beautiful pieces based on historical events and another was an artist who uses recycled materials (mostly car parts) to create African themed art (mainly masks and animals). I immediately fell in love with an African mask and managed to beat out several of my travel partners in buying it. Although you can probably buy a similar mask online or at a store somewhere, there's something about buying it directly from a struggling artist that makes it so incredibly special.







We also had some local musicians visit us that day. They provided us with wonderful music, to which I clearly had to dance. Fortunately, I was able to drag several others onto the dance floor with me, so I wasn't the only one to make a fool of herself.













While in Roma, we had the honor of meeting the King of Lesotho. He spent about an hour with us, discussing our travels, our project, his role as king and his upcoming birthday celebrations. We had many questions for him, and he for us. We ended our time with him with tea, cake and a group picture, which unfortunately I don't have because we were only allowed to bring one camera into the meeting. Although the King is primarily viewed as a figurehead rather than a political leader, like the Queen of England, it was an honor to meet him and discuss his beautiful country with him.

My final night in Lesotho brought something of such great interest to me, and perhaps to some of you. While in Roma, we stayed at the Roma Guest House, which is owned and operated by a wonderful woman by the name of Jenny. Jenny not only provides jobs at the guest house for many locals, but also has created a trading post for locals to sell their goods, is on the board of the Leratong Community Center, organizes funding, housing and care for AIDS orphans and helps many locals with personal issues such as transportation, education, finances, etc. The final night, Jenny sat down with our group and explained her role in the community and told us ways in which we can help. She also brought in a woman living with AIDS who shared her story with us. She told us about the shame, the sickness, the medical care, her family and their reaction, everything she's experienced since receiving positive test results. This may seem insignificant to some, but when dealing with a country that has a 35% HIV infection rate, the highest in the world, Jenny's work and Daphne's story are very significant. I've pledged to help in any way possible and perhaps you will too. There are hundreds of AIDS orphans in Roma alone that Jenny works to support. They are in need of school supplies, clothing, money for food and housing and sponsors who will help pay school fees. An American dollar goes a very long way, so any little bit can and will help someone. If you're interested in helping, please let me know and I can send you more information.

As I said in my first Lesotho post, I'm still processing all that I experienced in Lesotho and trying to figure out how to express my feelings in a logical, understandable way. I'm constantly struggling with new emotions and thoughts while reflecting on my experience, so the formation of a reflective blog is a slow, ongoing process. I have things to think about, people to talk with and decisions to make before posting something so personal. So until I formulate something that I'm comfortable sharing with the world, I hope my descriptions of my time in Lesotho will suffice. I also hope that through the posts you've read thus far, you can realize the meaning of my travels, the importance of my experiences with the children and the beauty of the people I've encountered.

P.S. Just a little update about our situation with Owen, our driver...apparently he was not able to renew his license in Lesotho after all. The morning we left Lesotho we were informed that Owen was no longer able to be with us and that we would have a new driver from Lesotho who would escort us to Harrismith then a new driver from Owen's company would join us upon arrival in Harrismith. Well, the Lesotho driver joined us shortly before leaving Roma, but come to find out his license was also expired. So here we are with two illegal drivers. We had no other choice but to depart with crossed fingers with Owen as driver. We all held our breaths as Owen passed through security once again at the Lesotho-South African border. Fortunately the trip posed no problems. Our new driver, Robbie (or Roberto, as I choose to call him), greeted us in Harrismith and has been with us the past few days. Owen was an excellent guide and he will be missed, but so far Roberto has proven himself worthy.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Roma, Lesotho

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Lesotho Part 1: Morija

If someone asked me to describe my time in Morija in one word, I would choose idyllic. Everything was amazing...from the cozy location to the majestic views to the wonderful people and the incredible activities. I obviously can't share everything with you on here, as we simply experienced too much to write about, however I will share with you the things that were most special and meaningful to my life, views and thoughts about the world.

July 1st was a day of travel from Johannesburg to Morija. This was an international trip, therefore we had to cross a border to get into Lesotho. The South African side of the border was nice and calm and caused no problems for us. The Lesotho side was a different story, however. First, it was insanely busy, as it was Friday afternoon so all of the Basotho who work in South Africa during the week were returning to their families in Lesotho for the weekend. It was chaotic, disorganized and the meaning of "line" was virtually nonexistent. After trying to be polite Americans and waiting in a line for our turn, we soon realized it wasn't going to work, so we followed the example of the natives and began pushing and shoving our way to the front of the line. After nearly an hour of chaos, we all made it through the checkpoint and back to the bus. Unfortunately, the worst was yet to come. As we were pulling away from the border, a group of police motioned us to pull over during a random vehicle checkpoint. Everything was fine until they asked for Owen's (our driver) driving license. After reviewing it for a minute, they asked Owen to step out of the vehicle and began questioning him. Inside the bus, we had no idea what was happening and were therefore quietly freaking out, as we were a group of white "rich" Americans sitting on a bus in an area of extreme poverty and violence surrounded by men peering in the windows, women yelling at us and police officers with guns harassing our driver. After a few minutes, Mark, our leader, informed us that Owen's bus license had expired and they were getting ready to take him to jail. Cue more freaking out. To make this long story a bit shorter, Mark saved the day by contacting our representative in Lesotho who has extreme pull in all things occurring in Lesotho. She spoke with the border patrol officers and convinced them to let Owen go on the grounds that she would immediately have a new license sent in from South Africa. It must be nice to be friends with the King!




