Arrival at the Tsepong Clinic

October 22, 2008

We got up this morning and Peg Herbert of Help Lesotho drove us over to the Tsepong Clinic. We were met by Alicia Homer of OHAfrica and given a tour of the clinic. Very moving to walk the halls and peak into the examination rooms and see the supply closets full of ARVs.

From there, Alicia took us next door to the Tsepong annex and we sat in chairs in a circle with key players on the staff - the clinic admin, the pharmacist, nurses, doctors, counselors, translators and OHAfrica CEO Darryl Perry each gave us examples of their work days and the challenges that they face. It was totally interesting, but at the same time you could not help but wonder what tasks they could be performing instead of giving short talks to a visiting group. But it was an important meeting as we know understand so much more about everyday life at the clinic! When we arrived all of the day's patients were on an outside patio at the extreme far end of the building gathered for praise and worship. Darryl was sharing with them his story of HIV and giving a real insight into AIDS in terms of how it does not just affect the blacks of the world.

At the conclusion of the meeting, the staff presented us with a Basotho hat and a certificate of appreciation for all the critical work of raising funds that Masai For Africa does.

Then we were off to a meeting with Donna Bawden, program director for Help Lesotho. Donna briefed us for an hour on our planned activities and important cultural points about life in Lesotho.

We broke into 2 groups for a walking tour of Hlotse, each being conducted by a young woman from their youth leadership development program. Pelasa was our guide and showed us the town and answered our question, and we met up for lunch at a little fast food restaurant in a rondavel hut named "The Kingdom". As so often happens is Africa, there was no great hurry to serve us, no such thing as a coke, and half the menu listed dishes that were not available.
Had a free 1/2 hour, then we headed back to the HL offices, where we helped perform 101 tasks related to prep for the grandmothers event the next day. We did just about every task you could imagine - jeff and wes and gary may even gave slaughtered some chickens! I did some office work, including a bazillion photocopy on a small HP 3-in-1. Prepped 40 copies of a booklet, 16 pages double sided and collated manually, one page at a time. Took hours to accomplish something I could have done in less than 5 minutes on a standard office copier back home!

In the evening we had a lovely dinner at the convent catered by the nuns and good conversations with Peg Herbert as well.

Went to bed tired, but anxious for what the next day would bring.