High Humidity for Pancake Day

playing in the heat in a pop up tent

Having woken up to a dull morning and others around me telling me it was to be a chilly day i wore my demin shorts and a t-shirt rather than lighter shorts and vest top and headed off to playgroup.  I enjoyed a cool walk through a bit of drizzle and arrived at playgroup where they had a radiator on!  Then the children arrived all dressed up in their sweatshirts (with hoods up) and fleeces and I began to roast.  The Basotho thermostats are set differently to the English. They feel cold at anything under under about 20 degrees.  I did manage to get the radiator turned off before I passed out due to the heat and even managed to get a door open as the morning progressed. By coffee break time the sun was out and humidity was high making it very tiring to have children crawling over you and wanting cuddles.  The first thing I did when i went home to lunch was to change but I stayed hot and sticky all day - just right for kicking a football around for an hour in the afternoon!

amazing rainbow- you could even see the end of it

The rest of the day was pretty much the same as yesterday – but with high humidity and beautiful sun interspersed with showers.  A lovely rainbow appeared in the sky at the end of afternoon playtime which was quite spectacular.

Me and my pancake!

This evening as it was Shrove Tuesday I made pancakes for everyone for dessert after our lovely chicken and potato and bean dinner. They went down well – no one had ever had English pancakes before with sugar and lemon and I made everyone come and toss their pancake before they could eat it (apart from Faith and Mercy). The only one that ended up on the floor was Elijah’s but the 5 second rule applied and the floor had only been cleaned yesterday!!!!!  It was fun to introduce them to something English and Bryan’s mum took a copy of my recipe so she can make them back in Michigan.

As nothing unduly different or exciting happened today I thought I would share with you the life of a house mother.  I am working in one of the houses called Khotso 2. The houses are named Khotso and Pula which means peace and rain, 2 of the words symbolised on the Lesotho flag. The 3^rd is Nala meaning prosperity which is the house i am staying in.  Each house is divided into 2 and each has a house mother who looks after up to 15 children.  Khotso 2 has 12 children although sometimes i only count 11!  1 seems to keep disappearing and I still have not yet worked out which one!!!!!!   The house mother is ‘mme’ Mamatala (probably not how you spell it) and she lives there full time.  Of her 12 children 8 are boys and 4 are girls.  She has 2  boys at Preschool  and there are 2 other children who are old enough to sit up to the table to eat.  There are then 3 others who eat proper solid food but who have to be fed by hand.  One of these is a little girl who as soon as she finishes her bowl of food screams for a few minutes!  They are all very good eaters.  There are then 3 toddlers – well 2 toddlers and 1 crawler who eat porridge which is essentially baby food and these have to be spoon fed as well. Then there are 2 babies – one who is probably about 10 months and one who is just about 6/7 weeks old who are both bottle fed! 

If you are a parent of young children reading this – just think about your meal times!  The housemother has a lady who helps from 7.30 – 4.30 and then a night shift worker who works from 7-7.  There is also another lady who helps both houses in the kitchen but she essentially cooks, cleans, baths, feeds, changes nappies for these 12 children all day every day!  It is mind blowing – and these children never go out with dirty shoes or clothes to school.  All the clothes are washed every day and then ironed and folded and neatly put away in very organised piles – I have not yet learnt the organisation of the piles yet – clothes are a challenge to me so i try and keep well clear.  Most nappies are cloth ones although sometimes they do use disposable and all nappies are pure white and hung on the clothes line every day then neatly folded into piles.  I have never known anyone have to work so hard as these ladies yet they sing to the babies, love them and cuddle them and know every child’s idiosyncrasies! 

Mme Mamatala has grandchildren of her own but i believe she is only about my age –  I was a little shocked when I discovered that as i figured she was a lot older than me – she is a beautiful lady inside and out and I will try and make sure i have a picture of her before I come home.

I am seriously running out of time now.  I think I am going to have to cancel my planned trip to the International school as there is an adoption ceremony on Thursday morning which I really do not want to miss especially as it is from Khotso 2 although the child concerned had already left beautiful gate before i arrived.  We are heading off into the mountains on Friday afternoon to a lodge near a beautiful waterfall which we will hike to on Saturday morning before heading home so Friday mornign will be my last time to spend here at BG!

 Today has been a tough day – we have had some hard conversations about some tough issues this evening and the heat and humidity has made it hard going. Not regretting any of my time here  though and not looking forward to having to say my goodbyes.

This time next week I will be on a plane heading home........................Jenny x