17
17 AUGUST 2020
We celebrated Thabo’s 6th birthday on the 6th of August. Gemma and Bryce spent many hours organising and planning a Lego themed party with thanks to Lego websites and our coloured printer. They made him a Lego Pinata, a Pin the arms on a Lego Man, Lego Bingo, a Lego photo booth, and we attempted a rainbow Lego cake for him. Malealea village even offers a clothing printing service, so Gemma was able to design and have a special shirt made for Thabo on his special day. Once a month Michael meets his parents at the border for Gemma’s medical supplies, so we were able to get him his Lego birthday present which he found in the form of treasure at the end of a long treasure hunt in and around the lodge grounds. I believe Thabo had a very special Lego lockdown birthday that he will always remember.
Bryce and Thabo have received Lego as gifts for most of their Birthday’s and Christmas’s. Yes, it is expensive, but in our house it has been worth every cent. Luckily we were able to bring all their Lego with us before lockdown, and it has provided the boys, and sometimes even the rest of us, with hours and hours of entertainment. As I mentioned in a previous blog, our house is very old with numerous cracks in the floorboards, and the front room (the playroom) is lined with very old fashioned lino that allows for Lego pieces to fall into the cracks or over and under the edges of the lino. I can just imagine a day in the future when renovations may take place and the joy a little child may find in discovering little pieces of Lego all around the house. Saying this though, we stumbled across a website that Lego offers lego.brickinstructions.com, where one can find any instructions for Lego sets needed. We spent a few cold days last week, cozied nearby the fireplace building old Lego sets. I was absolutely amazed at how few pieces were actually missing. The Lego pieces have travelled from Malealea to Bloemfontein and back, and even on some holidays with us for the last 10 years.
It seems as though all of our efforts to keep Calli and the Bull Mastiffs (Charlie and Janthy) apart when she was on heat, were all in vain. Without a doubt Calli is pregnant. If our calculations are correct, we believe we will have some additions to our already large menagerie before September arrives. Discussions have started as to what we will do with the puppies, that is hoping all goes well. We have no idea how many there are, but will deal with that when they arrive.
With these 2 topics in mind I got thinking. Firstly as Thabo turned 6, about the herdboys in Lesotho. An all too familiar daily sight, one that I’ve taken for granted, of very young boys, probably the same age as Thabo herding sheep, goats and cattle. Secondly, about the dogs in rural Lesotho. Often one sees skinny dogs and dogs that are tied up. It is a very sensitive topic, and often a conversation brought up by guests at the end of a day exploring village life and the surrounds. It is easy for all of us who have the means to provide for our animals to judge those that don’t.
I decided to have a chat with Nkhabane (also known as David), Malealea’s pony trek manager about dogs in Lesotho. David’s father Simon Mokala, was one of Malealea Lodge’s very first horse guides. David was selected along side another Mosotho man, and funded by a German company to participate in showjumping in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. What was meant to be a 4 year plan, didn’t pan out as such, due to funding reasons, and David only got to spend 18 months training in Berlin and never got to participate in the Olympics, but nevertheless a great opportunity for him at the time. I felt that David was the right person to chat to as his experience with animals leads me to believe that he has a certain respect for them, and he would be able to give me a good idea as to the answers i was looking for.
We had a very interesting chat, starting off with herdboys and ending off with vegetable gardens, but let me share with you what I learnt that day.
Herdboys are as young as 5 or 6 when they start herding. These are usually children whose families rely completely on the subsistence way of life. They do not have money to send their children to school. Their income comes from the land and the animals. The responsibility of these young boys is minimal (in Basotho terms - I can’t imagine my children being responsible for a herd of animals), and therefore keep their animals grazing close to home. They sleep and eat at home each night.
As the boys grow older, they are then responsible enough to take the herds across the valley during the summer months. They take with them accompanied by a donkey carrying a bag of maize and 2 pots. One to cook with and one to fetch water. There are usually 2 herdsmen that go on this journey together, so that one is always with the animals at a time. If there is an emergency or they need more food the other man will trek back on a 3 to 4 hour journey to get what is needed. David mentioned that a father of a friend of his, grew up as a herder and would tell stories of how times have changed.
Back in the day, the owner of a herd/flock could only afford one herder at a time. Money was extremely scarce, and even the tiniest of material belongings such as a box of matches was highly valued. This meant that in order to save on precious matches, the herder would keep a fire going throughout his stay across the valley, continually keeping it alive with kindling. If there was an emergency or he was 3 or so days away from running out of food, he would make a massive bonfire at night. The owner would see it from this side of the valley and head off the next day with a bag of maize on a donkey and go and see to the problem himself.
