Ke lisa likhomo

Over the past few weeks while I was in the valley I watched the cows (Ke lisa likhomo).  It was a lot of fun.  My host family thought it was too cold for me to do it each day so one day I could not watch them and then the next day I just sneaked out of the house while my nkhono was away.

So I was to watch the animals on Saturday, I was ready in the morning but it was cold and my nkhono said later later.  She was going to where the animals were and she was helping cook a large meal for the whole village where I had to go before I would go and watch the animals.  At first she said she would be back at 10 but it was much later when she actually got back.  To trick her I told my host sister to tell my nkhono that I was out watching the animals and I hid in my room and locked the door.  I could not hear what she was saying but I knew that she was upset that I was not at home and that I had left to watch the animals. 

Then after we ate something we got ready to go to the animals but before I could go and see the animals we had to go and visit some of my relatives.  It turned out to be a combination of a birthday party and a celebration that she was not too hurt.  There was a big meal and most people in the village came.  We ate goat, stamp, gravy, squash and some potatoes.

When we were done the celebration they told me it was too late to go and watch the animals because they were already coming home.  I knew that was my nkhono’s plan the whole time but I just had to accept it.  It was cold and there was snow on some of the far mountains.  Yup I have seen snow down.  It was hard to see because it was only present when the clouds covered the mountains and when the clouds would move so I could see the snow would also disappear.

Me and my nkhono, I am wearing a BaSotho blanket.  Though my nkhono would dress me in my blanket like a women until we made fun of her and told her "I am a man."

Here are some of the ntates at the celebration, the man on the left is wearing a blanket like I should have been.

My nkhono and the women who the celebration was about.

 After they told me I could not watch the animals I went to my relatives’ house and hung out with the little kids.  It was fun to hang out with them and the wanted me to take lots of pictures.  I gave my camera to Thato so that he could look at the pictures.  He said something and I looked down and he some how found the way to delete all of the pictures and he almost did, but I stopped him.

This is Thato my cousin, and Rorisang eating in the background.

Rorisang, Borete, Thato

Then the next day it was rainy and I went to church, there were 9 people there.  It was a nice short service and then I went home.  When I got home my host cousin Tsepo was watching the cows right outside of my nkhono’s house.  So I knew this was my chance to watch the animal.  I told my host brother that I was going and that he was too lazy to go and work with the animals he would not have any pictures take of him.  All of the other kids told him that he should go.  So I watched the animals from around 2 til 6.  It is quite boring and your mind wanders quite a bit.

For most of the time that we were watching the animals the boys were playing a game were you want to hit the other person with a stick without them hitting you.  They played so much that it was really just me watching the animals.  If you notice the pictures where they are fighting the cows near them start to eat in the corn field the they should be protecting.

Tsepo and Khotliso watching the cows

Boys fighting, the point is to hit the other while you do not get hit

They did this for quite a while

Until the cows started to eat the corn they were to protect

Then the next free Saturday I had we went to watch the animals again. This time it was for real and I watched them the whole day with out eating a lunch in the middle.  I was to watch the cows with Tsepo while Khotliso was to watch the goats and sheep by himself.  It was a good day.

It started off quite late because my host brother did not at all want to watch the animals.  He thought that I was just going to go and he could sleep in and play all day (being a herd boy is playing most of the day). So it took us a while to get up to the cows to watch them. 

Then we went out to watch the cows and we eventually caught up with some other herd boys  and they were quite funny.  It was three boys watching sheep and goats.  One of them is Seliba, who does/did not like me, was one of them.  I think he likes me more now that we hung out of the day.  He kept on asking me if I wanted to beat somebody when they did something to I did not like.  He also thought that I am over 40 years old.

I also realized why the dogs here are quite lazy around here, they do not really do anything but bark.  The boys use their younger brother to go and herd the animals when you could use a dog to do that.

