More than just Snapshots of Africa....

I have been back in good ol' Canada for a week and half now and have been reflecting on and remembering my experiences from Lesotho as I share pictures and stories with others. It gives me a chance to share the kinds of things I 've been writing in my journal for the past 5 weeks - the bits and pieces of my practicum in Lesotho  that could not be photographed. Yes, each photo does tell a story, but there is so much more to the past 4 weeks of my life in that country that those photos cannot capture and describe.
Living in a new culture is my favorite part about traveling - there is so much inside one culture to taste, hear, see, speak, engage in.....my favorite part of Lesotho's culture, an aspect I talk a lot about, is the resiliency of the Basotho people. Their perseverance, strength and joy amidst challenges and tragedy is what makes this people the most beautiful people I have ever interacted with. They always have a smile and a laugh to share along with a "Dumela, aousi!" (hello, sister!), whether they are pushing a heavy wheelbarrow across the street or behind you in line at the market; their welcoming friendliness was so cherished.
If you've read my other blogs you would have gotten a taste of the kind of poverty and health state that is in Lesotho. As a nursing group we struggled to be from such a  privileged culture and working as nurses amongst people living in poverty and with poor health and not being able to help as we would in Canada. We'd get discouraged and feel quite helpless, like we could never do enough for these people. But through a close friend and nursing student, as well as just time going by living in that place, God taught me that it is not our job to question His creation and His plans for it - He does not want us to dwell on the whys or how comes, the  distressing differences between us and them. He just wants us to love them, in any way we can with what He has given us. Whether that means holding a child's hand walking down the street or giving a bracelet to a bedridden patient at the hospital.....those things do make a difference, even if they are not nursing- related, as we struggled to accept at first. Through loving them we can appreciate them; appreciate who they are in the midst of the goods and bads of where they are.
This is what makes me want to go back to Lesotho again one day. I'd like to work as a nurse and continue a bit of what we started this spring (or winter in Lesotho :P) as not only third-year nursing students, but compassionate and generous - hearted young people, and continue my learning and loving of such a unique country. I am so proud of and appreciative of the other students I went to Lesotho with and loved getting to know them as we got to know Lesotho together :)
As this is my final Snapshots of Lesotho post, over and out......and hopefully over and abroad again in the future!!!

Highlights from Africaaaa!!!!

I'm back I'm back I'm baaaaaaack from Africa!!  So the first order of business.... how was my trip? (As that is usually the first thing one asks another who has been on a long crazy faraway trip). The first words that come to my mind to describe my experiences:  absolutely eye-opening and the perfect way to receive some serious self-growth.
So what are the highlights from my trip?  I'll include some photos to go with them, but I want to save most of my pics to show peeps in person, as that is the best way to share  what I've done and seen.

1.) Working at a public health clinic in the rural town we were living in, administering Vit. A drops to infants and weighing them.

Vit A oral drops

2.) Getting to know and taking care of our two  families who lived nearby our own home. We bought them some essentials, set up long-term support arrangements and took them to the clinic at the nearby hospital.

 our first family

 4-year old Mawetsi

3.) Babies!! Deliveries and Pediatrics.......comforting and teaching mothers, holding children and giving them fruit snacks and coloring pages and crayons. We also did this at the community centre on Saturday mornings.

4.) The hikes we went on, especially the all-day ones into the remote mountains, accessible only by extreme 4x4ing.

Our first big hike, along a route of the Roof of Africa

5.) Pony trekking at our hosts' other guesthouse in Ramabanta. I've always loved horseback riding and had a lo of fun experiencing it in another culture, especially with my new adopted 'family' of nurses :) Meeting with the Sangoma, a Basotho traditional healer or 'medicine woman' was also a highlight of this weekend.

 our hosts

the Sangoma

6.) Getting to know and having so much fun with the people I went on this trip with. We played lots of loud games of Dutch Blitz, watched movies, got excited about the delicious dinners and deserts we shared each night and traveled many miles in a cramped and bumpy hippie van for four weeks.

on our last 1- hour plane ride from SA to Lesotho!

