African Adventure Installment SEVEN

At the close of a long road trip there is always the joy and surprise of one's return home. Things feel really wonderfully comfortable and familiar - your "own" bed seems better than anything you've slept on in days and the knowledge that you're back in YOUR place where all things are predictable is well, comforting. This road trip the 4 of us took into South Africa was no different in our anticipation...we were all looking forward to returning back to Paul and JoAnna's place in Maseru, except that after a scenic drive from St. Lucia to Lesotho (a stop in the "big" grocery store in Ladybrand along the way) we returned to find their place in a slightly different state than we'd left it.


1. Mosquito net *magically appeared*
2. Frozen goods gone
3. Power out and water off
4. Good wine drunk

Sigh...some of these things we knew about in advance. Paul and JoAnna's pups were being cared for by two young women they know who volunteer at a local orphanage. This may be equivalent to saying something like "they work at the convenience store" because, from what I've gathered there are many orphanages, and the reason there are many orphanages is that there are many people dying. Sigh.

I don't want to preach too much and yet I can't remain silent. HIV/AIDS is taking millions of lives - 22 million have gone to the grave (by one count I've read), and 42 million more are currently infected.

[Warning: I am about to get on my soap box. And will do so several times throughout this post.]

The good fortune we have here in America is something we should all be thankful for...but I fear that the lives we lead sometimes work as blinders, making it hard for us to see the problems in places as far away as Lesotho, making it easy to ignore the problems even if we do know about them.

International problems such as the HIV pandemic are exactly the sort of thing we can ignore as wealthy "westerners" ... Americans living in comfortable homes, driving gas-guzzling cars, buying more than our fill at Costco and Sam's club. I urge us all to take caution and consdier that overuse of such good things can lead to our blindness of the needs of others and complacency rather than action.

The "impermanent things" (to quote singer Peter Himmelman),like stuffing our ears with ipods, the latest gadgets, vegging-out in front of the TV, living the "ideal" urban or suburban life are not an insurance policy and more than likely they are not solutions to the problems we face. We are fortunate and therefore we have an even greater responsibility to those who need our help, even if we don't know, see, or ever meet those who truly need it.

Back to the story. JoAnna had gotten a call from the dog-sitters saying that they couldn't get into the house - something was wrong with the key. Turns out they had the wrong key but eventually got into the house by cutting a portion of the metal gate which secures the front door.

JoAnna later got a second call from the dog-sitters....seems the power had gone out and would then remain out for over 36+ hours. (This might explain why they drank the good bottle of wine....sometimes the circumstances of life drive us to pop the cork and savor a good glass of wine. ) For them, it was time to transfer the watching of dogs to the delightful neighbor George, who incidentally got very ill.

So, when the 4 of us returned to the home we found that the pups were safe (hooray!), the frozen goods (of which we were hoping to use to make some dinner) were gone, the power was gone, and lo and behold...the water was gone too.

At times like this, one needs justice. But rather than simply the everyday use of the word justice, one really needs Justice with a capital J. As in, the electrician named Justice.

Justice spent many hours at the apartment with us, declined our offer to buy him Kentucky Fried Chicken (yes they have KFC in Lesotho - what a strange and wonderful discovery!!) or to take a break. He was hard at work testing the security alarm which seemed to be the cause of the power outage. As for the water being gone, he couldn't do much there.



Justice worked until "justice was served", and then Paul and Ryan gave him a lift home.

In the midst of the mayhem, Ryan and I found time to hang up the mysteriously appearing mosquito net. We didn't know where it had come from, but we were sure it was left by a saint. We were in need of a mosquito net but Paul and JoAnna had just one. Which, as you can see, JoAnna helped us to hang....we couldn't have done it without her sitting on the bed. Of course.




As it turns out, the real saint was George who cared for the pups, stored the frozen food and gave his extra mosquito net to the dogsitters for their use at the orphanage. You see, these orphanage volunteers live in rather bleak conditions...among rats, bugs etc. I don't even know if their electricity fully works at all times - which might actually make life at the orphanage more bearable.
(Soapbox: Think about this the next time you smack the bugs off of you because you're camping....not living in the midst of insects and vermin)

At the end of the day, we slept well knowing that the next few and final days of our trip would hold relaxation at the Lesotho sun (where we snuck in to read by the pool and spy on UN workers having fancy lunches), a morning of volunteer work at an orphanage, and lunch with a local pastor.

Until we can tell you about these parts of our trip, please check out some of these links which provide more information about the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

(Soapbox: The HIV/AIDS crisis is not touching our nation the way it is touching many other nations...this is because we have the wealth to obtain multiple medications and the education system to create a literate society, and media and healthcare to inform people. I don't know how to change things, but I think the best way for me to start contributing is by being informed and getting on my soapbox, writing to those of you who will read, care, and act.)

http://www.until.org/statistics.shtml

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39918&SelectRegion=Southern_Africa