Collegiate World Challenge to South Africa!

Long time no talk!

We travelled into Lesotho on horseback which was an amazing experience even if it was misty and rainy. We were treated to a delicious cooked breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast and porridge before we set off. We stopped at a really nice viewing spot for a lunch of ham and salad sandwiches complimented by very sweet tea. After we arrived at the lodge in Lesotho five hours later we were cooked a lamb stew and instructed on how to make the local bread. We tried Steve's instructions first and ended up with doughy mush so we asked one of Steve's horse grooms for advice and the bread got better as the week went on.

Every morning we walked three kms to Mavuka Primary School where our project was based. The classrooms had been vandalised over the holidays as they were unable to be locked. We viewed what the previous World Challenge team from England had achieved in a separate classroom. Luckily these had been locked. We had been asked by Steve and Lulu to make a special effort in one particular classroom which the leader of the English team had planned to come back and finish by himself. Unfortunately he passed away in St Lucia before the completion of the trip. The team left their extra money for us to finish the classroom. They also had a plaque made for us to put up in the classroom.

So we painted three classrooms to make them lighter and then decorated them with colourful murals. We tried to get the local kids involved as much as was possible without causing chaos in the hope that they would take more pride in their school. In one classroom we painted a measuring giraffe on the side of a blackboard so the kids could mark in how tall they were. In the second we painted a rainbow with the Sesotho and English word for each colour. Only after we painted this did we find out that they have no word for the colour orange. We also added some Australian animals to this classroom. In the last classroom, the special one, we had to cement up two walls that must have been completely knocked out and replaced with loose bricks. To this we had to go on an epic mission to find a wheelbarrow and several 2km trips(one uphill, one downhill) to collect sand from the river. This was the most loathed task of the week. We painted a silhouette of an African savannah and the mountains of Lesotho with the traditional round rondawels. In the middle we painted a blackboard and the plaque was placed above this. Around the top of the room we got the kids to place their handprints on the bricks. At the end of the week the teachers held a ceremony to pray for the English leader and sung us their school song and national anthem to which we responded with ours.

We also constructed a fence around what is going to become a vege patch. We had help from one of the horse grooms but he worked on his own timetable and we think he was confused between morning and afternoon. The previous group had levelled out and lined a netball court for the children, but as it was at the bottom of a slope it had been getting flooded. To rectify this we dug a ditch around it which we filled with rocks in hopes that the water would flow around the court. We had been planning to replace the broken windows of the classrooms but after tediously knocked out thirty panes we discovered that the glass we had was 3mm too big. We called Steve and got him to bring up a glass cutter and started cutting on the last day. Unfortunately we were unable to finish this so we taught the principal's son, Bokang, how to do it and asked him to show his friends. As far as we know they have finished already.

During the week when people took breaks from working we interacted with the locals and learnt some Sesotho words such as: koho (chicken), dumela (hello), hojoang (howzit), fariki (pig), lebitso la ga ke ____ (my name is ___). The kids loved having photos taken and looking at them afterwards on the screen. We collected some addresses and have to print photos out to send them (they were very insistant). We presented the chief with a gift and he was very grateful for what we'd done at the school.

The horseride back was even better than the one there. We stopped at a waterfall and got to canter and even gallop. We got back to Durban yesterday and visited the Victoria Street Markets and today we are heading to Ushaka (Wet and Wild/Aquarium type thing).

We won't update again, unless we're bored while we're waiting six hours at Joburg airport. We all send our love and we'll see you soon!!