This page is now too full, and I could not work out how to archive it so, for more updates on our life, please click on the “More Family Life” tab at the top of the screen.
Thanks
Robyn
16th April 2009
On Easter Sunday, someone or something dropped eggs around the garden that Palesa had to find.
They made a trail to a wee basket that had been left for her. It was full of chocolate eggs!
We spent Easter Sunday with friends.
Because it was a public holiday and this is Lesotho, every single thing was closed from Thursday to Tuesday. Me, being used to Tesco, did not expect this! We ate cheese, bread and polony for four days.
It was nice to go out for lunch on the Sunday, where we were fed pumpkin soup and muffins. Delicious!
Winter has begun here in Lesotho. The boys and girls at school must now wear winter uniform.
In the direct sun, it is still toasty hot, but in the shade it is really chilly and a jumper and warm socks are needed.
And it will only get worse! Roll on September!
If you are visiting in the next four months, don’t forget your thermals and four season sleeping bag!
9th April 2009
When you are Scottish, you never travel far without meeting someone you know!
Jenny and Alistair came from Dumisane in the Eastern Cape to Lesotho to run a Sunday School workshop with a few of the churches in Maseru.
Alistair preached brilliantly.
Jenny and I reminisced on what we missed about teaching….
Then we had a piece of cake.
4th April 2009
Tomorrow I am going to church here in Maseru to hear Alistair Wilson preach! Find this whole concept a bit surreal, but very excited!
Robyn
4th April 2009
Time for a new hair style? Will avoid this place like the plague!!
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2nd April 2009 Shopping In the Villages of Maseru and Beyond
The inside of the shop.
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We are having a lovely time with Scott and Jessie. We have had a very busy time, painting fences, working with the families of street boys and helping in these initial stages of the residential aspect, but I think the thing that both Scott and Jessie are most enjoying is cuddling babies!
Today we are going to have a look around Beautiful Gate, which will get them the opportunity to see how care can be provided for orphaned and vulnerable children, and the chance to maybe cuddle some dry and clean babies (www.beautifulgatelesotho.org/BGLesotho/about.html)
28th March 2009
Jessie and Scott arrive tomorrow!
Palesa is now on holiday from school. Today we are going to spend the night at Malealea in the mountains to celebrate a friend’s birthday. The electricity runs from a generator which is turned off at 10pm, so the party won’t be too much!
Robyn
23rd March 2009
Well, that’s all right then. As many of you know, I never walk anywhere!
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20th March 2009 CAFE AFRICA
If you are interested in finding out a little more about what I am doing here in Lesotho, please come to Cafe Africa in Hilton Church, Inverness on Sunday 22nd March at 6.15pm.
Rod, the chairperson of the Bana Trust, will be sharing a little about his recent trip to Lesotho, there will be some musical contributions from In Cahoots and Julie Keene, and a live link will hopefully be established from here to Inverness (technology allowing!).
It should be a good evening – I am only sorry I won’t be there in body for the cakes!
For more information, go to www.hiltonchurch.org.uk and click on the church blog.
Robyn
18th March 
2009
This one seems particularly apt?
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16th March
MORE SIGNS
Eh?
What about something like this for the Lighthouse?
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Yesterday was the Parade of Nations at Palesa’s school, where ethnic diversity is celebrated and shared.
Palesa proudly represented her home land…
Palesa was the only representative from Scotland in the parade.
Mummy was so proud of her!
And yes, that is the Queen in the background again! She and I obviously mix in the same circles!
Some Basutho girls dressed in traditional costume and some in seshoeshoe.
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This painting was done by a local South African artist we met during my last stay here.
Recently, plans are afoot to build two new large shopping centres here in Maseru to prevent people spending all their money across the border. The first of these is due to open in October of this year, so that will be great! The second one, which will probably open in the year diddly dot, is apparently going to have a large cinema complex!
