South Africa, water and cannibals.

So, after the shopping spree in South African Bloemfontein, it was a relief getting back to Lesotho. The people are much friendlier and more open here and the natural beauty of this country is unbeatable… saying a girl from Norway. Also I find that the Basotho people live in tune with nature and have a strong community spirit, while Bloemfountein felt a little like being on a Hollywood film set with staged white people living the “perfect” lifestyle… In the middle of Africa. Apparently there have been racially motivated demonstrations recently in this town and it doesn’t surprise me, having felt the atmosphere in this town.

Church is a very important part of people’s life in Lesotho, just as much for the community spirit as the religion I’d say. This is where people meet, and almost every weekend our colleagues will go to either weddings or funerals. Not that I think that many more people get married or die here than back home, but people seem to participate in everyone’s services. “We can’t say no to the free food!” my deputy head explained… That just before we were holding a “St. David’s day” party for our colleagues, hoping for a joint effort on the food front…

God knows how people can afford holding these massive parties, as they are expected to provide the food (which has to be meat) and alcohol for all the guests.


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It is a relief being back in our house! It feels much cleaner now as we’ve thrown away the heavy dusty curtains, dried flower arrangements and random plastic decorations. New bed sheets and mattresses also helped.

Our posh house has electricity, indoor toilet and hot + cold water compared to our neighbors. They seemed very impressed. The only thing is that our area often has a water shortage because of the many thunderstorms!?! Yeah, with all this water streaming down it doesn’t make sense, but apparently the water pumps are turned off during rainfall because the pumps brake when they get mud stuck in them. And mud there is A LOT OF here. Brings back those happy summer festival feelings, sliding around in flip flops!

Anyway, this means that a lot of the time there is no water at all in the taps, hot or cold, neither in our Water Closet! So, really, we’d probably be better off with an outdoor toilet… We’ve become very good at “showering” in a small bath tub and I decide to not mention the state of our hair. I’ve really started considering dreads! Drinking water we fetch in real African style in big containers at the communal borehole tap by my school.

I don’t mind doing this as we really experience how valuable water is and learn not to waste it.

This weekend Catherine’s friends have visited from UK. It’s been great to read the gossip magz and… ohh… News! There really is a world out there!?!

Today we took our guests for a real taste of Mohale’s Hoek… the Cannibal Caves!

We started up with 8 of us and ended in about 25 people, children and adults joining us on the way. It turned into a great party of games, dancing, songs and cream crackersJ as we reached the caves… so we kind of forgot about the cannibals altogether. Further research need to be done!