On Tour

The stories are coming together and the calendar is filling up, check out Stories of Hope on Tour!

Nov 9-ELORA- Light House Restaurant
Dec 8 -GUELPH - Guelph Community Foundation -The Joint Cafe
Jan 20-CAMBRIDGE-Fresh Stories at Monogram Coffee Roasters
Feb 20-HAMILTON-Hamilton Story Circle - Anshe Shalom Temple
April 1 -TORONTO-Toronto Storytelling Festival

Guelph

"Late last night so far away, I dreamed myself a dream,
Well, I dreamed I was so alone, isn't it nice to be home again?"
-James Taylor


      


I am back in Guelph. I have been here for almost two weeks. It is weird that I have already been home as long as I was in Lesotho. Time here certainly moves a lot quicker than it does there. I am not sad to be home: I like it here. This is my home. I am not sad to have left there. But I sure am thankful I got to go.

This is likely how I will end  this blog, and I was really hoping to finish strong. I wanted to write something powerful and profound, reflecting on what I had learned and how my new found knowledge can help others, but I am struggling to write anything all. I am okay with that. The truth is, I am struggling to understand what I experienced there and struggling with what to do with it all. If you have read this blog you already know the idea was for me to simply experience things there. I went to see, hear, smell, touch, and taste what life is like for for orphans who have lost their parents to AIDS, and what life is like for those who are caring for them. Then I was to come home and tell those stories. I guess I am somewhere in the middle right now. I certainly had a wide variety of experiences, and now as I settle back into teaching, parenting, laundry, banking, and vacuuming, I am waiting for the stories to start showing up.

International travel

One of the hassles with international travel is 6 hour layovers.

The good thing about  6 hour layovers is lunch beside the canal in Amsterdam. I am sorry that these are beginning to read like Facebook posts.

Necessary?

On the flight out of Johannesburg the TV set on the back of the seat in front of me (right in front of me!) had it's own remote. Seriously. When you pointed it towards the screen you had to kind of pull back to make it work.  Things like this make me miss that bicycle at Tlhakuli.

 

Not Him

It looks like the last time I posted this it got lost in cyber space, so here it goes again. This one's a bit out of order, but worth telling. During our safari adventure our guide told us some staggering facts about hippos. The river we were on was brackish, and is the only place on the planet that Bull sharks, crocs and hippos all live. He said you could swim there, but it would only be once and it would not be for long. This could be the most dangerous place on earth! He told us that their massive mouths open 150 degrees, they kill close to 3000 people a year, almost twice as many as lions, and they can run up to 55 km's per hour. Can you imagine a 2500 lb. beast chasing you at that speed!? He said if you ever startle a hippo, corner a hippo, or get in between a hippo and the water you don't have a chance. No chance. That night once we had returned from the safari we were walking from our hotel into town for dinner and one walked right in front of us. A hippo. It was terrifying. I have never been that close to any living thing that big or that dangerous before (obviously!). It was the size of a car. It came plodding out of the shadows about 20 yards in front of us, crossed the Main Street and disappeared up a side road. We stood frozen in fear. Waiting to hear screams of horror, or car horns, or something. Nothing. Not knowing what else to do, we carried on downtown for dinner.
I had pasta.
 Our guide had told us that one or two of them come in to town from time to time and that they eat from some of the gardens. Apparently they are used to the humans and the humans are used to them. We were told if you see one just keep your distance and you'll be fine. But I never thought I would ever actually see one.  My favourite part of the story was the next morning when I told the woman working at the hotel about it. Our conversation went like this; 
Me: I saw a hippo in town last night.
Her: Yah (as in Yah, so what?).
 Me: I was terrified.
 Her: (giggling) Why?
 Me: They are massive and they kill people.
 Her: Not him.

Hlotse, Leribe, Lesotho

 

I am leaving today, so I suppose this is my last entry, at least from here. Perhaps I will write a few from home as I reflect over the next several days (weeks?). It is hard to leave here.  This has been an incredible experience. However it would also be hard to stay. This is a difficult place. I realize I am no expert, I have only been here two weeks, but because of the nature of my stay I feel I have connected. The problems here are serious, the AIDS pandemic is very real and very dire. People are dying, families are being torn apart, children are being orphaned. It is hard to know how or when this country will heal. It will take a massive shift in policy, perception, and practice in order to make a change. However this crisis does not define the Basotho. They are in the middle of a crisis, but they are not defined by the crisis, they are  more than the crisis. They are a creative, beautiful, resourceful, generous, resilient people. We met a woman yesterday who runs the programs at Sentebale, a centre that runs camps for vulnerable youth in Lesotho with a focus on HIV (Sentabale). She told us a great story about her great grandfather who was a brave warrior that fought for freedom and independence. She told us about how proud she was of him, of her people, and of her country. It was easy to make the connection that she is a modern day warrior fighting for a new type of freedom. I look forward to the day that someone tells her story.

Another Introduction

Another person you need to know if you are interested in this adventure and the work being done here is Samuel. He is the AFM Social Worker who currently overseas the social, emotional, and developmental needs of the orphans. He is young, energetic, enthusiastic, and motivated. He is exactly what you'd want in this position. Having worked in residential settings for many years prior to teaching and for over half of my teaching career (so far), Samuel and I had many good conversations over the last two weeks. In my opinion, these kids are in very good hands.

Samuel and Liteboho were in Guelph this past fall. They have become colleagues as well as friends with the Bracelet of Hope folks. As a result they had us for dinner tonight for a send off on our last night here. Since being in Guelph they have also had a baby! Statistically speaking, I could make Lesotho sound like a sad and desperate place. It's not. It's issues and challenges are real and are serious. However it is also a country where people go to work, make friends, get together for meals, and where young couples have beautiful babies.