Dumela (Hello in Sesotho),

So I’ve been in Lesotho for just under a week now (and it took me 26 hours to get here!) and I have got so much that I could talk about. I was trying to think about what I will put on this blog as there is so much to write about. So I’m going to put my first impressions down.

 

Weather

Something us British people always like to know about……

The weather is so weird here the days are lovely  - they are mostly warm/hot (I haven’t got sunburnt yet so that’s a success!) but then as soon as the sun goes it gets quite cold. I am wishing I brought another hoodie now.

 

Maseru

I was quite overwhelmed when we were driving through the city on Wednesday, it is SO different from England/Worthing and I knew that this would be the case but I wasn’t as prepared as I thought I was. One of the things that I noticed first of all is that there is such a mixed standard of housing all next to each other – from a small tin shed to a very large brick house. There aren’t that many tar roads so a lot of the roads are dirt roads which is interesting to drive on……very very bumpy. The taxi drivers are funny – they beep non-stop for no reason, and safety on the roads and in the vehicles isn’t number one. The mountain views around Lesotho are beautiful. I think that I’ll leave it at that for now.

 

Basotho People

There are a few things I’ve learnt about the basotho people already:

 

• They’re gentle and happy people even though a lot of them are living in very hard conditions.

 

• They take each day as it comes, they don’t really plan ahead much or worry about tomorrow. 

 

• Most of them are very calm and relaxed. Everyone seems to move at a much slower pace here!

 

The Church

I’ve saved the best till last! I’m trying to work out how I’m going to explain this to you and I think the best way is if I mention some of the things they do:

 

1. Visiting in Maseru East – Some of the ladies from the church 2 or 3 times a week go to some of the poorer houses (tin sheds) in this part of the city and visit people in need. These people are living in such hard conditions (I will mention some in more detail next time) and they need to see the love of God.

 

2. Bokeletsa Bana in Maseru East – The same ladies (Nkoti, Pinky, Jemina, Tsepiso, Molier, Outi and Cheryl) and Becky, an English lady who has just moved over here with her husband Gus and their baby, run a school every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoon for the poorer children in the area. They teach them life skills, play games and they learn about Jesus. These ladies have such servant hearts and are great inspirations!

 

3. Ha Makhoate – This is another part of the city where they have recently started a church service on Sunday afternoon. Mark and Gus and a couple of guys from the church are building the church evangelist a house with money raised from Becky and Gus’s church back in England. Letsema (church evangelist) was living in quite poor conditions.

 

4. Sunday morning service – They are gathering about 100 people now, they are so joyful when they worship – dancing, conga’s, etc. It’s so great to see what God is doing in this church and I can’t wait to learn from these people.

 

 

I think I will leave it at that for now and I will try and go into more detail next Monday (Monday will be my blog day over the next 7 weeks).

 

Bye (don’t know bye in Sesotho)

 

P.S. one last thing yesterday me and some of the girls went for a picnic and then Becky some of us on a 10minute driving lesson! I drove a truck for 10minutes….not on the main roads on a training area! Apparently Becky said I have good steering!!