“Solomon described plant life…He also taught about animals and birds, reptiles and fish.”  (I Kings 4:33)  

It was a bit of a challenge to come up with a biblical reference to dinosaurs so let me know if you have something better than the one above.  In paleontology circles, Lesotho is quite well-known. Not long after the arrival of the French Protestant missionaries of the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society in 1833, they were finding fossils and fossil footprint trackways.  Lesotho has a rich fossil record and numerous expeditions have come here over the years.  

Rev. David Ellenberger (left), who founded the PEMS Masitise mission station in 1866, noticed fossil footprints in this area of southern Lesotho.  One of his grandsons, Paul Ellenberger, became a missionary pastor with PEMS in Lesotho from 1953-70, including a pastorate at Masitise.  During this time he made important discoveries in the fossil record of Lesotho. 

In the 1960’s new fossil discoveries allowed Lesotho to claim the world’s earliest mammal for around 20 years until being surpassed by a discovery in Texas.  However, Lesotho apparently can still claim a world record for the oldest amphibian fossil.  It was discovered in 1970 near Alwynskop, which is just a mile from the school.

To wrap up this paleontology report, a brief word on Lesotho’s very own dinosaur, Lesothosaurus.   According to scientists, Lesothosaurus lived in this part of Africa about 200 million years ago and was a small (3 - 3½ feet in length, 10-20 pounds) plant-eating dinosaur that walked on its hind legs.  In 1992 Lesothosaurus appeared on one of Lesotho’s stamps in a series on dinosaurs.

It is winter here and there isn’t a lot of color in the scenery.  But at least the days are now getting longer again.  The wet weather of this past summer (the wettest in my 15 years here) continued even into May and June, and now July, all of which are usually quite dry months.  Testifying to all the rain we have had this year is the fact that the little waterfall in the forest between the school and church is still running strong.  It always stops flowing in winter but not so far in 2011.  In case you are wondering, we’ve had some snow flurries this winter, but nothing of any lasting duration.  At the moment, only the mountaintops in the area have snow.   

During the winter break at school there is still quite a bit of teaching taking place.

Some of our teachers offer private classes for the Form C & E students.  These are the students who have to write national exams later this year.  I don’t participate in this, but I do offer free extra individual help to my math students who are living in the area and are able to come to school.  Two of my Form E boys, Moeketsi and Muso (right), are among those I am assisting. 

Both boys live alone in town about five miles away.  Moeketsi’s parents are both police officers but they were transferred to Maseru, the capital city, at the beginning of the year, so Moeketsi is looking after their home.  On the other hand, both of Muso’s parents are deceased.  Besides taking care of himself, he looks after a younger brother and niece.  His grandmothers and an uncle live close by.

Muso’s situation, unfortunately, is not unusual.  Earlier this year the government asked schools to gather statistics on our students.  The class I am in charge of had 60% of the students with either one or both parents deceased.  Out of curiosity, I asked another class teacher about his results and he also had a figure of 60% for single or double orphans.  Not all orphans are a result of HIV/AIDS, but quoted figures for these orphans alone generally are in the 150,000 – 200,000 range.  And this is in a country with a total population of only two million. 

Please remember the orphans of Lesotho in your prayers!  As said in an oft-quoted verse from the book of James, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this:  to look after orphans and widows in their distress…”   May God open our eyes to those in need of our help, spiritual or physical, and enable us to provide it.     

Yours in Christ,

Mark Behle is a missionary with the Lesotho Evangelical Church.  He is a Mathematics teacher at Masitise High School, Lesotho.