Part two of Lesotho!

I woke up so early on Monday morning due to jet lag and a poorly-timed afternoon nap on Sunday. After waking at 4 and failing to fall back asleep, I eventually finished my book and then caught up with people back home.

Luckily, the only item on the day’s agenda was to go grocery shopping.

I hung out with Teddy (the baby) in the morning until Jabu (Amy’s house helper) came over. After some breakfast and lunch, we left the babies napping with Jabu so that we could run to the mall for some grocery shopping. Grocery stores are the big end stores at the malls here. Who knew?

Clothing is pretty modest here, despite the heat, or maybe because of it. Guys are almost all wearing long pants, tee shirts or long sleeves, and a bucket hat. Women wear lots of long dresses and skirts. So naturally, I wanted to check out their long skirt selection at the mall! I tried on a couple that I really liked, but they only had a couple left, and they were all to small! I guess I’m a size 8 at that store?! Grrrrrr.

At least I successfully misbehaved at every grocery store we entered (3) and managed to buy far too many snacks.

Some interesting things spotted at the grocery store: lots of cream soda flavored candies that were all green for some reason?; lots of odds and ends in the meat section, including a lady who was buying literal pounds of chicken gizzards and hearts – I wonder what she’ll use them for!

Unsure what “samp” is – some kind of grain?

Lots of marshmallow flavors, and no plain marshmallows to be found! Amy has started making her own in desperation, haha.

They have these creepy jelly babies instead of gummy bears. Bahahahaha.

Spheres!

Some yummy marinated meat.

More green cream soda things!

—

When we got home, we had some nice tea time and a snack.

Then we played outside with Leona for a good chunk of time. We did bubbles first, and then she noticed the “doggie” on my phone’s screen saver. After staring for a while, she said, “I wanna different doggie.” This commenced a ten minute doggie search section on my phone. She alternated between, “I wanna different doggie,” and, “All done this doggie.” It was pretty cute.

It got to the point where I was pretty sure I didn’t have any more doggie photos on my phone, but then I’d find more! Turns out I also like the doggos.

I tried to show her a picture of Sean, but she very quickly declared, “No, no more Sean.” Bahahaha.

When Amy and Teddy came outside, we moved the party upstairs to the grass to play, “Ready, Set, Go” and blow some more bubbles. Leona also became very interested in me putting on my glasses, and that became a favorite directive the rest of my stay. “You wear your gwasses.” Sometimes she attempted to put them on for me or to wear them herself. Pretty cute.

I never really grew out of my early schedule on this trip, and the babies’ early bedtimes probably contributed. I was bummed to need an alarm in the morning, though, because Tuesday was a big adventure day.

Amy and her husband Luke are in Lesotho working for MAF, Missionary Aviation Fellowship. Luke is a pilot and is in the States this week for some managerial training. When Amy planned out our itinerary for my stay, she put Tuesday down as Ride Along Day for an MAF flight.

I don’t know about you, but little planes kind of scare me. I had to fight the fear to agree to the itinerary, partially encouraged by Sean, who has a much higher risk tolerance. I knew it would be an amazing opportunity, though.

Amy packed me a snack bag of apples, cheese, and homemade sourdough, but I was too engrossed in the activity to eat any of it on the flight. Is she a great mama or what?

My pilot, Brian, was scheduled to fly to Methalaneng, a remote village in the mountains. The flight was to last around 25 minutes, and we flew at 9,500 feet. The mission was to deliver some supplies to a doctor at the Methalaneng clinic and to pick up some patients to bring back to Maseru (the capital) for medical care that the clinic could not provide.

I didn’t realize the city was so sprawling and dense, and the views of the mountains were spectacular.

Brian is actually from Federal Way, basically right where I grew up, so we were able to chat about both home and Lesotho. I kept reminding myself that he’d been here doing these flights for 15 years in order to calm my nerves.

He was able to point out various things from the air, including the little villages scattered thought the mountains. The characteristic round huts with thatched roofs were easy to spot from this low, and he also showed me the little square pens that are used to corral the animals.

Methalaneng is one of the trickiest landing strips that MAF services, and my nerves returned as we came in for a landing! We really had to circle around and come so close to the mountain sides in order to position ourselves correctly. The landing strip was also dirt (a first for me!), and it was uphill. My body tensed as we touched down, but Brian handled it like the pro he is.

As we approached the clinic, there was a huge tree filled with what I thought were wasp nests, but they turned out to be birds nests! Very cool!

There was also a primary school next to the clinic, and all the kids stared and waved as we walked by.

When we first entered the clinic area, I found a set of four doors that appeared to be toilets, so I quickly ducked into one that only had half a door. The door was basically a few planks of wood barely held together with a foot wide gap on one side, and it closed using a big rock on the outside. No toilet paper or sink. I just went for it.

I rushed out of there because I heard a noise, and when I exited, I realized two of the other doors were real doors with handles that closed. LOL! Later on, we saw several real bathrooms with doors, sinks, and soap. That’s what I get for being impatient, hahaha.

Because Brian had a guest along (me), we were granted a tour of the clinic. The nurse showing us around introduced herself as Elizabeth, and when I said, “I am also Elizabeth!” she came over and hugged me. It was pretty cute. Brian also switched to calling me Elizabeth instead of Lizzy for the rest of the morning, which was pretty funny.

One of the most prominent services this clinic provides is a “waiting mothers” program. At 36 weeks, expecting mothers will come to the clinic from surrounding villages and stay until their baby is born. This is obviously a great way to provide safety and care for new mamas and babies. There were a couple houses with a few rooms each, and each room had a few beds for the mamas.