Maseru has normal shops, although the quality of wha
t is for sale is pretty poor. Only people with money use the normal shops. The majority of people use the markets. Things in the market are of no better quality but are much cheaper. However, people also attempt to remove things from your pocket without asking and last time I went down to the markets I was followed around by a suspicious looking bloke who hovered around until I stared at him and pointed. Unless I am with someone local, or fancy some makoenya, I don’t think it is worth the hassle and would rather pay a little more (or go to Ladybrand if the border is not too busy!)
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Today was pancake day and Palesa ran for her house, Impalas.
The Queen of Lesotho also watched Palesa run. The two princesses attend the same school as Palesa.
Queen Masenate of Lesotho watches Palesa run.
Note the security guard in the background (one of four who were positioned in a square around the queen) and the lady holding the umbrella for the queen.
The Prime Minister’s grandson also attends the school.
Local schools here in Lesotho have huge classes, underqualified teachers and students of all ages in the same grade.
All is well with us. The days are going past so quickly I can’t believe we are nearly into March. This blog becomes harder to do the longer we are here, and things that at the beginning were exciting are now just normal and hardly seem worthy of writing!
I am beginning to get the African way of pacing life, and am not getting quite so frustrated when things take forever. I have also decided that I will never learn enough sesotho to do my job properly, and so am using local folk as translators on a piece work basis. This is working really well, and also gives me someone to work with. I am enjoying this.
Doda – where is your weekly email?
Robyn
Unlike her mother!
Robyn
Grumble, Grumble. After nearly three weeks without internet, I have finally managed to get a month’s free trial of a dongle which I am now using. It is sporadic to say the least – at times it works brilliantly and is very fast and ten minutes later it stops working altogether.
Anyway, the minister got away fine with his luggage, and is at present half way up a very big mountain (I assume, since I have not heard otherwise).
The visit of him and Rod was great, and it was lovely to see them.
Love
Robyn
FOUND!
LOST!
One minister’s luggage – last seen at Edinburgh airport.
Any information, please contact…
Robyn
LOST!
ONE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND MINISTER…
LAST SEEN WRAPPED UP IN HIS WOOLLIES, CARRYING A SUITCASE AND HEADING FOR LESOTHO.
ANY INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT …
Just returned from a wee trip away to a game reserve about two hours drive from here. Nthuseng saw giraffes and zebra for the first time, which was lovely to witness.
We are looking forward to the arrival of Duncan and Rod on Tuesday.
Have decided to forget the other blog, and instead to update work things on a page on this blog, hence the new title of the page “The Work of the Bana Trust”. I was finding it too difficult to keep two blogs updated!
Better go – Palesa needs a good night kiss!
More later
Robyn
27th January 2009
I can’t believe another week has passed! Auntie Beth has come and gone and I now prepare for the arrival of the visitors from Inverness next week.
Nothing much has happened this week. Here is today’s news.
Nthuseng is cooking food when I am not around, not telling me and hiding the pots unwashed in the cupboards. Three dirty pots were found in the cupboard today. Those of you who know the teacher me may well fear for poor Nthuseng when she arrives home this evening. She is in for a big lecture, I can tell you!
Palesa is… well, Palesa. She talks non-stop and she is learning to be a mosotho. She sometimes speaks English and she sometimes speaks “language”. She is learning to carry washing on her head.
What have I done!
Ingrid – where are you? I need you!
Robyn
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The new year has been very busy. Palesa is learning to ride her bike – the first step is to find the sense of balance! This is taking considerably longer than I would have thought! We go up to the school tennis court so that Palesa can get the feel of moving and steering without the threat of those hazards such as posts, walls and blades of grass!
Two little girls from across the lane come and play with Palesa from time to time.
The weather is hot and we look for any excuse to get wet!
Life with my work is very busy at the moment. There are several things going on that are keeping me on my toes!
The boys are all hoping to go to school this week, and Girl Guides are assisting them with this. The system here is incredibly complicated and time consuming, and you have to go round all the schools until you find one that will take you.
The Girl Guides has also decided that all the boys who have family should be living at home and not with them. They have taken them all home and dropped them off with a bag of maize meal and some soap, expecting the boys to stay. The problems that led to the boys finding themselves on the streets have not been addressed, and so the boys are back within 2 hours, either because the family won’t have them or they don’t want to stay. The boys are now back to sleeping out. Girl Guides is no longer an option for them – they won’t take them.
