Well the final flight ended on a small runway in Maseru, Lesotho. The airport is smaller than the one where I live in Buckeye, AZ. If your first thought was where is that, I say, exactly. We step off the plane with the 12 or so people who flew in with us. We immediately go to customs, which is a single guy at the desk who stamps your passport and some papers. We look over to get our luggage, and of the 5 bags, we're missing 2. The good thing is it's mine and the boys. We still have the clothes and toys donated to the villages, and Mindy's clothes.
We meet the World Vision staffer in the airport as we wait to tell the airlines of the missing bags. His name is Julius, and he is an incredible guy. He start off 11 years ago as a representative for his village with World Vision, and has since come to the main city of Maseru to work with the national office. He is extremely gracious. As we drive from the airport which is a good 20 minutes from the main part of the city we see these huge ant mounds. I'm wondering what huge ants would come pouring out of there. He pulls over so we can investigate. Matthew stays in the vehicle probably afraid that anything that could build mounds these sizes would have no problem devouring a 6 year old. He's seen too many fire ants in Texas come pouring out of disturbed mounds to take that chance. Julius walks over and kicks the mound, and the thing is like cement. I guess they use mud to build it, and then it dries. Finally, even I step away as he finds a large rock and opens the mound up. Much to my disappointment only a few very small termite look alikes coming slowly trampling out. How they ever built anything that buig walking that slowly is beyond me.
As we continue to drive on some very nice roads we see very little traffic. Most people who work in Maseru the capital, walk to work from surrounding areas. There was alot of foot traffice. Of course animals and those looking after them were just ambling down the roads as well. When we finally get to the city I ask Julius if we can stop to get some bottled water, a SIM card, and local currency. We pull up to a large 2 story building that would be equivalent to a small strip mall in the US. It even has a small food court where we eat our first meal in Lesotho. At least here the food establishments were very westernized. My youngest son even got to have his life staple of chicken nuggets.
We proceed to the national office where we met a couple of staffers. They told me most people who visit the children they support come from Australia, and a few church groups from the US. At this point I wonder how they can say we might be the first whites to visit a couple of the villages we are going to until we find out that there are over 1300 villages helped through 13 ADP's (world vision outposts). Of course this doesn't even come close to providing help to the whole country. They will be creating 2 more ADP's this year. 7 of the ADP's are American supported. They include support for 29,000 children, and citizens in Australia, Singapore, and Taiwan support 11,000 more. In the already established ADP's there are over 40,000 more children waiting to be sponsored.
We then head to our "bed and breakfast". As we pull up, 8-10 foot cinder block walls surround it. When we get through the gate, we see a bunch of small building some attached, others apart that look like small huts. It reminds me more of a compound than a hotel. We check in and get to our rooms, which are quaint but relatively nice. The bathrooms are definitely old, and cracks showing throughout. Probably a 2 star in the states.
We are completely exhausted. The boys fell asleep any number of times from the airport to the stores to the national offices. But before we take naps, Ben decides he wants me to go with him and explore the compound. As we walk around something from the bushes startles him. Yes, walking in the middle of our "hotel" is a chicken...well that's what I thought until Ben points out that it's actually a rooster, and from here on out I will call him "Legion." For although there aren't many, as you'll see, there might as well have been.
We got in our rooms at 3:00 p.m. local time, and took a 4 hour nap. We woke up in time to go get something to eat for dinner in the "dining room". We were told it would be wise for white visitors especially with children not to be out and about after sun down. As we walk in I saw something strangly familiar. There on the television in the dining area was a tv, and it was playing....you guessed it WWE SMACKDOWN!!! The TV choices were much like Thanksgiving at my grandmother's in Star City Arkansas growing up. 5 channels none particularly appealing. So for all of dinner we got to watch scantily clad people throw each other around and poorly act. I wonder what people in Lesotho think about our culture!
After dinner we go to bed. I was sleeping great until I heard what Paul might call a thorn in my flesh, namely "Legion" at 3:30 in the moring begin to cry out every 30 seconds. Yes this was not a Lesotho rooster. Because any rooster worth his name would know you wait until sunup to annoy everyone. No this rooster was from 4 time zones away. I am currently writing this blog post at 5:00 am because I couldn't go back to sleep. I am praying that maybe rooster will be on the dinner menu tonight. Otherwise, I may be forced to have spiritual warfare with "Legion" consisting of me ringing it's neck!!!
By the way our last two pieces of luggage did arrive. Pray for us we are on to visit the villages today!
Daniel Scott
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