Dumela from Lesotho! My team and I have safely made it to Lesotho, Africa and we are so excited to be in a place that is so different from the States. If you don’t know where the country of Lesotho is, it is a sub-Saharan African country that is completely landlocked within the country of South Africa. It took 24 hours by bus to arrive to the town of Mokhotlong, and this month we are working with a church and school called Harvester’s.

A lot of the work that we are doing is manual labor and construction projects. We are helping with an addition to the church and fixing up a lot of the classrooms at the school. It is really unique being able to have the opportunity to live with a Lesotho family and partner with local people that are doing so much good in their community, even though it has also taken my team a few days to adjust to a completely different way of life. For example, for the first few days of work we have been gathering materials for the addition to the church. This means that we have been walking up and down the mountainside (at 10,000 feet) gathering rocks and making a giant pile- a little bit different than the way that people do things in the U.S.! In the coming three weeks that we are here we are hoping to get more construction projects done for the school and the community.

The country of Lesotho is completely encompassed by a mountain range, and we are living high in the mountains where the main occupation is sheparding sheep, and agricultural jobs. The homes here are made out of mud and bricks, and they either have a thatched straw roof or tin roofs. For the first five days that we were here, there wasn’t running water either because the water and electricity (when people can afford it) are very sporadic and turn off without warning. The people here are some of the friendliest that I have ever met and in our first week of being here, we were invited to a brai (barbeque) where we got to eat Sesotho food with the family and guests, and they even played Sesotho music and showed us the dances that they do here!

Thank you for keeping up with my team as we are settling into Lesotho and thank you all for the continued prayers and love.

With love,

Claire