Wednesday...half way through the working week.

What a day it has been. The vodacom Internet in the whole country went down at 11 pm last night, hence my yesterday's blog was not posted till today and that was only because I borrowed some beautiful gate wifi which is not just vodacom, it's all very complicated. Steve and I made it to morning prayers today while the boys went and started work. Jane woke up with a migraine probably caused by high altitude and dehydration so I dosed her up with drugs and water and fortunately she began to feel better as they day went on. My plan was to work with Fred in playgroup but I ended up spending a long time talking to Brian under the shade of a tree to keep up with developments, frustrations, decisions and general stuff which is always a privilege to be able to share when I come over here. Everyone needs someone to talk to and that is often my role in many aspects of my life,a role I a am happy to be in especially out here with so many different cultures all mixed up together. 

Corruption, inefficiency and red tape is such a huge part of thus country which can lead to much frustration and eventual burn out of people who work here long term. An example of this is a co outer issue which Bryan was hoping to sort out this week with Steve and the suppliers eventually said they could deliver first yesterday, then today but nOw not till at least next month and the price has almost trebled since the first quote. 

Steve has been hampered today by lack of stable internet so he and I went off to preschool where we gave the teacher who I have known now for many years one of the computers we brought out with us. Steve had to explain how it worked do I took her class of 48 5 to 6 year olds for a while while they talked. It was interesting. They were all very excited to see me and in fact their play time ended when I arrived as they all wanted to come back to class. They sang me a lovely song which I have filed to take back home. Steve has also been able to spend some time in the baby houses, he has had a wonderful time feeding a few children, being jumped on and poked and it is always great for the children to have a male role model, something that Fred and Josh are really being.

Fred and Josh are wonderful.... They have bonded really well, have a great laugh together and are just being amazing. They are giving of themselves freely, happily and willingly and turning their hands to anything that is required whether that is dressing up as it was today for Fred, encouraging babies to take their first steps, crawl or even just interact (Josh), wheeling food to the houses, washing up in the houses, feeding kids and interacting with children and staff alike. Josh today was Jacob in our bible story we acted out and Fred just has everyone in stitches with his rather poor jokes and amazing mimicry. He is speaking with a Basotho accent almost unintentionally now and it keeps us amused even when we are really tired. 

At chapel time which happens on a Wednesday I was asked to try and do something so the children using the story of  Joseph....with my experience of the story, with children and school assemblies you would have thought it would have been easy! Wrong. First mistake......I thought 11 brothers would be good. Bad idea...11 children who have no idea what I was trying to achieve was mayhem. I ended up with the 4 brothers which was quite enough, all wearing mine or the boys tee shirts to give them a feeling of acting. Bear in mind that these children have never seen a play, never seen tv, or had any experience of drama of any kind...it was interesting. Josh became Jacob because it meant he could keep controll over some of them. I narrated the story and of course each line was then translated! Joseph was amazing. He was the smallest, he was 3 years old and took his part very seriously. I found him a brightly coloured dressing up tabard and hat to match and when he had his dreams he went and laid down on a blanket but I had trouble getting him up again. My camel was eager to come on stage at every point but when his time came he fulfilled his role complete with camel mask that I made out of a brown paper bag which fell apart quite early on. Anyway we did it and everyone smiled, the actual performance was much better than the rehearsal, our English team then sung to everyone and then they sang to us which is always a beautiful sound.

Straight back to houses for dinner after chapel which was,  in my house,time to play with my hair. It kept them entertained for minutes although it seemed like hours. I did have to come straight home and wash it. We spent the evening at a friends house along with Anita and Bryan and their children which was a lot of fun. We had a.braai (BBO) which nearLy  involved my friends house catching fire . We had a bit of a sing song with Josh on guitar and made our way home just before 9 before everyone catching up on social media and Mike the resident American volunteer coming in for a chat.

Falling asleep here, Fred is keeping me alert by occasionally coming out with some random Basotho sentence. Another fun day in store for tomorrow.i am teaching music at the American school In the morning and we are all finishing early tomorrow to go up to lancers gap...a must for any team who comes here.

Highlighit of my day........  Hearing cliff richard being played on Mozambique radio in our fan in Lesotho!made me smile.

Night night all........love,

Jenny X