Lesotho - October 2009 By Greg Van Der Reis After our very successful trip to the orphanage in April/May this year Clive and I decided to go back in September and carry on some of the work together with Urban Edge. This time Clive volunteered to be the chef for 24 of us, 9 adults and 15 teenagers, I hung doors on the toilets and showers and then on the Sunday morning we ventured out in our two cruisers to a village called HaBati to build a school. HaBati is only about 15 kilometers away and we made it there in about two hours towing a trailer with all the tools. The materials had been delivered earlier, alongside the road and the community had either walked them in or transported them in on horseback. We started immediately on Sunday afternoon and soon the timber columns were up, concrete was cast and the horizontal beams were bolted in place. Due to the winds every piece of timber was either bolted with threaded rod or was fixed with hurricane clips and 8 nails. I estimate that we hammered in about 1500 nails in two days. A villager had given up their hut for us and so we let the girls sleep in the hut and Clive and I slept in our rooftop tents overlooking the valley. On Monday we started very early, with temperatures of about 6 degrees and managed to finish the entire structure for a 10 x 4 meter classroom. The weather started to change and we wanted to get the roof sheets on before the rain started (and while we could still get out up some steep inclines) and so on Tuesday morning we were on the roof at sunrise hammering in nails and fixing the sheets. The structure looked good and by lunch time we were finished. All the classroom needed was the stone walls which the local community were going to build, so our job was done. Back in the Semonkong the wind started to blow and Clive and I migrated into the church as the rooftop tents flapped all night. The sky got darker. We took a team to a village called HaSechacha, crossing two river and up a mountain. There are no roads and everyone rides horses. We get to the village and it starts to rain and rain and rain. The black loamy soil turns to slimy mud. Clive leave to take a team to a ladies conference in Semonkong and John (Prado) and I leave an hour later. As I start the descent the Cruiser just slides, diff lock on and with much spinning a manage to semi control my descent to the valley. John's Prado is standard and he takes out a fence post and then continues to slide randomly down the mountain. We make the river crossing and get the teams back to our base. The whole trip was a great success and we the 4x4 Offroad Adventure Club definitely made a difference and helped change the orphans lives. A very special thank you to all the club members who support these projects. I think everyone can be very proud of the R110 000 that we as a club have donated to charity in three years.