Busy and Frustrating

Busy and frustrating, has been the month of January.

When Wendy and I were home a couple of years back I had some business to complete and on the chosen day I set aside a few hours to complete the tasks - stops at a couple of banks and some other places. I was pleasantly surprised when I had completed my tasks in under an hour, having received not only friendly, but helpful service. I was reminded that I was back in Canada, not in Lesotho. The last month here has been a reminder that I am back in Lesotho.

At the Mustard Seed we have a number of girls we are assisting to apply for the government school bursary for the first time. We had much of the preliminary work completed - the hard work we thought, getting birth certificates and death certificates. Our support worker showed up with some of our applications in November. The applications for double orphans, we had been advised, may be submitted at any time. She was assured the applications were in good order, one needed a school acceptance letter, otherwise all looked well, BUT could she come back in January. Back she went in January, and was told, “Oh, but we don’t accept those schools.” (To our knowledge there is no list of approved schools available.) So, thinking we were ahead of the curve, we found ourselves behind the curve, not an uncommon experience.

A friend trying to obtain a certificate at one government office related that when applying, the official pointed out that he was missing something and sent him away - away being an expensive bus ride back to his village. He returned with the missing document, and was advised, “Oh, but this other one is not completed correctly.” Back to the village again. Three back to the village trips later, he had everything in order. Why, our friend asked, would the official not go through all the documents the first time and point out all the errors, rather than sending him back and forth, back and forth. To make matters even more frustrating, is the sometimes interminable wait in long queues to obtain a service. Such is the common refrain here in Lesotho, and our Family Support Worker has not been immune to these frustrations applying for services on behalf of our girls.

So a busy time of getting girls into school with the attendant shopping for uniforms and school supplies has been made more stressful with the challenges of bureaucracy. Another challenge is that more and more schools and individuals are aware of the program (a good thing) but the dollars are limited (not such a good thing), and the limited availability of funds may mean one of our single orphans, the whereabouts of her father being unknown for about ten years, may not be approved. Not only a busy month, it has been our biggest spending month ever. Uniforms for a new student can run to over $100 Cdn and when the cost of school shoes is added it can be even more. I hope in a couple months time we will have photos of most of our girls and can share with you the variety of school uniform they wear.

A busy, and sometimes frustrating month, but it is rewarding to see young women having an opportunity for education that they may not otherwise have had. Also a time of gratitude to those you have supported the efforts of the Mustard Seed Society here in Lesotho, making it possible to do what we have been doing. Thanks.

~ Benno ~