Keeping Up With Hank Stelzer & the Children
of the Tsepo-e-Ncha Orphanage, Lesotho, Africa

December 16, 2011

Here's an excerpt from Hank about the 'Chicken Hotel' he recently had constructed at the Tsepho-e-Ncha Orphanage:

Hi Jerry; Thank you so much for your help. This is now the photo of the outside of the 'chicken hotel'!!! The only thing I changed was to put the 'food and equipment storage' door on the West side of the building instead of in front. I'll send you a photo of the inside possibly tomorrow.

The 'Chicken Hotel' had to be built by the order of the Maseru Municipal Council in order for us to keep and raise our chickens for our Orphanage. The plans were drawn by Jerry Anderson and approved by the Municipal Council. It is 21 feet long (6 1/2 meters) and 3.5 meters (10 1/2 feet) wide. This particular photo shows it at the South West angle. It has a space for food storage and tools and two rooms. One partition is for the chickens and for any Mother hens that want to hatch some eggs. The second partition is for the Mother hen and the young chicks. Hank - TSEPO-E-NCHA ORPHANAGE.

October 11, 2011

Hi  Andrea:  I did arrive in Johannesburg last week late Tuesday evening.  Since it was already dark and because of the high risk of crime of hi-jacking on the road to Lesotho, I had to stay overnight in Joberg (Johannesburg).  My farmer friend from Bloemfontein was going to pick me up but he was on his way to Johannesburg to attend a wedding and wouldn't go back to Bloemfontein until Sunday.

I took the first bus to Bloemfontein  at 8:39 Wednesday morning.   It was supposed to be a 5 hour drive but we didn't get to Bloemfontein until late in the afternoon.  Then again, there wasn't any transport to Lesotho on Wednesday evening so I had to stay with another friend in Bloemfontein until Thursday.  The main road to Lesotho was closed to Lesotho most of the day on Thursday because of eight ( 8) road construction sites so we had to wait until Friday morning to come to Lesotho.

We started for Lesotho at 9 o'clock in the morning and because of the construction and police blockades we didn't get to Ladybrand (the closest town near the border of Lesotho until late in the afternoon.  I stopped to pick up our mail at the Ladybrand Post Office a little bit before closing.  The trip from Bloemfontein to Ladybrand is usually only about 2 hours.  This trip took 7 hours.  After picking up our boxes, I hired private transport to go to Lesotho.  There the border was so busy, it took close to two (2) hours to cross into Lesotho.  There were hundreds of people waiting in the queue also entering into Lesotho plus 55 long semi trucks of which many were the two trailer type semi-trucks.

I finally got to our Orphanage late Friday night.  I was so extremely tired that I just flopped down on the sofa and went to sleep.

Saturday morning at 6 o'clock in the morning two of the orphan girls  (14 and 15 years old) that we had been helping but had been living alone in a rented hut came to our gate and woke Georgina.  The Mother of these two girls deserted them a long time ago.  They told that their Mother had arrived in Maseru on Friday night but she died at 5 o'clock that very morning -only one hour ago!  The Mother died of Aids. 

The two girls, not knowing what to do,  came to Georgina for help.  Now it was up to Georgina to call the police and get the body to the Mortuary and now to arrange for some kind of funeral.

Georgina is still on crutches also so now that also causes me to carry on so many extra duties that I did not anticipate.  Besides that, we still have the other 15 kids to take care of.  People don't want to help the two girls because they are so afraid of the 'Aids" situation that may have (according to custom) inflicted the disease on the two girls!!

Even now, Monday evening, I am just absolutely exhausted.  Of course Georgina is also.  We did have a volunteer to go grocery buying for us today.  Georgina had to go to the Hospital also and have her leg x-rayed.  The Doctor said that she must stay in bed with her leg elevated for seven (7) days.  Of course she can't and won't do that but I am making sure that her activities are strictly limited.

There is so much  more to tell about a certain man I met at the Airport in Joberg but I will tell you about that latter.

Good night for now.  God bless you really good. 

Hank