Better check the ingredients on your jarred cheese spread...

Well, I am writing again because Traig has spent the past two weeks in a large shipping container inventorying satellite network parts and that is really all you can say about that!! His VSAT training officially begins today.

On Friday morning, I had an unscheduled visit to an orphanage here in town. Tonya (neighbor, pilot’s wife) was showing me a few places around town and we ended up sitting in the baby room of a very nice Care Center here in Maseru. Every day since then has been a hard day. This home is for HIV/AIDS orphans and infected children and before seeing these precious children, I struggled with the thought of babies having HIV and now, it is a thought that consumes me. It is easy to accept that adults make poor life choices and suffer the consequences of those decisions; it is not easy to accept why an innocent baby has a horrid disease slowly destroying their body. As I mentioned in my last blog, it has been my prayer that my heart break over the things that break God’s heart and God has answered that prayer.

We held and played with these children and they were all smiles. Nights are now the hardest time for me as I rock my baby to sleep and think of those babes who do not have loving arms to cradle them each night as they drift off. Currently, Lesotho has placed a ban on adoptions so the numbers are at their highest in orphanages all throughout the country. Please pray for a lift on this ban as we have already met several families who are hoping to adopt, some of which were already into the process when the ban was put into place. And if you have a baby, rock her to sleep tonight and thank God for the blessing that is life. Blessings, Laura

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today, Monday, I had a long visit with ‘M’e Augustina, our housekeeper, and my day time company as I no longer have Traig around! She has been a blessing to our family. Not to mention she makes great lasagna!! Anyway, I was correcting some home school work and we began chatting about education in Maseru. She told me it is very expensive and if a student comes to school without their uniform in its entirety, their books (which they have to purchase themselves), and a pencil, they are sent home. I told her that school is free in the U.S. and that the children’s teachers had given me books to bring to Lesotho to continue their school here. She was floored. “It is not easy here, not like that.” she said. How humbling this short three weeks has been. My dear friend Zeta once said every one should visit a third world country and I couldn't agree more (did we mention our guest house?).

--And on a side note, ‘M’e just showed me a dress of the baby’s that was covered in spaghetti sauce (from yesterday) that she cleaned spotless with Melrose cheese which is their cheese whiz equivalent. While I am very excited about the dress, I am equally alarmed by what would be IN jarred cheese that would remove set in grease…Should I really be eating something that doubles as a stain remover? And what would have ever made her think to use cheese as a laundry aid? So much to ponder here…

We can not thank you all enough for your prayers and kind e-mails. So often when I should have felt loneliness, or frustration I have felt peace and I know it is because of the prayers being said on our behalf. Blessings, Laura

"In the vast plain to the north I have sometimes seen, in the morning sun, the smoke of a thousand villages where no missionary has ever been"

-Robert Moffat
My turn again! MAF pilots rotate being"on call" for medical flights over the weekends and sometimes it works out for passengers to fly along. This past Saturday, it worked out for me! We got the call about 8:45 Saturday morning, a woman who was 5 months pregnant, was having some complications and needed to be transported to Maseru. This is what I have been waiting for, to see the villages and and people who changed Traig's life course. I was finally going to see first hand why we came to Lesotho.

20 minutes later we were in flight. It was amazingly beautiful! I was sitting next to the pilot Christiaan, right were all the action was! The flight time was 40 minutes and I was immediately overcome with the beauty that I saw all around me. The mountains were vast, and every so often I would notice a tiny dot of life-a small village set apart with its tiny round huts, a few men on donkeys. Miles from roads that any car could travel on. Just worn paths from hundreds -- probably thousands -- of horse and donkey journeys.


I knew that the landing strips were barely that and didn't realize where we were landing until we were practically on the ground. We made a pass to make sure there was no livestock or children in the way and then we landed. The village was untouched by time except for our plane sitting on a small patch of grass there among the huts and naked children. The woman we were transporting looked more of a girl to me and did not speak English. She had probably never ventured this far from her home before and it was clear she was very frightened. I did all that I knew to do, I held her hand, smiled and prayed to God for protection for her baby, and peace for her. I do not know what her situation is right now but I know that God is good. My first trip into the mountains of Lesotho left me thinking of all the things that I have that all the mountain people will live their entire lives without. And how terrifying that it must be for them to be facing a disease that is killing 3.5 people every hour in this country.

