Introduction

If you know me then you probably already know that I am not a great communicator, verbally anyways, so me starting a blog might not make a lot of sense. However, at times I can be quite typative. When I'm writing I somehow manage to convince myself that I am incredibly clever and humourous. Hopefully through this blog I will be able to continue deluding myself.

Bapala is Sesotho for play. I chose it for the title because I really couldn't think of anything clever. At least if you post something in a different language it seems cool - Not a good first step to maintaining my internal facade of being clever and humourous.

Actually I chose it because a big reason I ended up in Lesotho is through researching Right to Play (www.righttoplay.com). My knowledge and opinions regarding organizations like Right to Play have evolved quite a bit since I first started looking into them. In an attempt to get a better understanding of this type of work I have left my wife in Canada and started a job in Lesotho - I didn't really leave her. I am lucky to have the best wife in the world who is very understanding of what I am doing. I am working through a number of organizations including the Olympafrica Youth Ambassador Programme, Coaching for Hope (www.coachingforhope.org), and LENEPWHA (The Lesotho Network for People Living with HIV/AIDS).

I am not a strong enough writer to do justice to the scenery, the people, or everything else that I will be exposed to, so I am going to avoid writing a travel blog. Instead of writing about where I am going and what I am doing I think I will just try to write some general stories of my time here. I hope that through these stories I will gain a better understanding of what I am doing and also capture something of the country and the culture.

April 17th, 2010