One Billion Without Water + Two

Greetings from Pitseng high in the Maluti mountains of Lesotho. We arrived here at the beginning of November - our home for the next three months. Help Lesotho has built a wonderful youth centre here in this remote village - a fantastic testimony to the hard work of our dear friend Peg Herbeet and her colleagues at HL. It is already proving to be a valuable asset for Pitseng and environs, a 16,000 "village" (actually composed of several hamlets a few km apart) which, oddly enough, hosts 5 schools. We are the first occupants of the volunteer quarters at the centre since it opened in June.

The centre is a lovely new building though, at the moment, it lacks some of the creature comforts that we have grown accustomed to in Canada - notably electricity and dependable running water. Electricity should be on its way "any day now" but ... TIA ("this is Africa) and we really don't expect that the lights will in fact turn on before we leave at the ens of January The water supply is, at best, intermittent. Every morning we are awoken at 6 am to the sound of women (always women) rolling plastic jerry cans to the tap outside the centre compound - hopeful that there will be water today. Most days there is little or none - in fact we've been without running water for two weeks now. We're fortunate to have a backup in the form of two 2500 litre rain barrels. However, in a country deep in the throes of a 5 year drought, one wonders how long these will be of service. We're grateful that we've done a lot of camping in the past as we have definitely reverted to that mode and are rediscovering the charms of gas stoves, freezer packs (when we can freeze them!), candles and the wonders of our new LED micro-head lamps.

As we suffer our "depravations", we are reminded many times every day that even in our current state we have so much more than our neighbours. Despite their suffering and heart-wrenching poverty, you would never know that they are not the happiest people on earth - always quick with a laugh and the broadest of smiles when we fumble our way through our elementary Sesotho greetings. A billion people in the world lack access to dependable drinking water. Make that a billion and two.

We have returned to Hlotse (aka Leribe) for the weekend shacking up with the Sisters at the guest house at the Convent of the Holy Name. Here we have access to glorious hot water showers and a refrigerator. We are also 100 yards away from the Leribe Hotel which, in this remote country, manages to serve cold Pilsner Urquell for just over $1.00 a bottle (glorious too!). While I'm on to this theme, how is it exactly that one can buy a 750ml bottle of Famous Grouse for just over $10.00 a bottle. Not that I'm complaining, but I find it extraordinary given the trasnportation and distribution challenges on the short road from Scotland to Lesotho. Perhaps I've discovered my substitute for water while the shortage continues. Talking about bottles, we invite one and all to try and balance on your heads 12 bottles in a plastic bottle crate as we have seen here in the daily, Olympian display of women's transportation techniques (again, always women). Once you've done this, please feel free to move on to 15kg sacks of flour and baskets. Let us know how you make out.