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