7.) Kruger National Park in South Africa!!  At the end of our practicum on our way out of Africa we spent three nights at this exotic resort and went on two full day game drives into the Park where we saw lots of the Big 5!!!
8.) Seeing so much of Africa...with all of the driving we did in Lesotho from community to community, as well as the driving in and out of Kruger in SA, we got to see and appreciate a nice bit of this huge continent and its diverse terrain that changed so often.
9.)Spending time at two schools, talking with students about each of our countries and ourselves. We all learned that while we come from different places and live in different situations, we are all still young people, students, doing our best where we are.

high school near Roma

primary school in Ramabanta, 2nd or 3rd grade class

10.) Living amongst, learning about and interacting with the Basotho people. Seeing them work, travel, interact, live. When you can walk past a Basotho woman, smile and say 'Dumela, mae', and she smiles and replies with 'Dumela, aousi!' the feeling of belonging in their culture is so cool :)

 on our dinosaur-fooprint hike in Roma

a typical home in rural Lesotho

And a few of my favorite things about Lesotho specifically?
Donkeys

Passion fruit

The people!!

Our home!

Kaylee :)

Pam :D

More of my own pics (the above ones are others, mine are not made pretty yet :) are soon to come!

Babies, Basotho ponies and beer!!!

We have had a busy last few days in Lesotho, doing things all over the place :) Last week I was in Labour and Delivery and Pediatrics at the hospital in Maseru, and saw one ceserean birth in the OR and another natural delivery...another Basotho boy and girl to welcome into the world! But because their practices are so diffrent from ours, I think I am done witnessing this event for now.....but the OR was a lot of fun - dressing up in the most ugly green scrubs known to mankind and seeing a similar operation as done in Canada. Actually the OR is the only similar aspect of health care in Lesotho so far.
This past weekend we went to our hosts' other guesthouse/lodge for the weekend in a town called Ramabanta, about an hour out of Roma on the most adventurous dirt roads you could  image tackling in a 4x4 pickup. All of the unpaved roads are full of potholes, creeks, people walking to school or town or herding their livestock, but the ones heading into the hills are twice as bad, with giant rocks sticking up every which way which limits your speed to about 5-10 km/hour. But these are the roads that connect remote villages to each other and the rest of civilization, and everyone uses them via truck, donkey, horse or on foot. We are getting used to them though and enjoy the surprise they present at each turn.....will we make it over that rock or through this ditch or not.....?
At Ramabanta we spent one afternoon pony trekking on the smallest but toughest horses I've ever seen or ridden. They navigate through the narrowest and rockiest trails and up the most slick and steep rock faces with absolute confidence, using their tiny hooves and surefootedness that they develop as young horses. And when you use a branch as a little motivation on their rump they even get up to a good speed too, however quite bouncy as their short legs give a short-strided gait. We had a blast exploring similar trails and hills on horseback that we've been hiking and driving by on other excursions.
We went on another all-day hike on Sunday and that evening I made a big achievement.....drum roll please......I finished  my first - and only, I assure you - whole beer EVER!! And it was Lesotho beer, called Maluti, to boot too :)
Only 4 more days here and then we head out on our Safari in South Africa, then home a week from tomorrow!!

Conquering the Roof of Africa...or at least a piece of it....

Mountains. Donkeys. Mountains. Cows. Mountains. Horses. Mountains. Sheep. Mountains. Herdboys. Mountains. Village or two. Mountains. Shrubs. Mountains. Shephard's grass hut. Mountains. Rocks. And more rocks. And more mountains. Mountains...mountains......MOUNTAINS!!!! You think you've made it to the top and another huge peak appears. And you think that when you start going downhill that means you're almost done. But you're not. You're actually not even halfway. And when the guide says that the truck is just around the corner, they dont mean neccessarily the next corner, just a corner somewhere on the way back. Yup. The Basotho have a funny sense of humour when it comes to their mountains. But they are still my new favorite. :)
Hiking in Lesotho is like experiencing an Africa Utah or Arizona, only greener and dotted by herds of the above ungulates and their shephards. We hiked along a route of the 'Roof of Africa', a trail, er, correction: uneven, jutting-with-rocks-, muddy, river-blocked, zig-zagged, track sort of thing -  on which motorcross riders race across for a whole day, eight hours to tbe exact. We hiked 17km of it in about 6 hours. Up and down and zig zaggin around. It was beautiful. And tiring. And awesome. Yup.
: D

A morning of highschool anybody?

