A couple of years ago I started to write a diary recounting some of my journeys in Africa – mainly so I didn't have to repeat my stories countless times when I got back to Ireland. Now I see the diary more as a reflective journal and a way for me to learn from my experiences – an essential requirement when working in Africa. For those who have read my earlier entries welcome back, and for those new to the diary forgive my self-indulgence.
Sunday February 14th
Johannesburg – Maseru
Jekyll & Hyde in Lesotho
I had last been in Lesotho in June 2009 to find the Hub in complete disarray. Frustratingly it has taken us this long to get rid of the old management and stabilise operations. I had planned to meet Trisha Olsson (Head Africa HQ) and Farid Ali (Africa HQ Technical Director) here to see whether the Hub had a future and how much commitment there was from our local partner to making this work. Without that commitment we would start a process of winding things up and concentrating on other countries.
Landed in Lesotho's capital Maseru, a short 40 minute flight from Johannesburg, and traveled to my B&B 'Boikhutsong' just outside the city centre. Lesotho is one of the most expensive countries in Africa due to its proximity to South Africa and the B&B, despite being one of the cheapest in town still cost Malotti 250 (€25) per night. Met Trisha and Farid before traveling to the National University of Lesotho which is situated around 40kms south of Maseru in a town called Roma. The campus is spread out over lush green acres, and with low rise buildings of bright limestone and warm sunshine it reminded me very much of Stanford's campus in Northern California. We wanted to see if this could be the site for our new Hub – but it being Sunday there was no one around to talk to so not this time Roma!
This was the first time I had been in Lesotho during the summer months (Ireland's winter) and the term 'Jekyll & Hyde' only begins to hint at the difference in character of the country between these seasons. February is Dr Jekyll, warm breezes, green landscape dotted with pretty-coloured flowers and people smiling. July is Mr Hyde, barren bleak landscape, people huddled in blankets and temperatures dropping to -10C at night. Despite my crude characterisation of Lesotho, the team of Camara volunteers who always visit in winter, come home captivated by the country – its stark beauty at this time of year.
Monday February 15th
Maseru – TY
Enterprising People - both Good and Bad
Myself and Trisha (who also chairs the local Board) were meeting with the Hub's Directors this morning to establish their commitment to making the Hub work. We know from hard won experience that there is very little impact we can make, or sustain, from Ireland without their support, and to use the colloquial term we are not interested in just 'p*&%ing in the wind'.
Both local Directors are from SchoolNet Lesotho (SNL), Nelson is the headmaster of a large secondary school and Malefetsane has just retired from being Head of the National Curriculum Development Unit in the Department of Education. I genuinely like both men and find them competent and hugely committed to the ideals of Camara. However to make anything work in Africa, you need 'blood, sweat and tears' - the blood and tears we have had but now we wanted to find out about the sweat. The meeting went well, skillfully led by Trisha and we left with a renewed sense of hope. Next stop was a visit to the Hub in TY, a place which I described in detail in my diary entry last year (excerpt below):
'Thursday July 2nd 2009
Maseru - TY
A Horrible Day
Some days are bad days. This one was very bad. ............ I went to visit the Lesotho Hub for the first time since August 2008 when I had last saw it as just a shell that our volunteers had helped paint. The good news – there were lots of computers there. The bad news – there were lots of computers there, about 800 Camara machines in total (with revenue potential to the Hub of some €40,000) waiting to get sent out to schools. There were other problems: lack of volunteers, poor technical capacity; lack of documentation; no training programs; and limited marketing or follow-up with the schools. The Hub was also quite messy with stuff scattered everywhere (also not a good sign) and no obvious systems in place. I was not happy.'
One of our volunteers subsequently reported finding a rat inside one of the computers - both the rat and the computer were dead!
The first thing I noticed was that there were far fewer computers lying around the Hub. Many had been sold but unfortunately much of the money received from the schools had not reached our bank account. We also heard about one enterprising volunteer who had set up a side business in selling cheap computers to students in the National Health Training Centre. He would take the computers outside the front of the workshop to clean with an air-blower and had arranged for a taxi to periodically drive buy and pick them up. Unfortunately for the Hub he had neglected to let them know he was doing this! A short chat with the local police stopped this little enterprise but no money or computers were recovered.
For every negative there is a positive, and when we arrived at the Hub there was a real buzz about place. Despite all the chaos and bad management, a local women called Mary had set up a teaching centre and was training over 50 local people in basic computer skills. They had each paid the Hub 120 Malotti (€12), and they would come during Hub opening times (8am to 7pm) to receive instruction and practice their skills. One women, who was getting paid a small fraction of what our last CEO had received, had done this and had demonstrated to me again that every time you despair in Africa you meet people who fill you with hope for the future.
Tuesday February 16th
Maseru
Ireland and Lesotho
Trisha left early this morning to fly to a Board meeting at our Zambian operations and Farid traveled back up to TY to start reorganising the Hub. This is where Farid excels, setting up operational procedures, training local staff and most importantly evangelising the Camara message among everyone he meets. He has done this in Kenya and Zambia, and his commitment to Camara and skill in communicating with the local people is a huge asset for our organisation.
I stayed in Maseru and went to the Irish Embassy were I met Thomas Geoghegan (http://www.linkedin.com/pub/
I don't fully understand why, but the connection between Ireland and Lesotho is very strong. Lesotho is Ireland's longest running Aid program (started in 1975) and Ireland is the country's largest bi-lateral donor. Also surprisingly, Ireland is the only European country to have an embassy in the country (along with China, The US, Libya and South Africa).
In the evening myself and Farid went out to dinner to the only Indian restaurant in Lesotho – The Regal (http://www.virtualtourist.
