Saturday, March 04, 2006
'March'ing to a new location
The weather is starting to turn now. There is a definite feeling of early fall in the morning, especially in the mountains. The good news is that it has not rained in four days. Hope this is a trend. The newspaper here is saying that abnormally high rains are expected for March. We shall see.
I am being transferred from Mamohau to a school in the foothills called St. Charles next week (March 8th). I really was not getting anywhere at Mamohau since they did not really understand why I was there and there was no real commitment from principal or staff to school improvement and change. I think that much of the problem was that Help Lesotho did not have accurate information about the school’s situation and there had not been enough liaison between them and the school to establish what the school really wanted (they were looking for a free teacher for a whole year) and what the NGO wanted to provide. The school had my work plan months ago but no one would admit having read it. I think the school could be very much improved but it was not going to happen with them thinking that everything in the school was just fine.
Apparently St Charles are very excited that I am coming and want help with math (who doesn’t here). I may also be helping at another school near there called Bokoro. These are about an hour north-east of Leribe, past a larger town called Butha-Bothe, but in the country somewhere. More next time about them. I also have to figure out how to get my junk down from the mountain and where my living arrangements will be at St Charles. My time there will be somewhat short as I am going to tour around southern South Africa for the first two weeks in April. During this time I also want to talk to some people in the other end of Lesotho about a possible tourism micro-enterprise to get people from North America and Europe to come to Lesotho and South Africa. Little is known about the former and there is a lot of misinformation about the latter at home. Also the last week in March is used for quarterly exams so any teaching I do will have to be before then. I can, hopefully, meet with teachers during the exam time.
This week we did out major project at Makhelefane, way up in the mountains. We had the wood precut in Leribe and loaded up a 4wd pickup that we hired (it looked like it might not fit but did). We also took paint and other things. When we got there, we assembled 25 benches (each bench could hold 5 small bums) and fixed another 10 or so that needed work. We also painted the walls of one classroom white – the walls and floor are coated with a mixture of mud and cow dung (no smell though!) but the result is a dark brown wall that absorbs all the light. The principal said that having the white walls was like having two or three new windows. It was a remarkable change.
We also took four new blackboards since the ones they had were literally falling apart. The blackboards are very simple. You buy a piece of masonite and paint it with special blackboard paint. The school had some green paint and some black paint (provided by UNICEF). In addition, Penney, who hit up her family and friends for money for this, had 230 school bags made from denim by a local woman. These cost less than $3 each and are very nicely made (with a name tag) – this allows the kids to carry their stuff to and from school. Some kids walk for as much as 90 minutes each way to school. We also made what are called lapboards (from more Masonite) for the kids to write on (there is not room for desks if we could afford them). The final purchase was 100+ spoons. The kids get breakfast and lunch at school and had to eat their sorghum porridge with their hands.
It is a remarkably poor place. There is evidence of foreign aid everywhere – a ‘school in a box’ from Denmark, corn meal from the US, an ongoing food supply system from the UN World Food Program, and us. Penney is now trying to get some money to buy shoes for the kids. Last winter a student who walked to school in bare feet, caught something and died. This is in an area where it does snow and temperatures can be below zero.
The people work hard. They have gotten fed up with waiting for the government to build a promised new school building to replace the tent that is used for grades 1 to 3. They have started to build a ‘community hall’ in which these classes can be taught until the building appears (the Japanese govt have just build something like 200 classrooms to replace tents in various places). The building will be made of local rocks that are piled up dry (no mortar). The women carry the rocks to the site on their heads and the men have dug the foundation and are now building the walls. The gaps are filled with the mud/dung mixture. They have no money to put a roof on the building but I think I will try to organize donations to pay for this. I have a lot of use for people who do their best to be self-sufficient in a very difficult environment like this.
Apparently there are schools off the (terrible) road to the diamond mine that are much worse off than Makhlefane. I can’t imagine what they are like. To get to them, you take the 4wd and then walk. Stuff that is needed there is carried by donkeys or people.
In the Only In Africa (OIA) category:
- One of the volunteers, Carol, was heading up into the mountains in a taxi (15 passenger) when they were stopped at a police checkpoint. Turned out the driver did not have a license, so he was told to drive to the local police station where we was escorted by two cops to the holding cells (not having a license did not seem to be a problem with this drive). The packed taxi was left sitting there until someone called the company to complain.