The dangers that lurk for these herdsmen, mostly are in the form of Jackals and stock thieves which are on the increase. A herdsman therefore needs his dog mostly for protection but also for company. One, I’m sure can start to get a clearer picture here as to why the dogs in rural Lesotho are skinny. The herdsmen will do his best to share his meal with his dog, and usually that will be the leftover burnt crusts at the bottom of the maize pot.
These dogs are extremely loyal and loving to their owners, and I have witnessed that. They can, however be extremely aggressive towards strangers, and this is not only advantageous for a herdsman, but also for protection in family homes. Lesotho is known as a country without fences - this mainly refers to the farmlands, but besides a few homes and big stores, this rings true to the average household as well. The homes are generally small in rural Lesotho, just big enough to house members of a family. All dogs sleep outside with the other animals, maybe finding some comfort in or near the animal kraals. The aggressive ones however, are tied up, The Malealea valley is a wonderful, peaceful area, but unfortunately the mountain mail can spread faster than a WhatsApp message when it comes to money. Sadly, there have been a few incidents in our valley relating to theft leaving individuals harmed, perpetrated by individuals outside of the Malealea community. Devastatingly, David’s father was victim to one of these such incidences. This is the reason why people feel safer with an aggressive dog to protect them.
According to David, it is definitely not from a lack of empathy for a dog, but purely from a financial point that the dogs are skinny. During milling season, the miller will collect all the leftover scraps of maize and sorghum, and dog owners have the opportunity to buy this at a very cheap price which they add as a bit of sustenance to the pap they feed their dogs. The wealthier dog owners will occasionally slaughter a sick or old animal purely to feed their dogs.
This is and will always remain a very sensitive topic, and I only hope to clarify the why’s of dogs that are skinny and those that are tied up. Questions I’d been asking myself.
On a somewhat more cheerful note, we have a new addition to our family - a female donkey named Chelsea. She’s a lovely lady that joins the humans and dogs on evening walks. Michael’s favourite joke to tell everyone that passes by, is that coming home after a night at the Shebeen, a man offered him his dog which he brought home. When he woke up in the morning, he discovered this long eared, hoofed dog lying lying next to his bed. He gets a good chuckle from those we meet along the way.
17 AUGUST 2020
We celebrated Thabo’s 6th birthday on the 6th of August. Gemma and Bryce spent many hours organising and planning a Lego themed party with thanks to Lego websites and our coloured printer. They made him a Lego Pinata, a Pin the arms on a Lego Man, Lego Bingo, a Lego photo booth, and we attempted a rainbow Lego cake for him. Malealea village even offers a clothing printing service, so Gemma was able to design and have a special shirt made for Thabo on his special day. Once a month Michael meets his parents at the border for Gemma’s medical supplies, so we were able to get him his Lego birthday present which he found in the form of treasure at the end of a long treasure hunt in and around the lodge grounds. I believe Thabo had a very special Lego lockdown birthday that he will always remember.
Bryce and Thabo have received Lego as gifts for most of their Birthday’s and Christmas’s. Yes, it is expensive, but in our house it has been worth every cent. Luckily we were able to bring all their Lego with us before lockdown, and it has provided the boys, and sometimes even the rest of us, with hours and hours of entertainment. As I mentioned in a previous blog, our house is very old with numerous cracks in the floorboards, and the front room (the playroom) is lined with very old fashioned lino that allows for Lego pieces to fall into the cracks or over and under the edges of the lino. I can just imagine a day in the future when renovations may take place and the joy a little child may find in discovering little pieces of Lego all around the house. Saying this though, we stumbled across a website that Lego offers lego.brickinstructions.com, where one can find any instructions for Lego sets needed. We spent a few cold days last week, cozied nearby the fireplace building old Lego sets. I was absolutely amazed at how few pieces were actually missing. The Lego pieces have travelled from Malealea to Bloemfontein and back, and even on some holidays with us for the last 10 years.
It seems as though all of our efforts to keep Calli and the Bull Mastiffs (Charlie and Janthy) apart when she was on heat, were all in vain. Without a doubt Calli is pregnant. If our calculations are correct, we believe we will have some additions to our already large menagerie before September arrives. Discussions have started as to what we will do with the puppies, that is hoping all goes well. We have no idea how many there are, but will deal with that when they arrive.
