We’re back from what is sure to be one of several trips to the lovely Melealea lodge where the mountains are beautiful, the air is crisp, the ponies are tame, the rondavelles are warm, and the spirit is high. The lodge is owned by Europeans, but manned by many Basotho from the nearby village. It was quite well maintained, and they even gave us “conference” facilities with linen-lined tables, a powerpoint station, and waters for each person. We were impressed.
While there are many activities at Malealea, we mostly ate (and ate and ate) wonderful Basotho (bah-sue-too = the people of Lesotho) cuisine, which included a lot of lamb, rice, and epapa (cornmeal paste). While the epapa was not our favorite, it was good to try it, and it goes well with the lovely array of sauces and meats that the Basotho women seem to have such a knack for putting together. We certainly will not starve in Lesotho.
In addition, we saw a Basotho choir and a band! The choir was a bit like a church choir with Sesotho words (they also sang in Zulu apparently...I couldn't tell the difference!). The band, however, played on instruments constructed of found materials like tin cans, and they came with dancers who were amazing! I tried uploading a video to youtube, but it was going to take 43 minutes and eat up most of my internet time, so I'll try to do it later when I'm at school and have a bit more freedom to wait around for it. Look for that soon.
Sesotho lessons were also on the agenda for the weekend. The foreigners were taking notes like crazy and attempting to mimic the young Sesotho teachers, while the Basotho members of our staff sat on the other side of the circle laughing at us and making jokes in Sesotho. I’m sure they had a good time of it. Mostly we came away overwhelmed. We did, however, learn a few phrases and some basic concepts of the language. Today when we said “thank you” (phonetically it’s “KAY ah lah BOW ha”) to the check-out person at the grocery store, she said “Oh, you speak Sesotho?!” I laughed and laughed!
One of the other highlights of the weekend was the pony trek. It was awesome. The ponies are well trained to follow each other in a line and navigate the sometimes steep paths, so it was quite fun to just enjoy the view and the ride. Here are a few pictures from our time!
The hat in that last picture is a traditional Basotho (pronounced Bah Sue Too) hat that we bought at the local arts market. We were delighted to have one (we've seen tons of pictures!) and happy to be supporting the local economy. We also bought two wool wall hangings, and have one happily hung here in our living room. They're quite amazing!
The most important part of the weekend was getting to know our colleagues. There are 17 teachers and 5 assistants along with office personnel and, our personal favorite, the bus driver, Ntate Fred (Ntate = father, but you use it as “Sir” to show respect to elders). Our group divides up into teams of Early Ed., Lower School, and Upper School, and the Upper School team seems like an especially wonderful crew. We had a great experience getting to know everyone and asking tons of questions about life in Lesotho and teaching at AISL. It is sure to be a year of first attempts and team efforts. We’re excited.
When we got home it was off to the store and then home to laundry. Here is a picture of our first load!