Its dark outside. The birds are still sleeping and the sun isn't even warm yet. Or up in the sky for that matter. But its 6 am and time to get up....and get ready for highschool. Cold breakfast - check. Lunch, notebook and pen packed  - check. Rainy skies and muddy roads - check.Warm clothes and homemade plastic bag gators on - check.
Despite the slimy weather the 40 min walk to the village school is an adventure. Because of our impromtu soccer game in our damp backyard while waiting for Micheal (an employee at our guesthouse, our trusty hiking guide, and a student taking us to school with him!) to pick us up, we are all energized and excited  (and soaking wet - what a lovely way to start the day!) to experience school in another country. We pass endless fields of maize, a house or two, exchange a Dumela or two with the occassional villager and jump over numerous creeks crossing the sodden road.
When we get to the school we are greeted by the staff and then split into the different classrooms, that are shared amongst a few long buildings making a rectangle with a courtyard in the middle. The classess are split up by grade, but all ages, from 13 to early 30's, could be studying in any grade. I am put into the grade 10 classroom on my own and am immediately surrounded by the students. We spend some time exchanging the differences between Canada and Lesotho, and I as teach them French and English they teach me Sesotho. Eventually a  teacher comes in and gives a short lecture on Agriculture, titled Soil Erosion, before leaving me alone with the students once more. So we once again spend another hour learning about each other's cultures. By midday we're all cold to the bone from our rainy trek and sitting in unheated classrooms for a few hours - but glowing from our super fun morning -  and ready to head home and warm up.

The things that awed me about this morning was that the students are so self-governed in their education. If they want to learn anything at all they first have to get themselves to school, rain or shine, whether ten minute or two hour walk away. A uniform, black shoes and school supplies are neccessities, and most stuednts also bring a warm coat and hat for wearing all day in the unheated classrooms. When - and if, depedning on the weather - a teacher comes to teach a subject such as Greek, English, Home Economics, Sesotho, Math, Science or Agriculture, the students must take notes from the board and participate in group discussion in order to learn anything. When there is no teacher the students must learn on their own and with each others help....that is, if they're not distracted  by ten Canadian nursing students visting their school, of all places :P
So the next time you complain about Canada's school system......don't. Because the schools are heated, the teachers teach and the buses run.

Next story from Lesotho? All-day hike amongst Lesotho's rocky peaks......

:D

Oh Baby!

Roma: my new home

We have gotten to an internet cafe again sooner than we thought, so we can all get our facebook and e-mail fix in :)
Roma is the town in which we are living during our stay here. There are many houses and farms and fields within Roma, connected by dirt roads or footpaths and separated by many maay corn fields. Our home at the Trading Post is a B&B with many other lodgings, a shop and corn mill attached to it. It is very spread out by beautiful gardens, cottages and rondavels (traditional Basotho housing) for guest housing, and surrounded by a fence for safety. We can leave this fenced compound as a group during the day but stay inside at night while an armed guard patrols the yard. Our breakfast and dinners are lovely and preapred for us, and we shop at a grocery store in Maseru (the bigger city outside of Roma) for gorceries for lunches. In our house we have a kithchen, dining room and living room, plus several rooms and bathrooms that we share, but we are all very comfortable and looked after - totally spoiled actually, as I feel  I eat and sleep better here do at my apartment in Kamloops :P
Our home is considered very upper class, and the other homes in Roma are a variety of lower class, brick and straw huts to the occassional middle or upper class larger, stone home, most of which are in Maseru and may have a care or two and a sattelite dish with it. Every more lower class home has a garden, a dog or two and some kind of livestock -cows, horse or donkeys, and maybe even pigs. Masreru is the opposite and consists of lots of traffic (constant taxi beeping, which means "Do you want a ride, I have room?"), people walking and lots of shops and tall office buildings, like any other city.
When I've been at the hospitals more and by the time we have internet access again, I'll write about my experiences there -we've only had one day at the local one in Roma.
Until next time, 'kaliboha' (thank you in Sesotho) for reading my blog and staying tuned in to my advetures here!!

A typical morning at the Trading Post in Roma, Lesotho....

