Oh Lord!

To my big surprise when I got to the site today there was no one there.

I had a look around, the retaining wall foundations had been completed and another room had been compacted and was now also ready to have its new slab laid. So why was no one on site today?

I phoned Ntate Sello and he told me that he had given the men the day off because we did not have enough stone to continue the fills. Getting stone has been a bit of an issue. Ntate Linakane was meeting the chief of this area to see if he could negotiate with him something that should be free. Stone is normally free to be collected in Lesotho, but this chief wants us to pay for it… If Ntate Linakane doesn’t succeed I will try a final strike. Baba and I will go and speak to him and explain how important for the whole community this project is! If that still doesn’t work I’ll just remind the chief that the patron of the project is his own Prince Seeiso, and I am sure that will do the trick!

So as there was nothing new to see on site, except for the SLB sign that had been put up (don’t think it will last for long!), I decided to drive back. On my way I stopped at a couple of places where I had been planning to do so but had never actually done it!

One of these sites was the Papal Stand. It was from this incredible structure that Pope John Paul II addressed thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of Basotho (probably preaching about how the condom was an unnatural and sinful creation!! God forsake those how us it in a HIV/AIDS infest country). The structure itself is placed in an open field and as I was walking around taking pictures of it, something strange happened.

Before I tell this story I would like to stress how my reaction to the Roman-Catholic church has changed over the years. I was born and baptized a catholic (not my choice you see), and from early age I started to disagree with it. Not that I don’t recognize that in some cases they offer a lot of support to THEIR people. My disappointment was not even in the teachings of Christ. My quarry with them is the way that somewhere down the line they seem to have lost contact with its people and its original faith, transforming itself into a bureaucratical machine of the word of God. Christ preached love and freedom, this church preaches rules and what’s wrong. But I digress… I’m only making this point so that people understand that in some ways I have had my disagreements with the Catholic church, and when opportunity is given to me demonstrate their wrong doings (even if small ones) I take it!

So as I was walking around admiring this structure, for nothing else than it’s magnificent presence and it’s architecture, I was called by an official of the Catholic Church, who standing by a pick up truck close by.

I approached and greeted him, thinking that maybe he would like to see the photos of one of his sacred shrines. And out of nowhere I said that I as being extremely rude, impolite and disrespectful!

He said that I had not asked people for their permission to take photos. I apologized and tried to explain that I was not taking photos of people but of the structure. To which he replied that when they were there I had not the right to take photographs without permission. I apologized once more saying that I was not aware.

He still told me that I could not do it. That I could do whatever I wanted but not when he was there… Good old Christian love! I felt as though my presence was not a wanted one so I moved away…

God bless the Catholic Church for its kindness and hospitality… Amen!