A Life Giving Place!

1 John 5:12,13 was the verse that God gave Sharon and I for Friday…well v12 for Sharon and v13 for me that we shared with the team.

So, whoever has God’s Son has life; whoever does not have his Son does not have life.  I write this to you who believe in the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.

Friday we started on day on foot as we made our way down to "Help Lesotho".  They are an organization focusing on education and training with HS students.  They take in grade 10-12 students and provide them with sponsorship to get through HS successfully as well as a beautiful residence for the girls to live in.  They also are active in HIV prevention and awareness of human traffiking and gender equality among many of their programs.  They have a solid library for the students to access as well and great facilities for training events.  'M'e Mahlompho took us on a tour of the facility and showed us all their resources.

We then walked down to the Motebang Hospital where the beginnings of the Tsepong clinic was located and Andy spoke with us about the beginnings of Bracelet of Hope.  We then met with a team from Phelisanang Bophelong,  an umbrella group of support groups for people who work with those who are HIV positive.  The LAC (local adherane coordinates) provide peer to peer support for those on ARV (anti retro virals) because they themselves have gone through all the side effects of this treatment as well.  Bracelet of Hope works with this agency in setting up piggeries.  It was interesting to see their targets for people they were focused on reaching and holding themselves accountable to those goals.

Afterwards we went to visit the Leribe Craft Center that was set up by the Anglicans in 1911.  We were able to watch the women in action making crafts and specialty items including scarfs, ponchos, blankets.  It was here that we purchased our first souvenir items...little wood carved dolls of Lesotho people in traditional clothing.  We were also introduced to the the jewellery of the "Positively Empowered Artisan Association".  These ladies are all HIV positive and are now finding meaningful work.   We had the opportunity to meet them earlier in the week.

For lunch we went and picked up pizzas that we ordered from the "Sweet Dreams" bakery and met up with Gladys and one of her employees, Patience!  The pizzas were amazing and we also purchased cookies and then enjoyed it all at Andy's home where we scarfed it down along with Stoney's Ginger Beer....the best ginger beer I have ever had.

After lunch we travelled to Tiping to visit the work of Domenic's youth group where they primarily are involved in bee-keeping.  We also met Pinky and Thabo, the leader, who we gave a soccer ball to.  We took time to play a great game of soccer with Thabo and Moshe in the thin air of the mountains at the local St. Domenic's school.  On our way back to Hlotse we stopped by a local HS and caught a soccer match by the boys team and saw the girls play an intense game of handball.  The place was packed with students watching in an area where there was strong winds, tons of dust, but great action.  However, we quickly took care of that by hitting a local shop where there is always ice cold cokes readily available!  We are enjoying the local fruit here as well...bananas are great!

Most evenings we end up at the Leribe Hotel also known as the Mountain View hotel because we can't even make food at the prices for meals there and who can argue a place with a strong wifi signal!!  We then checked out La'Crouch Pub and Grill and enjoyed more time together as the hotel kicks you out around 9:30pm.