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Lesotho 2024: Greeted By Children

After yesterday's start in the village, the children were eager to see us again. Before I could get to work with the rest of today's "builders," I found myself surrounded by kids asking my name, to be my friend, and playing with my hair. Taking a break from the greenhouse project,  part of our crew set to work on the playground equipment at the village in Ramabanta. There were several sections that needed repairs, including the main platform and a bridge that leads out to a slide, which had long since been removed. At first, many of us were tasked with removing nails from wooden boards that could be reused. We used hammers, rocks as hammers, and pliers. What we didn't realize at the time was that we would be reusing those nails, many of which were broken or bent in the process. This became a new struggle when building the bridge, which started off slow with re-straightened but softened nails. The first layer was almost completed by lunch, and construction rapidly sped up after a purchase of new nails over the break. The kids were never deterred, however, by the construction process. During our break, they had excitedly taken back over the equipment, climbing and sliding. The ones not playing had gone out of their way to escort us from the lodge back to their village, holding our hands and answering our questions. Even when the repairs resumed, they seemed to climb everywhere while we put things back together. At one point, there was a little boy who jumped over my back to get from the bridge to the main platform, which had its own workers nailing in new boards! The slide was especially a hit, with dozens of kids trying to climb up and down it at the same time. When our day came to a close, the children once again guided us back to the lodge. I walked with one little girl who I had previously befriended, and, hand-in-hand, we sang the alphabet song with each other in English, French, Sesotho, and German. Though the work has been incredibly fun and eye-opening so far, I am excited for a little break tomorrow for church and pony trekking to see ancient cave paintings.

- Allyson Gardner '26

Greetings from Lesotho! On our second official workday, we arrived in the village of Ramabanta and saw the children greeting us by the top of the hill. My role as a painter today meant that I assisted in the decoration of the exterior of the preschool. Yesterday, we painted the exterior of the preschool a light pistachio color. Today, we decorated each wall. The first wall was painted with a Lesotho Flag, the second with a mountainscape, the third with a flowerpot and flowers, and the fourth with a rainbow. My favorite side was the rainbow. The children from the village all lined up and waited patiently as we painted their hands with red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple colors in a rainbow formation. Us workers used white paint and added handprint clouds on the bottom of the wall. While my job during the day was to mix and create paint colors, it was a bigger adventure to clean our work supplies. Although there is no sanitation department, we strove to clean up after ourselves. That included a group of us, led by Bekah, pouring excess paint down the hole in the outhouse latrine. We cleaned the brushes with leaves, used wipes, discarded corn ears, and tile fragments under the cold running water spigot at the lodge. It has been great to connect with the children in Ramabanta. We love singing nursery songs, playing "duck, duck, goose", and clapping our hands together. They are all so welcoming, generous, and friendly. The children take care of each other and exemplify the meaning of a true community. Our stay at the lodge has been filled with natural beauty with the mountains surrounding us and the best stargazing I have ever seen. After dark, some of us braved the cold and found the Milky Way, Southern Cross, and the Eagle's nebulus. We even invented some constellations of our own. Our group seems to be getting along very well and everyone seems ready to jump in and help where needed. I am excited to see what the rest of the trip will be!

- Claire Patton '26

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