There’s nothing like love Mama. Love is first class. ---M’e Augustina

All I could think about was how on earth 20 children fit to sleep on the floor of the rondavel I was standing in. A large pot of beans were cooking in the corner, supper for the evening. M’e Neo was glad for our visit, we went to play games and share a snack with the children-lift M’e Neo’s load for a little while. Over time, she has taken in children whose parents have passed away or have chosen to not care for them for whatever reason. Her home sits in front of the salvage yard on and long dusty road and the roar of large trucks hauling scrap metal gave us notice to temporarily halt our games so they could pass. Each night they move their table with three chairs out of the way so they can all lie on the floor to sleep. A small stack of blankets provide their warmth for the night-it is currently 49 degrees here. Several of the children are HIV positive, their only inheritance. There is one teenager with her 18 month old daughter both positive, with no one to care for them but M’e Neo.

This woman loves each child like they are her own. In fact her home is so welcoming, children play there before they go home to their families. I watched my children playing and laughing with these children just like they would at any play date. Playing has no cultural barriers-neither do peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Not one of those children would turn down the snack offered to them; they do not have the luxury of being picky.

Then there is M’e Neo. I often think when was M’e Neo last alone? When is her break from the ministry that she has so boldly taken on? Each night she lies down with 20 children and each morning she wakes up with 20 children. The burden she carries for those children. The prayers she says on their behalf. The shame I feel for knowing that I would not have the strength. And what does this woman have to offer these children? She clearly does not have the financial resources to provide. But what she gives them they need more than anything else. Love, a hug & kiss good night, and the very best she has to give. So in a place that could not be further from any life I previously knew, I find myself with something in common with this woman. I, too, pour out prayers for my children, offering what money can not; love, an hug & kiss good night, and the best I can give.

We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.
---Mother Teresa

My day with Dad by Noah

We were in the airplane first. And then we landed in Lebakeng and there was lots of people there and we gave them hats, stickers and some socks. And there were some other airplanes there dropping some bricks off. Me and dad built a pipe. Then we had a snack, I had fruit snacks and dad had a chocolate chip bar. Then we had lunch after our snack and then we went for a little walk. Ummm...we went and saw the river. There were women carrying rocks on their heads. Then we went back home. I sat in my Dad's lap because there was a sick person laying on the floor of the plane. I was tired so I slept. Then we went back to the hanger and then I drank the rest of my juice that mom got me, then mom came and picked me up and that's all.

No roads lead to Lebakeng....

This past Friday was my first visit to the remote medical clinic in Lebakeng. I was blessed to have Noah (5) along with me and was again joined by Jeremy Keeton from Partners In Health (PIH). This was a day trip to conduct a site survey and select a location for the VSAT dish. Noah seemed to enjoy the flights and made himself right at home on the clinic grounds -- playing and handing out stickers and clothing we had brought for the patients. I was very proud to watch him walk up to patients and give them socks and stocking caps we had brought. (These were clothing items donated as part of a project my sister Keeli is organizing back in the States.)

Lebakeng is an absolutely beautiful place. The airstrip and medical clinic sit on a plateau at an elevation just over 6000'. The plateau is at least 2/3 surrounded by a river canyon. Like many other mountain clinics, Lebakeng serves a large area of villages but there are no houses right near the clinic grounds.

Lebakeng is an interesting challenge when it comes to missions work and remote medical care as you cannot access this area by road. I do not mean the roads are rough, or poorly maintained, or long, or dangerous -- there literally are NO roads into Lebakeng. So unless you enjoy a long hike or horseback ride, your only means of reaching the people in this area are by MAF airplane.

In fact, everything including building supplies has to be flown in. Right now PIH is expanding the medical service offered at this clinic and is building several new structures including a pharmacy, staff housing, primary care clinic, TB clinic, AIDS clinic, generator/solar/battery building, and storage buildings. EVERYTHING needed for the construction project (well over 100 tons of material) is being flown in by MAF plane. MAF South Africa pilot Mark Laprini has been assisting our Lesotho team by flying shuttle flights of building materials in a larger Cessna 208B Grand Caravan. This larger aircraft can run 6 flights a day and must be loaded and unloaded by hand.

It was amazing to watch the construction activity at the site and think about the tremendous effort involved in bringing medical care to this remote place. The amount of brick and stone, concrete mix, steel bar, window frames, etc. that have to be flown in. The workers hand shaping stones for the buildings and operating with minimal power tools. Bags and cans of food. Cooking fuel. Heating fuel. Wood and coal. Medication and bandages and gauze and blankets and all the other things that are needed for people to live and work and strive to provide adequate health care in Lebakeng. What a huge task!

Spending the day in Lebakeng was another good reminder of why MAF is serving God here in Lesotho. In this remote place our planes are fundamental in delivering the materials and medical professionals needed to extend the lives of the Basotho mountain people. About an hour before our return flight to Maseru, we noticed some women carrying very heavy stones on their heads. At first we thought they were moving the stones from a central pile to one of the building sites. Upon further investigation we learned these women were carrying the stones well over a mile, uphill, from the river below the airstrip. Imagine if all the building materials for this growing clinic had to be carried in on the heads of local Basotho women!

I am thankful that MAF is here to help carry the load.

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As always our family thanks you for your prayers. We ask that you continue to pray for the Basotho people living in the Lesotho mountains. Please pray specifically for the growing clinic in Lebakeng, that construction would be swift and that the work being done in this place would bring much needed medical care and extended life to thousands of isolated people. Thank you and God Bless.

Traig

Thlanyaku (Klien-ya-ku) by Hannah

Today I went to Thlanyaku to help my dad put in the pole for the dish. We rode in the airplane and I was the co-pilot! We wore headsets so we could hear each other and talk to each other because the plane was so loud! We left early this morning and got home at supper time.

When I got to the village, I gave out stickers to the kids there. The kids didn't have very warm clothes and there was a girl in a tee shirt and it was cold. They loved the stickers! One girl kept pointed at her hand for more! None of the kids spoke any English so it was hard to communicate with them but they knew what stickers were.

We walked to the clinic where the pole was to be set up. The clinic was not very far from the village. Four men came and helped us dig the pole. They lived in the village and they came with shovels and big sticks to break up the rock. It didn't take them too long to dig the hole and it was really deep!

For lunch we had chicken, papa, and marojo. I tried it all but I didn't like it so I ate the lunch that my mom packed for me. My dad ate it all-he loves it! They serve the same food at all the clinics. Then we went back to dig up the hole more. We just got into the hole and picked out the rocks at the bottom.

We went to the clinic and gave them baby clothes. I gave one sleeper and a pair of shoes to a baby boy. Thursday is the day that babies come to the clinic so they are going to save the rest of the clothes to give out next week.

We walked back up to the runway to wait for the plane. There was a small stream there that we went and found rocks at. Then we heard the plane coming so we got ready to go. We had to hurry to get in the plane because there was a bad accident in another village and the plane we were on had to get them to the hospital in Maseru. So we got dropped off in Bobete and we thought we were going to have to spend the night there at the doctors housing! Then another plane came and picked us up just before the sun was going to set. If the sun had set, we couldn't have left because the runways are not lit so there is no way to see them. The plane that got us in Bobete had three other people in it, a nurse, a doctor and another man who needed to go back to Maseru.

When we landed, we had to help our pilot fill the plane back up with gas so it would be ready to fly on Saturday.

I had a good day in Thlanyaku!