We finally arrived at our guest house in Morija after 10 hours of driving. Morija wasn't a town, as I had expected, but rather a village consisting of probably 7 buildings for public use and several houses, all made of scrap wood, tin, tarps, straw and mud. The guest house was situated on the edge of the mountain, above the village and required a 10 minute drive on an extremely bumpy mountain "road" to get to. Upon arrival, it immediately felt like home. The house itself was lovely and extremely welcoming, as it was previously the owner's home. The staff was very friendly and welcomed us warmly. Although it was cold outside, it was warm and cozy inside, primarily because of the fireplace, but also because of the friendly environment and wonderful people in my group (and, of course, the house dog, Mosley).










The mountain on which the house was situated provided us with several opportunities to explore. The first day, we hiked up to an area with fossilized dinosaur footprints and a natural fireplace and chimney used by locals to perform various rituals. We were joined by a wonderful Canadian family who was also staying at the guest house during their time in Lesotho while adopting a young orphan. This family has affected me greatly...you will read more about this in a later post. After the hike, we went horseback riding through the mountains, which cost us a little more money, but was worth it as the money went to the owners of the horses, providing them with a little extra money to support their families. We ended the day with a walk through the village and a visit to the home of a local family.


































The following day was incredible, yet exhausting. We spent most of the daylight hours hiking to the very top of the mountain, where we found a remote village, ate lunch on a cliff overlooking the mountains of Morija and heard stories of history and tradition. The hike up was intense and made me realize how out of shape I am. The hike down was awesome, as it resulted in the formation of Team JEG (John, Erica, Genevieve), the slowpokes who had a very difficult time walking but a whole hell of a lot of fun! We ended the day with a traditional song and dance performance by local children.




























A few additional tidbits of excitement...
-Sesotho language lessons given by Bridgitte, the owner of the guest house
-Visits to schools and the National Curriculum Development Center to learn about Lesotho's education system
-Visit to a Chinese textile factory that could be considered a sweatshop (thumbs down) but employs MANY Basotho (thumbs up)
- Visit to the U.S. Embassy, which is included in the list of my favorite parts of the trip
-Visit to the Morija Museum where we learned about the history and culture of the Basotho
-Visit to traditional weavers, where I bought a small African weaving to go in my future child's nursery






-Magnificent views of the stars and Milky Way, which of course included a night photography session






-Visit to a local village where we saw demonstrations of mud thatching of houses and pottery making...and of course played with kids


















-Hike to the top of Thaba Bosiu, the mountain on which the Kingdom of Lesotho was formed under the leadership of King Moshoeshoe












Our last day in Morija was one of the best days of the trip thus far. We visited Lesotho Teacher's College, the only teachers college in Lesotho. The visit started with a Q&A session with various professors, deans, etc., which, honestly, was quite boring. After, they told us to come outside, as some of the students wanted to share their work with us. They led us outside and into a crowd of people. Just as we were all wondering what was happening, we were led onto a stage surrounded by probably 400 students, all of whom were cheering and waving. The work they wanted to share with us was actually traditional instrument playing, dancing, singing and welcome speeches. It was so wonderful to be greeted in such a friendly manner and we felt so incredibly special to be included in their traditional ceremonies. Many of us cried, mostly from joy but also from sheer awe and amazement at the beauty of these wonderful people and their customs. It was an incredibly moving experience and will forever be a piece of me.












One final note about my time in Morija. This is the place where I formed some lasting friendships. The 14 people in my group all stayed in the same house, shared 3 bathrooms and gathered nightly by the fireplace, which allowed for bonding, stories and laughter. I'm fortunate to be a part of this wonderful group and to now consider these amazing people my friends.

The beauty of the people and the land of Morija have left a footprint in my heart. My final Lesotho post will be reflective, rather than factual in nature and will be posted whenever I feel comfortable with the way I have organized and collected my thoughts and feelings on paper. Whether that be tomorrow or a month from now, I hope you will read it and be able to at least feel a small piece of the wonder and magic of Lesotho and the impact this experience has had on my life.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Morija, Lesotho

Find me here, and speak to me
I want to feel you, I need to hear you
You are the light that's leading me to the place
Where I find peace again.