Passports

Someone recently informed me that the passport office in Lesotho is just now processing passport applications that were submitted in 2008.  People have been waiting three plus years to obtain their primary indentification document.  In Lesotho their passport is important to apply for anything from a water or electrical hook-up for one's a house, to a driver's licence, to a job.  One of our goals at the Mustard Seed is to obtain primary ID documents for out girls, including birth certificates and passports.  Waiting for threee years or more just was not encouraging though.  


There are a couple ways to force the issue of getting a passport.  One way I won't elaborate on.  The other way to expedite a passport application is to have a commitment in South Africa.  A letter from an employer in South Africa saying one has been offered a job there and your  passport application goes to the top of the list.  Not far behind, is travel to South Africa to attend school, or even to participate in a school field trip.  Many schools plan trips to South Africa in part, I suspect, to enable students to obtain their passports.


Each year at the Mustard Seed we recognize girls who performed well in the previous school year with a field trip.  This year we planned our trip to South Africa.  We approached the passport office with our plan, and again I felt we were given amazing grace.  We were treated like a school planning a school trip.  Yes, there was waiting in lines, there was seeking to connect with the right officials, multiple trips to the passport office with and without the girls who missed a couple of days of school in the process.  But the day before we were due to leave, and only about four weeks after we began the process, I picked up the passports for three of our girls (the fourth girl had previously obtained her passport via a school trip) .  It was a rewarding moment, to actually have obtained passports for some of our girls.  

Hydro plant visitors centre.

We were off.  I had the girls up early the next morning.  We had a long first day's drive to reach our tour of a South African hydro-electric plant.  I suggested they sleep on the way, but they were too excited.  They did not want to miss any of South Africa.  Over the next three days we took in the hydro plant, two South African National Parks, and the outflow of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project.  

Relaxing along side a mountain stream.

A trip with me always includes a hike.
Clambering up a ladder at Golden Gate National Park. 

Inside a sandstone cave/overhang.

On the two nights of the trip I thought we might lose a couple of the girls - down the drain.  We in the west often do not fully appreciate the joys of turning a tap and having hot water.  Hot showers for the girls lasted for 30 minutes or more, evening and morning!  One of the girls stated that the long hot showers, morning and evening, were the highlight of her trip.


For another girl, her highlight was visting the outflow of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, a water diversion project.  Water that flows out of Lesotho at its south west border, is diverted north to provide water for the Johannesburg area.  The South African government pays Lesotho for diverting water that naturally flows into South Africa to a part of their country that has a greater need.  The water is a source of considerable revenue for the Lesotho government.  I was surprized by the pride this girl felt in this Lesotho project and her delight to see where the water emerged into South Africa after running through kilometres of underground tunnels through Lesotho.  

Water from Lesotho flowing into South Africa

It was a delight for me to see the girls enjoy so many things that I take for granted - spending time splashing in the water of a clear mountain stream; hiking and exploring the incredible geography of another park; stopping alongside a road to watch baboons, zebras and other wildlife.


But the most profound impact for me was the response of one of our girls as she held her passport.  I have spoken of her before - a girl who lives at a mission and has no family members who seem to care about her.  She looked at her passport, something that gives her identity, and told the chaperone that she had never dared dream that one day she would have her own passport, that she would be deemed significant enough to receive such a document.  


I was again reminded that it is often the seemingly small things that can positively impact and enhance the esteem and sense of worth of our girls.  Passports.

~ Benno ~