Saturday, April 01, 2006
Lesotho time almost over
Last entry from within Lesotho I think. Had an enjoyable last week at St Charles although I must say that I now know a lot more about the expression, “Sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite.” I bought some chemical spray that was supposed to kill them but not sure how effective it was – in any case, I have a number of bites that look like small mosquito bites and are pretty itchy. Life here has been pretty comfortable in a camping sort of way, although there are exceptions like this and the rat(s).
I got a very nice send off from St Charles today with some nice speeches and a special song sung by their very nice choir. They seemed very sad that I was going and I will miss them too. It is a very nice school with staff that cares about their students. The kids are very good although they are so isolated that they do not have much of an idea of what the world has to offer. When I get back to Canada I will try to figure out what I can do to support this school. They have a couple of big physical plant problems to face. One is that their water system was vandalized (people stole the pipes to build soccer nets) – this job will be something like $6000. The other problem is that some of the school buildings are being torn apart by slumping of the soil on the hill on which the school is located. It looks very much like earthquake damage. In one building there are cracks that are something like 3” wide in the wall and floor and the damage is getting worse. At least three buildings need work and the cost will be in excess of $30,000 – which is a huge amount of money here.
An interesting thing here is the focus on security. Crime is a problem, but not nearly as much as people think it is and react to. The police are not armed but there are security guards in many stores who are armed with shotguns – some of which are nasty ones with pistol grips. At one store in the mountains, the shotgun was held together with packing tape. I think the safest place with that would probably right in front of the barrel when it was fired.
There are many security guards and night watchmen but locks are old skeleton key type and easily broken. The convent is surrounded by a high fence with razor wire on top but the chain and lock to close the gate are permanently together (the key is lost – which is common) and it looks locked, except that it is isn’t – one of the links of the chain has been cut and just hooks onto another part of the chain. At Mamohau, the fence was locked each night, but there was a hole in the wire in the gate was large enough to climb through with a backpack on.
Laura, the Peace Corps worker at St Charles has been told by her superiors that she must move out of the extended village of Seboche because it is not safe enough. They were supposed to have checked this first (she has been there for almost a year) but did not. She is not happy with the idea of moving and is pretty brave too boot – she is an active anti-Bush type from North Carolina after all.
I have had good luck with taxis recently – not full and the music is better on the east/west route than on the southern road to Mamohau.
Good fun with pigs this week. The fence around the pig pen at the school does not keep the pigs in very well and I had to chase little piglets this week. That was fun. There was also a guy chasing one across the soccer field by the church. The man was faster but the big had better steering and knew where he wanted to go. Of course, everyone in sight was cheering for the pig. When last seen, the chase was going in the general direction of the Indian Ocean.
One of the things that I will miss here are the stars at night – you can guess why I might be out looking at the stars at 4 am. It may be my imagination, but the difference in clarity between here and Algonquin Park is as large as the difference between Algonquin and suburban Toronto. I was looking forward to seeing the Southern Cross but it is not too exciting. Orion is much clearer than home – you can see more than just Orion’s Belt; but the neatest thing of all is the amazing clarity of the Milky Way.
I got a very nice send off from St Charles today with some nice speeches and a special song sung by their very nice choir. They seemed very sad that I was going and I will miss them too. It is a very nice school with staff that cares about their students. The kids are very good although they are so isolated that they do not have much of an idea of what the world has to offer. When I get back to Canada I will try to figure out what I can do to support this school. They have a couple of big physical plant problems to face. One is that their water system was vandalized (people stole the pipes to build soccer nets) – this job will be something like $6000. The other problem is that some of the school buildings are being torn apart by slumping of the soil on the hill on which the school is located. It looks very much like earthquake damage. In one building there are cracks that are something like 3” wide in the wall and floor and the damage is getting worse. At least three buildings need work and the cost will be in excess of $30,000 – which is a huge amount of money here.
An interesting thing here is the focus on security. Crime is a problem, but not nearly as much as people think it is and react to. The police are not armed but there are security guards in many stores who are armed with shotguns – some of which are nasty ones with pistol grips. At one store in the mountains, the shotgun was held together with packing tape. I think the safest place with that would probably right in front of the barrel when it was fired.
There are many security guards and night watchmen but locks are old skeleton key type and easily broken. The convent is surrounded by a high fence with razor wire on top but the chain and lock to close the gate are permanently together (the key is lost – which is common) and it looks locked, except that it is isn’t – one of the links of the chain has been cut and just hooks onto another part of the chain. At Mamohau, the fence was locked each night, but there was a hole in the wire in the gate was large enough to climb through with a backpack on.
Laura, the Peace Corps worker at St Charles has been told by her superiors that she must move out of the extended village of Seboche because it is not safe enough. They were supposed to have checked this first (she has been there for almost a year) but did not. She is not happy with the idea of moving and is pretty brave too boot – she is an active anti-Bush type from North Carolina after all.
I have had good luck with taxis recently – not full and the music is better on the east/west route than on the southern road to Mamohau.
Good fun with pigs this week. The fence around the pig pen at the school does not keep the pigs in very well and I had to chase little piglets this week. That was fun. There was also a guy chasing one across the soccer field by the church. The man was faster but the big had better steering and knew where he wanted to go. Of course, everyone in sight was cheering for the pig. When last seen, the chase was going in the general direction of the Indian Ocean.
One of the things that I will miss here are the stars at night – you can guess why I might be out looking at the stars at 4 am. It may be my imagination, but the difference in clarity between here and Algonquin Park is as large as the difference between Algonquin and suburban Toronto. I was looking forward to seeing the Southern Cross but it is not too exciting. Orion is much clearer than home – you can see more than just Orion’s Belt; but the neatest thing of all is the amazing clarity of the Milky Way.
