Local transport.
Out for a walk with chairs.
Another shepherd.
Beautiful, natural surroundings.
Thursday, December 7th.
Today I had picked out two hikes to do.
So at nine I headed up to the reception area with five other members
of our group for a guided walk through Malealea, the local village of
800 people. We visited a couple of local shops and a small
'restaurant'. Then we walked through the town where we saw lots of
children playing and people working. We visited a lovely woman who
brews her own traditional light beer. She explained the process and
gave us a small sample, it was awful. Obviously she doesn't drink her
own brew, she has no beer belly. Then she told us that she had a can
were we could put our tips, in a manner that said we really didn't
have a choice. She also explained that the yellow flag outside her
house indicated to the community that the beer was ready.
We continued and went to the local
school and met one of the teachers. We were surprised to see that he
had about fifteen little kids in the room, despite the holidays. It
was great to see them and he had them introduce themselves in English
and tell a little bit about themselves, including what they wanted to
be when they grew up.
We visited the local community souvenir
project where I bought another recycled copper bracelet. Then we
walked back to camp where we made our own lunches.
After lunch Henning and I decided to go
on a gentle two hour walk to the top of a gorge. This is a beautiful
country and this valley is stunning. The vistas are huge and the
valley is unbelievably peaceful. The only sounds were the bells on
the necks of the goats and cows in the valley and a few birds. No
cars, no traffic, just quiet. As we sat and admired the view and
watching the goats, we had a real cultural experience. My German
friend Henning, offered our Lesotho guide a South African biltong,
which is a piece of dried meat. He obviously didn't know what it was
but decided to try it. You could tell by the look on his face that he
wasn't sure about it. Then I saw him picking his teeth and asked if
it was stuck in his teeth, he said yes, so I asked if he wanted a
Chinese toothbrush. He knew what that was and said yes so the
Canadian guy gave him a toothpick. How much more of a cultural
exchange can you get?
When I got back to camp I had a shower
and relaxed. I worked on the computer for a bit before the choir and
small band returned to entertain us again. I took videos of both
groups. The band is incredible because they use instruments that are
hand made out of very basic recycled items. While the band was
playing there were a couple of loud claps of thunder. When we went
back to camp the skies opened up and it came down. It was dark and we
were standing in the kitchen area which has a tin roof and it was
loud. There was incredible lightning and loud thunder. Jay had to run
out and put a wheel barrow over the fire where our food was cooking
in tinfoil. Later he gave up because the rain was putting out the
fire, so he ran out and brought the packages in to the stove.
The rain let up while we had a
delicious meal of leg of lamb, potatoes and salad. Then it started
all over again and this time there was hail and the ground was
covered. All I could think was thankfully we were not in the tents,
but in our little cabins and thankfully they didn't flood. It was
raining so hard that it was dripping through the tin roof, through
the nail holes I guess. When there was another break in the rain we
all made a mad dash to our cabins over the very soggy, hail coated
grass. Nathan and I got into our beds and had a good talk about
teaching until the solar lights went out at 10:00. He is a young man
who has taught in India for two years and is now finishing his
masters before going home to Britain to teach.
That little stone and sheet metal house is something else
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