With these 2 topics in mind I got thinking. Firstly as Thabo turned 6, about the herdboys in Lesotho. An all too familiar daily sight, one that I’ve taken for granted, of very young boys, probably the same age as Thabo herding sheep, goats and cattle. Secondly, about the dogs in rural Lesotho. Often one sees skinny dogs and dogs that are tied up. It is a very sensitive topic, and often a conversation brought up by guests at the end of a day exploring village life and the surrounds. It is easy for all of us who have the means to provide for our animals to judge those that don’t.
I decided to have a chat with Nkhabane (also known as David), Malealea’s pony trek manager about dogs in Lesotho. David’s father Simon Mokala, was one of Malealea Lodge’s very first horse guides. David was selected along side another Mosotho man, and funded by a German company to participate in showjumping in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. What was meant to be a 4 year plan, didn’t pan out as such, due to funding reasons, and David only got to spend 18 months training in Berlin and never got to participate in the Olympics, but nevertheless a great opportunity for him at the time. I felt that David was the right person to chat to as his experience with animals leads me to believe that he has a certain respect for them, and he would be able to give me a good idea as to the answers i was looking for.
We had a very interesting chat, starting off with herdboys and ending off with vegetable gardens, but let me share with you what I learnt that day.
Herdboys are as young as 5 or 6 when they start herding. These are usually children whose families rely completely on the subsistence way of life. They do not have money to send their children to school. Their income comes from the land and the animals. The responsibility of these young boys is minimal (in Basotho terms - I can’t imagine my children being responsible for a herd of animals), and therefore keep their animals grazing close to home. They sleep and eat at home each night.
As the boys grow older, they are then responsible enough to take the herds across the valley during the summer months. They take with them accompanied by a donkey carrying a bag of maize and 2 pots. One to cook with and one to fetch water. There are usually 2 herdsmen that go on this journey together, so that one is always with the animals at a time. If there is an emergency or they need more food the other man will trek back on a 3 to 4 hour journey to get what is needed. David mentioned that a father of a friend of his, grew up as a herder and would tell stories of how times have changed.
Back in the day, the owner of a herd/flock could only afford one herder at a time. Money was extremely scarce, and even the tiniest of material belongings such as a box of matches was highly valued. This meant that in order to save on precious matches, the herder would keep a fire going throughout his stay across the valley, continually keeping it alive with kindling. If there was an emergency or he was 3 or so days away from running out of food, he would make a massive bonfire at night. The owner would see it from this side of the valley and head off the next day with a bag of maize on a donkey and go and see to the problem himself.
The dangers that lurk for these herdsmen, mostly are in the form of Jackals and stock thieves which are on the increase. A herdsman therefore needs his dog mostly for protection but also for company. One, I’m sure can start to get a clearer picture here as to why the dogs in rural Lesotho are skinny. The herdsmen will do his best to share his meal with his dog, and usually that will be the leftover burnt crusts at the bottom of the maize pot.
These dogs are extremely loyal and loving to their owners, and I have witnessed that. They can, however be extremely aggressive towards strangers, and this is not only advantageous for a herdsman, but also for protection in family homes. Lesotho is known as a country without fences - this mainly refers to the farmlands, but besides a few homes and big stores, this rings true to the average household as well. The homes are generally small in rural Lesotho, just big enough to house members of a family. All dogs sleep outside with the other animals, maybe finding some comfort in or near the animal kraals. The aggressive ones however, are tied up, The Malealea valley is a wonderful, peaceful area, but unfortunately the mountain mail can spread faster than a WhatsApp message when it comes to money. Sadly, there have been a few incidents in our valley relating to theft leaving individuals harmed, perpetrated by individuals outside of the Malealea community. Devastatingly, David’s father was victim to one of these such incidences. This is the reason why people feel safer with an aggressive dog to protect them.
According to David, it is definitely not from a lack of empathy for a dog, but purely from a financial point that the dogs are skinny. During milling season, the miller will collect all the leftover scraps of maize and sorghum, and dog owners have the opportunity to buy this at a very cheap price which they add as a bit of sustenance to the pap they feed their dogs. The wealthier dog owners will occasionally slaughter a sick or old animal purely to feed their dogs.
This is and will always remain a very sensitive topic, and I only hope to clarify the why’s of dogs that are skinny and those that are tied up. Questions I’d been asking myself.
On a somewhat more cheerful note, we have a new addition to our family - a female donkey named Chelsea. She’s a lovely lady that joins the humans and dogs on evening walks. Michael’s favourite joke to tell everyone that passes by, is that coming home after a night at the Shebeen, a man offered him his dog which he brought home. When he woke up in the morning, he discovered this long eared, hoofed dog lying lying next to his bed. He gets a good chuckle from those we meet along the way.