It was fun to hang out with the kids.  I was standing up watching the animals and the little boy who was watching the animals with me came up and leaded against me.  Then he was leaning against my pockets and they were full of rocks so that it was not comfortable then he decided that he wanted to go through my pockets.  I made sure that there where no pieces of candy in my pockets before he checked through them. 

Tsepo, Seliba and little herd boy

Khutliso, little herd boy, Rorisang and Seliba, while they were playing all of the sheep and goats they were to be watching ran away.

The little herd boy that called me Sir Sechaba as he ran across the field.

 

Later after a few hours, when I was about ready to eat some of the chocolate that I brought along with for treat, my host brother came and said that we were going to make a fire and then east some corn.  It was fun to watch them make a fire because it was windy they had to cover the fire and themselves with their blankets to start it.  Then when we started to cook the corn the rocks around the edge of the fire fell in. 

Then they started to look at the pictures on my camera then they wanted to pose for some pictures.

Here are the boys that I ate corn with as they try to be all tough.  It is hard to view them as tough when they have pink on and still act like little kids.

This is the boys reacting to the rocks falling on their corn that is cooking as well as the fire.  The fire went out and we had to get more firewood and restart the fire.

They were fun but, at the same time, very long periods were nothing would happen. 

The different churches of Maphutseng Valley

Over the past week I have had the opportunity to go to three different churches within the valley.  Two of them were LEC (Lesotho Evangelical Church) Churches and one of them a AIC (African Independent church) church.

They were all quite different experiences.  The Good Friday service that I talked about on my last blog was at my home church Maphutseng LEC Church. it is one of the oldest church communities in the country, but the building is not that old. There were a few people there and we stuck to the liturgy closely.

Then Easter we went to Lehlolonolong LEC Church.  It was an hour and a half drive a way, but you can see it from my house, up the valley.  It was a very long day all together, I left home at 7:45 in the morning and got home after 7 pm in the evening.

I thought that the taxi was going to come to pick us up to go there at 9 am, but at 7:40 my nkhono told me that the taxi was leaving at 8 instead. So I quickly ate breakfast, packed a lunch and walked over to Kendelle’s house to feed the cat.  [that does not like me a bit, even if I try to feed it chicken it runs away].  I left so quickly that I forgot to bring my camera.

Then I walked quickly to the taxi stop, I was afraid that I missed the taxi because there was nobody waiting.  My host aunt and another nkhono were walking up there too, so I walked with them and the Taxi did end up coming at 9.  There was no need to rush at all.  The taxi was quite full but we always seemed to find room for more people when we passed them on way there.  It was not just my church and the church we were visiting but there were people from all of the LEC churches in the area.  Lots of people ended up coming.

When we did get to the church nothing really happened for the next few hours.  Church started around 12.  So while I was waiting I talked to the pastor about the lightening strike that had hit the church a few months before.  It caused three trees to burn down and a few more to be damaged quite badly.  This caused many people in the church to not want to come back to worship or kids to go to the school because they were afraid that the lightening would come back.  

Then I talked to my host family about a few things and just waited.  Had a few people give me weird looks when I told them my name and my host family said “you he is ours”. Then I eat a little bit because I thought that church was going to start.  But that was at 11 and we still had an hour.  Then we sang a bit and there was some conflict over who should be leading between some of the youth and the older ladies. 

Then when church actually started we did a few things from the liturgy for easter.  Then there was a wedding!!!  So the couple sat down in front of the pastor and he went through a long sermon for the wedding.  Don’t know what it was about.  Then their best man and bride’s maid came from the very back of the church and the church was full to the brim.  Wall to wall people, so it took a long time for them to get up to the front.  Then they kissed and there was lots of singing.

Then we went to confirming the elders of the church, so that took a while for all of the people to get up there.  Then for them to go through the process of confirming them.  Then they had to turn and face us while there was more talking.  Then all of the other elders from the area churches had to shake their hands. 

