Thaba Tseka or Bust - Plan B
Claudia, Sion, Vicki & Mandy (Executors of Plan B)
When we left Lesotho we each had hopes that we would return again and all of us have in some way or another. Mandy has formed part of the tapestry of the LTPP since returning from her time in Thaba Tseka in 2016. Vicki, who had achieved so much in her time there last year, still had more she wanted to do and has continued to be a member of the Dolen family, raising money in her school and giving up her time to be a part of the next phase of LTPP. Being able to return to the Kingdom in the Sky (even if it was only for two weeks) was such a gift and we had big plans of what we wanted to achieve during our time there.
In many ways it was like we hadn’t left: Sion had the kettle brewing and was telling is usual jokes and tales from his mountain walks, the people were just as warm and welcoming popping in for a chat as they’d heard we were coming and the scenery was just as breath taking- mountains as far as the eye can see. Arriving in Thaba Tseka late on a Sunday afternoon, as the car dropped steeply and rounded yet another tight turn on the road, the mountains appeared bathed in a golden light of welcoming warmth. We promised ourselves that we would find an hour at some point to walk those slopes and immerse ourselves in their magnificence once again. Until then however, there were more than a few things to get done. The purpose of our visit was to review the progress of specific goals, objectives and benchmarks of the LTPP 2019. As a charity, even in challenging times such as these, Dolen Cymru continues to maintain an ambitious outlook and to put at the focal point, the important elements of partnership and sustainability in terms of defining the characteristics of our practice in education. Enhancing educational practice, link by link is at our core. The past decade has been one of significant accomplishment for the Lesotho Teacher Placement programme. Strategic targeting of core aspects of education and an innovative approach to partnership working in Lesotho and Wales has enabled us to develop a truly distinctive and worthwhile educational programme that is impacting positively on thousands of educational professionals, teachers, trainee teachers and learners in Lesotho. Going there to review the progress of a programme with the potential to make such a difference to so many lives was a privilege – but not one however, without its challenges.
As usual in Lesotho there are always a few unexpected events. When we planned this visit back in Wales all those months ago with Sharon, we hadn’t anticipated that all teachers in Lesotho would be on strike for 3 weeks at a time, from March to December and that it would coincide with our time there. The teachers’ strike meant that schools would be closed. Sadly, with no children in school for us to spend time with and no lessons going on that we could get involved in, a significant element of our plan could not be executed. Whilst there were lots of discussions and talk about contingency plans just before we left, we couldn’t be quite certain what we would be doing until we arrived there. Plan A was out of the window and Plan B was about to take shape. However, Plan B was dependent on the people there and whether they would be willing to get on board with what we were hoping to do.
Despite fears that we would not be able to achieve our aims, our fears were unfounded. Although, we were not able to see teaching in action or to support in the classroom, we WERE able to work with groups of Literacy Lead teachers and District Resource Teachers much more closely. School Principals and Senior Education Officers agreed to meet us. We were able to gather information and get feedback of how they felt about the work that Dolen was doing and we were able to put into place the literacy and numeracy training that was planned. It was a joy to check in with the Lead Literacy teachers and hear how they felt phonics and early literacy development was progressing in their schools and to work with them to identify next steps. Without the generosity of these teachers, Principals and District Resource Teachers, who gave up their time willingly to work with us we wouldn’t have been able to achieve anything in our time there. The feedback was positive and it has enabled us to put in place ideas and plans for further work.
The Literacy Leaders workshop, held in our second week was one of the highlights of the visit as it demonstrated the growing strength of a whole team approach to improving literacy teaching and learning in schools across Lesotho. Literacy Lead teachers not only from Thaba Tseka, but also all the way from Quthing and Mazenod, participated. During the workshop the teachers from Quthing delivered a session on Sesotho Phonics which was, in a word, inspiring (and made us all wish we could speak Sesotho!).
We also went back the Thaba Tseka Lesotho College of Education to deliver a session to the third-year teaching students. Both Mandy and Vicki were dubious about getting the afternoon slot following on from Mr Maths (who makes learning maths fun and engaging….) How were we going to follow that?! We needn’t have worried. The group were enthusiastic and passionate about their role in supporting the next generation to achieve and keen to understand where phonics fit in the bigger picture of literacy learning.
