Hello Parents and Friends, we are signing off from Africa! We head home tomorrow after 2 ½ relaxing days at Kruger National Park, we saw some incredible game and was a perfect way to end our trip.
Lesotho Blog
Wittenberg University has built a relationship with the people of the African kingdom of Lesotho, thanks to the leadership and expertise of Professor of History Scott Rosenberg, who served in the Peace Corps in Lesotho before joining the university's faculty.
Greetings from our last blog post in Lesotho! While it has been a pleasure chronicling our adventures for our supporters, today was our final day of service on our "service-learning trip," so it will also be our final blog post.
Today was a normal workday for us. I helped painted the sixth-grade classrooms with others. We completed most of our projects. We have music, English, science, geography, and math on the walls.
Today was another workday painting the primary school. When we arrived, we separated out the rooms that needed to be finished from the previous day and started on the Grade 1 / 2 and the Grade 3/ 4 rooms.
HI Blog, Happy Sunday! Today we got to take a hike and see Dinosaur footprints. While I am no expert hiker or climber, I think I speak for the group when I say we got our work out in.
Day 15: We met with the royal family today and had lunch at the palace. The food was nice, and the conversations were interesting to hear.
Hi all! Today has been our first full day at Molimo Nthuse lodge. This morning we started new language lessons with a women named Malineo; she taught Dr. Rosenberg when he first joined Peace Corps. She has been teaching volunteers for 50 years.
What is a mountain goat called? A Hillbilly!!
Welcome to the blog once again (with your favorite hosts)!
Lumela! This is the first Sesotho word I learned and memorized. After 14 days of this trip, I can say it's been an experience. Although each day is structered fairly the same, they are never the same.
Hello, today was an eventful day at the habitat site. The house we are building looks fantastic! Today we added the windows and began plastering the interior walls. I was a part of the plastering crew. We made cement.
Working at the habitat house today blew any expectations we had to the moon. We witnessed everyone working together as one unit to build the house. The sounds of work never stopped throughout both shifts.
The smores were great last night!!! Yesterday I went with the group that was working on building a house with Habitat for Humanity. In the morning, we had to mix the cement for the entire floor of the house.
Hello! Today I went to paint the preschool. When I got there, my buddy was missing, and I was disappointed. I had just started to paint when two of the kids yelled for her to come see me.
After yesterday's start in the village, the children were eager to see us again. Before I could get to work with the rest of today's "builders," I found myself surrounded by kids asking my name, to be my friend, and playing with my hair.
After 3 long days of traveling, we finally made it to Lesotho!!! Our first day was so fun! The food is actually amazing! And the view is unlike anything I have ever seen before, it doesn't even look real because it is so beautiful.
Greetings from Lesotho, It’s hard to believe today was our last full day in Lesotho. We finished our educational murals at the primary school, while others painted the outside of the kindergarten.
L - Let’s get started on our day
E - Early breakfast
S - So much painting
O - of educational material
T - tired from tremendous hard work
H - happy with our steak dinner
Rawwwrr! Oops did we scare you (-; it’s just Ryleigh and Hannah here.
In one of our more subdued days, we traveled to the Mohale Dam. After learning about the negative impacts of the project on the Basotho, emotions flowed.
The Day of Two Punctures (7/1): Where to begin? Our merry crew came out of pride month with a bang… literally. The trusty metal steed that typically transports us suffered a flat (twice).
Yesterday was a really interesting day. First, we went to Maseru to stop by the Pioneer Mall to do some shopping. A popular item to buy was a traditional Basotho blanket.
What’s up fans! Thanks for sticking with us for 2 weeks!! Crazy to think we’ve been without you guys for that long but don’t worry we are having a blast!
Hey guys, Good news, we’re still alive and thriving. But guess what it’s your favorite time of the day! Blog time!!!!! We can’t believe we’re halfway through our journey here in Lesotho.
What a Royal Day! Greetings Royal subjects...just kidding, it’s Ryleigh and Hannah here.
Farewell Ramabanta Lumela Molimo Nthuse! We will all miss the family we’ve gotten to know during our stay in Ramabanta but we’re ready to start all of our new projects.
Hey everyone, today it was raining so it worked out that we had lectures planned for today. During a break in the rain, we saw more snow on the mountaintops in the distance which was cool.
Hi everyone! Today was our last day at the worksites! A few of us stayed behind this morning to take a short hike down to the waterfall behind our grounds.