Through this, I am planning the exact response the Bana Trust should take and hope to have reformulated our plan by the end of the month. By then I will also know which boys were serious and are attending school and which are not.
The timing of the visit by Duncan and Rod is great!
Please pray.
Robyn
PS Got some parcels yesterday! Very exciting! See “Thanks to…” page for some piccies!
5th January 2009
The New Year, 2009, has already brought about a change to our lives in the form of Nthuseng, a fourteen year old girl who has come to live with us.
Nthuseng was living at MIS (Mavis’s orphanage) and I helped her in small ways when I was here last time. She is a lovely girl, whose parents died when she was I think eleven. Before this, she lived happily with them as part of a good and loving family. For this reason she has found living at the orphanage challenging in a different way to most of the other children living there, many of whom have been there since infancy.
Recently she has been getting into some bother at the orphanage and on Christmas day was suspended by Mavis for a month.
This punishment is one that totally compromises the safety of a girl of Nthuseng’s age, as it forces her out onto the streets or to stay in places that make her vulnerable to abuse and I have been out in the car looking for her. I found her yesterday.
I have agreed with Mavis that while I look after her in my home, Mavis remains Nthuseng’s legal guardian and Nthuseng will go back there some weekends, school holidays and when I am away.
We have made there arrangements on a trial basis until Easter.
Please pray for Nthuseng, that she fits into our family, adapts to family life, enjoys helping round the house, works hard at school and takes this chance she is being offered.
Please pray for me that I give the right amount of structure and love, that I adapt to having someone in the house and the loss of privacy, that I can afford to keep her and that I learn to look after a teenager (something all parents and carers of teenagers can advise with I am sure!)
Above all, please pray that she grows in her knowledge of and love for the Lord – Nthuseng’s ambition in life is to be a Gospel Singer!
If you look at the home page of this blog, you will see a picture of me standing with two girls. The older of the two is Nthuseng.
Robyn
All remains well with us, although we have no internet and an infestation of rats. They have not made it into the house yet, but are running wild outside. I am getting used to being lulled to sleep by the sound of them dancing on the veranda roof, and have embarked on a viscious baiting programme. So far I have gone through five large packets of bait, and they are still eating!
Santa visited this Christmas – we left signs all over the house so he would know there was a wee girl living here that had not been here last year. She got a “lovely” pair of shoes that make a noise, with which she is delighted!
Summer is here! Palesa broke up from school on the fifth of December, is now on holiday for four weeks.
We went to the beach last week for a short break with some friends.
Making a Christmas candle...
We saw how candles are made and we made one of our own.
We had a lovely break, and it was good to make some new friends when we were away – Sue, a volunteer from New Zealand and Amy, who is from England and on her gap year. 
Palesa enjoyed the beach and we went for a swim every day. Palesa can now put her head under the water without screaming!
Robyn
3rd December 2008
How nice to have Ruth and David to visit. Palesa is enjoying it too!
Oh, happy birthday Juliette!
Robyn
1st December 2008
In this hot weather, there is only one way to cool off.
We are lucky that we are allowed to use the school pool when the children have gone home.
Don’t forget to keep up to date with the work I am doing on the Bana Trust blog – www.thebanatrust.wordpress.com
Robyn
24th November 2008
20th November 2008
Palesa is doing well and settling in nicely. She enjoys playing with the children who live next door,
and had a great time walking in the mountains at the weekend.
17th November 2008
Well, here we are having been in Lesotho now for two weeks. All is well – my friend Ruth who came with me to help me settle in (and make sure that I stayed!) has just left on the plane for Johannesburg and I find a moment to write a bit on what has been going on.
Thanks to some good friends here, I arrived to find all the essentials in place and have spent the last week or so adding one or two luxuries like
I am meeting tomorrow with Pastor David (the leader of the church we go to here) to go over our plan of action and review timescales and such like so after that I will have a better idea of where I will start with the Care Centre.
