Lesotho photos

I have some exciting news to share.  Remember Hananja, my friend from Hermanus?  Of course you do, because I blog about her all the time.  Well, she is in Lesotho!  Way back in September when I was first getting to know Hananja, she told me that she was interested in missions and in sharing her professional dietitian skills in a place where they're needed.  So I said, "Well, there's this hospital in Lesotho..." and thus began a discussion about her maybe coming to St. James for part of the time that I am here.  I'll tell you a bit more about the work she's doing in my next post.  But for now, not only do I have the pleasure of her company, I also have the use of her laptop!  So please enjoy some of the promised photos from Lesotho.

These first few photos are from the Hands on Health meetings we had during my first week here.  This is one of the small groups during one of our brainstorming sessions. 

I am sharing  my group's plans for a guideline tool about HoH

Thabiso is VERY excited about HoH!

I had only been here a couple of days when we got a dusting of snow!  See?  I told you it was cold!  But the snow was really pretty and I enjoyed seeing it.

The hospital's garden

Just a guy.  Riding on a donkey.

The hospital complex as seen from the road above.  The brick house with the red roof that's right in the middle of the photo is my house!

Patients wait for the outpatient clinic to open in the morning.  The big white building is the main part of the hospital.

Dr. Mack, one of our three physicians, posing outside of the clinic in Ha-Mafa.

A full moon over a very Lesotho landscape

The 'road' to Ha-Popa.  Again, the photo doesn't really capture how bad the road actually is, but I guess you can sort of get the idea.

When I was in South Africa, I sometimes invited friends to my house for Mexican food, which I would make using taco seasoning packets that Jacob brought me from the US.  We called these nights 'Mexican Monday' or 'Taco Tuesday'.  Well, Hananja and I continued this trend and had a 'Taco Thursday' in Lesotho!  And yes, I know I look a bit like a gangster.  Remember, the style is 'missionary chic'.

Filling my bucket at the garden tap.  The hospital's water issues are really becoming a problem.  None of the buildings, including the main hospital where the patients are, have had running water for about two weeks now.  This tap in the garden is the most reliable of the outdoor taps.  Sometimes it's on all day, but often it only comes on after 5 PM, which means there is no running water available anywhere on the hospital grounds for most of the day.  This is bad enough for me, who is used to having running water in my house all the time, but it really is difficult for the hospital.  Imagine trying to clean surgical instruments without running water. Yeah, it's a problem.

These guys saw me taking photos on a walk yesterday and asked me to take one of them.  The guy on the right in the front is wearing one of the traditional Basotho blankets that I've mentioned.  You can also see the round stone huts with their thatched roofs, which is what most Basotho homes look like.

Lots of times when I run, kids will just kinda follow along behind me.  These kids were following us for quite a ways, and Hananja (being Hananja and therefore adorable) obviously had to get them to skip down the road with her.

... and some cows in the river.

So there you have it.  A few photos to give you a bit of a picture of Lesotho.