This is our third day in Lesotho and we came into Maseru to do some errands use an internet cafe. There are so mnay things I could post about of my experiences so far in Lesotho, but that would take too long so I will pick one of my favorite things about Lesotho so far and share that with you.....

I love the mornings at our home in Lesotho, the Trading Post Lodge, in rural Roma. The sun comes up just after 7 and casts warm rays on the craggy mountains that sourround us, and paints the valley with a buttery glow as the early winter night gives way to a warmer morning. I can hear roosters crowing, birds calling, people singing, the odd cow moo and horse neigh, sitting right outside our room on the porch....... I love our home here and can't wait to see what more God has for us here, and to share the stories with you all!!

 I would tell you more but my time on the internet is running out, so goodbye for another few days and I'll choose one of my many Lesotho adventures to write about again :D

Pigeons, Pretzels & Planes

So here's a quicky blurb on the trip so far, wont be creative or anything special cuz my head feels like its floating around in the subconsicous and my body feels like its still on a plane.....so, first off.....sat around kamloops airport....flew to calgary....sat around calgary airport.....flew 9 hours to Frankfurt, Germany.......took a train, exlpored the city centre, took pictures, kicked some pigeons (they are everywhere and fly right up into your face), ate a soft and crunchy pretzel ,drank some weak German beer....sat around the airport.....flew 10 hours to Johannesburg, South Africa....arrived this morning (Friday) at 7am and was promptly attacked by a pride of lions, right on the runway as we "disembarked" from the plane.
No. That did not happen.
We have been relaxing here at our hotel - another story for when I get back - and next on the agenda is the Apartheid Museum for the afternoon and an early bed time because the last two nights have been backwards and upside down and spent on planes - which I have decided I hate because, like Jane said, are either too hot or too cold, and ten hours X 2 is too long to try stay comfortable and sleep, no matter what positions one tries....

Soooo....'sup?

"So, Louise, you're heading to Africa in two days, right?"
"Yup..."
"I'm sure you were busy today getting ready, last-minute packing and worrying and what not?"
"Uh, no, not really.....did some laundry and packing, then went for a hike.....and on this random adventure to a beach to learn how to skip rocks..... and spy on an abandoned mental health institution.....in this place called Padova....yeah."
"That's how you spent your second to last day in North America?"
"Yeah. I got to play in the dirt and throw rocks."
Pause.
"....the most skips I got was three."

One rolley-wheely suitcase + half a hockey bag as big as me + a heart eager for adventure and learning =  1 Lesotho-bound package of skookumness.
Over and out, until June 1st....ish.
:D

Empowerment....it's a BAM! funny thing.

Today I not only finished my third year of nursing at TRU by writing my one and only final exam, but I got to do something as equally satisfying.....put money into the bank. For months and months its been the same ritual...take money out for the utility bills....travel insurance......foregin currency.....immunizations......(you'll notice I didn't mention groceries - when a trip to Africa is on the horizon, food is the first to go off my list of 'what to spend money on'....Annie would be so proud of me!) But today I go to put money INTO the bank!!! So exciting!!!! It's been added to my  just-decided-to-make-up-a-list-of-empowering-things list....
1.) Bike riding up a REALLY big hill (the bigger the better) and then riding down it at the speed of light and sound combined.
2.) Buying coffee (I don't know why this is empowering but it does mean that I'm an official coffee drinker now right?)
3.)Finishing one's third year of nursing....HUZZAH!
4.) Putting money into the bank.
5.) Realizing one is going to Africa in, what, 6 days?
I've started having those moments where everything is normal, you know.... eat a sandwich, chew some gum, write an exam.... and then, BAM! It hits me.....in 6 days I'm getting on multiple planes to fly over multiple countries where I will meet multiple children and give them multiple crayons and coloring books and fruit snacks and balls and toothbrushes and bracelets......and then, BAM! The hitting subsides and life goes on again as normal. Bu these moments get me so excited for things I'll do and see and the people I'll meet and teach and nurse with.
HUZZAH! for moments like these that hit you with a BAM!!

