Our last month together in Lesotho has been a hectic one. In school we’ve been busy getting our children through term tests, marking and filling in reports. At home Cath and me, the two that are staying on, have worked hard to find a safe and secure accommodation for the next 6 months stay. We’ve been offered two rooms in the Catholic Church’s children’s nursery down the road, enclosed in a secure, barb wired compound, close to my school, principal and some of our friends. Apparently the outdoor toilet by the road is not safe for us whities, so we’ve asked for an indoor toilet to be put in and we’ll also have a hot!!! water shower. The place is much smaller than where we’ve lived now, much easier to warm up and it will be easy to make it into a cozy English/Norwegian cave for us to relax in. We will fetch our water from the borehole tap outside and from now on we will scrub our pants shoulder to shoulder with the locals ;) Very safe we’ll be as we’re looked after by a dozen nuns!

We’ve had several farewell parties and gatherings as is custom here, both in school and at home. We’ve learnt that for the Basotho’s a party is not a party without heaps of meat, so when 40 of our teachers decided to come and say bye, we bought up the whole butchers and had a two hour long meat feast before everyone decided to go home (before dark). Very fast and efficient party! The schools of the two girls that are going home put up big feasts for them, receiving tailored Sheshoeshoe dresses and Basotho blankets as gifts to bring home. They look like proper Basothos now… One of the parties also included a 70 year old rapping nun! Amazing!

Lately we’ve had some drama in most often, peaceful Lesotho. The government decided to introduce public transport buses for half the price of taxis/combis (people’s main means of transport). Understandably the taxi drivers, which is one of the few jobs for men in Lesotho, were striking for days, ending in two innocent people being shot dead. We decided to scrap the AGM meeting with our organization in Maseru that weekend and stay safe in Mohales Hoek.

Our last weekend before holiday we went with the Maseru (UN) lot to Bloemfontein to watch Wales play the Springboekers in rugby. Will not go into detail about the score, but just say that we had a very good time soaking up the atmosphere of the stadium and town after.

Now off to 6 weeks!!! Holiday in Southern Africa. Anyone jealous yet? Starting toe journey with a safari in Kruger, then on to Maputo to meet up with everyone for a final good bye, before Cath and me will travel up the coast of Mozambique for some sea and beach… Good times!


My new mob no is: 00258844059946

I can be contacted on this until the 20th of July.

Hope you are all well.
X