I am spending time building simple relationships with the boys on the streets – taking them fruit and bread whenever I can and chatting to them in broken Sesotho – I really must learn more of the language!
I am also finding out about other people who may have some involvement in helping these boys so that we are not doubling up in the service we are providing. I plan to visit the Prince’s Trust offices this week, as well as the Girl Guides Centre to see what is going on there.
Palesa started school a week ago, and so far it has been fairly eventful. She came wandering home on Thursday at around 10.30am to see her mum – unfortunately I was not in! I am not even convinced that the teacher noticed she was gone until my friend took her back!
I am pushing to get going and get things started, but keep being reminded that This Is Africa, and to take things more slowly. I really need to get back into that way again I think! I certainly am not there yet!
I have been thinking a lot of two songs – “Count Your Blessings” and “Give me Patience”, and I trust that God knows what He is doing.
Robyn
Looking smart and ready for school...
Still here, so so far so good! Have been spending time finding where the boys hang out and who is already working with them. They get basic food from the Girl Guides during the weeks but at the weekend the Girl Guides are closed and so the boys go hungry. I spent some time on Saturday looking for them, but could not find them so I went out again on Sunday taking with me some bread, milk and fruit. Again, I could not find them anywhere so I drove my car to where I had heard they usually hang around and peeped my horn. When what looked like hundreds of boys (was probably five in reality) appeared from nowhere in the bushes and started running towards my car I nearly wet my knickers! I sent a few words shooting up, I can tell you! I was fine though and they were glad of the food!
The boys are living in a makeshift shelter made of polythene and wood beneath some trees. Some of them are there through choice, having run away from home, and some are there through circumstance, being orphaned or abandoned. They tell me that the best way to know the difference is to see who is still there in the freezing winter – those are the children who have nowhere else to go. These are the boys I hope to help.
Very hot here today though. Have had some rain so it is also lovely and green.
Robyn
Robyninlesotho's Weblog 
I love the blog. Look forward to keeping in touch with your lives through it.
Oh my word, Palesa looks gorgeous all dressed for school! I’m glad things are going well and that you’ve made contact with some of the boys already! Keep smiling! xx
That’s brave of you going looking for them…. in the height of summer I guess it doesn’t get too cold at night – or does it?
I know in the mountains up north from you, I was glad of blankets and my sleeping bag – so how cold can it get at night? and just how cold might it get in the winter?
We think Palesa looks fab in her school uniform! We miss her lovely smile in church and Eilidh misses giving her a swing! We pray with you.
Hi Palesa, Kathryn thinks you look beautiful in your school uniform. In fact she wants to print out a big copy of you to hang up in our kitchen! What are you holding in your hand? Is it a little elephant? Delighted to hear you are both well and enjoying life in Lesotho, although Kathryn misses seeing you Palesa in Kingdom Kids.
Hello Kathryn.
I am holding a little model of a man that I made from plasticine.
In my Sunday School class here there are lots of children of all ages. I am one of the smallest.
Can you email me a photo of you that I can put on my wall?
Thank you
Love
Palesa
Woo hoo!!! Just booked our flights for our Easter trip so we’ ll see you both on the Sunday 29th of March. We’ re missing you both lots and are sooooooooooooo excited about coming to visit . WOO HOO!!!!
Jessie and Scott
x x
We danced all night for you at the church ceilidh and raised funds for you. Wish we could have had a live link! Hope you have a good christmas. we will continue praying for you. ps Mrs Norrie has just become a grandma and passes on love to you both. xoxo
Great to see photos of you. We like Snail Mail and are sad not to be able to write an old-fashioned letter! Thinking of you both as Christmas approaches and glad to have recent news via Ruth and David. Lots of love from us all.
We’re just back from the Christmas day service at Hilton. You and Palesa are in our thoughts on this special day. Love from Duncan, Shona, Eilidh, Rory &Peter,
Nightmare! I absolutely detest rats! I hope the bait meets with some success soon.
This is good news Robyn! Every good wish for 2009.
Hurray to the demise of the rats!!
Boo to the smell!!
Hurray to the internet!!