- The things that women carry on their heads is remarkable. At the school BBQ a while back, one of the women was carrying a case of 24 beer on her head and another in her arms. I said that in much of Canada, this talent would make her very popular. I saw a woman with a huge cabbage on her head – not only was it heavy and hard, it was round.
-Women do so much work here. On the drive here – at something like 9000’ elevation there was a couple traveling to the nearby village (there is nothing else around) which was about 5 km away. The may was riding on his horse with no packages to hold while the wife was walking behind with a big burden on her head. Some of the really bright high school girls are becoming feminists, even though they do not even know the word or concept. I think this is a very hopeful development for the country.
- One of the Bible teachers at Mamohau runs 4 or 5 marathons a year. He is 56, about 5’2” and has quite a pot-belly. He did a marathon in a nearby part of South Africa last weekend called the Surrender Hill Marathon. Not sure if the name refers to the course (the finish is uphill) or to some Boer War battle. He has decided he wants to run the Two Oceans race in South Africa next. This little race is only 82 km but before he does it he has to join a track club because only sanctioned athletes can go in this race.
- Teacher absence (and principal absence) is a huge problem. It is not that they take a day off – they will go for 4 or 5 days at a time.
- Classes are only 40 minutes and teachers are routinely late. I checked for two classes and in each case only one teacher of about 10 was on time for class (this was the same person). Lateness varied from 2 minutes to 10 minutes.
- Funerals are the most important social event here. Most are on Saturdays and for example, two of the nuns at the convent here and one of the sponsored girls are at funerals today. Just about the biggest industry are funeral parlours and they all seem to be expanding and have fancy new hearses (Mercedes and Toyota).
- It is not considered rude to interrupt a conversation here. Someone just walks up and starts talking to the person you are talking to – no apologies or anything like that.
- You get used to things being so different. In Mahkelefane, Ray was staying in a different rondavel. We realized that we had to walk up the road and turn right at the pig that did not move for hours at a time (until food came). Having cows and sheep in the main street or people riding horses and donkeys are the new normal. I wonder about my reaction back home.
- For those who don’t know, I drive a Volvo V40 (mini-Volvo). I just saw one here and it looked huge. The cars here are quite small – not a surprise since gas is about the same price as Canada.
- At Makhlefane, the students make their own skipping ropes by braiding grass. They are quite interesting things to look at.
- When we there, the most hi-tech things within several km were the LED flashlights we had.
- It was an interesting experience having an audience of a hundred or more little faces watching closely as we nailed benches together.
All for now.
I am being transferred from Mamohau to a school in the foothills called St. Charles next week (March 8th). I really was not getting anywhere at Mamohau since they did not really understand why I was there and there was no real commitment from principal or staff to school improvement and change. I think that much of the problem was that Help Lesotho did not have accurate information about the school’s situation and there had not been enough liaison between them and the school to establish what the school really wanted (they were looking for a free teacher for a whole year) and what the NGO wanted to provide. The school had my work plan months ago but no one would admit having read it. I think the school could be very much improved but it was not going to happen with them thinking that everything in the school was just fine.
Apparently St Charles are very excited that I am coming and want help with math (who doesn’t here). I may also be helping at another school near there called Bokoro. These are about an hour north-east of Leribe, past a larger town called Butha-Bothe, but in the country somewhere. More next time about them. I also have to figure out how to get my junk down from the mountain and where my living arrangements will be at St Charles. My time there will be somewhat short as I am going to tour around southern South Africa for the first two weeks in April. During this time I also want to talk to some people in the other end of Lesotho about a possible tourism micro-enterprise to get people from North America and Europe to come to Lesotho and South Africa. Little is known about the former and there is a lot of misinformation about the latter at home. Also the last week in March is used for quarterly exams so any teaching I do will have to be before then. I can, hopefully, meet with teachers during the exam time.
This week we did out major project at Makhelefane, way up in the mountains. We had the wood precut in Leribe and loaded up a 4wd pickup that we hired (it looked like it might not fit but did). We also took paint and other things. When we got there, we assembled 25 benches (each bench could hold 5 small bums) and fixed another 10 or so that needed work. We also painted the walls of one classroom white – the walls and floor are coated with a mixture of mud and cow dung (no smell though!) but the result is a dark brown wall that absorbs all the light. The principal said that having the white walls was like having two or three new windows. It was a remarkable change.
