Category: Africa

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

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

Hello from Lesotho!

For those unfamiliar, Lesotho is a country landlocked by South Africa. Think of how the Vatican is its own country completely surrounded by Italy. Lesotho is its own country completely surrounded by South Africa.

I’m here because one of my darling besties, hailing from my very nerdy, very weird middle school days, moved here back in September. She and her family moved here to work as missionary pilots. Her husband will start flying soon, but for a couple weeks, he had to return to the States for some training. Cue my invite! Amy was looking for some company for herself, her two year old, and her infant. If you know anything about me by now, you may be keen to my love for different places, quality time with friends, and babies.

So here I am!

I knew I’d want to visit someday, but I couldn’t puzzle out when would make the most sense. To receive an explicit invitation warmed my heart to the extreme!

It is my first time to the African continent, and boy, was it a long journey. In fact, I believe this was my longest to date. I left my house at 4pm on Thursday, and we walked in the door at Amy’s at 5pm on Saturday. All told, that’s 39 hours door -to-door.

To add injury to insult, Sean came down with a cold the day before my trip, so we couldn’t get those precious hangout hours in beforehand, and we both wore masks on the way to the airport. Poor guy.

SeaTac was a breeze, and I was assigned an aisle seat (booooo), but the middle seat was empty, so at least I could spread out a bit and pee whenever I wanted! I was pretty jealous to see that most of the rows behind me held only one person, so those people got to actually lay down and sleep for most of the flight.

I, on the other hand, didn’t manage to sleep a wink. I had all these great plans! I literally mapped out a sleeping schedule that would gear me up to foil the curse that is jet lag. I bought an inflatable neck pillow for the first time in my life. I brought fancy ear plugs. I brought a buff that I planned to use as an eye mask. I went to these great lengths because I did not want to go to nights without sleep! But my body had other ideas.

On the twelve hour flight to Istanbul, I read a lot (Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes) and watched two movies (Luca and Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret). Both movies were very cute.

We got dinner and breakfast, and I resisted the urge to get free wine or tea, as I read that both could impact your ability to sleep on the flight. A lot of good that did for me!

One thing that was nice, since I didn’t have a window seat, was that the seat screens had a “camera” mode that allowed to you view what a camera saw directly under the plane. This led to some pretty cool views of various mountain ranges!

After this long flight, I had an eight hour layover in Istanbul. While planning the trip, I toyed with the idea of leaving the airport, but decided it wouldn’t make sense. (The layover was 5:30pm – 1:30am, so it would be dark the whole time, I knew I would be tired, and the city is an hour from the airport.)

Instead, I wandered around and admired all the pretty Turkish treats in the shops on the first floor. I wasn’t in the mood for pure sugar, though.

I made my way upstairs in search of a napping station, since all I wanted to do was sleep. I was disheartened to find very promising looking nap pods that cost €15 per hour. I mean, really?! I know they were almost entirely empty. Why not make them €5 per hour and actually have them filled up? I would have even considered €10 per hour by the end of my layover, tired as I was.

The free nap areas had those dumb chairs that are sort of reclined with the kink at the knees. Nobody likes these chairs! They are fine for relaxing, but they are pretty awful for actually sleeping. Add to that the children in the nap area that were having a grand old time singing, counting, and causing general cacophony, and sleep was impossible.

I eventually wandered some more and bought a very lame sandwich and a very sad banana for lunch. Food was super expensive at this airport, so that was all I was willing to buy.

Afterwards, I picked an empty row of seats, put in the earplugs, donned my eye mask, tied myself to my backpack, and attempted to sleep.

I must have been at least somewhat successful, because multiple times I did that embarrassing thing where your whole body freaks out and twitches like you think you’re falling. I don’t know about you, but that only happens to me when I’m falling asleep!

I think I got close to an hour of dozing in before I woke up and spent some time video chatting and messaging with people back home.

After a couple more nap attempts, I accidentally paid ten dollars each for a tiny cheesecake, a cup of noodles, and matcha latte. Seriously, this airport was so expensive, the cup of noodles weren’t price labeled, and the barista did not mention that adding vanilla to the latte would cost $3 extra. Ugh.

Some time during the layover, a very unpleasant thing started happening. Basically, I’d get a sharp, shooting pain in the inner, upper area of my left eye. No idea what it was (or is – it’s still happening every once in a while), but it was not fun. I think it was just a sign that I really needed some sleep, but I was honestly scared I was going to get a burst blood vessel or something. This motivated me (slash forced me) to attempt some more seat sleeping.

I snuck in one more nap and some more reading time before making my way to my gate. I was disappointed to find that there was basically a whole mall, and an “airport museum,” that I missed on the other side of the terminal! I didn’t have time to dilly dally by this point, but I definitely lingered in an H&M-like clothing store and debated whether I had time to try on a pair of comfy plane pants.

For my second flight, I’d paid extra for a window seat, and I was seated next to a very lanky old South African man who wasn’t in the mood to be my friend. No extra seats on this flight. Ten hours later, I’d read more of my book, watched one movie (No Hard Feelings), and managed to nap a bit more. Dinner was some kind of pork sausage with rice, and breakfast was eggs, a bad version of spanakopita, and yogurt. Again, I resisted the alcohol and tea, and instead stuck to “sour cherry” juice and apple juice.

I did get a nice sunrise from my window!

