Celebrations

Cattle Riding at Cultural festival

Boys doing a Zulu dance

   Our school was invited to participate in a cultural festival last week.  The festival was hosted by Phelisanong Lesotho, a centre for orphans, disabled and HIV/AIDS affected children.  The centre is located in a beautiful village setting surrounded by mountains.  Other schools and orphanages were invited to come and perform and it was an amazing day.  The dancing and singing was impressive and there was also a great display of animals and even cattle riding!  The women and men of the host village were honored and thanked for helping to take care of the hundreds of orphans in the area.  It was really touching to see how strong these children are despite their circumstances.  

Our girls performing in the dust

     Several girls from our school performed a traditional dance while other school staff and boys sang for them.  Unfortunately a big rainy,  windy spell started during their performance, but they still did great.  Other schools performed dances and songs and the host school cooked an amazing meal for everyone.  At the end of the day we had to hike out of the valley, roads were too rough for the vans, and then proceeded to wait another hour for our ride to show up.  Only one of 2 vans made it (flat tire) and we actually fit around 26 people into one van.  Such a fun trip!

Honored Caretakers, thank you

    At the end of the cultural festival the women of the village were thanked for their work with orphans.  They were given blankets and maize meal.  The men were also thanked and they were given warm socks to wear inside their rain boots.  The organization has a really good website if you want to learn more. http://www.phelisanong.com/

 Another celebration was for my host brother's first birthday.  He is walking all over the place now and he loves to yell to me and laugh.  His father told me that sometimes when I am not home he goes to my door and yells.  I am really going to miss him and the rest of the family.

   It is also almost time to celebrate the completion of our new classroom building.  This week we did our final shopping trips (we hope) and by next week everything should be installed.  Then we have to plan an opening ceremony and start using the rooms with the teachers and students.  I really can't thank everyone enough for donating to the project.

Posing with my teachers

My Host Brother in his new birthday track suit