Debbi Hitchings, October 18, 2009

Lu Mè La BoMè

Lu Mè La B'ntatè

Greetings Mothers, Greetings Fathers - and greetings from the Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho.

The Sunday before I headed to Lesotho, Kevin preached a sermon on getting lost. He quoted Barbara Brown Taylor when she talked about how cows follow a narrow, 8-inch path because they know where to put their feet without even looking. He mused on the fact that we humans tend to act pretty similarly most of the time---following the familiar, well-traveled paths that are comfortable and nonthreatening in our lives. He shared with us Taylor's answer to the predictability and comfort in our lives: that we should get lost: to put ourselves into situations where we don't automatically know what the ground rules or boundaries are…to go where we might just be uncomfortable.

Well, do you think he could have been speaking directly to me? AND, can you believe it, his sermon came to mind as I was literally walking down narrow cow paths as we traveled between villages in the mountains of Lesotho. I actually chuckled to myself and intentionally stepped outside the path a few times - thinking of Kevin's call for us all to walk outside our well- trodden path a bit. I think that I have done so.

So let me tell you a little about my experiences in Lesotho, which is truly a third world country. Each morning we crossed the border from South Africa, going first through South African customs and then through immigration at the Lesotho border checkpoint. It was like entering a whole different world.

Every day we drove through Butha Buthe, the capital of the province, sometimes stopping there to do errands. Its streets were teeming with people, mostly on foot, but there was plenty of vehicle traffic as well. Street vendors line the roads, and the central market district is a noisy warren of stalls with people hawking their wares. There is commerce and many shops of varying sizes and stages of disrepair, a prison that you wouldn't want to be in, government buildings, a very nice bank, and a hospital that doesn't live up to Pen Bay standards.

And like I told the kids, we stuck out like sore thumbs. Three white ladies in a sea of beautiful black faces. I have to admit it was uncomfortable, but I never felt unsafe, just foreign. I would have felt a lot more uncomfortable, maybe panicked, had I not been with Lynn who knew the country and its culture.

What I really want to tell you about though are the Orphan Garden and the High School scholarship program. I could talk for hours as Roy will attest, but knowing that I can't, will try and give you a glimpse of my time there…..with photos after church to expand on what I say. We worked hard that week, rising early for the 1.5-hour ride to the mountain, planning, organizing, and reorganizing a myriad of details, meeting with the Ag. Dept and with the Peace Corps in the capital of Maseru.

Every morning, after leaving Butha Buthe we would head off on unpaved, unimproved roads, up Qholoqhoe Mountain where Lynn had lived and worked for a year as a Peace Corps volunteer. It took about an hour over these rough roads to get to the Garden.

I've been talking about this garden for over a year now, looking at photos, talking to Lynn, but I wasn't prepared for the emotional impact of actually getting out of our car and walking down the deeply rutted road, through the little village, and seeing the garden before me….just as it looks in the pictures…..red dirt, the old ramshackle hut, the barbed wire surrounding the field. It was quiet there that first visit as the kids were in school. But when the two Bo Mè's - the mothers of the garden-- caught sight of Lynn, joy erupted. Lynn had told us that they would be reserved, but there was no reservation as they ran to her and enveloped her in hugs….and as they gave that same wonderful greeting to both my sister and me.

We were thrilled to see that the water tank construction had started. In fact, the contractor was there when we arrived, laying the base of the tank. The pile of rocks that I have talked about was right there, too, gathered by the kids and ready to be used for the tank. Two Ag, dept. people came with us to the Garden on that first visit. They interpreted for us and explained the layout and engineering of the tank. The system should be completed within a month or so.

With the completion of the tank the BoMè's feel that the garden is sustainable and can feed all now 39 children as well as some of the families who house them. Extra vegetables can be sold to buy basic necessities for the kids: toothpaste, soap, etc.

Our goal in going was not to impose our expectations on the local people, but to listen to their needs and to be flexible in our plans in how we could be most helpful. It became evident that the idea of the sturdy fence was not doable for two reasons: first, the expense was high and second, a fair amount of animosity was evident in surrounding villages that were unhappy with the level of financial assistance the Garden was getting. Politically, the Bo Mè's felt it was better not to do the fence.

The kids. They are such a lovely group--toddlers to teens. When we visited on Saturday some were a little unnerved by us - being so different. But the more time we spent with them, the more they smiled. The Bo Me's laid out all of our gifts: Deb Endl's toothbrushes, toothpaste, soaps, bandanas, scarves, blankets, which I'll say we "borrowed" from South African Airlines, etc., and each child had a turn to pick one thing at a time. There was no whining, no shoving, no complaining, just good manners, patience, and respect for each other.

The dolls: the dolls are all over Lesotho by now, I bet! I gave some to the kids at the garden as you will see in the photos. Some went to the primary school near the garden for the littlest kids in school.

Others we left at the Peace Corps headquarters for volunteers to take back to their villages. I heard that they were gone within 24 hours as the volunteers grabbed them eagerly to take to their children.

And my soccer ball story: The balls went to several different places, to schools mostly. But, we decided to keep one ball in the car, just in case we saw some kids with one of their bag balls. Our goal was to make a trade. And we did! One afternoon when we were bumping down the mountain, we spotted 4-5 little boys coming home after school, walking along the road, as all the kids do there. One little guy had a bag ball under his arm. Can you imagine? A car screeches to a halt and two white ladies jump out, one talking away in Sesotho, the other holding a beautiful soccer ball and a camera. It actually took a little negotiation, as the little guy was totally blown away, unsure of what was happening to him. But I wish you could have seen their faces as they raced away with that ball. AND here is my most treasured souvenir of the entire trip!