We were shown the delivery room, and May Elizabeth (the polite way to address a woman, kind of like saying “ma’am”) said they were really hoping to get a larger delivery bed that is wide enough to lay the baby down next to the mother.

Another main purpose of the clinic, in a different building, is to test for Tuberculosis, HIV, and COVID. Lesotho has an extremely high HIV/AIDS rate, and May Elizabeth said it has been increasing lately due to a lack of education.

The clinic tour was both interesting and eye opening. The care is very basic and yet very critical for these remote people who have largely lived without any medical care in the past. MAF enables transport to the city for better hospitals and connection to Johannesburg for more intense needs.

Since I was nervous on the plane, I can only imagine our two passengers were also a bit scared, but they didn’t show it. I exchanged names and giggles with one of the ladies on our way back to the plane.

The views on the return flight were just as spectacular as the first.

I have a friend in the Grand Canyon right now, and honestly, Lesotho’s mountains are kind of reminiscent of those expansive geographical features. The difference is that the Grand Canyon is carved by the river, whereas Lesotho is made up of plateaus and mountains rising above the land. So pretty.

When we landed back in Maseru, there was a field trip of kiddos visiting the hanger, and Amy and Leona walked up to meet me at the plane. I knew I’d made it as Auntie Lizzy when Leona reached for me to hold her. *Cue big smiles.*

When we got home, we put Leona down for a nap and headed out for another grocery trip. Afterwards, we indulged in some lunch. (I think this was Amy’s first baby-free outing? She was pretty pumped, and I was pretty jealous of her iced coffee that was actually more like a frappuccino! I got a “chococcino.”)

On our way back, we saw a fruit seller man that Amy recognized, and we stopped to buy some fruit! A fun experience for me, and he gave us a great deal.

We got back to Leona helping Jabu with the dishes.

Once Jabu left, we had another round of outdoor bubbles and doggies, then some indoor dancing and “relaxing” together. Gah! She is too stinking cute.

We had another fun, slow night, and I was introduced to a book I would grow very familiar with, “Moo, Baa, La La La.” Leona called it “Boo La La,” and every time I would finish, she’d declare, “I wanna read it again!” Adorable.

I was roped into the bedtime routine, which involved reading, singing, dancing, and lots of silliness.

Wednesday’s big ticket item was a visit to Beautiful Gate, an orphanage in Maseru. Again, when Amy sent me this item on the itinerary, I was puzzled and wary. I wasn’t sure what to expect or what we were supposed to do here. I was relieved to learn that Amy was in the same boat.

Turns out Brian and his wife had adopted a little girl from Beautiful Gate six years ago, and his wife was the one to set up the visit. Amy didn’t know what to expect, either, but she wanted to see, nonetheless.

In the end, I’m so glad we went.

We saw some poorer neighborhoods on the way to Beautiful Gate.

When we arrived, we were greeted by the co-director, Lindiwe, who told us about Beautiful Gate’s founding and operation. In the United States, orphanages were replaced with the foster care system decades ago, but in many places, orphanages still exist. Children here are not necessarily parent-less, but like in the American Foster Care system, they are either temporarily or indefinitely without parents or family members who can care for them. Beautiful Gate exists to provide safety, nourishment, and care to babies and children up to five years old until they can be reunited with family or placed with adoptive families in Lesotho or abroad.

I almost cried about four times, and the first time was when we viewed the memorial for children who have passed away while at Beautiful Gate. Almost all of them were infants, and I almost cried when I saw that one little one had passed away after only two weeks.

Many of the children that enter Beautiful Gate are abandoned at birth, and HIV-impacted babies are common. This was heartbreaking and pretty hard to walk away from.

Luckily, our next stop was to visit some babies who are thriving and cared for under watch of their loving house mothers. I can’t show faces out of respect for the babies, but trust me that they were adorable, and I got a few smiles despite their sleepiness!

There are 74 children currently at Beautiful Gate, and capacity is 75. Also, several children are now above the age of 5 due to COVID and difficulty finding families due to special needs. They are hoping to build a bunk room for the older children and to eventually build a completely new location that is specially designed for both older children and special needs children.

Our last stop was to visit the “soft play” group, which are the babies that are old enough to be crawling around but not quite toddling. They were so cute and curious, but definitely wary of us. One little one in a bouncy cot seemed interested in me, so I bent down to give her my hand and make faces. I got a few smiles from her, but that also made another cutie curious enough to crawl over. I ended up holding her hands to stand, and then I picked her up. She didn’t want to let go when I finally put her back down, and it was so heart warming and heart breaking at the same time! Ugh!

If you’re interested in donating, here’s a link explaining more about Beautiful Gate and their funding needs, with donation links on their website:

https://www.beautifulgatelesotho.org/

They also take short- and long-term volunteers if anybody would be interested in a trip to Lesotho to do some good for these cuties!

Teddy was a champ the whole morning, just hanging out on Amy’s back and observing his surroundings. We celebrated a successful trip with lunch at a cute cafe with outdoor terrace seating. I got lamb stew and a virgin mango “margarita,” and Amy got a summer salad and a blueberry, mango, coconut smoothie.

That evening, I had a short call with Sean so I could show him Leona. It was so cute, and I tried to teach her how to do the peace sign while wearing her hat backwards. Wish I had pictures! An hour or so later, we were playing something else, and she suddenly said, “Hi Sean. I wanna call Sean!” (Pronounced “Sahn.”) My heart!

That night, after the kiddos went to bed, Amy and I attempted to watch Maestro, but I was too sleepy to hang. Sorry, Amy!

An adventure-filled couple of days, indeed. Beautiful views and adorable babies. There aren’t many things I love more than those.

Oh, and here’s one of the traditional Basotho huts, right across from Amy’s house!

Khotsong/ peace!

Lizzy-wa