First week madness!

So first entry, sorry its such an essay and a tad rushed, so much has happened in one week!

We arrived in Johannesburg early Friday morning after a 10 hour flight and delay of course, we were told it was because of a baggage issue, we were panicking as we all had 3 cases each, that were very heavy! The flight wasn’t too bad the food was alright, and some good films were on.

Met Kim, Kath and Thato in arrivals (they had a welcome flag from my request obviously) they had been in Maseru a week already. We were picked up by van with trailer on the back, thankfully as we had so much stuff to take.

The drive to Maseru (Lesotho’s capital) was pretty long, but a lot better than I expected, there were actually real roads! We did get stopped by the police twice, but apparently this is the norm! Dosed in and out of sleep most of the way, managed to get a glimpse of the views what I did see was amazing!!

Got to passport control (between South Africa and Lesotho/Maseru), and they made us walk across in the baking heat, we weren’t overly impressed!

Couldn’t believe how Western Maseru is, with so many Wimpys and KFCs!

Stayed in a place called the Anglican centre, which was extremely basic , couldn’t have showers so had to wash ourselves using jugs of water, really never did get the hang of getting all the shampoo out, but couldn’t believe how few jugs it would take to wash!

We had to get most of our shopping done in Maseru as there are two big malls, and we knew we wouldn’t be able to get all the things we would want in Quthing.

Made the most of nice meals out while we were in Maseru as we knew we wouldn’t be having actual restaurants in Quthing, left a restaurant a bit late one night and mummy Kath was freaking out ‘its getting dark’ as we were pacing up a monster hill back to the Anglican centre ‘we can’t be out after dark!’

Met a lovely couple from Africa who were teaching in the international school close by, who invited us all over one evening for some drinks so we could meet a few of their teaching friends, they had an amazing dog, so managed to have some dog attention for a bit!

Had some HIV/AIDs training in the Dolen office, was actually so interesting (we sort of had the attitude that we knew all there was to know) the lady taking the training was brilliant!

Also had training day on the curriculum, the Besotho culture, and learning some Sesotho.

Made sure we did last minute shopping for the essentials, got a few bottles of wine, and a crate of cidre (Hunters gold is the firm fav at the moment) we weren’t sure how easy it would be to get in Quthing.

On the Wednesday set off for Quthing, with a massive trailer on the back of a mini bus, had so much stuff with all of our cases (about 3 each) and all the resources and food we’d purchased to take down with us.

The drive in theory should only take about 2 and a half hours, but TIA (This Is Africa)  

Had to stop in Mafateng to fasten the tarpaulin over the trailer, but obviously this took about three quarters of an hour.

We only got stopped once this time by the police, and no paying off was needed!

The views down to Quthing were absolutely breath taking, and we just felt like we were going up and up and up into the mountain, essentially we were!

About 5 minutes out of Quthing, the tow bar dropped off the back of the mini bus, with the trailer still attached, as we were going round a pretty tight bend going up the hill LWA (Lesotho Wins Again).

We had to wait to be rescued by another mini bus in mid-day heat, must have been about 38, and had to offload all of the things from the bus (all of the food etc) onto the new bus. Thank god it didn’t take too long though!

Finally got to our new home, for the next 5 months, it’s amazing, right behind the main store in Lower Moyenni, its nice and big and pretty safe. We have two big gates which get pad locked at night and are covered in razor wire, with a night watchman, there are also 3 big Dobermans, a flock of geese, and a sausage dog called Bingo looking after us (Bingo thinks hes one of the Dobermans).

The Boys are living in Upper Moyenni in a lovely place, right outside their schools, so they can just roll out of bed and fall straight into work! The views are amazing up there, and it’s so quiet, we’re going up there at the weekend to sunbathe, as we can’t do it here, its frowned upon apparently for us to show too much skin!