Then there were the children baptisms, there were about 20 of them.  The pastor did all of the liturgy for baptism at once as one large group.  Then the pastor went around and baptised each of them and said the same phrase over and over again.  Then some of the families came back for an additional blessing and they realized that one kid never was actually baptised.  So that kid was baptised at that time along with a blessing for the family. 

Then one of the people on the pastor who I think is in training did a sermon about Easter.  She was really into and it seemed nice but I did not know what it was about. Then everybody but the old and important people were kicked out for communion.  I did not care too much that my Nkhono wanted me to not be there for communion because I was really hungry and wanted to eat.

So while I was outside eating one of the leaders of the youth tried to say that he was going to come over and eat my food.  So I joked back in Sesotho the he must be lazy because he did not pack food for himself, and that I had time to cook my own food.  My aunt who was waiting beside me thought it was funny.  And all of his friends laughed at him as well.

I ate a whole lot of food that I brought from home, then I was given papa and moroho, which my aunt ate.  Then I was given more food to eat but my nkhono ate it.

Then when we were going home, some of the ladies from the taxi went to a relatives’ house to eat some food.  Then we were finally going we were almost out of the small village when all of the women in the taxi wanted to stop because they heard that there was lots of meat at a certain house.  So they all got off and came back 20 mins later with containers full of beef.  Each person had about 2 pounds of meat to bring home, the taxi then smelled like meat.

Then we finally got home and I tried to be nice to Kendelle’s cat but he hid again.  And I finally got home after the sun went down and had another meal before bed. It was a long but enjoyable day.

Then this week we went to the AIC church, across the river and down near the main road.  Going to this church was quite the experience as well.  We had to ford the river with our vehicle to get to the other side.  In the future there is a road being built that would make the trip much easier on gravel road.  When we got there we had to go up a steep hill.  The church was held in a small room that was near the mill for the village. 

The service was much different than the ones at the LEC church.  There was no liturgy; anybody was free to speak what was on their minds.  The church was still mostly women, but there were a few men. There was lots of dancing and singing with drum accompaniment.  When ever somebody wanted to say something they would raise their hand and all of the singing would stop and they could speak.  When they were done speaking everybody would start singing again.  It was a nice church service to be at.

I thought that it was really far away but I realized that one of my neighbours goes to that church.  It must have taken at least 2 hours to walk there.  We are planning on going back there some time and then I will take pictures of what it was like inside of the church.  I did not think it would be appropriate to take pictures during the church service.  But the Basotho we went with said that they know that foreigners like to take pictures and that is fine.

I have not had a Sunday service at Maphutseng LEC church since the last week of February, so this weekend I am looking forward to having a relaxing service here.

Easter in Lesotho

I have to apologize that I have not posted a blog post in a while.  The thunderstorms here have been causing some issues with power generation and the internet.  The mail office block at Growing Nations. the conservation farming organization, was hit twice by lighting in February.   I am currently sitting on a porch listening to the the Messiah while it is raining and there is a thunderstorm up the valley.

The church here does not practice Easter the same way I am used to.  We had the normal church services from the liturgy all the way up until Good Friday.  Well it could have been up to Palm Sunday as I did not go to the local church last Sunday.  It is interesting to see how we practice church and the seasons of the church that I am so used to are not universal. And realizing that I wonder how much of the church activities we do are cultural and in turn wondering what church should look like.

The service yesterday was quite nice.  It looked like rain so people were slow to arrive.  I walked to church with my Nkhono, usually I walk by myself but I was afraid that I would be the only one there.  The people who were the first to arrive were all from my village of Ha Seliba (pronounced Sediba), and were all from my Nkhono's extended family.  We were joking that it was the Matli's church now.  People started to show up and we started the service.

The service consisted of people reading passages from the Passion of the Christ.  It would be intermixed with songs or verses of songs that related directly to those passages.  We all sat close together and it had a nice community feeling.  It was actually the first time that I had sat with somebody from my family at church, I usually sit with Abby and Kendelle instead. 