We also took four new blackboards since the ones they had were literally falling apart. The blackboards are very simple. You buy a piece of masonite and paint it with special blackboard paint. The school had some green paint and some black paint (provided by UNICEF). In addition, Penney, who hit up her family and friends for money for this, had 230 school bags made from denim by a local woman. These cost less than $3 each and are very nicely made (with a name tag) – this allows the kids to carry their stuff to and from school. Some kids walk for as much as 90 minutes each way to school. We also made what are called lapboards (from more Masonite) for the kids to write on (there is not room for desks if we could afford them). The final purchase was 100+ spoons. The kids get breakfast and lunch at school and had to eat their sorghum porridge with their hands.
It is a remarkably poor place. There is evidence of foreign aid everywhere – a ‘school in a box’ from Denmark, corn meal from the US, an ongoing food supply system from the UN World Food Program, and us. Penney is now trying to get some money to buy shoes for the kids. Last winter a student who walked to school in bare feet, caught something and died. This is in an area where it does snow and temperatures can be below zero.
The people work hard. They have gotten fed up with waiting for the government to build a promised new school building to replace the tent that is used for grades 1 to 3. They have started to build a ‘community hall’ in which these classes can be taught until the building appears (the Japanese govt have just build something like 200 classrooms to replace tents in various places). The building will be made of local rocks that are piled up dry (no mortar). The women carry the rocks to the site on their heads and the men have dug the foundation and are now building the walls. The gaps are filled with the mud/dung mixture. They have no money to put a roof on the building but I think I will try to organize donations to pay for this. I have a lot of use for people who do their best to be self-sufficient in a very difficult environment like this.
Apparently there are schools off the (terrible) road to the diamond mine that are much worse off than Makhlefane. I can’t imagine what they are like. To get to them, you take the 4wd and then walk. Stuff that is needed there is carried by donkeys or people.
In the Only In Africa (OIA) category:
- One of the volunteers, Carol, was heading up into the mountains in a taxi (15 passenger) when they were stopped at a police checkpoint. Turned out the driver did not have a license, so he was told to drive to the local police station where we was escorted by two cops to the holding cells (not having a license did not seem to be a problem with this drive). The packed taxi was left sitting there until someone called the company to complain.
- The things that women carry on their heads is remarkable. At the school BBQ a while back, one of the women was carrying a case of 24 beer on her head and another in her arms. I said that in much of Canada, this talent would make her very popular. I saw a woman with a huge cabbage on her head – not only was it heavy and hard, it was round.
-Women do so much work here. On the drive here – at something like 9000’ elevation there was a couple traveling to the nearby village (there is nothing else around) which was about 5 km away. The may was riding on his horse with no packages to hold while the wife was walking behind with a big burden on her head. Some of the really bright high school girls are becoming feminists, even though they do not even know the word or concept. I think this is a very hopeful development for the country.
- One of the Bible teachers at Mamohau runs 4 or 5 marathons a year. He is 56, about 5’2” and has quite a pot-belly. He did a marathon in a nearby part of South Africa last weekend called the Surrender Hill Marathon. Not sure if the name refers to the course (the finish is uphill) or to some Boer War battle. He has decided he wants to run the Two Oceans race in South Africa next. This little race is only 82 km but before he does it he has to join a track club because only sanctioned athletes can go in this race.
- Teacher absence (and principal absence) is a huge problem. It is not that they take a day off – they will go for 4 or 5 days at a time.
- Classes are only 40 minutes and teachers are routinely late. I checked for two classes and in each case only one teacher of about 10 was on time for class (this was the same person). Lateness varied from 2 minutes to 10 minutes.
- Funerals are the most important social event here. Most are on Saturdays and for example, two of the nuns at the convent here and one of the sponsored girls are at funerals today. Just about the biggest industry are funeral parlours and they all seem to be expanding and have fancy new hearses (Mercedes and Toyota).
- It is not considered rude to interrupt a conversation here. Someone just walks up and starts talking to the person you are talking to – no apologies or anything like that.
- You get used to things being so different. In Mahkelefane, Ray was staying in a different rondavel. We realized that we had to walk up the road and turn right at the pig that did not move for hours at a time (until food came). Having cows and sheep in the main street or people riding horses and donkeys are the new normal. I wonder about my reaction back home.
- For those who don’t know, I drive a Volvo V40 (mini-Volvo). I just saw one here and it looked huge. The cars here are quite small – not a surprise since gas is about the same price as Canada.
- At Makhlefane, the students make their own skipping ropes by braiding grass. They are quite interesting things to look at.
- When we there, the most hi-tech things within several km were the LED flashlights we had.
- It was an interesting experience having an audience of a hundred or more little faces watching closely as we nailed benches together.
All for now.
