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February 2002
Dear Friends and Family,
Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas/New Years. Here is an
update on what’s been going on with us lately. We’ve
attached a few pictures as well.
Before Christmas, we joined with some other folks from church
to prepare and serve lunch for a party put on by our church for
kids at a youth detention center here in Maseru. We cooked sausages
on the "braai" (a.k.a. barbeque) and provided sandwiches,
cookies, apples, watermelon, and litres and litres of an orange-colored
liquid drink product (hmmm). We had fun and hoped that the kids
felt ministered to. Often when kids in Lesotho get in trouble
and are sent to such a place, their families tend to forget about
them, so they have little positive connection with anyone outside
of the detention center. Participating in that event was great
for getting to the heart of Christmas—focusing on the needs
of others rather than on ourselves.
Several people have asked what Christmas is like in Lesotho.
Most churches here have a Christmas Day service rather than Christmas
Eve (easier for people to get places in the daytime). In general
there is a much more relaxed approach to Christmas here; it’s
not as hectic or as commercial as we’re used to in North
America. Maseru is generally a very quiet in town over the Christmas/New
Year’s holidays. Most people go to visit family in their
home villages or towns; those who can afford it go on holidays
to various places around southern Africa. The border crossing
from South Africa into Lesotho was very congested, as many Basotho
living in S.A. returned home to visit their families.
Lesotho seems to get a lot of storms in the summer; we had a
severe wind and dust storm December 19 that uprooted many trees
and damaged many roofs in the region. Thunder and lightning storms
are a frequent occurrence, usually at least 2-3 times a week,
during which we scramble to unplug everything from the electrical
outlets to avoid them getting fried by electrical surges.
We are learning to cope with losing power or water once every
couple of weeks (fortunately not both at the same time so far);
we have discovered that our neighborhood is at the end of the
water pump line, so while other parts of the city also experience
water problems, we are usually the first to lose water and the
last to get it back; so far, we’ve only lost electricity
for short periods of time, except once when it went out for 13
hours.
Our Sesotho language-study is going well and is kind of fun,
though a lot of work. We meet with our tutor three times per week
for one hour each session, which is a good pace for us right now.
The pronunciations of words aren’t too difficult (except
for words with clicks!); they are mostly phonetic but the grammatical
structure is the reverse of English or French and throws us for
a loop (for example, "three small children" would be
"children they are three they are small"). Here in Maseru,
it’s sometimes difficult to try speaking Sesotho other than
for greetings, because even if we say something in Sesotho people
will respond in English.
Bob’s work is going OK. He’s trying to facilitate the
provincial and national Joining Hands Against Hunger networks
in South Africa, as well as drumming up interest for beginning
a network here in Lesotho. There have been several good meetings
in Lesotho with church denominational leadership and non-governmental
organizations (NGOs). Hopefully a network organizing conference
can be planned for April or May of this year.
While awaiting the details of her library position to be sorted
out, Samantha has begun volunteering one morning a week at a local
children’s shelter, mostly doing administrative work. The
situation of orphaned and abandoned children and babies in Lesotho
is tragic. Approximately seven to eight babies per week are left
abandoned just at one of the hospitals in Maseru. A direct impact
of the HIV/AIDS crisis is that many children in shelters are either
AIDS orphans or are infected themselves. Numerous others are victims
of domestic violence.
On a lighter note, Bob was in a jazz band ("Mozzarella Fitzgerald")
for a few weeks; they played at a New Year’s Eve party at
the home of a British diplomat and had a gig at the local ritzy
hotel. The group had to disband because two members have left
Maseru and a third member is about to be a new dad any day. (It
may regroup, as a sax player has recently moved to town.) Bob
has also joined one of the three worship/music teams at our church,
so bringing the trombone 10,000 miles wasn’t for naught.
Interesting church tidbit: On Sunday we visited a Basotho church
and at the end of the service the congregation sang a very joyous
(and loud) chorus as they exited. As people filed out they shook
the minister’s hand, then each person became a part of a
receiving line that snaked along outside the church, so everyone
shook everyone else’s hand, and the line kept growing. It
was different, but we liked it. (Note: There were only about 100
people in the congregation, so if your church has 2000 members,
you might not want to try this.) The chorus they sang at the end
was in Sesotho, whereas the service and other singing (rather
timid) was in English. People definitely "come alive"
when the singing is in their own language and musical style.
We were able to take a inexpensive private plane flight a couple
of weeks ago with a friend at the controls to see some of the
mountainous areas of northern Lesotho close up. It was an amazing
morning; calm air, clear, sunny, and some of the most beautiful
mountains we’ve seen.
We count our blessings often, and they are many. A few particular
praises and prayer requests are:
- Health & Safety—we’re thankful for good health
and no unfortunate incidences; we feel very blessed
- Samantha’s job—we’re hopeful that the details
will be worked out soon; she misses having a job
- Bob’s work—a few more participating groups need
to be identified and recruited for the Joining Hands network
in Lesotho
- Language—we’re thankful for progress made so far,
and pray that our grasp and usage would build
- Cultural adjustment—more patience and acceptance of procedures
that are still puzzling to us
Thank you all for your prayer support and notes of encouragement.
We wish all of you God’s best for this new year.
Blessings,
Bob & Samantha
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