Toys and T-minus 12 days

So I have now past the two-week-until-departure date, and things for Lesotho are coming together...shopping is almost done, packing is underway, a summer job is now secured at the hospital here in Kamloops, and my 6th semester of my BSN degree at TRU is now done! Classes, papers and final presentations are all done and down the tube, and only one (rubbin rubbin RUBBIN IT IN!!!) final exam next week and then I can totally focus on last minute things for Lesotho.....and I will officially be on the home stretch for graduation next year........ughhhhh okay new topic cuz graduation absolutely and completely freaks me out.

Another big errand I've almost got ready for Lesotho is all the money....ness (by the way I HATE money. All and any of it. If I could work in direct exchange for groceries, rent, a car and  school I would)Pretty  much I'm set for life - or at least 5 weeks - with all the different money things I need to have to pay for different stuff and be ready for all sorts of emergencies. SOW (my new short-word-thingy for 'speaking of which', whatever those are called) we had a Risk Management seminar that we were required to go to for our trip as students from TRU, and we learned about all of the possible things that could and have gone wrong on a field school trip.....it was not at all comforting. Anyways I will not share those stories here, as I did enough of that with the worm post and pictures :P But it did help me start the daunting task of packing and organizing documents in order to be "prepared for the worst but expecting the best". Hmm. Not sure whether that helps my two-toned emotional panel of being nervous-freaked out-scared  vs. excited-confident-ready . But those tips and my parents coming for a spontaneous weekend visit to help me do some shopping, and, lets call it, er feeding the bank account, really helped me get over the nervous stage of getting ready for Lesotho and move into the excited stage, which I'm in right now. I rarely have a moment where I don't think or talk about Lesotho and I'm glad I can finally say with honesty that I am now quite excited and not just nervous about going :)

At our most recent meeting we picked up a bunch of hand-made wooden toys that we are all packing into our two checked bags to give to all the kids we'll be interacting with on  our stay. We're trying to get ourselves a  three-bag limit so we can take more, and count our trip as a kind of aid trip, so we'll see what the travel agent can do. Those plus soccer balls, crayons, coloring books, fruit snacks and colored yarn for bracelets are some other things we're bringing with us for the kids. You know, for a while I've been kind deterred by kids - in other words they were not my favorite type of people (talking about them like they're icecream or something....btw I do not like chocolate), probably because most of my jobs and volunteer experiences have been with kids. But through this trip I'm beginning to feel drawn to their eager and energetic faces and I am for sure stoked about playing, talking, teaching and learning with them. I can feel it. Jesus will do some amazing things to and through me on this trip. And I need to start preparing for that.....put aside the money and suitcases and prepare my mind and heart for what He wants to show me soon. Well Jesus, I have something to say about that. T-minus 12 days. Then we're both boarding a plane to Lesotho.

Kingdom in the Sky

So its Thursday night after a day of writing an exam and presenting a research project, and I have nothing else more productive to do at 2030 hours other than write some more nursing gobbleygoop about Lesotho....I figure some basic info on where exactly I'll be spending my days of May may be appreciated, at least by my slightly-concerned-for-my-safety-and-well-being dad. And my roommate was writing on her blog (which she does a great job on and is WAY more fun to read than mine) and so I was inspired to waste some time as well. So sit back, relax and learn about the Kingdom in the Sky - and no worries, no disturbing images this time :)

Lesotho is the most southbound country in the world that is completely surrounded, or 'landlocked' by another country - South Africa. It is  a mountainous country with the world's highest lowpoint......if that makes sense. We are expecting to tag along on some hard-core-ish hikes which is one of the activities that I'm looking forward to the most. During my five weeks in Lesotho, summertime will be just finishing and autumn just beginning - our instructor said to even expect frost in the early mornings near the end of our stay. Lesotho is governed by a constitutional monarchy and also has a Prime Minister...like our government.... I think? We could get to meet the King as did another year's s group :)

Most of the people of Lesotho are Basotho, native to Lesotho, and live rurally and rely on farming of crops and livestock or work in the cities for income. Other people include European and Chinese, and while the Basotho's native language of Sesotho is one of their main languages, English is the other official language. Christianity is the most practiced religion,  but  others are Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist or follow an indigenous belief system. Lesotho values education incredibly and puts a lot of their country's income into providing it, resulting in a very impressive literacy rate. But children must be able to pay for a uniform and books to attend. Teaching the children about healthy living on Saturdays at the community centre will be one of our weekly nursing activities and this is another part of the trip I'm very excited about.

