2 Illegal Border Crossings Later...

Hello friends and family!

If you are reading this you probably know I am back in the Kingdom of Lesotho in southern Africa. I was invited to return to Lesotho by Partners In Health (http://www.pih.org/) to assist with another VSAT dish installation and to upgrade the networks at the previous VSAT sites. I will again be based in the capital city of Maseru but will spend the majority of this trip at the remote clinic sites or in a Cessna airplane travelling between those sites. I will return on May 13.

The last 5 days have been hectic, and full of interesting stories and emotions as expected. Here is a summary of the high (and some low) points of my first couple days:

Saturday, April 25
First was the miserable trip to get here. It takes a solid day of flights to get from Rapid City to Johannesburg, South Africa. On the longest leg from Atlanta to Joburg I sat next to an Indian man returning from Las Vegas to his home in Johannesburg. I struck up a conversation and quickly learned he was an educated man, spoke almost perfect English (one of his 4 languages), and had been in Vegas for the NAB show. He was born in Kenya and moved south through Africa to follow his career with Apple (yes, as in iPod). He now owns 3 businesses in the Joburg area that specialize in video post-production equipment. At our stop in Dakar he pulled out his iPhone and made some calls, checked his email. (I pulled out my crummy Motorola and attempted to change the clock since now it is just a fairly expensive pocket watch - useless as a phone on this continent...)

So you get the idea -- this guy is an educated, successful, affluent business man. Although he isn't wearing shoes, which is pretty gross considering he uses the bathroom more than once on the flight. Along with, oh, about 300 other people on the plane. And there was turbulence, if you know what I'm saying.

Anyway, the foot/bathroom thing aside, it broke my heart to hear him talk about the condition of his country. The crime is out of control in Joburg. He lives in Randburg which I knew was a decent suburb but said they now expect to get robbed at least every 6 months. The robberies are becoming more violent and his neighbors have been shot or had wives raped during the crimes. He sleeps with a gun next to the bed and has had to shoot warnings into the yard to drive away criminals.

He said the government and police corruption is horrible and has allowed the crime to become organized. They will now rob entire neighborhoods in a weekend. And they have systems for marking the houses based on the tactic. Sidewalk chalkings or something simple like a Coke can by the curb means robbery. A 7-up can if you will be carjacked. He talked about how safe he felt in Vegas and Atlanta -- how you could get up early and jog in the morning without looking over your shoulder or wondering if someone saw you leave the house and was now inside robbing you or hurting your family.

His businesses have to pay something like 62% tax on every dollar earned. "What is the government doing with all my tax money??" He asks. "They have no public schools -- I pay $5000 a year for my daughter to go to school. We have no police. In America you call the police they are there in 3 minutes. My shop is robbed I will be lucky if they come in 4 hours...." He went on to say something like "I should be proud of my country - to say I am from South Africa the strongest country in Africa. How can I be proud of a country that treats its people like this?"

Over an 18-hour flight we obviously talked about many of the challenges facing South Africa (and Africa in general). And I kept thinking I wonder how he views Americans after being in Las Vegas -- the ultimate monument to excess. All the money we waste (myself included) when he has to struggle so hard to get ahead only to be robbed, carjacked, and shot at. At the end of the flight I was physically and mentally exhausted. (And thankful I wasn’t staying at his house that night.) It was nice to sit next to a friendly guy on such a long flight but I just felt sad for him and his family and the little hope he had in the future of South Africa.

Sunday, April 26
That sad feeling didn’t last long when it was replaced by a sort of sinking, panicked feeling as my card was rejected by the ATM machine. Thanks Great Western Bank. Airplane peanuts for supper. Nice.

Ok honestly I could not complain too much -- I was put up in a nice hotel which had a free airport shuttle and a great free breakfast. And contrary to the online reviews, the lobby did not get robbed by 4 armed gunmen.

Monday, April 27
By 7:00 AM I was again well fed and already heading back to the airport for my final flight to Maseru, Lesotho. I still had no cash. Thanks Great Western Bank. No tip for the airport porter. Nice.

Only 1 of my 3 trunks didn’t make it to Lesotho. 66% -- not bad considering it was a direct flight. (no worries, it has since arrived. It was full of donated children’s clothing and I paid a fortune in extra luggage fees to get it here so I was glad it made it!)

The 2 trunks that did make it had several hundred dollars worth of network gear in them and despite carrying a very nice letter from Partners In Health I was told I would have to pay a tax to bring them into the country. Let’s see… 14% and another 20% of the excess value over 3000 Rand. Hmmm… I did some figuring in my head and concluded that the tax I owed was going to be significantly more than the ZERO Rand I currently had in my possession. Thanks Great Western Bank. No cash to pay the import tax. Nice.

It was going to take some convincing to get past this customs issue so I retrieved Jeremy Keeton (IT Specialist with Partners In Health) from the airport lobby. We tried to explain this equipment was a gift to the Lesotho government and finally Jeremy pretended to call someone at the Ministry of Health and that did the trick, she let it slide.

30 minutes later Jeremy and I committed an international crime as we drove right back into South Africa without stopping to get my passport stamped. (We needed to get to Bloemfontein to purchase some 220 volt power supplies.) Why didn’t we stop? 1.) There was a long line at the border and you know how pesky long lines can be. 2.) I didn’t want to explain why I just entered the country and am leaving again less than an hour later. And 3.) in the 6 months we lived here before we were NEVER stopped at the border to check our passports. Kind of scary really -- we could have been driving weapons grade plutonium into that country and they could care less.

The trip to Bloem was quick and mildly successful and we were back in Lesotho by supper time. 48 hours, 5 flights, 11,000+ miles, 66% of my checked luggage, and 2 illegal border crossings later (1 each way) and I was finally unpacking in Maseru and ready to plan for the work ahead.

Well that only gets you up through the first 2 days and since it is now Wednesday night there is obviously more to write about. I have spent the last 2 days in the mountains installing a new VSAT dish and tomorrow will post more to the blog and include some photos of that project. Right now I need to get some sleep. Thanks for reading, I know this is long but haven’t had time to post it in pieces -- they will get shorter as I catch up!

God Bless and stay safe everyone,

Traig