Christian Camping- It isn't all 'Kum Ba Yah' round the Campfire: Lesotho Lovin'

So, I just got back from Lesotho- Wow! Its' still as amazing, the people still as welcoming and the work just as rewarding! Its the second trip Ive been able to weasel my way onto, and I loved it! Its a 17hr drive from Capetown (so add another 1hr-1hr1/2 onto that from Simon's Town) but worth every leg cramping minute! On that note, whoever the bright spark who invented the Toyota Prado Middle seat was and said at the end 'Well there's a job well done guys! Practical, comfortable and beautiful!' needs a serious slap around the chops and evidently never actually sat in the thing, much less for 17hrs and DEFINITELY not on Lesotho roads! But that aside, it was a good trip up. The Prado's starter seized and had a loose connection but with the men applying liberal amounts of blows from a spanner, it finally submitted and started! Then we were on the road until the Lady Grey Mountain Inn- a fine establishment with warm beds and showers! Then it was off to the boarder post at TelleBridge where we took the opportunity to give out some bibles to the boarder guards- they were chuffed!

So after that it was on to Mt Moorosi and then on to Pulane! We made a very slight mistake and overshot our turnoff by a tiny bit but it afforded us a superb view of the site from above, it was an oasis of green in the brown landscape- and the most amazing fresh apple green you can imagine!

So we turned back around and headed back the way we had come until we found our turnoff, at that point things started looking a bit more familiar! We crossed the river, which was very low, and turned the corner into the driveway of the orphanage to see an amazing sight. The cross which we had put up in July, made from two trees that we chopped down, with no roots, a bolt through them and no water, was sprouting new growth...even on the cross bar....there's life in the cross!

After recovering from that one, we set up camp and settled in to our new home. We chopped some wood for a camp fire (I managed to get two blisters and it was only the first day) and had a fantastic meal courtesy of Errol. Then after a good nights sleep it was time to go to morning devotion up at the Shepard's school and then on to work! My first job was to repair the roof struts in the Lapa, as they had been ripped out sometime in the past 30 years and Errol was concerned that they had been put up there in the first place for a reason and that they might be missed...

So I put back all the diagonal struts that you can see, which involved me swinging around in the rafters for most of the day and earned me the name of sweni (monkey).

After that I had to climb up on the top of the roof to patch a nasty hole on the river side end of the Lapa.

So with some scrap aluminium sheeting, some bitumen tape, and a little ingenuity I performed one of the biggest bodge jobs Ive ever seen- I will be interested to hear if its actually water tight...

And then to my next task of roofing, and building walls for the little kitchen area at the back of the Lapa. I needed to put a window in the back wall and another on the side wall facing the orphanage.

I basically made a stud wall on top of the existing concrete wall, extended the roof beams from the main roof out to cover the kitchen area, fitted the window with a cross piece above it and a couple of noggins on either side, and then hammered on the asbestos sheeting. I felt bad. Maggie Thatcher seemed to spend a large portion of my childhood trying to get asbestos removed from all the schools in Britain. There I was building with the stuff...hopefully its not as bad as they say...

So when the walls were up, I climbed up and nailed the roof on, a 'skill' I learnt in July, putting the orphanage roof on. We then added the side wall facing the orphanage and put a second window in.

Then it all got a lick of green paint and it was good to go! Here's some pictures of what the other folks were doing...

The floor reads 'Jesuke Morena' (Jesus is King) and was a fantastic piece of work by Sean. BUT the construction work, although fun, is only a part of the reason we were up in Pulane. The main reason was to meet, talk to, build relationships with and evangelise to the local people. I wasn't involved with this part of the trip very much as I was busy building, but I did manage to make it to Shepard's School a couple of times in the evening which was cool. We watched ice age 2 on a projector with them- the first time many if not all of them had seen a film. And then we came back on the Thursday to give out bags of toiletries, sweets etc and had a really nice time giving them cooldrink and apples! We also gave them a sweater, T-shirt and jeans each (some of them only have a blanket and maybe a T-shirt and if they're lucky a pair of trousers as well.

After we had finished, the guys (led by Bongani) did a dance for us to say thankyou, its a standard Lesotho thankyou, and one of the best ways I can think of of showing your gratitude. Here are s few pictures of the finished site- the first two are a before and after of the Orphanage.