Blogs from Maseru, Lesotho, Africa
April 2nd 2010
RECAP: A team of 12 Tacoma/Pierce County folks journeyed to Lesotho in February 2010 representing the Global Neighbor Project. To maximize resources, the Global Neighbor Project joined with World Vision’s Sekameng Area Development Project in Lesotho. This comprises 21 villages with a population of 4900. An Area Development Project is a community-based approach to sustainable solutions helping one child and one community at a time with:Clean Water, Food, Education, Micro- enterprise ,Caregiver supplies, Health Care and community development. The teams that visited in 2006 & 2008 saw water systems under construction, and seeds being planted in community gardens. They met community members who were being trained as volunteer caregivers to help their neighbors suffering with HIV/AIDS. The Global Neighbor Project priority is to help the orphaned children struggling to survive in the... read more
October 25th 2009
The Global Neighbor Project -- an outreach from Tacoma, WA to Sekameng, Lesotho, Africa -- is planning a trip in February 2010 to revisit the community where we sponsor children and provide community development assistance through World Vision. ... read more
December 23rd 2008
Leaving Amakhala was difficult, not least because we had to work out how to get everything back into the Land Rover. This task was made more difficult by a serious hangover induced by our final night party. I won’t go into details but Chris fans should definitely get him checked for itches and scratches after he was taken in hand by an older lady. I think the scratches might have been sustained when he ran off through the thicket to escape the said lady. I’m not sure what the opposite of a MILF is, but if it’s in the dictionary then there is a picture of this lady next to it. So on to Lesotho it feels good to be back on the road again after so long, We left Sunday at around 11.30 and got ... read more
October 7th 2008
Our journey started September 21 and ended October 2. The Global Neighbor Project Team of Tacoma, WA -- Kathleen and Rick Olson, Michelle Cox and Julie Nordlund, led by Bob Bowen of World Vision, left SEA-TAC on a Sunday afternoon and arrived in Lesotho on Monday morning. We flew Northwest Airlines Airbus, KLM 747 and South African Airways turbo prop to reach our destination. We laid over in Amsterdam a couple of hours and hit Johannesburg late evening. We missed the shuttle to our hotel and had to wait for the next one, so by the time we got to our rooms, we had time to shower and take a nap before catching the shuttle back to the airport for an early departure. We do NOT recommend this schedule, as it was too long of a ... read more
September 12th 2008
Why am I traveling to a tiny country surrounded by South Africa? Why now? Here's the deal: It started when I was President of Tacoma 8 Rotary in 2005. Our club hosted a team of business persons on a study exchange from South Africa. They stayed in Tacoma for a week and my husband Rick and I hosted a team member. I worked at Point Defiance Zoological Society at the time, and provided a behind the scenes tour so the five of them could see polar bears and beluga whales up close. The leader of the group, Frances, was from White River, a community near the southern part of Kruger National Park. She extended an invitation for us to visit if we could. I figured perhaps one day I would accompany a Zoo staff and donor ... read more
May 18th 2008
Lesotho, is a gorgeous country! Known as the "Kingdom in the Sky" because it is the "highest" country in the world (measured from the lowest point if that makes any sense at all). Again, very different from other places we've been to in Africa and even better that we were here for three nights at the same place (yay, no driving). The highlight here (besides upgrading from our tent to a nice cabin - which we haven't done since Nairobi) was the pony trekking. These are the most stable ponys we've ever seen and it's amazing how effortlessly they can go up and down the steep, rocky terrain. Needless to say though, three hours was more than enough time to leave us feeling a bit saddle-sore. Of course, a three night stay in the mountains would ... read more
July 16th 2007
It had been a cold night with little sleep. I looked out of the tent and found Mr Seja scraping off frost from his tent and efficiently packing his belongings into his red German rental car. We'd met him one day earlier as we - resembling two bagladies - had dragged our plastic-bagged belongings across the border at Maseru bridge. He was efficiency personified. Punctuality, rationality, German humour and break-neck driving skills all in one. With him behind the wheel we managed to see half the country in less than a week. - "Bloody cold wasn't it?" I called out, looking early morning grumpy. - “Not too bad, it was only minus three,” was his calm response before he smiled back at me. He was always optimistic and didn't fall for the disillusioned Swedes wining or ... read more
October 4th 2006
Today Lesotho celebrated its 40th anniversary of independence. This small kingdom has had a rough history in recent years. In 1998, the political parties in the country contested the national election, and riots broke out, primarily in Maseru. Instead of supporting the government in efforts to restore order, the army also began to riot. Unable to find local resources to quell the chaos, the government invited several neighboring countries to come in and restore order. South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia sent troops in to stop the civil conflict and managed to restore order, but not until Maseru had been burned and looted. Since that time, the government of Lesotho has contracted with the government of India to train its army, which is now much more professional and much less political. The primary base for the ... read more
September 26th 2006
On September 25 we left Johannesburg and began driving southeast out of Gauteng Province and into the vaal, or great grassland of the Province of Free State. Later that day we entered the Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho, pronounced Leh-SUE-too. We were invited to stay in the home of Kal and his family, a very successful Bahá’í businessman who has been in Lesotho for 33 years, in the capital city of Maseru. Kal was born in Central Asia and raised in the United States. A couple of years ago his wife passed away and he remarried Thato, a young Basotho woman who has a six-year-old daughter. She also brought a wonderful 12-year-old girl with her who was from her village, and Kal regards both of the girls as his stepdaughters. In addition, Kal and Thato are expecting ... read more