 Other aspects of our clinical experience will be spent at different hospitals and health clinics, such as the military hospital and potentially tagging along with nursing home care. We will also go to school with the nursing students at Lesotho's university. Further details and schedules of our nursey stuff have yet to be confirmed however, and could always change. Besides, if I knew and shared everything before I went I'd have nothing to share during and after the trip.....

So its almost time to dig out the suitcase and get those malaria pills.....at least I've started a couple of  to-do lists on scraps of paper. I'll do the rest after classes are done next week and my last (and only teehee) final exam is written the week before I leave. I can hear my dad hyperventilating at this lack of preparation - I really should have started packing last year right dad?

Countdown: 19 days. Wow. That sounds way less than the 21 days it was just yesterday. Gulp.

Flu-like S&S, hemorrhaging, swollen eyes and innards....something something diarrhea! Hey, Peptol Bismol!

Now that our global health class has finished presenting our tropical/neglected disease projects, I can open your eyes to the stunning variety of lovely diseases I could get while in Lesotho.....

Disclaimer: For you viewing pleasure, a gross pic or two to complement my riveting descriptions.....

• Guinea Worm - is actually labeled as 'non applicable' in Lesotho...so what exactly does that mean? Pretty much that info on this worm that burrows through your insides and exits out of the skin of your lower limbs is unknown in Lesotho....if its endemic or not, a major problem or not....watever it is, they don't know about it. Swell.

• Typhoid Fever - It is endemic in Lesotho but I have had my immunization. Rule of thumb in avoiding the familiar Salmonella bacteria: Boil it, peel it, cook it or forget it!

• Rift Valley Fever - Great, another fever I could get....and another disease with them same old same old initial complaints of flu-like S&S...which are becoming SO overrated nowadays :P Lesotho is 'at risk' for this disease, and there is no vaccine. Well then. Just another part of living life on the wild side, right? As Ms.Frizzle would say "Let's take chances, make mistakes, and get messy!"

• Cholera - Ahh, good ol' cholera. My personal fav, as it is easy to study for: bacterially infected food or water = bacteria in gut = toxins in gut = diarrhea = rehydrate, rehydrate, REHYDRATE!! Note to self: see Typhoid Fever and remember to pack Peptol Bismol!

• Malaria - Those darn mosquitos show up EVERYWHERE and carry every neglected disease under the sun. We only have to take malaria pills for a few days while on the Safari in Kruger National Park, not for the clinical aspect of the trip in Roma....so, only special mosquitos in the Park are malairaized....? Anyways the SE are apparently unpleasant so this plan is fine with me :)

And of course there's all the worms that are abundant in developing countries. Here are just the pictures as I'm too lazy to write about them. Use your imaginations to fill in the blanks.

Really, we're really only concerned about Hep A, malaria, Typhoid and cholera, as those are the illnesses our travel nurse has talked about and provided preventative measures for, but its kinda interesting, in a nasty and nerdy-nurse-like way, to find out about additional foreign bugs :)

So what have we learned here? Don't touch anything but yourself. Don't get bitten by mosquitos. Know what flu-like S&S feel like. Yup. I think that pretty much covers it. Do these and I'll be disease free :)

PS - Be prepared to ATTEMPT to learn something from each of my posts - I'm not a "I'll blog just for the heck of it" kind of writer.....yet.

:P

It's all about the pronounciation people...

So I hear that blogging is a great time waster....but before I get semi-serious about this keeping-a-blog thing of my trip to Lesotho, there is one thing we have to get straight. There is one right way to pronounce 'Lesotho' and many many wrong ways. Pay attention, as I will not go over this again. 

It is not Le-so-tho, Le-soo-tho, Lee-so-tho-, La-so-tho. Nor is it Le-so-too, La-so-too or Let's Sew...Two.


So say it the right way with me now:
Le (as in the french 'le' for 'the')
Soo (or sue, however you best relate to the sound.....)
Too (or two, for those of you on top of your grammar)

Le-soo-too.
Lesotho.

Well done everyone, well done :)