Lesotho
Basotho Kids

  Video Download

28 Jan 2008

Hi!

 My name is Jordan. I’m a MK …. a missionary kid ….  living in the country of Lesotho.  This is my sister Bethany with our Collie Cissie.  And this is my other sister Michelle holding my hamster Nibbles. Oh yeh … I’m 13 years old and have lived in Lesotho almost my whole life! My parents are with the Baptist International Mission Board.  They teach and train pastors and church leaders in Lesotho.

 I am in 7th grade and I go to the American International School of Lesotho.  It is probably like your school

only a lot smaller.   There are about 80 kids in our whole school.  My class is called the 7 ups and has both 7th and 8th graders in it.  One of my classmates is Joel.  He is also an MK.  His father is a mechanic for Mission Aviation Fellowship.  Those are the pilots that fly missionaries into the mountains.  I got the chance to fly in one of those small planes.  It was fun seeing the mountain villages from the air. It can be a very bumpy ride and my father got airsick ….. but I didn’t get sick at all.

 Another MK friend of mine is August.  He lives in the mountains where he and his sister are homeschooled.  Their father helps the Basotho people in the mountains grow better crops.

 You know …. living in Lesotho is different than living in America for us MKs.  But the life for the Basotho kids is even more different.

 Basotho kids get to go to school for free for the first three years, but they need to pay for their uniforms and books.  We don’t wear school uniforms at my school though.  The Basotho schools are also very crowded with 40 or 50 kids in each class.  Sometimes they come to school with their shovels because they need to work in the school garden.

 A lot of the Basotho boys that live in the mountains don’t get much of a chance to go to school.  Their families need them to help take care of the cows or sheep.  Some of these herd boys are as young as 5 or 6 when they start doing this.

 I think that kids here have a lot more responsibility than we do.  They help with getting water, finding wood and carrying it back to their homes. The girls are responsible to watch over their younger brothers and sisters, … like this girl with her sister on her back.

 What sports do you play?  We don’t get to play American sports very much here in Lesotho.  At school we get to swim ……  and play basketball.  Most kids here like to play soccer.  If they have a ball they are lucky.  Otherwise, they just make a ball out of paper or something else.  Fields are usually just dirt so soccer balls don’t last very long!

 The Basotho kids really know how to make things out of what they find.  They can make trucks and cars out of wire.  They even make them with steering wheels so that they can steer them on the dirt roads.  My friend Dankie made one for me once.

 They also like to play games like marbles, just like we do …drawing a circle in the dirt and trying to knock the marbles out of the circle! And girls like playing a game that is like jacks but played with stones.  I tried this game once and it is really hard!

 What does an African guitar look like???  Well, you take a metal can … a stick ... and some wire … and put it all together.    It is really a combination of a guitar and a violin.

 Do you have your own room in America?  Here in Lesotho we live in the Baptist Mission house and  I have my room while my sisters share one room.  But many families here live together in a one-room hut or a one-room house.  The toilet is usually outside and they may need to heat the water if they want to take a hot bath.

 Some of the Basotho kids are losing their parents to AIDS.  If that happens then another relative … like a grandmother or uncle or aunt …. will take care of them.  But some are left alone and need to be cared for in an orphanage.

 God loves the Basotho children as He loves you and me.  Jesus said  “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”

 Will you pray that the Basotho children will believe in Jesus as their Lord and Savior?

 

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