My last days in Lesotho!

On Thursday, I heard Leona awake in her room. She is the sweetest. When she wakes up, she’ll just hang out in her crib, chatting and playing with her stuffed animals for a while. I heard her little voice and decided to go get her. We went downstairs together, had some breakfast, and played and played.

We also called my sister to chat for a while, and Leona was delighted to see another doggie on the screen. After a little while though, she said, “I wannanother doggie,” and Sara had to respond that she didn’t have another doggie. I suggested a tour of her room, and that prompted a search and show-and-tell of all the animal things in Sara’s room.

A while after we’d hung up, Leona was playing in her kitchen and suddenly announced, “I wanna call Auntie Sawa. I wanna call doggie.” Too cute.

When Amy and Teddy came downstairs, we left the country for some lunch in South Africa. Yep, it’s that easy! The border is only a few minutes’ drive from Amy’s house, and there is a town another 20 minutes into SA called Ladybrand. The longest part of the journey is just the border crossing itself.

Pretty strange process. We had to park the car, get out, walk to the customs building, and stand in line to get our passports stamped.

A few days before my trip, I was nervous to find online that SA “requires” two full blank pages for every time you enter SA. I only had 5 pages left at the beginning of my journey, and I would have to enter SA just to get here, and then again if we wanted to do a day trip.

Luckily, turns out this is an old rule from when they used to have full-page visa stickers. They’ve used normal-sized stamps for years and have just never changed the rules. So by this time in my trip, everybody had been squeezing the stamps onto already-stamped pages, and I still had 5 full pages left.

Once inside Ladybrand, we drove around a little and visited a small Chinese shop. Turns out there are a fair number of Chinese people in SA and Lesotho. Not sure why!

I resisted the urge to buy some canned bubble tea. This caused my first bout of some home sickness!

Lesotho doesn’t have a ton of Western cultural influence when it comes to activities and infrastructure, so many expats like to drive over to Ladybrand or the next town, Bloemfontein, for a taste of home. One of the other MAF families drives over once a week for gymnastics classes in Ladybrand, for example.

I was pretty surprised to see two other tables of white people when we entered the outdoor seating area of our lunch stop. Ha! Really, though, outside of the MAF hanger and Pastor Pete’s family at church, we really hadn’t seen any white people the whole trip! The Chinese guy in the market was also the only Asian person I remember seeing since leaving the airport. There just aren’t many people in Lesotho who aren’t Basotho.

I had to wait until the other tables emptied before asking Amy what language they were all speaking. Sounded vaguely Dutch. Turns out it’s the local white language in South Africa – Afrikaans.

Leona got her own little picnic table, “Nessie’s table,” and we sat next to her with Teddy. Amy ordered an iced coffee with ice cream, and I regretfully ordered it with ice, assured by Amy that it would turn out like her Frappuccino-type drink from the other day.

It did not. Bahahahaha. It was the warmest iced coffee I’ve ever had, and the ice cubes melted within minutes. Amy, meanwhile, got what seemed like a strawberry milkshake with some faint coffee flavor. She’s always saying you just have to expect to get something you’re not expecting when you go to restaurants here.

For lunch, Leona got some super gourmet and tasty mac and cheese, I got some yummy (but spicy) chicken curry, and Amy got the funniest salad I’ve ever seen. Lettuce, cucumber, whole grapes, whole cherry tomatoes, and banana slices. Banana on a salad! Again, just not quite what you’d expect!

The whole morning, Leona had been talking about wanting to see the bunnies here. They’ve been one other time, so she had fond memories. After lunch, we wandered to the swings, the garden, and the bunnies.

Then it was time for our drive back home and across the border again.

Basically every time we stopped, Leona would shout, “WE. DID IT! WE. HOME!” And we’d have to tell her, “No, we’re not home yet. We have to do this, that, or the other thing first.” So it was nice to actually be home at the end of the afternoon!

Somewhere along the drive, I had mentioned my favorite mini series, The Tenth Kingdom, to Amy. Turns out she is a big fan of the fairytale-spin-off genre! Not sure how we’ve never talked about it before!

We watched the first episode while the babies were napping, and we watched the second after they had gone to bed. I’m pretty sure we also watched The Grinch somewhere in there while Leona was awake, haha.

Friday morning, when I got up to pee, I heard Teddy babbling away happily in Amy’s room, so I sent her a text that I could hang out with him if she wanted to go back to sleep. Not long after, Teddy delivery!

I felt guilty that I hadn’t thought of doing this before! Because of my jet lag, my sleep schedule has been pretty wacky, so I’ve been waking up early. Next time, I’ll know to do this more often! Love me some baby time.

I admired the views from my room as I got dressed with Teddy, and then we headed downstairs.