I found this quote in some of my reading this week and it is my prayer right now so I will end this entry with it. Blessings, Laura

"Let my heart be broken with the things that break God's heart"-Bob Pierce

A good reminder of why we are here...

MAF has 5 planes here in Lesotho and typically flies 3 of them on a given day. The other 2 are in the hangar for maintenance which is very important in this environment.

Today we were short a pilot who was out of town so only 2 planes could fly. This afternoon both of them were out in the mountains making the rounds (dropping off doctors and nurses, food and medicine, moving missionaries from village to village, etc.) when a call came in for an emergency medical evacuation. A young pregnant woman was having severe complications. One of the pilots flew to her village to pick her up and bring her to Maseru while another pilot picked up Dr. Jen Furin with Partners In Health (our family's primary source of funding). Dr. Jen was at a different village in the mountains and returned to the airport first.



When the plane landed with the patient she was immediately unloaded by two of our MAF pilots and taken to a small clinic room we have. Dr. Jen began to work on her and it was determined the baby had died and was essentially stuck inside the mother who was bleeding to death. An ambulance had arrived at the hangar and was able to transport her and Dr. Jen to the hospital here in Maseru where she had surgery.


I don't know her current status but without the MAF planes here she would have died in her village in the mountains. Even before the ambulance left the planes were refueled and headed back to work, as there were plenty of flights left in the schedule. In the picture below you can see the MAF plane taking off in the background before the ambulance has even left for the hospital.


I talked with pilot Tim Vennell for a while about how frequently this happens and he was choked up telling me about times when the patients have died in flight because they don't have enough planes or pilots or other workers here to effectively meet the medical needs. It was a good reminder to me of why we are here in Lesotho and again I was overwhelmed by the dedication this MAF team has to helping the Basotho people.

Traig

Who's that crazy American driving in the wrong lane...?

Well I am pretty sad to say that Laura seems to be better at driving on the wrong side of the road than me. I guess I am the one on the wrong side -- she is actually good at staying on the right side, which here in Lesotho is the left side.

It has been a week since we have been in Africa and we are starting to settle in. Our hope is to update this blog at least twice a week, possibly more once I start the work in the mountains. It will be the easiest way to keep everyone updated! Also thanks for all the emails- they have been GREAT and we love hearing from you all back home!

I know many of you are curious what life is like here so far. Here is sort of a run-down of the main details:

Housing and Such

• We live in Maseru, which is the only large city in Lesotho. They claim about 180,000 people but after my drive through the outskirts on Friday afternoon I would say it is WAY more than that as there were thousands of people just hanging out in the streets. Literally thousands, or tens of thousands, lining the streets and wandering in front of my car. People here seem to just wander the streets and I would assume it is because there is nothing to do at home since few have power or TV or a yard or anything. Why go home to that…?
• Our home is nice and that is a blessing. More than acceptable by even American standards and very nice by Lesotho standards. Tile floors, dining room, decent kitchen, large back yard. It would not look out of place in any town we have lived in prior. Of course other than being surrounded by a 6’ high concrete wall topped with spikes and razor wire.

• 
• We live on a dead-end street that is mostly expatriates.Several nationalities are represented in our neighbors.There are 5 pediatricians living on our street.All of us have the high walls and razor wire, and some have full time guards.A few homes are very nice – “American” grade
• Like the home, we are driving a borrowed vehicle big enough for the family. It is a Toyota 4-runner although here it is called a “Surf”. The car has a crazy anti-hijacking system built into it that requires about 17 extra special steps before it will let you start it and once a door is opened you have to repeat some steps or the engine will stall. Although not sure why you would steal this vehicle as there are plenty of nice cars in town including BMW, VW, Volvo, Mercedes, Hummer. Not what you would have expected?.. same here. It is a very odd society mix here in Maseru for sure. A huge gap between the haves and have-nots.
  