This Sunday for Easter the church is going to travel up the valley for a church at a different church.  The other church is still apart of the same denomination, but it is a church that is going through some struggles.  Lightening hit the church back in February and a local witchdoctor said that the lightening had laid eggs there and will come back and strike often.  This caused people at both the school and the church to avoid the area when there was a storm. Us going there will hopefully change some of the local people's opinion of the location.

Doing a Sermon

The Conservation farming organization that I was volunteer/working with over the last few weeks leads the last sunday of each month at the local church.  In January I did the sermon.  This meant that not only did I have to stand up and do the sermon I also had to sit at the front table in front of the whole church for 2 hours.  They use a liturgy so I used some of the readings that were done that day for the basis of my sermon.  These are my rough notes, when ever I speak I do not read word for word (So ignore any spell/grammar errors).

Bible readings: the church always do one from the New and Old Testament.  The story for the old testament was used both at my sending church service, and at the SALT orientation in Akron. Good thing I remember things like that

2 Kings 6: 18-23
Matthew 5: 43-48
 
Sermon:
The new commandment that was read today (in the liturgy); was about how we should love one another.  Who are the people that we should love; how do we show this love for others.   Jesus loved everybody not just his followers, should we love everybody as well.  How do live our lives to show that we follow the Prince of Peace.  I do not know the answers to these questions.  I looked to the bible for guidance on these questions.
 
To me Matthew 5: 43-48 teaches me who Jesus tells us to love.  Jesus says to love your enemies as well as your friends.  If we are only to love those who love us we are not better than people who do not believe in Jesus.  This passage challenges us to love the whole world and no just love our friends.  We should not be rewarded for doing what is easy.  What is easy is to love those who love us back.
The passage also shows how God loves everybody, and we should follow God's perfect example.  God lets the sun rise on all people whether they are good or bad.  He lets the rain fall on those who do what is right and those who do wrong.  We should follow God's perfect example and show love and compassion to everybody.  We should not judge who should receive our love and who should not.

I also found the story of Elisha and the army that was sent to kill him 2 King 6:18-23.  This is an example of how somebody who follows God showed love to his enemies.  He asked God to make all of the blind.  He brought the blind army to the king of Israel.  The king asked should I kill these men.  Elisha told him not to, they should prepare a feast for these people.  The country that sent the army no longer raided the country of Israel after a meal was given to their army.
The king of Israel showed love and compassion by giving the enemies of his country a meal.  This army did not show love to the people of Israel.  But the king of Israel did not take revenge on these people.  He showed them hospitality, made them comfortable and welcome.  Then he sent them home.  He treated the army the way he would like to be treated.

It is not always easy to follow the way that Jesus has set out for us.  To follow the ways of the Prince of Peace. To love your enemies is not something that is easy to do.  But if we are able to love one another.  And to show the rest of the world how we can love those who do not love us back.  We will show the love of God through us. People will know that we are Christians because of our love. We as Christians can be the light of the world.



I thought that I would have each line translated, but it was only at the end that it was summarized. I asked my host siblings if they understood the English and they said yes.  So that was nice.  And my Nkhono was so proud of me standing up and speaking in front of the whole church.   Most of the bible studies I have lead and the sermon have been focusing on the Sermon on the Mount.  I know that this section of the bible can challenge everybody no matter what they are doing.  It also provides the base line of many of my beliefs.

I have started working at the school this year.  It is very similar to last year.  There are two more MCCers working at the school for the school year.  It will be nice to maybe start a peace club for the kids at the school.  It will also be nice to have some people to bounce ideas off of.  And maybe in the next few months I will be able to get a new system of organization in place with graded books and information all in one place.  I would like the library to be organized in a way that teacher would find it easy to look for books and information.

Christmas Time and Birthdays in Lesotho

I am testing out sending an email to my blog instead of actually writing the blog on the blog website. We are trying to reduce the amount of bandwidth that we are using.  I also will most likely not be posting pictures for a little while. Hopefully this will work.