Went to get our visas sorted (we have to get them extended to stay out here), and was so bizarre, we went to one office and were told no you must go somewhere else, went to another and were told no you need to go somewhere else, and another no you need to go somewhere else, then no you need to get a document printed, then you need to get this stamped by the police, this was followed by come back tomorrow!

We tried again the following day, but had to get some things printed first, tried getting it done at the only place in town that did printing, only to be told that they didn’t have any ink LWA! Luckily we went to our lovely neighbours who are South African and own the store and they managed to sort it for us!

On Friday we went to visit all the schools, we were picked up in Moyeni high schools car, felt like absolute luxury because we actually had air con! Went to Kims first, Phahameng, they were all so excited to see us, it is very up in the hills, but the views were spectacular!

We were taken outside to their assembly area, where we sat up on what felt like a podium with all the children lined up in front of us, and they sang amazingly for us, Kim introduced herself and they all clapped and got so excited, Kath and me sat and got very overwhelmed and a bit choked.

Then went onto Villa Maria one of Kaths schools, its enormous for a primary, has over 800 children but hasn’t stopped enrolling yet, schools are told here that they can’t have capacity, they have to accept any child which wants to come, but this can mean massive classes. Every year in this school had at least 2 classes, and each class had about 60 in it. They were also extremely proud of their ramp for ‘wheel chair access classroom’ it would no way pass any health and safety test in the UK, steep was an understatement!

We went onto Ffions schools, Moyeni Primary which was also very big, in terms of pupils they have up to 100 in each class!

We were taking by the headmistress up into the trees and all the school children followed so they could sing to us in the shade (this in hind sight wasn’t a great idea as we later realised we had been eaten alive!) But the singing was again amazing, hey sang beautiful songs, and performed some wonderful traditional dancing! We all had to introduce ourselves and when Ffion did they were all pushing to get closer to the front!

Then onto my school (Ellie) Holy Trinity, its again a fairly big school with about 60 in each class! We went in and met the head teacher, who was in the office having chicken feet for lunch (this is completely normal over here, we can’t work out what you could possibly eat off of a chickened foot, which bit would be tasty?!) my head teacher isn’t particularly mobile and she had to have a leg amputated, and the school isn’t very wheel chair friendly, so my mentor came to meet get us, and take us out to meet all the children. Again we were put up on an area which was similar to a podium and watched at the children all gathered. The school choir sang a lovely song, they seem to harmonise so naturally and easily! When I told my the school I was going to be working with them they all jumped up and down, and shouted and clapped, so overwhelming, I got so choked, my mentor just kept saying how excited she was.

We needed some food before we went onto the next schools, stopped at this road side place, a man met us and asked what we wanted, so we asked for something light, but out came this massive meal, a slab of meat and chips, we guessed the meat was pork as I had what looked like part of a trotter still attached!

Went onto Kaths other school Katleho, but this wasn’t open. We think because it isn’t yet a registered school it isn’t as strict yet with when it has to stay open till.

We then went to Scotts school, Holy infant, the head teacher wasn’t there as she had to take a child to the clinic, but we were met by his mentor, who was so pleased to see us, and took us to meet all the staff, there was another teacher who had met Sharon before, and kept saying ‘bore da’ to us, but was very confused when we said ‘hwyl fawr’. In this school they had 3 trainee teachers who were going to be there for the next year! The school was a lot smaller, and very quiet.  

Finally we got to Will’s school, Moyeni High School. The Head teacher is so enthusiastic and so excited to have Will there, she had asked for us to come to them first. They had prepared some amazing songs and the teachers got up and danced to! We then had a welcome from the head teacher, and again when Will introduced himself the children got so excited and shouted and clapped! The school also then sang the national anthem for us, was so humbling!

Such a busy day completely wiped us out, think we were in bed by about 9.30, we have been told that the Besotho people go to bed early and get up early. We’ve got the going to bed early right, just haven’t mastered the getting up early yet, will have to get used to it from Monday onwards though, as the schools start at 7.15!!!