St James, the school and classrooms

With 1000 pupils the school covers quite a big area and has lots of classrooms. It has 3 playing areas 2 in the open and 1 covered shelter.

 

               

 

You can see from the pictures that the playing areas outside do not have much grass, if any at all. If fact they are very dusty and stony on dry days.

 

But when it rains the playing areas become very wet and muddy, with small streams forming almost everywhere. It makes it very difficult to cross without sinking into the sandy mud.

 

In the photographs showing the playing areas there are some posts for playing _ _ _ _ball and _ _ _ball. Do you know what sports these might be? How different to play on this surface to one of grass or tarmac.

This is a task for you. Have a look at the pictures of the classrooms. What is different to your classroom, what is the same, anything missing? Make a list perhaps something like this

Things that are the same	Things that are different	Anything missing

 

     11^th March 2011 an Important Day for the People of  

                                   Lesotho.      

Each year on the 11^th of March the people of Lesotho remember the death of the Founder of the Basotho Nation, King Moshoeshoe I. 

So who was Moshoeshoe?

Born in 1786, first son of Chief Mokhachane of the Bakoena clan. At that time many clans lived around what is now Lesotho and the Orange Free State which is now in South Africa.   

      In 1806 Moshoeshoe meets Mohlomi, a seer; a holy man who the people believe is able to see into the future. The advice given to Moshoeshoe  provides a guide for him for the rest of his life. 

             

So what was the advice given to Moshoeshoe?

To live in peace with the other clans living along the borders of his lands. He is also told that wisdom and power do not come from a magic potion, but depend on having a clear mind, goodness of heart and service to one’s fellow men.

What do you think about the advice given to Moshoeshoe?

Is it advice that we can follow today?

Over the years Moshoeshoe does seek peace with the other clans. They come to recognise him as a great leader and by 1825 a number of clan unite under his leadership. By 1829 Moshoeshoe’s people call themselves Basotho. Unfortunately  a number of the Basotho people lived in what is now the Orange Free State and were forced out and moved  nearer to  Moshoeshoe’s fortress Thaba Bosiu, land which is now  the Kingdom of Lesotho.

 

The Hilltop fortress of Thaba Bosiu

Moshoeshoe ruled his people for many more years until his death on 11^th March 1870. 

On the 11^th March each year the celebrations take place to remember Moshoeshoe I, the first King of Lesotho, under his hilltop fortress of Thaba Bosiu. The present King Lestsie III, attends the ceremony together with his Prime Minister and the other members of the Government. Other countries from around the world( UK, India, China, Ireland, EU) are represented by that country’s Ambassador.

Here are some of the pictures of the day’s events.     

 

      Arrival of the King, with Military Guard of Honour

 

The King Letsie III  next to the Prime Minister(has a hat and glasses).

 

King taking the salute

 

 King inspecting the troops

Female dance group in traditions costume.

     

          school dance group

traditional goat skin clothes

A school trip

A School Trip.

It rains a lot in the mountains of Lesotho(just like being back home in Wales). When it does rains, it falls in short heavy bursts, as if someone has emptied a large bucket. It is almost always accompanied by very loud claps of thunder and bright flashes of lightening.

As in Wales the water is collected in very large reservoirs. The water in the reservoirs has 2 uses, 1, for people to use and 2, to generate electricity. Lesotho does not use much of the water for its people to use for drinking, washing and cooking, so it sells what it does not need to South Africa. South Africa is a lot drier so it needs the water that Lesotho can provide. What Lesotho uses the water for is to generate electricity through its Hydro electric power station.

With the reservoirs and hydro electric powers station being up in the mountains we had a very long journey to get there. So long in fact that we had to stay away from home over night. But unlike places such as Ty Gwyn or Staylittle or even visits up to London where you all sleep in comfortable beds,  the children and teachers had to sleep on the floor in one of the village schools. So we all had to take blankets or sleeping bags.

The Muela hydro electric power station is over 700 metres  underground. You can see from the picture the entrance to the tunnel. It is wide enough to have 2 cars drive side by side and high enough to take a big coach. We had to walk.

 

At the bottom of the tunnels we were able to see the 3   turbines, the blades of which are turned by the water from the reservoir to generate the electricity. The 3 turbines and generators produce 24 mega watts of electricity each.  The reservoir which supplies the water to generate the electricity is not close by, but 45 kilometres away. The water gets to the hydoelectric power station  through a  4.5 metres wide tunnel  which has been cut deep under the mountains.

On day 2 we visited the reservoir which supplies the water to the hydro electric power station at Muela, It is called the Katse Dam.

Katse is 2000 metres above sea level(Snowdon the highest mountain in Wales is 1085 metres above sea level) so you have to climb very high into the mountains along some quite scary bends in the road.

 

 

 The dam is 185 metres high and 489 metres  across.  It is a double curvature concrete arch,
one of less than 30 in the world. It has a capacity of 1950 billion litres of water. That is a lot of bottled water.

St David's Day in Lesotho

St David’s Day in St James Primary, Maseru.

St David’s day was celebrated with the children during the morning parade( we call it assembly).

I told the children why St David’s day was so important to Welsh people and one of the stories about him. The story was the one about him preaching to a large crowd. Unfortunately not everyone could see or hear him. A cloth was placed on the ground and immediately St David stood on it a hill grew. This meant everyone there could now see and hear him speak.

From the pictures you will see that some of the teachers are using umbrellas.

 It was not raining at the time, but very sunny and hot despite it being 8.00 in the morning. They use the umbrellas to provide some shade. Can you remember what the weather was like on 1^st March, St David’s Day in Wales? If your teacher was using an umbrella I don’t think it was to provide shelter from the sun.

My name is Robert Liscombe,  I am a teacher who is currently part of the Lesotho Teacher Placement Programme run by Dolen Cymru as part of the Lesotho Wales Link.

This blog has been set up for children and schools to learn a little about what it is like to be to be a child living and going to school in Lesotho.  Adults are also welcome to view the blog.

My school is St James Primary which is located in the capital city Maseru, which can be found on the western part of the Kingdom of Lesotho near the South African border.

The school has 1000 children ranging in age from 6 in standard 1 to 13 in standard 7.

Question, how does this compare with your school?

St James Primary Maseru	My School
Standard 1          95	Year 1
Standard 2          98	Year 2
Standard 3        135	Year 3
Standard 4        154	Year 4
Standard 5        145	Year 5
Standard 6        193	Year 6
Standard 7        180
Total             1000	Total