Hi everyone! We had another beautiful day in Ramabanta and got lots of work done. One group painted the outside of the community center a beautiful bright blue and outlined all the kids on the walls.
I made cement twice again and boy did we need a lot of it. I managed to let the water out both times, but you know it’s a work in progress. We had so many wheel barrel full of sand and rocks to make the ground floor of the house.
After the long journey from Johannesburg to Ramabanta, the group was prepared to finally begin working. Half of the group sojourned to what has been termed “the worksite,” where we began construction on a house.
Today some of us were at Good Shepard finishing up our projects from the day before. Good Shepard is a home for teen mothers and their children where they are able to receive education, child care, and much more.
A group of us went to a local Catholic Church relatively close to the trading post. We were not quite sure what to except when we first arrived - and we realized that we were about half an hour early.
Today, we had our first taste of goodbyes on this trip as we spent our last full day in Ramabanta. The whole group had the chance to work on constructing the community center and finishing details on the soup kitchen paintings.
Today, half of our group finished painting the second school, Lichecheng. The other half continued building up the community center. In the morning, we added two swings and a fire pole to the playground at the community center.
After a short drive through the mountains and down a bumpy road, our vans arrived on site at a school in a village.
Today we began our second week here in Ramabanta. We returned to the village outside our compound to build a community center.
Lumela homies! Kate Hollern here, I would like to start off todays blog with a huge happy Father's Day!
Lumela Bomme le BoNtate,
Today marked the end of a productive week, and we have so many things of which we are proud...
Lumela! Today, half our group returned to the work site to continue working on the house, while the other half went back to paint the classrooms at the school.
Today, our group went to St. Anthony Primary School to continue work. It was an enjoyable day of soccer, ball playing, and painting. However, the part of the day that stood out the most to us was our visit to Raboletsi High School.
Today was the first full day of work at the Habitat site and painting the elementary school. The group was split up into two different teams and we were both at the Habitat site.
Dearest friends,
Hello! Guess what?! We made it! So, let's start from the very beginning... the very best place to start :)
Today we met the king of Lesotho. I never thought that I would ever be able to say that I have met a king, but now I can. We all walked in to the room and sat down into the big black chairs that were lined around the tables.
As the end of our time here becomes more near, it is becoming clear that there is a struggle to keep our minds and hearts in the present. There is talk of what horribly greasy and calorie-filled food we will eat first when we reach home.
Our day began with breakfast at 8:00 am and then we headed to the Leratong Community Center to continue working on creating a new shade garden.
Today we started our first full day here in Roma. We are helping build a shade garden at the Leartong Community Center. We started this process today by filling in this hole with dirt and cow manure.
Becca and Liz here coming at you live from Roma! After tasting the sweet nectar of the Gods (wifi), many of us rushed to call our parents resulting in an overloaded system.
Today was our last day working on the playground in Ramabanta! We added the slide, the guard rails, and of course, played with all the children. After we had finished, it was so hard to tell the kids that they had to another day to play on it.
Today was my favorite day I have had in Lesotho. There are three men from Lesotho that teach and help us build the house.
Today was day 3 of working on the house for the family the community deemed most in need.
Today was day 2 of work and we began building a house for a family here in Ramabanta. We started the day with breakfast and language lessons before heading out to the site.
I feel extremely lucky to be here. Not only is the view from my room extremely breath taking, but everything in the compound we are staying in has been wonderful- including all the Basotho staff.
It has been said, that all good things must come to an end. When you hear your last day will reach a stifling 116 degrees, one might assume that you would have a miserable day; but not in Lesotho, for our last day couldn't have been any better.
The past day here in Lesotho has not only brought bountiful sunshine and hundred degree heat, but new friendships, growth, and even a few new dance moves. We have had the pleasure to help paint the rehearsal space for the Roma Youth Club.
Today we finished building the playground in record time. In the dry heat of the morning, the last of the playground was resurrected.
Greetings from Mich and Ang and best wishes for the new year! This morning, we started off our day at the Leratong Community Center which was built by Wittenberg students in past years.
After arriving in Roma we celebrated New Year's Eve starting with a delicious grill out on a beautiful patio.
Yesterday, we said goodbye to Ramabanta and its wonderful inhabitants. I never could of imagined that I could become so attached to children I barely knew.