It was a toss-up on whether we’d have the energy for an outing on Friday, my last full day in Lesotho. Honestly, I was pretty tired, and probably could have just had a day at home, but I was also thrilled that Amy was up for one last adventure.

We packed up the kiddos, loaded the car, and headed for our longest drive, to the village and cultural center of Thaba Bosiu. This had been recommended to me by Brian, the pilot, and Amy had also heard recommendations many times.

We saw lots of different things on our drive – mountains, shops, and homes of all sorts.

Leona was constantly saying she wanted to see horsies or cows, so we made sure to point them out whenever we passed some animals.

We arrived to a complex of thatched-roof buildings of various sizes, and I chuckled that the man at the entry gate had to lift the car-barrier by putting his full body weight on the other end.

I got another chuckle when I went to use the restroom. I would say this is just as effective as an “out of order” sign, if not more so!

Our first stop was the museum, where we unexpectedly got a full walk-around by the guide who was waiting at the entrance. We got a full history of Lesotho, a rundown of traditional housing, clothing, and tools, and an explanation of the effect of Western influence. This year is the 200th anniversary of the establishment of the first King, Moshoeshoe.

My favorite part was an explanation of the blankets. People who live in the mountains used to wear blankets made from animal hide, but the English introduced these thick fleece blankets instead, and the Basotho wear them even in the summer!

The famous Basotho hats were also fun. The long pointy one is for “head boys.”

After the museum, our guide took us up to see a statue of Moshoeshoe.

Then on to the model village so we could see inside some of the huts.

The walls are made of clay earth, and the roofs are thatched grass. Apparently the fully thatched ones can be made in a matter of days and last up to fifty years!

Leona loved the little houses, but poor Amy couldn’t make it into the tiny doorways with Teddy on her back, haha.

I was so hungry by this point, and so excited for lunch!

Amy and I got some virgin piña coladas, but unfortunately, that’s all we’d have to snack on for the longest time! Leona was getting bored, and I was getting more hangry, especially as dozens of people came out with food from the buffet set up for a visiting conference. Gah!

I also really had trouble ordering – the first three things I asked for were not available! It was very discouraging!

After nearly an hour, we finally got our pork stir fry, cheeseburger, and Hawaiian pizza. My pork was yummy, but too spicy, so I ended up having to eat some of Leona’s pizza.

Leona was very excited when it was time to play again, first with me, and then with Mama.

We had another pretty drive home, and it was right as schools were letting out. As we approached the city again, we saw hundreds of kids of all ages walking home in their uniforms and cute little bucket hats.

Leona had missed her nap with the day’s long adventure, so we had a slow evening of movie watching. (I think we watched the Fox and the Hound – a classic!)

Then, because it was the eve of Lunar New Year, we were graced with some fireworks! My pictures are bad, but I got a nice show right out the kitchen window!

Amy and I topped off the night with another episode of The Tenth Kingdom.

On my last morning, I woke up and heard Leona in her crib, so we got up and played for a couple hours.

When the rest of the fam was up, we loaded the car and headed out to the French Alliance for some brunch at Cafe Ouh La La!

I got a funny version of a Croque Monsieur, and Amy had a ham and cheese crepe. I decided to risk another iced coffee, but this one was actually just iced coffee, no milk or sugar. Hahahaha. Oh well! Leona played with a sticker book for most of the time, and the sandwich really hit the spot!

After lunch, we visited the Basotho Hat, a souvenir shop inside a building that looked like the famous shepherd hats.

Lots of pretty things in here, and I had to resist the urge to buy a tapestry! They were so pretty, though!

When we’d parked the car, a man had told us he would “watch out for it,” and when we returned, we found that he’d washed it sparkling clean, haha.

Back at home for the last time, we attempted a small photo shoot, but we ended up with many outtakes.

The following were intended to be photos of just me and Amy, bahahahaha:

And then some of me and the babies. They’re heavier than the last time I tried this!

Hahaha, so cute.

Leona and I had one last cuddle session on the couch, and then we all had one last drive to the airport.

And that’s it for Africa! Thank you Amy for hosting me and showing me your new world! There are only a few people I’d fly 39 hours to hang out with, and you’re one of them. Thank you for taking me on daily adventures despite the very real exhaustion that two babies bring! (Seriously – how do mamas do it?)

Thank you Leona and Teddy for letting me be Auntie Lizzy! I mean, yeah, the trip was great, the people were lovely, and the mountains were beautiful, but the highlight was definitely Leona’s love and play time! (Let it be known, Amy, that I’d still fly that far for you, babies or no babies.)

I’ll do one more blog for my long journey home (this time I got to leave the Istanbul airport for a mini adventure), but that’s a wrap on Lesotho!

Khotsong/ peace!

Lizzy-wa