Christmas: Christmas was a little bit crazy in the Rampopi household to say the least. So we were to get a chicken on Christmas Eve, but that never happened for what ever reason, so we were to go on Christmas morning. Then we woke up and it was raining, my Nkhono said "go made it rain, no church, no chicken, go back to bed". So I went back to bed thinking that we were not really going to have a very big Christmas.
Then the rain stopped an hour before church was to start so we all had to get out of bed because church was going to happen. I got to church 15 mins late and there was one lady and her grandson there. So I went to the Growing Nations, which is a 2 min walk from the church, to read for a while. Then church started around 11 am as usual, not at 10. Then we were lead to believe that the church service was going to be really long, but it was not bad at all. It was the usual length with
child baptisms, conformation and communion.
Then I went home and all of the neighbourhood kids were showing off their new clothes. Then they all went to play and I was home alone for around an hour. My Nkhono was visiting other people on Christmas. When she got home we butchered the chicken that was hanging out under a wheelbarrow in our living/dinning room. We plucked it in the kitchen, and it made the whole house smell quite bad.
For Christmas dinner we had chicken, rice and tomato sauce. It was simple but nice. I have to say that was the first Christmas I have had quite like that.

Boxing day: We went visiting the relatives on the other side of the village. One grandmother's house had blown off so we went to see that and all of her relatives that came and visited.There were quite a few and they were all surprised that I spoke a little Sesotho and lived with the Rampopis. I hung out with a teenager from Cape Town, who had very good English; he knows 4 languages and he is just going into high school. It was interesting to hear him talk about what he likes to do and what he does not like. There was a little boy there who only spoke Xhosa, and got really mad at everybody because he could not understand anything that was being said. Apparently he had been mad the whole time that he has been there, a few days because he could not understand anything. We did become kind of friends even though we could not understand each other.

The next day Abby, Kendelle and I took some time away from the village and went to Ramabanta, and stayed at the Lodge in town. We went to see the
Semonkong Falls. They were really nice. I had a bad cold and climbing back up from the base was a little bit hard. I had to take lots of breaks. (I had a cold, it was at high altitude and I have asthma). We had a really nice shepherd boy who was kind, relaxed and did not beg for anything. It was very surprising and nice to have a guide that was so polite.

Birthday: My birthday was just last week and since I was not feeling one hundred percent I did not want anything to big to happen.  Abby and Kendelle, the other MCCers here in Lesotho, made cookies for me. They were wonderful.  It was a complete surprise and absolutely wonderful.  When I woke up in the morning my Nkhono sang happy birthday to me before I even greeted here.  It was kind of a shock because I had forgotten that it was my birthday, and had just gotten up so was kind of in a daze.
Then when I got to the project I was sung to again and then they were making fun of my age.  Mostly because people around here do not really know my age and assume that I am much older than I actually am.  Like this week I was asked "do your kids know how to swim".
Then when I got home I just wanted to take a nap but did not want to have to excuse myself from any activities they had planned for me. When I walked through the door my host brother was asleep on a mat on the floor and my host sister was asleep in her room.  This was wonderful because it allowed me also to go and rest for a little bit. Dinner was not that special or large.  My host sister did not eat because she felt sick and was asleep; the rest of us did not really eat that much and gave our food to the neighbour boys who were visiting.
It was an extremely relaxed birthday but the type of birthday that I love.

My chicken: apparently either for Christmas or my Birthday I got a chicken.  It is all black and the other chickens do not like it so it has to be stored in the cooking hut rather than chicken coop.  It also sometimes tries to run home to our neighbour's rooster.  One time that it ran away I helped bring it back and the rooster from inside the chicken coop was trying to look really big.  I made myself look even bigger and scared the rooster. Everybody laughed at me.
So I know this is my chicken because it is called Sechaba.  I also know it is my chicken because I am to bring it back to North America with me.  My Nkhono told me one day that I should take the chicken with me when I go. She told me that when I am in the airplane I should butcher and pluck the chicken so when I get there I can start cooking right away.  But I can only do this after I have taken a few of the eggs or chicks that it has laid and cook them to eat.  She did the actions of the whole story so that she made sure that I understood.  Which made the whole thing even funnier. She has a funny sense of humour some times.

