All of the sudden, David yelled, “Baboons! Get back in the car and roll up the windows!” David could not get back in the car, my window was down and I could not raise it with the ignition off.
I looked over at the driver’s side of the car, and there was a baboon standing on its hind legs looking in the window.
My initial reaction was, “Well, we’re OK because the door is shut and that window is up.” With that, the baboon grabbed the door handle, opened the door, and jumped into the driver’s seat.
David yelled, “Get out of the car!” Of course, being the hero that I am, I was already out of the car, followed by Cathy and Charlie. The baboon jumped into the second seat and was staring directly at Steve, who was in the third seat and could not get out. There was utter panic on all of our faces — especially Steve’s.
The guide was able to coax the baboon out of the car. As he jumped out, he grabbed my backpack and was walking along as if going to work. He then proceeded to carry the backpack down the paths on the bluff.
The backpack had two zippers, which he opened, and inside was a fanny pack that had three more zippered pouches. In the fanny pack was my BlackBerry, my telephone and my camera — all of which he threw away as he was walking along. The last sight of him was with a Ziplock bag in his mouth.
I could not remember what had been in the bag, but later that week when I developed stomach problems, I realized the bag had contained my antibiotics. The baboon had eaten all the pills.
David, Charlie and Cathy, who was in sandals, bravely walked down through the brush looking for my items. I, of course, was saying, “Don’t worry about it guys. I can always buy new,” because I wasn’t about to go down where the snakes might be.
After searching for a half-hour or so, we found all of the missing items except for the back of my cell phone. I can honestly say I do not know too many people who have had a baboon in their car with them.
We then met Dr. Scott Rosenberg in Johannesburg and went to Lesotho. Scott, a professor at Wittenberg University, was in the Peace Corps in Lesotho, and has led numerous goodwill ventures there with Wittenberg students.
Lesotho is a beautiful country with wonderful mountains and valleys and is completely surrounded by South Africa. It has 1.7 to 1.8 million people and has the third highest HIV rate in the world. Due to this, the average lifespan is 37 to 38 years, and there are many orphans.
Many heads of household are 13 to 14 years old, raising their brothers and sisters in one-room, shed-like structures. Most of these structures do not have water. Instead, they use a community well. They also do not have electricity or plumbing. Many have metal roofs and are quite hot in the summer.
The major mode of transportation is walking, and people in Lesotho walk for miles to get to their destinations. Despite all of this, we found the people to be very happy.
While there we visited several orphanages, a farm project and a couple of community centers.
After our visitations and conferring with the two Rotary clubs in Lesotho, we decided to work with the Metsekoua Orphanage, which is run by a small Catholic order, Handmaids of Christ the Priest.
This facility has an orphanage in which 130 children are housed, 45 of whom have HIV. They all stay in bunk beds in a three-room facility that is very crowded; more than 20 of them have to sleep on the floor. The facility does not have indoor plumbing.
The children use dilapidated outhouses and get their bathing water in buckets from the community well. In addition, the orphanage’s facility has a school and a clinic — including treatment for HIV — and a large church.
The Springfield Rotary Club, in conjunction with a potential grant from Rotary International and working with the two Rotary clubs in Lesotho, plan to build a modest block facility that will house 50 orphans and include indoor plumbing and a kitchen.
The reason we selected this site is that the needs are great and we feel the organization will be able to sustain the project after we leave.
In addition, Springfield Rotary also plans to send containers of clothes and supplies to an orphanage that is in the mountains in a very remote area. One of the Rotarians in Lesotho has worked with this orphanage. They are very poor and some of the orphans have HIV and some have leprosy.
Should anyone care to obtain additional information on this project, please feel free to contact the Springfield Rotary Club at (937) 390-3306.
Andy Bell is a lifelong resident of Springfield, an owner of Consolidated Insurance Agency, an affiliate of Brower Insurance Agency LLC, and has been a community volunteer for many years.