Week 2 - Quthing and Qacha's Nek

Our first visit to Quthing

        So our second week started with a hectic schedule…....we met with the Chief Education Officer in the Ministry of Education before her Parliamentary meeting. We traveled 3 hours to Quthing (with an extra hour held up by the Traffic police) and met with the Education Office there to organise our proposed workshops. We were luckily greeted with positivity considering they new nothing about our project (thank you Ministry of Education). We were able to borrow a car from the lovely Ntabiseng so we could travel the length and breadth of Quthing town - Upper and Lower Moyeni checking in on potential schools for LTPP 2014 and their accommodation options.......or lack of options!!

We visited the local police to announce the arrival of the Welsh teachers next year and met with lots and lots of  very happy teachers, excited to host a Welsh teacher and link with a school in Wales. 

Returning home to Qacha's Nek

After our brief visit to Quthing our trusty driver got us another 3 hours along the road to the dead end that is Qacha's Nek.....our home since January 2013 and wow we had a welcome. Never before have I walked through a town and hugged and spoke to so many people!! We spent the rest of the week catching up with friends, colleagues and our sweet, smiling, singing children in each of our placement schools. My heart broke when I left them.....now it is repaired!! For more stories on School linking see our other blog www.dolencymru.blogspot.co.uk

Work in progress....the Swallows have landed!

And so our project begins with .......

.......a remarkably easy and spacious flight with Emirates to Dubai then Johannesburg. Then the wonderful Manyanye picked us up and we slipped in and out of consciousness for 5 hours until we got to Maseru. It only seems like 2 days ago we were her staying in the magnificent Sentebale House, we have to keep reminding ourselves we're in Africa!

So our first weekend in Lesotho came and went catching up with friends and the city so by Monday we were rested and ready to work, minus hot water....oh yes we are in Africa! So far we've been in the Lesotho Wales Link office sorting our 300 packs of photocopied resources.....thank you Emirates for charging a fortune for extra baggage! We've shopped for essentials and workshop stationary, thank you Pioneer Mall for being so Western! We've made lots of phonics resources for our workshops, thank you Red Earth Education for the inspiration. Last but not least we've touched base with our Basotho Government colleagues at the National Curriculum  Development Centre.....looking forward to our collaboration.

Using local recycled materials to make Phonics resources.

50 kilograms later our resource packs have come together!

A quick stop in Johannesburg and the Cambridge Press Rainbow Book series have come up trumps. 750 books of amazing variety, quality and appropriate stories for our little Basotho readers! Thank God this came together, as I organised £1,200 to be paid into an African bank account the word "scam" kept coming to me! Irrational anxiety over and out!

It's now the weekend and we've had a successful week, volunteer permits bagged in one visit, mdf bought for mini-blackboards, books organised and boxed, Phonics workshop planned and ready to go and our own personal appearance on Ultimate Radio with our dear friend Rizzie! One love to Rizzie Nation...check it out on the book of faces and www.gov.ls