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Saturday 27th January

Having settled in yesterday David, a fellow ILOer who has been here for a couple of weeks already, offered to take me down to the Pioneer Mall in Maseru to get some supplies. The Mall is very similar in many ways to any you would find in Europe although still exciting for a boy from Brecon. What was different were the brand names and some of the fashions. Customers were dressed quite fashionably with jeans and a shirt the most common outfit. No coats or jackets needed here though as it is quite warm.

I wandered around the shops for an hour to get my bearings and it seems as though Maseru has much the same range of goods as Wales which I guess is no surprise for a city with many foreign consulates and embassies. Apparently there has been significant investment from China recently and they apparently donated the funds for the prime minister’s impressive new residence and will be building a new hospital in Maseru. Although still a very African place there are growing influences from around the world. It will be interesting to see how much this is reflected in the rest of the country.

The only country where relationships seem to be more strained are apparently with South Africa. This is inconvenient as Lesotho is completely surrounded by South Africa. Apparently Lesotho is one of the places activists fleeing South Africa went during the anti-apartheid struggles and relationships are still a little strained resulting in long queues at border crossings and some issues with trade. Lesotho is however a key source of water for South Africa which has struggled with drought. The huge Katse dam in Lesotho, which I hope to visit during my stay, was a massive infrastructure project and vital to the economy.

On a smaller scale, the supermarket in the mall was well stocked. I always find supermarkets fascinating reflections of the world around them. Maize which is a staple element of the diet here for many was evident in many forms and I have bought a couple of different types to have a go at cooking some local dishes. One aisle had a generator for sale which I think may reflect the stability of the electricity supply although it seems to be working fine so far. Another difference was the number of products available for hand washing – ideal for a traveller. I’ll report back on my creations.

After winning the battle of international transfers at Johannesburg airport I finally got on to the connecting plane to Lesotho. Joining the plane there were the usual safety instructions but as we were about to take off the steward, Khanya, encouraged us to: “Sit back and enjoy the freedom of African skies.” Don’t remember any similar sentiment when flying out of Birmingham I thought.

The plane then climbed and we were treated with a bird’s eye view of the rolling plane’s below. As we approached our arrival time however the view out of the window changed and the landscape became peppered with unusual escarpments and rock formation giving way eventually to the peaks of the mountain kingdom- a truly impressive sight.

Landing went smoothly and in stark contrast to Johannesburg we found ourselves the only plane on the ground. Bags were loaded onto a trolley and pulled, by hand, into the baggage claim area. Immigration procedures completed I was met by the local programme manager, Manyanye, who drove me to my accommodation pointing out areas of interest whilst avoiding cars pulling out without warning and pedestrians selling a wide range of fruit.

The welcome at the Haven of Peace guesthouse was warm and I was shown to a room with a view of the South African hills in the distance (Maseru is situated on the North West border of Lesotho). There is another participant on the ILO/Doylend Cymru scheme who has given me some tips on settling in and I’m now off to get a local SIM so I can establish links with the outside world.

First impressions are of a beautiful, friendly country and people. I am looking forward to learning more over the next 8 weeks.

The main focus of my placement is going to be the evaluation of the implementation of mhGAP in Lesotho. mhGAP is a World Health Organisation initiative to improve the management of mental health, neurological and substance misuse disorders in areas where mental health services are not well developed. The focus in on training non-mental health specialists in the management of common mental health problems. Lesotho does have Community Psychiatric nurses in each district, a few psychologists and an occasional psychiatrist as I understand it so supporting other health professionals is going to be key. The population is well over a million.

Find out more about mhGAP at http://www.who.int/mental_health/mhgap/en/

I first heard about the International Learning Opportunity (ILO) while attending the Welsh Public Sector Summer School in 2015. It is a Welsh Government funded scheme which gives participants the chance to spend 8 weeks working in a completely different part of the World. Countries involved include Uganda, Namibia and Lesotho. This year I returned to summer school although this time as a facilitator rather than a participant and the ILO team were present once again. Whilst I had been tempted to apply in 2015, this time I decided it was time to actually bite the bullet.

The ILO scheme does not pay your salary while you are abroad so the first step was to approach my line manager and ask for 8 weeks leave. Fortunately, I have a very forward looking boss currently who saw the potential benefits for participation in the scheme, so with Margy’s agreement it was time to apply. The interview was fairly informal and once they had been convinced that I was fairly resilient, the focus was on finding the right placement. Initially, I had been planning to go to Uganda but I was then made aware of an opportunity in Lesotho, a country not unlike Wales in some ways but highly unlike Wales in others. After a few conversations with other people who had been before, the decision was made and I sit here surrounded by things I might need to pack and wondering what I have let myself in for.

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