And later, I got some cool views. Anybody know what these two mountains are?! This was such a fun surprise to see when I peaked out my closed window shade!

At the Johannesburg airport, I had to go through security, where they (infuriatingly) confiscated the tiny metal fork I’d brought with me and already used several times. I was seriously so beat up about it. A tiny fork?! Really?!

I wandered the shops in the airport, had a sandwich and smoothie, read some more, and finally boarded my last leg after four hours.

I was the only white-ish person on the flight (there was one other Asian guy), and the plane was a tiny one-by-two with about a dozen rows. There was some pretty bad turbulence, and the lady across from me threw white wine all over herself, the ceiling, and the seat next to her. Thank goodness it wasn’t red! Lolol.

The views on this flight were spectacular.

Only 40 minutes later, I finally arrived in Lesotho, where I was not “detained” exactly, but not “let out of the airport” either. I had to fill out a bunch of immigration and health forms, and I didn’t know the address to write on any of them. Our flight was early, and Amy was late due to a mishap with her electronic gate, so I was confused and unable to contact Amy for a good thirty minutes. I was just starting to get worried when she finally pulled up, gave an airline worker her phone number, and we were off.

It was surreal to finally be here and to see Amy after such a long journey from the other side of the world. In fact, this is the closest I’ve ever been to Seattle’s antipode. An antipode is the place that is on the exact opposite side of the world, so that if you were to drill straight down from Seattle and end up through the middle of the earth, I’m pretty close to where that place is!

The drive from the airport was pretty interesting. Lots of people were walking along the side of the road or even walking down the middle of the road. When we got to the more populated area of town, there were people selling fruits and snacks on the side of the street, but there were also guys carrying plastic bags of fruit that would just walk right up to the driver’s window (from the middle of the street) and try to sell the fruits! I guess the signal for no-thank-you is a thumbs-up, because when Amy did that, they returned the gesture and took a step back. Still pretty crazy driving!

We passed lots of sheep, goats, and cows being shepherded along in the fields flanking the road, too. Lots of little tin huts and shops and homes made out of small shipping containers.

I didn’t really take any pictures because I was overwhelmed and trying to soothe the fussy babies behind me, but here’s a church with some sunflowers growing out front.

Back at home, finally with access to a couch, I struggled to stay awake! Amy’s house has a nice big living room that doubles as a play room, and Leona, the two year old, was stoked to hang out. She tried to follow Mama outside at one point from the door on the kitchen, so to distract her, I asked if she could show me her kitchen, since I hadn’t examined it as part of the tour yet. She got so excited, ran right past me, through the kitchen (I was super confused) and then brought me to HER tiny kitchen in the living room. Bahahaha. I mean, I did say “your kitchen!”

After some fried rice and a nice shower, I had a great, long night of sleep. Thank goodness! That painful thing in my left eye kept happening until I finally went to sleep.

I got a full eight hours, on a pretty normal clock, and (natively) convinced myself I was cured of jet lag! Sunday’s big activity was church in the morning. Here are some views of the drive:

Again, I didn’t take any pictures! But church was a medium sized room with one open wall and rows of plastic chairs. Pastor Pete was a white guy from Zimbabwe (I embarrassingly asked if he was Australian), but besides his family and ours, everyone else was a local.

(Some fun facts. In Lesotho – pronounced “leh-soo-too”, the national language is Sesotho. If you are from here, you are a Masotho, and the ethnicity is Basotho. Hahaha. I think that’s so cute!)

The worship (singing) was in English except for one song in Sesotho that I attempted to join, and the sermon was in English by Pastor Pete while another member of church translated into the microphone. She struggled to find a translation for “sober” and eventually just said “sober” which garnered some giggles.

Amy and fam were super happy to find a church that was run in English (so they could understand) but also translated to Sesotho and served mostly basotho people. A great way to help integrate them and make them feel at home!

I had to stand up and introduce myself as a newcomer, and throughout the morning, a bunch of the kiddos came over to play with Leona and Teddy (the baby). Leona kept petting the hair on the other kids as they crouched down to see Teddy. It was so cute.

The rest of the day was pretty chill. We basically just came home and played all day, minus nap time, where Amy and I finally got to catch up a bit. Food consisted of yummy homemade orange rolls (like cinnamon rolls but orange flavored), pork and veggies, and leftover fried rice.

Leona and I played a lot in her kitchen, and we played a lot with this doll “Bobby.” When they got the doll and dollhouse, Leona called him Barbie because that was the only small doll she knew, so Amy and Luke changed it to Bobby, hahaha.

One of the day’s highlights was when I was bouncing around with Teddy to calm him down, and Leona pointed and said, “Stop!”

I asked, “Stop what?”

And then she said, in the cutest little voice with a big smile, “Dance.”

There commenced a freeze dance party. It was so cute and fun. Whenever I tried not to use one of my hands, she would grab my hand and make it dance again.

I made the terrible mistake of taking a thirty minute nap that turned into a 1.5 hour nap, so I slept like doo-doo on night two and woke up at 4am. Wish me better luck on sleep in the future!

Okay, I’m sorry I didn’t take many pictures the first couple days! Once I realized that, I started taking more, so there will be more to see in future posts. For now, though, I hope you enjoyed my wall of text, haha. Here’s a pretty tapestry in Amy’s living room that captures rural Lesotho life pretty well! (I want it, hahahaha.)

Khotsong/ peace!

Lizzy-wa