While at the college Sion and Vicki were delighted to see many of the students that they had working with in the schools the previous year. This cohort of students have had LTPP input in all of their three years of training which gave Mandy a thought… Quick as a flash she whipped out her iPad, gathered some of the gang and began to ask them questions about the impact they have seen on their training and experience. Just like that a focus group was formed; we are really excited about the prospect of following their progress into the world of work and sincerely hope that they manage to get out there and share their love of teaching and learning.
On our middle weekend we decided we would take Sion down from the mountains (where he had been for several months) for a break to see the bright lights of Maseru. We were able to meet up with the members of Connecting Classrooms from Caerphilly, who had come over to visit their link schools and who we had left the week before in Maseru. Sharing a meal and hearing their amazing stories of what they had done during the course of the week and how welcome they had been made to feel was a joy. It was clear that they had enjoyed the time in their school and host communities and that they had definitely caught the Lesotho bug.
On the Saturday we went in the hunt of a craft fair and were a little confused when we arrived to find hundreds of Basotho women dressed in white all evidently waiting for something… could it be the craft fair? Was there a dress code we were not aware of?! After enquiring at the hotel reception however we found out that they women were there to take part in the annual Miss Lesotho competition... and the craft fair was set up out the back… Claudia our craft connoisseur enjoyed conversing with the creators and perusing the offerings while Sion managed to locate a gigantic chess set to entertain himself!
Tour guide and driver, Mandy had decided our destination for the day was to be Ha Komo caves, off we set with Mandy at the wheel and Sion’s music on the stereo. For a few hours we enjoyed the scenery and shared stories. After a while however, Mandy shared her fears that the fuel levels were getting low, thus began our search for petrol which turned into comedy sketch. Each person we asked for directions to a petrol station repeated the instructions to head to the taxi station. After several false starts (and the odd ancient pump) we found a police man who announced that we had arrived at the taxi stop and found the petrol station. Our shared looks of confusion about how to reach the shed like building that was down a steep drop from the road was met by a man who appeared with 2L coke bottles full of petrol and began to fill the tank.
After this we managed to find our way to the caves and met locals who still live in the ancient ancestral caves of Ha Komo. We were guided round by a young girl who shared stories of life in the area and her favourite subjects at school as well as showing us round the dark cave homes amidst the chickens, kittens and pigs.
Refreshed and with new tales for his blog Sion along with the rest of us returned to the mountains to continue our work.
The two weeks passed in a blur with many leads followed up, new WTPP and Connecting Classroom candidates selected and a fair few unexpected gems found along the way but it wasn’t all work and no play. We had promised ourselves that we would get out into the mountains for a walk at least once during out time in Thaba Tseka and so we did. Tour guide Sion led us with his own special brand of commentary along a path that was familiar to all (along the gorge walk minus thankfully the steep rock climb of the previous year!).
Along the way we each met familiar faces: children we had taught, Basotho teaching colleagues and even old friends and their families who happened to spot us on the road. These are the moments you can’t plan for that make your time in Lesotho so special, the people make the trip as was again proven by our many visitors and the veritable feast that was prepared for us by lecturers from the LCE on our last night. Lots of laughs and stories were shared by all!
With only a few days left before we departed, Vicki was keen to purchase the materials for the building of a new outdoor shelter. The children of Ninian Park Primary school had raised money to help Katlehong Primary to build and all-weather outdoor learning shelter to help them make use of their outdoor space for learning. The caretaker from Katlehong, along with Niall Thomas, husband of Vicky Thomas (LTPP 2017) were going to start the project the following week. Vicky and Niall would be in town for 2 weeks. Vicky was to continue the literacy training with our lead teachers and Niall was tasked with creating the outdoor shelter from scratch! Thanks to the donations from the Ninian Park school community and the hard work of Niall and Ntate Kerry (our friendly Basotho carpenter) the Katlehong school community have an awesome outdoor space to enhance their learning that they have named 'The Pavilion'.
We all felt that the visit and Plan B was a success and the key ingredients to this success were the contributions of the people who comprise the Dolen community. Year on year their support has been outstanding and year on year there is an ever-growing number of teachers in Lesotho with whom we have increasingly stronger working relationships. Collaboration with teachers in Thaba Tseka is in its 4thyear. The professional and personal relationships forged in this rural mountain town has served and continues to serve as a meaningful guide for our decision-making and actions, providing the foundation for change and shaping the future for all involved.