School:  I found out for sure that school is starting on the 28th of January.  I went to church on New Years Day and found out that school was going to be 2 weeks later than it was scheduled. Apparently the reason for school being moved back is that the new curriculum is finally ready.  The teachers are to be trained on the curriculum in just two weeks and then start teaching it right away.  I hope the training goes well and the the new curriculum is good.  It also works perfectly as there are two MCCers who are coming to work in the school and they will arrive the first week of school instead of the 3rd.

School

The school year is coming to an end, the kids are doing their final tests and then on Friday the school year is over.  The reception (Kindergarten) kids have already finished for the year and are out for the summer.  The oldest class (grade 7) has been out for about a month because they had a national standardized test in the middle of October and are waiting for the results.  The results should becoming back in December. 

I have to admit that I have not tried to take photos of the school while the kids are there because I am afraid that there will be kids everywhere asking me to come and take photos of them.  I am already surrounded by kids wanting my attention even when I do not have a camera in my hands.  I did bring my camera to the class 7 graduation, so I took a few pictures before we went into the church.  It was crazy and kids did some funny poses.

The first of three photos taken while the camera was around my neck, I did that so I could get some funny photos

Second Photo: You can notice that the kids on the left started to move towards the center.  One of the kids wears a yellow bag like a cape every day, it holds his books instead of a regular backpack.

Third Photo: I just noticed when I was looking at them now that there is a girl who is in the center of each one of these photos.  I do not know how she does it but she did.  Abby is in the background she is also being mobbed as well.

So my days are usually fairly open and I have quite a bit of flexibility in what I do.  Some times it feels like I am not doing anything.  Though I do not really know what else I could or can do because the school year is winding down.  My days always started by going to the reception (kindergarten) and reading a book to them and having them repeat back to me the words.  This usually is a little bit hard at the beginning of the week, but after they have heard it for 5 days they are really good at following along.  Then I go to class one and read the same story to them, they usually catch on faster.  When I am done I say good bye, and they all start screaming.  It started one day when they were yelling and I just left, so they got into the tradition of just yelling every time that I leave.  

After reading to those classes I read to class 3 and 4 three times a week, usually around 10 in the morning.  I also read to class 5 twice a week and class 6 once a week.  It has taken me a while to figure out what books I should read and how I should read them.  The first little while I was basing them on books that I had read in North America to North American Kids.  Their English comprehension is not as high as in North America, it makes sense because it is their second language. In the last few weeks I was reading the same book to basically the whole school.  But I was reading it differently for each class.  For the younger classes I would just read the main words, for the middle classes I would read the whole sentence but change the words into those they could understand.  For the older classes I would read the book as written and then ask them harder questions about the story. I would like to read to them more next year and maybe try to get the kids who do not understand to read more. It is hard with those who do not understand because they do not understand English and me I do not understand SeSotho.

I started in the last few weeks having fun with how I read to the classes.  I found out that kids like to whisper back the story to you and it gets kids engaged again.  I also have been reading pretending that we are underwater.  They love that and they still say the words, at first they just made noise while moving their finger in front of their lips. Though they are less into it when their teacher is in the room, because I think they are afraid that they are playing and will get into trouble.

This is the library, it is a regular classroom that has a single book shelf of books that I lend out to kids and teachers to read.

After I am done reading to the classes I am in the library during their lunch break.  They can come and ask for a ball to play with or they can read books.  The attendance to read books in the library comes and goes.  Some times it is completely full, other times there is no body there.  I have been getting National Geographic magazines those have gotten a few more kids interested in reading at lunch time. 

When school ends on Friday I will start working at Growing Nations.  I am going to be landscaping and writing a plan of where the landscaping will be going.  What the priorities could be and in what order things could happen. So I will be using some of my university planning education to use here in Lesotho.

