An Action-packed life: A review of the past week

Apparently moving over seas has changed us into social people. Who saw that effect coming? Don’t get me wrong. It’s not like we never went out in Portland. It’s just that we’ve gone out A LOT more here. Since Friday the 10th, we’ve been out 5 out of 10 days. 50%. Clearly we’ve gone wild. :) Actually, we’ve decided that the going out has more to do with the fact that the community here is transient, so people don’t put off get togethers.

Here’s a summary of our social life along with some pictures for your enjoyment:

Last Friday we had a staff party at the director’s house. It was awesome. First of all, the food was prepared by the Basotho members of our staff. We contributed cookies as an “American desert”, but the feeble hour it took me to prepare them does not compare with the dozens of hours it took to simmer the lamb and cook the chicken and braiworst (sausage) on the braii (that’s a South African bbq, btw!). Here’s a picture of the pot they cooked the lamb in outside:

And here is a picture of a pot full of the ever-loved epapa, a pasty, gritz-like base that goes with most everything here in “Basotholand”.

After dinner, which consisted of epapa, braiiworst, chicken, lamb, salad, beans, potato salad, mac and cheese (homemade), coleslaw, and samosas (we have a few Indian people on staff!), we all danced till late into the night. The dancing was assisted, of course, by the Bring Your Own Beverage clause in the invitation and by the awe-inspiring dancing abilities of multiple members of the staff. We’ve discovered a lovely drink they have here called Amarulla, which tastes a bit like Bailey’s Irish Creme, but which is, in fact, South African liqueur made form Marula fruit. It’s lovely.

For those of you wondering what kind of music Basotho enjoy, here are a few sample song titles for you. They enjoy hearing the same songs over and over again, apparently, so we listened to each of these at least four times!
Black Eyed Peas -- “Tonight’s Gonna Be A Good Night”
Waka Waka -- “This Time for Africa” (from the World Cup!)
Taio Cruz -- Dynamite

In addition, several members of our clan came dressed in their traditional or adopted national attire. Here’s a picture of our librarian, director, and two teaching assistance representing (respectively) India, Amero-Lesotho, Nigeria, and Lesotho. It added a fun element to the evening.

All-in-all, it was a lovely evening and we had a great time.

Then, on Saturday, we went to the second grade teacher’s house for dinner. She is Indian, and she was excited to teach some of us how to make chicken marsala and paratha bread. Her husband is with the Indian army, which has a The meal was delicious!


Tuesday took us to Ladybrand, South Africa, about a 20 minute drive over the border, to see the music teacher, John Albert, perform in a concert. The concert was actually the final concert of the term for the students at the Ladybird Music Academy with John Albert (bascially a professional counter-tenor) attached on the end, so we listened to many up-and-coming young people before John Albert made his appearance. The concert was lovely, and we saw a lot of people connected to the school, so it was a great chance for us to “see and be seen” as they say.


On Wednesday we went out to dinner with some counselors from the international school on Johannesburg who had come down for a visit. They were lovely, and we have a standing invitation to visit Jo-burg anytime we want (apparently Mama Mia is there for a bit and they have wild gameparks within an hours drive!). Again, it was nice to “see and be seen” and make some connections in the international school community.

Thursday brought us, exhausted but excited, to the Maseru Sun Hotel in downtown Maseru for a night of Cajun food, French music, and African dancers. The evening was sponsored by the Alliance Francaise here in Maseru, which is run by a parent of a student in our class. Our student, Gabii, actually sang in the concert as well. It was a delightful evening with world-class entertainment. Plus, the hotel is lovely and well taken care of. We were impressed. We were glad to be there too because we saw multiple parents of students in our classes, and it was good to show our support for the Alliance Francaise. Some of the musicians were from an island off of Madagascar called Reunion Island, and they were projecting pictures of the island as they sang. It looks amazing, and we’re already trying to figure out how we’ll get there sometime soon.

By Friday we were home early eating pizza from a nice pizza joint we found called Scooters, and watching “West Wing” episodes on i-tunes. That kind of evening is more our style. :)

Tune in next time for pictures of our bearded dragon (No, I'm not kidding.)