I have been working lately with the farm manager for the AFMSDD, ntate Ramokhitlane Matlapaneng, better known to me as "John." That makes life easier for both of us. He and I worked up a shopping list of tools needed for the project, and this morning I was delivering them.
Lerobane is a hillside village on the outskirts of the town of Butha Buthe. I park near a river, and have to navigate some stepping stones across that, then hoof it up the hill to get to the project. A 4x4 bakkie (pick up truck) can drive across the river and then almost all the way up to the barn, but my Corolla just isn't up to the task.
The number one item on today's list was a wheelbarrow, and the rest of the tools fit easily inside of it, so it wasn't a tough trip - unless you are an old fat guy, which I am. I always make lots of new friends when I walk up the hill, and today I made even more as folks came out of their homes to watch the fat guy huffing and puffing up the hill with a wheelbarrow. Definitely not something the locals see every day. I had three offers of assistance, all of which I politely declined, as improving my physical condition is high on my own list of priorities for this year. Its a 500 or 600 meter walk, all uphill, and I bet I stopped for rest every 100 meters or so. I was laughing all the way (on the inside, at least) as I must have had at least five rest stops to catch my breath and avoid any cardio pulmonary events.
I arrived at the barn, checked in on the piglets, who are doing fine. Though they are digging holes in the cement floor in several spots, we will have to deal with those later.
The foster home is only another 25 meters uphill from the barn, but you almost need a rope, a pick and a handful of those carabiner thingys to make the final ascent. I tackled that and found all of the kids and the foster mom, 'M'e Mamonaheng, sitting outside the front door of the home soaking up the morning sun. It was still cool at 9:00 a.m., as we are headed into winter here. They all had a good laugh as I collapsed on a rock and caught my breath for 5 minutes. Everyone was home because it's Easter Monday here, no school.
When I was in Shoprite a few weeks back, I had found a pack of UNO cards in one of the clearance bins. R5.00, (that's like 60 cents), so it was the deal of the century. I wish I could have bought 10 packs, but one was all that they had. So I had those UNO cards in my bag today and after catching my breath, I asked the foster mom if it was okay to play a game for a while with the kids who were interested. 'M'e Mamonaheng gave permission, and everyone agreed to play, mostly because they were curious about what this old white guy could possibly be talking about, and we went inside and got started.
We had the best time! Left to right in the first photo you will see the boys Mahli, then brothers Tjama and Selala. In the third photo, again L-R, are big sister Mamokele, small boy Khotso, younger sister Relebohile, and foster mom 'M'e Mamonaheng.
In the last photo you can see Mamokhele holding her very youngest brother, Justice.
In the midst of all of the fun, Justice (aged 15 months) began to fuss. 'M'e Mamonaheng picked him up and tried to soothe him, without success. After a few minutes, she passed Justice to Mamokhele, the only mother Justice has ever really known. Within two minutes he was comforted and sound asleep, and Mamokhele slipped him into bed and rejoined the game. She is 15 years old, but looks more like 11 or 12. I cannot help thinking of the back story on Mamokhele and her five younger siblings, Selala, Tjama, Relebohile, Khotso and Justice. While their future looks brighter now, they lost both parents to AIDS, or opportunistic illnesses that resulted from their HIV infections, and Mamokhele has been their only parent for the last year. They have just recently been placed at the foster home. You cannot help but imagine your own children and how they would cope in a similar situation.
We are all doing what we can for these children. The AFMSDD has a great team led by ntate James Qhobela, his wife 'M'e Matsepo, and the social worker, ntate Samuel. The AFMSDD has a board of directors that supports ntate James and the team. And each foster home has a local committee that is responsible for the day-to-day operation of the home and planning for the future.
For each of the thirty children under the care of the AFMSDD, the future is promising. But with 300,000 other kids in similar circumstances here, there is much remaining that we need to do.
These kids at Lerobane will be housed, fed, and educated as far as they are capable of going in school. And more important than any of those things, they will be loved. But life is hard here in Lesotho. Life is still good, but it is so very, very hard.
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