Kayla's Story: Thank You Ntholeng. Have you ever heard the quote, "You are only given one life but if you play your cards right one life is enough." For years I have tossed this quote around in my head but never truly grasped what it meant.
Today was our last day working at the habitat site. It is incredible to see just how much work goes into building one little house.
Wow, we are more than half way done with our trip and we are no where near ready for it to end. Today, we worked at the habitat work site and are so close to finishing filling in the rocks for the floor.
Rocks, purgatory
Concrete lifting back and forth
Two days, floor is filled.
-Mackenzie
Today was our second day at the Fatima Primary School. I couldn't wait to return to finish up some paint jobs from yesterday and begin painting academic drawings on the walls.
Today I woke up confused as to where I was. I expected to be all cuddled up in my familiar bed at good ole Mourer Street in the midst of a blizzard like normal but I was instead greeted by the blazing Lesotho sun.
Chelsea's story: A Beautiful Place for Christmas. A week before we left for Lesotho, Dr. Rosenberg sent us an email wondering if we would like to play soccer with a team here.
At 4:30am the rooster down the hill starts crowing. Chirping birds start moving about.
You would think that traveling halfway across the world without knowing one word of sesotho, would inhibit you from connecting with the people of lesotho. But damn were we wrong.
I will never forget our walk through the village to the worksite yesterday. We passed a group of adorable young kids and one kid, in a tiny little green plaid shirt, had the biggest smile I've ever seen.
Dark clouds rolled in over the mountain peaks, bringing welcome shade as we walked again to the preschool after lunch. As the wind picked up, large clouds of dust were lifted into the air. The temperature dropped and icy rain began to pour.
At about six in the morning, I heard a knock at the door. As I rolled over in bed, I was startled by Gustavo peeking in my window, whispering for my roomate, Jessi, to come and go for a walk.
Yay, I made it through the first day without getting sunburnt! I probably reapplied sunscreen 15 times within the 6 hour period, but in the end I beat the heat!
The nerves have settled, our seat-ridden bones have been released from the imprisonment that is our bodies.
We ended our stay in Lesotho to with a trip to a textile mill in Maseru. The very informative tour had us weaving our way through every part of the denim creation process from baled cotton all to dyed fabric.
Today was our last day at the Berea school worksite. Our tasks included finishing our wall murals and playground; it felt good to complete all of the projects before leaving.
Today was our second day working at the school and a lot of progress was made on the projects.
Just as a heads up: there will most likely not be a blog post until Monday night. This is because we are trekking into the great mountains of Ramabanta for adventure and relaxation.
Today was an emotionally challenging day for the most of us. We visited Baylor Pediatric AIDS Clinic in Maseru, the capitol of Lesotho, where they began by giving us a tour of the facility.
Can't believe we're already at the halfway point of the trip! Two weeks from today we'll be back on the plane headed home.
We went to Thaba-Bosiu again today to work on a playground for a day care and worked on a vocational center in that area. The playground area went better than expected and we got most of the main structure done.
Hello everyone! Today we hiked up the inpenterable fortess that is Thaba Bosiu, the birthplace of the Mountain Kingdom.
Today was an educational day, so we did not travel to a worksite. In the morning we had a lecturer come and talk to us about education. He is preparing for a study about the feminization of teachers in schools. This was interes
Today was our last day on the Habitat sites. We combined our groups and worked on one house in order to respect the culture of the Basotho people, as they were laying their loved ones to rest.
Today was chillier than most of the previous ones but we cheerfully kept working on our sites. They are coming along quite nicely and we planted some peach trees by both of the houses as gifts to the families.
Today we got one extra hour of sleep which was AMAZING! After breakfast we divided into 7 groups of 4 for a scavenger hunt and were dropped off 2 kilometers away from the trading post in Roma.
They told us we'd be building houses. A little mortar, some bricks? No problem! We arrived to our worksite and were greeted by Habitat officials and volunteers from the local community.
We arrived early in south africa. WE HAD A lovely dinner and off to bed. EVERYONE IS DOING WELL. We will reach lesotho tomorrow.
Just a small reflection written on my flight to Atlanta. My favorite part of a flight is the instant when the plane breaks through the first layer of clouds and skims along the tops of the cotton tufts.
Well this is it! Suitcases are being stuffed to the max, parents are getting anxious about their babies leaving, and travelers, well we are getting extremely excited but also nervous!