Birding Here in Lesotho

As many of you know, or can see on the right hand side of the blog, I really like birding. And yes I have seen lots of new bird species, there have only been a few species that are the same both here and in North America.  Mostly birds that have been introduced to both areas, House Sparrows and Pigeons.  All of the other ones have been new, and that is pretty awesome.  Barn swallows are one of the few species that naturally live in both southern Africa and North America. There are some birds who live at sea that live both in North America and the coast of Africa but I do not think I have a good chance of seeing them.  Same goes with the oceanic birds that I saw while I was visiting New Zealand, odds are they will be too far away from shore to see them.

The birds of Summer are starting to arrive.  The first one that I knew was a summer bird was the greater striped swallow.  We were finishing up a short hike to a nearby plateau, it took us 15-20 mins to get there.  We were sitting by the side of the river and a whole variety of swallows were flying by.  Then I was able to see the light rump of the swallow and when it got closer I could see what species it was.  It was really hard to take picture of it so I am sorry I do not have any.

I have also been getting my host family and neighbours interested in birds.  I have been asking for the SeSotho names of birds.  I am starting to learn some of them but others are quite hard.  I have also been lending my binoculars to them, but they mostly use them to see what their friends are doing from a long distance away.  They do like looking through my "Bird Dictionary", which I have out quite often. 

One evening last week as I was standing watching the sunset across the valley there was a weaver that I could not identify.  So I went and got my binoculars, my neighbour and I were looking through them trying to figure out what species it was.  Then I noticed not that far above me were two white birds flying.  I looked through the binoculars and saw their spoon bills.  Yup there were African Spoonbills in the Maphuts'eng valley.  They were only in the valley for around 20 mins.  We could see them fly down the valley then back up it for a while, then they flew out the same way that they entered.  It was crazy to see them in the valley as there is not really any suitable habitat for them.  They could have been in the valley because of the massive storm we had, it was quite the storm that lasted the whole afternoon.  There were so many swift species being pushed around by the wind before it hit.

 So a few nights ago there was some excitement in the chicken coop.  We got new chicks, at first there were 4 and then the cat got one so there were only three. They are dieing so fast my neighbour is going to give us a chicken because he has around 7. My host brother was a little bit sad that his chicks are dieing.  These are the chicks of the rooster that we ate a few weeks back.  The other rooster has to be kept on a leash in order for it not to try and hurt the hen or the chicken. It kind of has free range over the whole neighbourhood, when ever the leash is not tied to any thing.
But what was really exciting for me and my nkhono was a bird got stuck in the chicken coop. It was a Southern Masked-Weaver.  It was exciting for me because I got to get quite close to a weaver bird. My nkhono because we tried to get it out of there for quite a while. It would fly right past the open door and into the chicken wire on the other side of the coop.  I believe that it followed the other birds in to eat the chicken feed, mostly old papa.  And the other birds were smaller and were able to fly out through the chicken wire.  But this bird was just a little bit too big.  It also was able to get behind the reed screen that keeps out the wind and the wire. It was flopping around back there for quite a while. The next day I found a Southern Grey Sparrow in the chicken coop but it could fly out.  One side of the chicken coop has larger holes that it could get out of. 

Southern Masked-Weaver trying to get through the chicken wire

Weaver stuck between the reeds and the chicken wire

Birding has also been helpful in keeping my mind clear and helping me relax.  I find that when I am walking outside looking at birds I can not be stressed out.  I find that you have to have you mind clear and focus on exactly what you are looking at, so your mind can not stay focused on negative thoughts.  I have found it quite helpful on the few days that I have been stressed out to be distracted by the birds flying by as I go from one place to another. 
Though once I was listening to a conservation farming talk and there was a bird in the distance so I looked through my binoculars at it.  Not knowing that the whole group was about to turn my direction and look at the fields behind me.  I am sure that most of the people in the group instantly knew that I was not too interested in the different farming techniques that they were talking about. I now try to do it more subtly.