Monday
This morning we woke up early and checked into the Tribute Guest house, right next to the US Embassy. We walked to the embassy, flashed our passports, and went through various searches until we were let inside. We asked if there was anyone we could talk to about the embassy. We were told to wait and someone would be with us shortly. After close to a half an hour, during which we entertained ourselves with classic American favorites such as National Geographic and CNN, a man named Chris Smith came to talk to us. He was the Cultural, Economic, and Political Officer at the embassy. He said that the US was doing a lot of work with HIV/AIDS because Lesotho has the world’s third largest HIV infection rate, and that a lot of the resources from PEPFAR were going to Lesotho. He also said that the Millennium Challenge Corporation was doing a lot of work in the health care sector of Lesotho’s most rural areas, including work such as refurbishing existing clinics and building new ones.
When we left Alex explained to me that many of the programs in PEPFAR and the MCC were highly ineffective and were wasting millions of dollars. It doesn’t really surprise me all that much. It seems impossible to me that large scale programs could be highly effective anywhere—it’s the community and grass roots organizations and programs that can truly meet the needs of the people they serve. Hopefully in the future these large scale, government funded initiatives with make community development and funding community organizations more of a priority. It’s really the only way to help people.
After leaving the embassy we caught a 4+1 to the main taxi rank in Maseru where we found a taxi to Thaba Bosiu, which means “Night Moutain” in Sesotho. The drive out to the mountain was only about a half an hour. It was then that I noticed how truly beautiful Lesotho is! I had only seen mountains from the seat of an air plane or the smaller mountains (more like hills, really) of Kentucky that were just the start of a larger mountain chain… but I had never seen anything like the mountains of Lesotho up close! A few times the taxi slowed down, sputtered and lurched, dragging up the mountain and once it even stalled completely. We were back on our way soon and found ourselves at this lodge in the front of mountain. The people on the taxi told us this is where we were supposed to get off. We were a little confused at first because we thought the taxi was supposed to keep going up the mountain. But we got out and were met by a few old men sitting outside of the lodge. One of them, with the darkest brown skin I have ever seen (the closest thing to actually being “Black”) came up to us and ushered us into the lodge office where we were told we had to pay R10 to climb Thaba Bosiu. We realized we probably could have snuck onto the mountain for free, but R10 is a little over $1 US, so it really didn’t matter to us.
It took about a half an hour to 45 minutes to climb the mountain. It took me a little longer than Alex because I was huffing and puffing, (a real wake up call that I need to exercise more!) be he stopped to wait for me so we made it up to the top together. When we got up there we saw anold woman collecting firewood, but other than that we were the only living souls on the top of the mountain. We saw the royal graveyard and the tomb of Moshoeshoe II. In the distance we saw some really beautiful rock formations, one of which inspired the traditional Basotho hats. Below you could see hundreds of traditional thatched roof huts mixed with more modern homes and lots of farmland. You could see that it was harvest time for many farmers, as their crops were lying about, rolled into hay piles and placed into cone like formations that look a lot like the Basotho hats as well. Somewhere off in the mountains we could hear the clanking of bells from a heard of sheep or cattle. Other than that, it was completely silent at times—a silence like I have never experienced.
We stopped to have a lunch of peanut butter and jelly on top of the mountain overlooking the countryside. It was a breathtaking experience, really. I have never climbed a mountain before and now I can say I have! We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day to climb… there was not a cloud in the sky and the temperature was just right. We caught a taxi back to Maseru and walked around the marketplace looking for flags. Unfortunately we didn’t find any, so we bought the traditional Basotho hats instead. After that we went back to the guest house and watched a rerun of the soccer match between Croatia and Turkey, where Croatia beat Turkey for the first time in decades, then I fell asleep.
Tuesday
After breakfast of scrambled eggs and chicken livers, we walked from the guest house to the border post. When we passed through customs on our way out we were told that we didn’t have the correct entry stamp. We had been illegal immigrants for four days! Apparently, we were supposed to have gone to a second customs place, but we didn’t see the signs when we came into the country. After some hassle, the woman behind the counter decided to be nice and give us the correct entry stamps, then our exit stamps. We crossed the border, found a taxi back to Johannesburg, and were on our way home. On the long drive home I had time to think about a lot of things. As we crossed miles and miles of expansive farmland to get back home, my mind started racing. This trip was a big step for me! Never before had I went on a trip like that without planning every detail first. It was rather liberating for me. I learned a valuable lesson of sometimes just going with the flow and seeing what life brings to you—don’t be so filled with fear that you can’t step outside your door and experience the world! As long as you don’t deliberately put yourself in harm’s way, things will be just fine.
Some other things I learned…
Basic Sesotho:
“Sesotho” is the word used for the language of the people. “Basotho” is the what the people of Lesotho are called.
Lumela – Hello
Uphela joang?— How are you?
Ke phela hantle—I am fine.
Tsamaea hantle—Goodbye
Kea leboha—Thank you
Lebitso la hau u mang?—What is your name?
Lebitso la kake…—My name is…
Sala hantle—Stay well
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