Hello friends and family!

The past few days here have been spent working with organizations aimed at bettering the youth of Lesotho. Our large group split into two and we went to separate sites. The next day we flip‐flopped and went to the other site. It was nice to mix things up a little and get to know more people in the smaller group settings. Volunteer members of the Lesotho Work Camp also joined us. Most of these workers are around our age, attend the University, and donate their time to help Lesotho. Most of them speak English very well and are very easy to talk to. Usually they ask us about members from past trips and how they’re doing. It’s really cool to see what strong bonds have been formed with past groups and we know we are in the process of forming some as well.

The first day of splitting up we had an early wake up call for 7:30 AM breakfast. My group went to Lesotho Child Counseling Unit (LCCU). LCCU is an orphanage for kids who have been reported to the authorities as victims of abuse and placed in this home. Fun fact: It’s actually Prince Harry’s favorite charity and he does a lot of work there. However, he’s very recently suspended funding due to bookkeeping discrepancies. The children are all ages and just like all the other kids we’ve met, are great: bright, happy, and smiling. Our tasks for the day included cubbie building, curtain hanging, and sketching and painting on the walls. Resident artist, Elizabeth Roby, was our creative director and lead sketch artist. Most of us spent the day painting in the sketches. The paintings really brightened up the place, not to mention the curtains! As Danny Johnson put it, “It’s amazing what curtains will do for a room.” On breaks we played with the kids. They really loved playing with all the girls’ hair so we got a little beauty parlor treatment before lunch. We ate with all the kids and Camp Workers and ended lunch by singing some TI and Kanye together. After work we had our group meeting where we got to hear about the other group’s experiences. We all definitely took away some important lessons from the day. The group lightened the mood in the evening by cuddling up to comedies and Disney movies.

Today, we had another early breakfast. After eating and a quick language lesson we split up and switched sites. It was rainy again today, so like yesterday, we were mostly confined to indoor (unheated!) work. Today we were at Lesotho Save the Children. Save the Children is a work in progress farm. Eventually, the hope is to take in later adolescent orphans who will live there and also help cultivate the farm to produce some of their own food. Yesterday’s group plastered the inside of several small rondavels (round huts) and today we painted two coats on those walls, one before and one after lunch. During our break we went to see the pigs on the farm. They had tons of little piglets that would get out and run around every now and then. The group had a lot of fun with them. We’re off now to watch Cry Freedom as a group and get ready for our scavenger hunt tomorrow! Wittenberg competition can be pretty fierce!