Mokhotlong Revisited

I have secretly fallen for this rather desolate homely piece of the world! Spare me as I repeat the description of this district.

Set against the majestic Drakenburg Mountain Range with the highest peak over 11,000 feet (Thabana Ntlenyana). I drive over the smaller ranges of 10,000 ft to get to the town of Mokhotlong. It really was thought of as the most remote location in Africa, but now a road has been constructed all the way to the center. However, that is it. Even the road here has the occasional large pothole that will take out the bottom of your car, and is impassable in the winter with snow that can leave people without access for weeks.

But as I sit in the Senqu hotel and look out my door, there are layers of mountains that paint the background as the sunset creates various shade of blue. The children are laughing below as you can hear them running after each other trying to kick the ball between the two makeshift goals on the dirt. I watch everyone walking home from work, school, or just walking talking to each other on the goat paths with no fences that separate people's lives here. We lose that at home. The poverty here makes it impossible to find work and people just work hard to survive. The farms are packed against each other as people have to farm their own food in order to eat. There is not much here, and people often feel as though everyone including the government fail to remember that they are here.

The potential of Mokhotlong is here and there is already an amazing group of people already in place, if only people would stay. This area is so remote that they are unable to keep anyone, especially for how low their salaries are for how little it appear people seem to appreciate their work. People, in general, seem to only want out once they are forced in. But there are a few that have remained, mainly because they are from here. Mpho is my partner in crime and who I rely on to help me find information. She is young but with a great sense of humor that keeps me on my toes. She keeps everything going including me and has it all ready by the time I arrive every month. Siti, her sister, is the numbers girl and keeps all the statistics in line. She has been an amazing asset when trying to get a new clinic accreditated for HIV treatment, and the only thing that seems to hold this team back is the ministry. The clinics in the Mokhotlong district are "hole haholo" (Sesotho-far) and are so remote they can't even get Ibuprofen supplied in sufficient amounts. They send request to the ministry but will only see a response months later. It feels as though people are left with little hope but will do anything with what they have.

I can see the potential but this district, this country needs a voice. They need a change. And I feel like it all starts with the Ministry who runs this joint. The funding- is it really not there? There must be. Is it not odd that the government will guarantee HIV treatment suppplies to be readily available to all facilities (thanks to Baylor's voice and push) but they can't treat the daily events of pneumonia, pain, broken bones, etc. It's almost surreal. I met a boy whose arm he held by his side, deformed a bit from kids beating him. I could tell the elbow was out, but could not get him to settle to put it back in. The mother refused to go in because she could not afford the xray. The little I could do may have put it back together, but without painkillers the child refused to have me near him again. It made me realize how little we are trained for general medicine out here, and how much I want to help and find ways of improving this impoverished place.