Food

• Laura should probably write this part… we do have access to a large variety of normal foods, just not the brands and quality from back in the States. We can get good milk, eggs, great bread, soda, juice, fruit, veggies, etc. Boxed foods not so much – there is no boxed pasta or brownie mix or anything else you would get boxed. And many of the ingredients have to be substituted. Like chocolate in pretty much any form you can’t get (they only have unsweetened cocoa).
• They have breakfast cereal but the names are a little funny and the quality not so good. Don’t get the “Squillios” (bad version of Honey Bunches of Oats with a crazy squirrel character on the box. Ask anyone they will tell you I like squirrels but no so much the Squillios…). But the rice crispies are basically the same and some other choices. Only Kellogs products, no General Mills….
• Decent meat if you know where to get it. Thankfully we were recommended a local butcher and got our first order this afternoon.
• Despite rave reviews we have so far avoided the Chinese “take away” restaurant. It sounds like they have to clear out a sizeable number of cats before they can fire up the woks. Meow

Money

• There are 2 local currencies, the Loti is Lesotho’s own money and they also honor the South African Rand (ZAR). They keep the Loti and Rand on a 1:1 exchange rate so you can use either one even on the same purchase although it gets tough to keep the coins straight. The most confusing part is the exchange rate with the U.S. dollar. Currently the rate is 7.8:1 (one U.S. Dollar worth 7.8 Rand/Loti). This makes for lots of big bills in your wallet that really aren’t worth much. Today at the ATM I took the max machine limit of 800 Rand and was given 20 Rand notes. It was a huge stack of 40 of these 20 Rand bills. (That may not seem funny until you do the math – imaging going to the ATM and getting just over 100 dollars and you get 40 bills.) I felt like a high roller anyway with that huge wad of 20’s.

Around Town

• We have ventured around town a bit. Several key places are very easy to get to from our home like the main grocery store, ATMs, gas stations, other MAF family houses, and the local swimming pool at the Maseru Sun hotel (a very nice hotel with a great outdoor pool – feels like being on vacation in Florida).
• On Saturday we wandered downtown in the markets. People selling about anything from clothing to fruits and veggies. One stand appeared to be some kind of tribute to nature’s oddities as they had strange looking teeth, dried lizards, tiny animal pelts of some kind, etc. The basic necessities I guess. There are some nicer shops blended right in that have clothing at pretty much regular US prices ($40 for a pair of jeans). Fruits and veggies are cheap here, we bought a ton of stuff from a large produce market and off the street and spent about 15 dollars for what would have been well over 30 in the states.
• Everyone we have encountered so far around town has been very friendly. Especially when we have had Elyse with us – the Basotho people love kids and everyone will smile and wave at Elyse and talk to her. It seems to be a bonding point for us and helps us (me at least) feel more comfortable in large crowds of local Basotho people. (In case you were curious there are very few white people in Lesotho. We were the only white people we saw on Saturday morning and I would estimate close to 10,000 people in the market. A person who struggled with racial differences would be very uncomfortable here)

Poverty

• One thing we have noticed is that there is NO part of town that is free from poverty. In the markets there were poor beggars; people with a tiny stand of wares trying to sell enough to buy food. One young woman approached Laura and very politely asked if we had any work she could do as she had no money and really needed work. The same thing happened just tonight in front of the house – a young man rang our gate intercom and I went out to talk with him. He was clearly wearing his only set of clothing. He did not ask for money or food (although I am sure he needed food) but he asked me if I had any old clothing to spare so he could change his clothes in the morning to get a job as he has not been able to get work wearing his rags. He had a ratty old short, sweat pants, and appeared to be wearing house slippers with no socks. It rained all day today and clearly he was outside all day in the rain as he was soaked. I cannot start giving away my clothing so soon here but did give him a new cap and new pair of warm socks. It has gotten chilly here in the evenings and he likely has limited or no housing. He was very grateful. I talked with my friend Tim about these beggars coming to the gate and it sounds like a common occurrence and something we have to get used to. They give out small bags of food and we may have to prepare to do the same.