Happy New Year to you both,
Good luck with school Palesa
love Janine and Brain xxxxx
Hi Robyn
Delighted rats have gone on vacation (don’t like to imagine bait..)… hope they don’t return… Every blessing for you and Palesa for 2009. I love Palesa’s shoes – Helen got a sparkly pair which she is delighted with too – girls will be girls… Lots of love to you both, Aileen, Geordo, Helen and Gavin xxx
I’m glad the rats are gone too!
Hope the nasty smell permeating through the neighbourhooddoesn’t mean you have to uncover floorboards, etc. Been there and done that.
Blessings to you both for 2009. Am saving up for my visit!
love, Ellie
Palesa – I love the shoes!!!!!!!! Sounds like you’ve had a bit of a festive season! All the best for 2009 xx
All change then, in the new year, for both of us!!
We have complete confidence that you will be a fantastic support system for your new charge.
Please don’t be influenced by my stories of teenage management!!!! The input reaps bountiful rewards which are priceless and life changing. The ups always outweigh the downs.
You will be surprised by the benefits from older girlie banter!! It will also be company for Palesa and allow you some Robyn time.
We hope, as you do, that she seizes this chance. It is now over to her, with your guidance.
You are all in our thoughts, Happy New Year.
J9, B, V & T xxx
Wow!! What a family! I hope that all the arrangements work out and that Nthuseng settles well with you. Talk about girls together!!!! I’m thinking and praying for you all the time and now Nthuseng will be part of those thoughts and prayers too xx
Hya. See Rob, I am on your blog!
Looking forward to visiting next week, I was just waiting until the rats had gone…
Can’t wait to meet Nthuseng again, we’re going to have fun!
Palesa, when I was a wee girl I loved “clip clop” shoes too, enjoy!
Stay safe you girls
Looking forward to sharing some of your hot weather. I spent the morning yesterday watching football in freezing temperatures
maggots hatch out from eggs laid by some fly or other. These maggots feed on flesh, usually dead thankfully. They get bigger and bigger and when mature go into a pupa state and after some time hatch out as adult flies. The adults then mate produce more eggs and the cycle goes on and on…….I am emailed my golfing partner, Archie Fraser who is a biology teacher for the information!
urgh! Too much information…
Hi Rob
Think of you guys lots. Wish we were there with you. Will see you in July though. Tombi says woof to Palesa. With love JRDMT
A big hi to you guys! Thinking of you and sending you lotsa love. Giraffes and zebras for you guys – we’re just back from the Cairngorms – what an amazing Creator!! In our prayers and sending love. God bless. Sxxxx
hi robyn and palesa! Contact made. will be in touch soon. !!
Avril
Palesa you look gorgeous! Hope mum managed to cook you some pancakes at home!
Wow, Palesa looks to have grown so much!!! Panicking now that Lesotho bound package will not fit!!! Keep up the good work and the royal mingling!
Love J9 & B xxx
The picture of you and Palesa at the top of the latest post is really striking. Is it a painting?
Gosh you do move in exalted circles! Expecting the next post to say that the Queen is popping round for tea!! How many nations were represented in the parade? Go Palesa – you make a fine ambassador for Scotland ! Very excited about October – will speak soon. Take care. Big loves, Suzie x
I’m afraid I can’t top that! I’ll refer it to the management team for their consideration.
It’s about time I stopped reading this blog and actually typed something on it! I am Robyn’s brother and Palesa’s Uncle Bruce. We are all very proud of her and Palesa. Robyn, I keep up with all your comings and goings by reading this so keep them coming. It was good to hear you last night, even if my mic was broken and I couldn’t take back. Bye for now.
Thinking of Jessie and Scott arriving in Maseru today. What an exciting time for them and you. I hope you have a wonderful time together.
I think you should definitely give the hairdressers a go Robyn – what could go wrong?!
Is the Alistair Wilson the same A. W. from Inverness?
Sounds like you had a great time with your visitors. Must be a big boost for you seeing friends!
Always remembering you both.
Jenny
I would have drawn the line at Polony!! It would have been the Maseru Sun for me!