Today we arrived by plane in Maseru, the capitol of Lesotho. For anyone considering traveling in this area, I highly recommend South African airlines, the service was excellent!
I have learned that the correct pronunciation of Lesotho is "le-soo-too," like tutu. We were met at the airport by Rachel and Julie, the fellows at TTL who live here for a year at a time. They are both lovely and I know we will enjoy spending time with them over the coming weeks.
The city is very hilly and green, with dirt roads. It is immediately obvious how poor this country is in comparison to South Africa. There are huts barely 10x10 feet that entire families live in, half of which are unfinished without a roof. No one has electricity in their house, which makes me feel very fortunate to have it where we'll be staying. Many women carry baskets of food on their heads, and the women and children sell produce at roadside stands. As we drive through Maseru, we see men seated in the back of pickup trucks dressed in suits. Rachel tells us they must be heading to a wedding, because that is the only time men wear suits in Lesotho.
We drive a few miles to the "expensive" grocery store where only the wealthiest people can afford to shop. It is not nearly as nice as a US grocery store, but has the essentials. We stock up on groceries for the next four weeks because we cannot buy much in Mokhotlong (muh-hot-long), where we are headed. I am surprised to see lots of mutton-flavored items in the store...I'm not excited about the idea of eating sheep, but maybe I'll come around. A grocery cart of food that is overflowing costs $75, what a bargain! After our purchase, we had to push three shopping carts filled to the brim up a very steep dirt hill to the car. One of the pictures below is of Rachel, Julie, and Tiana standing on the hill we conquered. That experience gave me new appreciation for parking garages and elevators!
The drive to Mokhotlong is 6 hours long through winding mountain roads. Along the drive, there are signs for "Humped Zebra Crossings," which I was very excited about. Unfortunately this is just their way of saying there is a striped speed bump ahead. How disappointing!
We pass many small towns along our way to TTL, and when we slow down in town, the kids smile and wave and yell out "sweets!", which apparently is their way of asking for candy from passers by. I wish I had bought some in Maseru to give them.
As we drove through the mountains, we stopped at a stand of kids selling peaches they picked. The sale was somewhat of a competition. When you pull up, all the kids hold out their peaches yelling "choose, choose," and you have to choose the best ones. I wish I could buy from all of them but they must've had 20 peaches in one bag!
As we neared Mohotlong, then roads got very bumpy. I have never seen so many potholes... We passed the Lentseng diamond mine, which many local people work in. The fellows told us that a tour of the mine is being arranged for TTL and GROW (another NGO in Mokhotlog) while we are here. I wonder if I can keep any diamonds I can find while I'm there...?
The last landmark we passed was Afriski, Lesotho's only ski mountain. Although we're coming into winter here, snowfall isn't predicted until May so I won't be able to improve my skiing skills here!
We arrived at TTL in the dark so I couldn't see much of the campus.
More on TTL and Mokhotlong on Sunday.
H
