Images in reverse order
1. School dinners, no complaints
2. The smallest first
3. Art project, the banner
4. Art project, the Lesotho picture
5. Dance performance
6. The movie makers
7. More dancers
8. Malealea herd boy band
9. Apartheid museum, the words of Steven Biko
7th January 2008 Cairns, Australia
Well it’s been a long long time since I wrote in this blog and there are 4 weeks and 3 countries of information to retrieve from my brain’s memory cells. Looking back I think the last that I wrote was about my initial impressions of South Africa and Lesotho and my first times in with the group of sewing ladies in Chonapasse. Mapotsoe village itself, at first so strange, so colourful, so different, in some ways so shockingly run down soon became normal life to me. At first to be the extremely rare white face on the street attracting so much attention from everyone was a little intimidating, albeit the attention was friendly smiles and “Demela Mae” (Hello missus). But soon people got to recognise me, word would have gone round as to what we were doing in town and a fair few even knew my name and so I got a “Demela Mae Mary”. Maputsoe lies just over the border from South Africa’s Ficksburg. The contrast in level of prosperity when you cross the bridge from one to the other is huge. Fairly smart shops and modern houses with gardens, and smart places to eat and made up roads in Ficksburg give way to a bustling street of street vendors, shanty like tin shack shops, some stalls made of holey plastic bags a bits of scrap, and once off the main road, rutted dirt track roads. Maputsoe has a fair few shops, supermarkets with basic foodstuffs and a couple of furniture/hardware shops and definitely not the designer label clothes shops along the main street, but all of these seemed to run by Asian or Chinese owners with Basotho (Lesotho people) workers. The housing behind this main street trading area was very basic, concrete block small (one or two roomed) rectangular buildings with tin roofs. No insulation, no chimneys and very little plumbing. Winter’s can be extremely cold in Lesotho and an uninsulated tin roof is not the best for comfort. The traditional rondavel style houses, circular stone structures with thatched roofs would be better insulation and loads more attractive were few and far between. Progress? When I asked a young man about the winter and keeping warm he told me that they would light a fire in the house and sit down because the smoke rises to the top. Many houses had small vegetable gardens with a fine variety of healthy looking veg growing; pumpkins, chard, cabbage and carrots would be common. Lesotho is certainly a place of contrasts, some aspects of life seem so hard and cruel, but so many of the people that I met seem wonderful vibrant generous spirited joyful characters.
Week two was the holiday play scheme week. Colleen, Fionna, Paddy and myself went in with some ideas of art and drama that we wanted to try out but really in the dark as to what to expect. Space and materials were pretty limited, and we’d no idea of numbers of kids that would turn up. Day 1 we went to Pheila u Pheilise (live and let live) community centre early to get ourselves organised to find around 100 kids waiting expectantly for us so we were straight in there with a bang. Some skipping games got going with a long length of rope from the back of the project pickup van, felt tip pens and coloured pencils were found in the cupboard and many of the kids did what they could in the way of artistic expression resting their papers on the bare earth or their knees. Name badges were created with the help of some of the older kids who knew the young ones' names. Other games were played. The “Man from Mars landing in Lesotho” drama/ film project idea that Paddy wanted to do was communicated to the kids and the older participants who were to be the main actors and film crew were chosen. It was all totally chaotic. Peanut butter sandwiches and bananas were issued. There were around 100 children fed and entertained and we all went home exhausted. Day 2 we were a little more prepared and would have the help of some of the centre’s volunteers to cook a lunch and feed the kids. I gathered some cardboard to make some kind of work surfaces for kids to work on and to maybe make masks with. But even more children attended; I think that day we fed 150 mouths, cleared up, washed up, swept up etc. I staggered home shattered with my back in bits and had to go straight to bed for a few hours to recover. I wanted to try doing a large group picture of the Lesotho landscape and then paste on the smaller kids pictures of Lesotho people, herd boys, animals, cows, horses and sheep, houses, peach trees etc. Large sheets of paper were not available but I found cheap rolls of paper type interfacing fabric used in dressmaking, and powder paints and brushes in a stationer’s shop in Ficksburg. We made it through the week. The drama got played out, traditional dances were danced, stories were told, songs were sung and the film got made. I can’t wait to see it. It was the hardest week’s work for me in a long time, rather a shock to the system but I survived, just. I wasn’t feeling the greatest anyway. I found the food after healthy S.E. Asia did not especially agree with me and the climate of either baking hot sun or torrential downpours with crashing thunderstorms extremely uncomfortable especially on days when there was no indoor space for the kids. Our fairly crowded small electric fenced living space with no privacy in which we were all imprisoned after dark on account of the violent crime dangers outside was not the ideal place to gather strength for the next day. I found it tough going.
