Just wanted to share this thank you letter that came for the container that was delivered to HaMakhata earlier this year.

Dear SOLID

This is addressed to all those people who made the container possible and all those who contributed to the contents. It simply says Thank You! It would be better to address every thing in much more detail, to describe the pleasures, the joys, but I wouldn't expect anyone to undertake the job of transposing my difficult hand writing, and Heather and Eswen will be able to explain. I don't intend to prolong the issues of gifts- versus- cash either, as they seem to be well understood.

Where to start?

The Basotho have a riotous, noisy way of greeting the generosity of others that makes all the difficulties fade into significance. I live at the Phelisanong site, so I'm privileged to see much of the activity that's happened since the container came.

The clothing is sorted over a long period of time. The residents and local volunteers are provided for first, baby packs are made up to reserve for destitute mums. The support groups sort suitable garments to take to the villages. The school children come in groups so that even the poorest can always arrive each morning looking neat and tidy, and the grannies, often the most deprived, collect good clothing that's hard wearing.

The looms are a superb gift, and their value is clearly understood. We are keeping the big rug loom which can be kept in frequent use and will generate income. Several people will enjoy the back strap looms and learn to make saleable items for the craft market. However, weaving is competitive in Lesotho and no longer lucrative. It needs a lot of product support right back to shearing correctly, and the volunteer with all the know how (me) has far too much else to do. So we have already found people in South Africa interested in the other looms.

There is mounds of yarn of all kinds, specialist to general hand knitting, some of it already in production, the knitting machines generating, the hand knitters busy, all enjoying having a good place to work. (craft center). Some of the older boys pumped up tyres, enjoyed a lot of mechanicking,and have the bikes roaring around the football pitch.

The singer sewing machine, just bliss. We were without. It is my favourite, exactly right and with all its' bits and pieces.

The rototiller started first pull and did a patch of work this morning. The manual is in safe keeping. The telephone wire cabelling sits under the craft house table and awaits N'tate Kerike who knows some one who can come and show us how to make fighting sticks. We want to make beautiful ones decorated with wire weaving, beading, incised decoration and I've been hunting in Masaru library for information on historic examples that we can revive. The craft market is not just income generating; it's intended, when it finally opens, to celebrate Basotho culture.

The beads and hand stitching threads are enormously useful and pleasurable, my own area of expertise. There is a tradition of decorating blankets with pattern borders and rosy corners and we will revive that.

For everyday care, waterproofing for mattresses, comfortable bed pads and the great rolls of lining fabric that gets used for mopping up everything you can possibly think of. We have lots more residents, we are over crowded and many are maximum dependency.

Most of those buckets go out to volunteers in Ha Makhata, tokens of their services. The rest do service right here. Blankets, winter clothing, boots, all await the winter when it snows here. We might have electricity by then, but indoor heating is too much of a luxury.

There is masses of paper and writing and drawing materials, some of which is already being enjoyed by the school children. Previously for the younger classes, writing practice was not possible. I have reserved a lot of coloured pencils for the residents to use. Even for the most severely intellectually challenged, the value of visual self expression can not be over emphasized. Heather and Eswen will explain to you the difficult issues that arose over books. The children have unrestricted use of the books in the craft house at weekends and at other times when they can be helped. For me a library is high on the priority list, since I see it as the only workable answer to the accessibility of books. The learning is that libraries do not work in Lesotho. One is started only to remain locked in houses for fear that the precious books not be lost. I intend to rectify that view if I have to find the cash myself to build and furnish one.

Okanagan Gleaners: well now I understand and wish that I was young enough to set up something similar in the UK. Just brilliant. I will contact them separately.

Finally, you sent us Heather and Eswen. They are probably exhausted. Their learning curve on several fundamentals was challenging to say the least, because neither of them hesitated to get involved at the sharp end. This is unusual for short term volunteers. The sharp end is messy, difficult, both literally and emotionally. Eswen has established long-term relationships between Phelisanong and the new pre-schools in the villages; one of Mamello's many brilliant ideas that needed someone young and motivated to give it impetus. Heather had me worried with all her introduced weaving technologies and unfamiliar materials. I simply felt that it wouldn't work. I was wrong. The ladies loved it, not just the novelty, but the way it relates to their own expertise - listening to them talking as they worked it became clear that they were identifying neglected sources of materials out there in their own environment and spearing new ideas. They like the results too and I'm sure they will prove all this further.

There is lots more that I could say. Thank you SOLID and every one who helped.

Yours,

'M'e Mathabo Khethisa Tau