Our time at the Qholoqhoe High School was simply incredible. I came away realizing that poverty does not impact intelligence, and perhaps amplifies the desire for learning. They have the same aspirations as any kids: to be a pilot, an architect, an accountant, a police officer, a teacher.

By our standards their school is decrepit, threadbare, and lacking what most of us would consider the basics for learning. But, learning goes on, and the kids want it so much that they show up on Saturdays to informally spend time in classes. And they come from great distances to be there…walking. There are no school buses, no high school student's parking lot. Just feet. We gave a ride to one girl after school, down the mountain to her village. It is a two-hour walk for her each way, every day. The roads are full of kids walking to and from school, all in their uniforms.

We met with the principal, Mè Mamsaase, and English teacher, Andreas Khakane, to finalize guidelines for our scholarships. They in turn chose recipients based on their excellence in school and on the danger of them being expelled because of their inability to pay the $220 a year tuition. Unknown to us, the parents had been asked to come to a meeting with their children. They didn't know why they were asked to come but came dressed in their finest, an expression of respect for the school and the principal.

That meeting was the most meaningful and powerful moment of my trip. It was a privilege to sit in on the gathering and to watch the parents come to a realization, as Lynn and Mè Mamsaase spoke, of what was being offered to their children. They were so proud, as any of us are when our children are recognized for their efforts. They were also relieved that their children could stay in school for another year and that a significant financial burden had been lifted from their shoulders. We've known that same feeling when our children have received college scholarships meaning that we could afford to send them off.

19 kids received a scholarship. They were so pleased to see the pictures of the people who were making this all possible and passed the pictures back and forth, between parents and children.

I want for the kids to tell their story to you and so I am going to read parts of three letters -written to sponsors that day and carried home by us. Their words are more powerful than mine can ever be.

The first letter is from young man who is being sponsored by us, this church. He is a delightful boy with lots of personality and when he saw the photo of us, the photo we took for Mike Fisher actually, he raised his hands and said "I want to know them all!"

Good wishes to you all my friends. My name is Motseki Makhetho. I live at Likhutlong in Botha-Bothe district.

I am very glad to write this letter to you. So, I'm very happy to tell you that I'm still attending school here at Qhola-Qhoe High School. I am a boy of 18 years old.

My hobbies is to play football and ride on bicycle. When going to school from my home to school I travel by my foot. It is not so long distance from my home to school.

I have two brothers in my family. When I return from school I help my parents to fetch some water, to collect firewood and after that I went to the play ground for practice.

I'm somebody who likes to listen to the radio.

Yours faithfully,

Motseki

This next letter is written to Ron and Leigh Smith who are sponsoring two girls this year, a huge gift! Let me read parts of it to you.

Dear Mr. Ron and Leigh Smith,

I am very happy and feeling very enjoyable to write this letter because you are like my second fellow parents by the help coming from you.

I am a mosotho girl by my nationality and I am a girl of sixteen years of age. I am light in complexion, my eyes are light and my nose is as sharp as a needle and I am a tall thin girl.

I live at Phoku. I'm still having two parents and in our family we are five and six with my grandmother because my grandfather is already on dead.

I attend school at Qhola-Qhoe High School. So I like school and I attend it very happily excited because you will gonna helping me next year. I'm very happy and I will take more potential because my parents are unemployed and we all thought that next year I will no longer be at school because they are not working…

In weekends I used to smear the houses of the grandmothers and grandfathers and then after, just talk and talk about their life when they were still young. Then I went back to my own home and read my beautiful books so that I can pass and get good results at the end.

Good Bye!!!

Yours faithful

Itumeleng Nkati

To smear a house is to mix cow dung and mud into a slurry and use it to coat the outside of the house to keep it dry. Not something that our kids here would likely be doing!

The final letter is the best! - I think the most moving and is from the student that Roy and I are sponsoring. It was so exciting to actually meet her, to shake her hand, and talk with her.

Mr. Roy and Debbi Hitchings

It is my great privilege to write this letter to you as a thank note for my sponsorship. This is my first scholarship, so I am really intoxicated.

I am a girl of 17 years and I live with my uncle. My father has passed away and the mother left me in 2008 early. From 2008, I played the role of the mother in the family. I collected wood in the morning on Saturdays, prepared food for the day, collected water from the well and clean the house. Sometimes it was not easy for me to do them all because it was my first time to have heavy part like that.

Well, now I am doing it and I have time to read and do my school work. On Sundays I go to church by the name of Full Gospel. I am no longer collecting wood on Saturday mornings because I go to school. I am doing my Form C (Grade 10) this year and I will be sitting for my final examination on the 12th October.

I have been working hard at school with the help of my friend Palesa Lefera. I am still working hard and I promise to do it…..

I am very happy to have your assistance in putting my education in progress. I thank the Lord who gave you power and lead you into success that now you are helping me to go on with my education. May the Lord help increase your wealth for you spend your money for my education.

Yours with pleasure,

Mathehiso Kopo

Many people have asked me if it was depressing being in Lesotho - depressing to see such poverty - to know that so many children have lost their parents to AIDS, that so many are afflicted, that life is so tough there with little hope for improvement.

My answer is No. Just listen to the voices of those children. Or see the work that is happening in the Orphan Garden.

My time there was uplifting, joyful. It was challenging, certainly, but exhilarating for me because we were able, in some small way, to improve the lives of dozens of people, to bring hope and perhaps the possibility of a brighter future

And you know what, it was obvious that God was in this place even with all its hardships…..just as He is in this place right here.

God has allowed me to get lost, to walk off the cattle path for a little while, to grow more comfortable with being uncomfortable, and to expand my vision of life, and for that I will be eternally grateful.

Kè la buhha and Kotseh

Thank you very much, and peace go with you.