The following weekend we were all invited to have supper (Christmas Dinner) at the Irish ambassador’s residence in Maseru on Saturday night with the Chinese ambassador for Lesotho and his wife. Now that’s another funny story. Dee Fey (Irish ambassador’s wife) was cooking herself and wanted so much to put on a fine traditional Irish spread for us all but….. unfortunately had gone out to another function that afternoon switching only the fan and not the oven on, so… everything ready but raw bacon. Well a scene from Fawlty Tower’s could be compared to that in the kitchen that night. Paddy the “I can’t cook” chef saved the day by cutting up the joint and boiling it in bits, but still it was 10.30pm before we ate and by then we were all rather past it. Paddy, Fionna and I went back to the austere Anglican Mission hostel, our budget accommodation for a rather “overfull stomach” restless night. Next day we organised a driver to take us up to a place called Malealea lodge, high in the mountains and one of Lesotho’s few together tourist destinations for a well earned rest and relax and time to take in some of this dramatically beautiful country. For me it was such a relief to have my own room again, and a bit of privacy. I’m so spoilt and soft! We could go out on treks, horse rides, just sit around and read. I was delighted to be able to hear the Malealea herd boy band with their incredible homemade instruments. Guitars and violins made from old oil cans and bits of wood, and drums from old junk were played with such skill and rhythm. This band were spotted and taken to the WOMAD festival a few years ago but though it must have been an amazing experience for the lads in the band it has not made a big impact on their lives. They obviously still lived a very simple life, earning a few pennies from their open-air evening performances for the lodge tourists. Also performing was the local choir with their awesome rhythmic harmony singing. Out on my guided trek I was wondering why I was struggling along so puffing and panting, but later I realised that I was probably being affected by the altitude being more than 1800m above sea level. Maybe that would have been a problem all along and the cause of my lack of energy even back in Maputsoe. After 3 days at the lodge I found myself a lift back to Joburg with a young couple. A Joburg visitor to the lodge recommended a more pleasant area of Joburg to stay and I found myself a rather nice guesthouse to stay in. There was still wall-to-wall security but the environment was a lot better and the landlady was a pleasant woman. But to keep reality in mind, one of my fellow guests, a young German voluntary worker had had her bank account emptied by an ATM card scam. Watch your back at all times! I visited the Apartheid museum, which was so interesting and well presented. It was a crash course in the complicated history of South Africa. But soon enough it was time to leave, back to laid-back Thailand where I had decided to spend yet another week over Christmas rather than fly straight on to Australia. I headed straight back to my lovely Bai Lan huts in the sun on the island of Ko Chang and felt like I was arriving home. Some of the people there when I left were still around including my young friend Tristran with his guitar. My second day there I bumped into Silke from Germany who I had met previously on a bus in Southern China. Yet another small world phenomenon. So we met up and hung out together a bit. The family at the Bai Lan huts called Tik (mum), Lat (dad), teenager Dam and 3 small kids, Plai, Pet and Pat gave me a warm welcome back. We had a delicious Thai style dinner on the eve of the 24th.Dec prepared by Tik. I chilled out, went swimming and kayaking lots, and revived. Another 8 days passed in a flash and yet again it was time to go, back to Bangkok on New Year’s eve and then to Australia. My Thai cycling friends from the Vietnam to Laos bus trip had been in touch with me by email. Nue and Rat came out to the airport on New Year’s day to have a coffee with me and to say goodbye. So nice. We’ll meet again I hope maybe next year for a cycle trip around Laos. I fancy that. I will get myself a really good bike when I get back and start training. Bikes are the way to go.
So I'm here in Oz now with my mate Sarah and it's mega hot and humid. There’s amazing landscape, trees, plants and birdies. But on the down side there’s loads of hazards like killer jellyfish and crocodiles in the sea making sea off limits. We went for a day trek in an incredible rainforest inland from Cairns where I experienced my first encounter with leeches. They are so disgusting and so fast and as quick as you pull them off they go flip flop and latch back on. They suck blood and at the same time inject some anti-coagulant so that when you pull them off you bleed profusely. It's lovely to see Sarah but this would not be my spot on the planet, I think it's much more user friendly further south where I will go in 10 days or so. Meanwhile I'm getting lots of exercise, cycling, walking, swimming in fresh water pools up the creek and meeting some lovely folk. Now the rainy season has come with a vengeance and last night there was a mighty thunderstorm but at least it’s cooled down a bit and is much more comfortable. Today I was out cycling in it and it felt wonderful to be soaked by this lovely warm water. We are planning a trip out to the Great Barrier Reef to snorkel while I am here; it has to be done! So that’s it up to date again….to be continued
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