Providing Lesotho's Children with Keys to the World

This is the story of our efforts to end the vicious cycle of poverty, disease, inadequate education, and early death
in a remote rural community in Lesotho, Africa, by providing quality education and life skills
to the young children there. Join us on our journey ...

Friday, December 14, 2012

Waiting

To Our L2L Volunteers and Anyone Wanting to Understand Lesotho:
 
Here’s a link to an article I hope you will find interesting.   It was written by Mark Behle, the Lesotho Evangelical Church (LEC) missionary who has been helping arrange LEC vehicles to take all our hardware, gear, and people to Kokobe Primary (an LEC school).
 
The article’s about Advent, but in it he talks about always having to wait to accomplish anything in Lesotho: http://globalministries.org/news/africa/the-thorn-of-advent-1.html
 
I’m not into the religious side of this, but I hope you will take the general message to heart.  Sometimes, coming from our fast paced world, when we go to Lesotho to help, we’re in a rush to get there and get things done.  But if you truly want to appreciate the people of Lesotho, allow yourself the time to stop “moving” and absorb the pace of THEIR life. It is very enlightening. 
 
Without an understanding of both the drawbacks and the wonders of this “waiting,” you will never truly understand the Basotho.
 
So, schedule yourself an “I'm going to do ABSOLUTELY nothing for a day” day.  Watch, listen, and absorb the here and now, and don't permit yourself to accomplish a single thing for a whole day.
 
Unfortunately, you can’t fully understand this aspect of Basotho life in one quick trip. It takes years to truly appreciate it. But I do hope you’ll give it a try, because ironically, if you slow down, the Basotho will take you more seriously, and in the end, you’ll accomplish much more for them.
 
- Janissa