Work

• My final topic then off to bed. I know many are curious about my work here and today was actually my official first day. Hopefully you all know the reason we are here is to work with Mission Aviation Fellowship on a specific project to build a satellite communications network in the Lesotho mountains. This is to support the development and operation of remote mountain clinics by Partners in Health. About $200,000 worth of satellite and solar panel equipment was shipped to Maseru and was sitting in a container at the MAF hangar when we arrived. Today we opened that container and started to inventory and separate the equipment. We will continue this process throughout the week.

• This weekend the first set of equipment will be trucked to the first installation site at the village of Nohana. Not all of the sites have road access but for those that do the PIH team wants to bring in the hardware by truck. These sites will get a circular satellite dish about 2.4 meters in diameter. It is pretty large. I was a little surprised just how big the hardware was when we started opening boxes today. The clinics without road access get a special dish that comes in pieces small enough to fit into the Cessna aircraft for transport to the village. I will take pictures this week and post some to this site so you can see the size of the equipment.
• Hopefully starting next week I will begin flights into the mountains to do site surveys for the installation of the systems. Then the last week of February will go through the full training on these systems and start installing them in March. I will take plenty of photos once we start flying into the mountains so you can see just how beautiful this country is and the people here.

Alright that is plenty of information for one posting, thanks for reading if you made it this far and check back soon for updates and new photos. As always we appreciate your prayers and emails with words of encouragement and messages for the kids. We are doing well here and there are many blessings for our family already. We hope you too are blessed back home and have a great week and come visit the blog site again soon.

Traig

We're Here!!

This is my first posting since arriving in Africa. We have been here for just o ver three days and Elyse has not adjusted her sleep schedule yet. That is why I have set this blog up at 4:00a.m.! In moments of extreme sleep deprivation I fear she may never sleep longer than 4 consecutive hours again! In five hours our house keeper `Me (May) Augustine starts work here. She came with the house and we were asked to keep her on as she would be unemployed otherwise. It should be interesting having someone in the house all day with us. I have heard from others that she is very set in how things are to be done (in my house...) and that she will let me know what she thinks!

Anyway, a brief summary on the past few days...Monday we got to Jo-Berg (as we have learned to call Johannesburg) about 4:00 p.m. The flight went as well as 17 hours on a plane with four kids could. I considered it a success b/c several people commented when we were getting off the plane that they didn't even notice that there was a baby on board. We stayed the first night in a facility that houses missionaries. Tuesday morning we headed to Lesotho about a 6 hour drive. We stopped for pizza for lunch and it was really quite good. Driving we saw fields of sunflowers, cattle, horse, donkeys, it would have been very normal until we saw ostriches! Then the boarder crossing and we were to our new home in Maseru. Our house is very western style with three bedrooms and a bath and a half--the half is only a toilet though....The house also came with a cat. We are not cat people but I have learned the cat keeps out the rats (not mice, rats) so we have all become very accepting of Kayak's presence. We have a tall security gate that remains closed at all times. We press a button to allow people in so it is about as opposite as it could get from living on Iron Horse Loop were the kids roamed freely all day. It is a great house for our family though and we are grateful to have it. There is a large yard and a tree house and a playhouse so the kids stay busy. It is hot here 80's and 90's, so there is lots of playing outside.

Traig has really taken to driving on the wrong side of the road and to driving a stick with his left hand. This weekend is my turn to learn. Our neighborhood is friendly and the people across the street graduated from University of Montana in 1999 and she was born and raised in Kalispell MT--its a small world even in Africa! Well, this is probably enough for one night. Please feel free to contact us anytime. We have skype and a web cam so feel free to call as well. We covet your prayers as we begin this journey. Blessings to all, Laura and family