Happy Moshoeshoe Day, everyone! Here’s a picture of the celebration that was staged in front of the sheet store at the mall on Friday. :)
For those of you left wondering who Moshoeshoe (Moe-shway-shway) was, he was the first king of Lesotho who managed to gather a group of diverse tribes and bring them together to fight off the Zulu, the British, and the Boers all atop a mountain called “Thaba Bosiu” or “the mountain that grows at night”. We’re thankful to him for the four day weekend we get in his honor...oh yeah, and for the country he helped create.
Anyway, the really big news is that we survived the trip to Johannesburg with our students. It was a wonderful time and all the kids loved it. I’ve included some pictures below.
On Monday the basic itinerary involved going to a mall to collect ideas about what it means to be urban and staying overnight at the Cradle of Humankind (a world heritage sight where they’ve found some of the oldest fossils of homanid bones in the world). On Tuesday we went to the Cradle of Humankind museum and made an urban mural at the Cradle of Humankind’s student accommodation in the afternoon.
Wednesday was a big day that saw us heading to the sobering and well done Apartheid museum. We had dinner at the Montecasino (like a Las Vegas casino with lots to do and very impressive facilities), and then attended Cirque du Soleil’s first performance ever in Africa. All the urban stuff was in preparation for seeing Cirque du Soleil. The theme of their show was “urban”, so the students were asked to compare their own impressions of urban to what they saw in the show, and they’ll be writing an essay next week. It was definitely a loose theme, so we’ll see how they do!
Finally, on Thursday we went to the Gold Reef City amusement park where we had a tour of an old gold mine, saw gold being cast, and then had time to ride the longest roller coaster in all of Africa: The Anaconda (and some other rides too). Sounds like fun, huh?
The way home was also an adventure, with the bus drivers trying to set some kind of speed record on a road that must surely have the most potholes of any road ever, and Jay trying desperately to try to keep up in our little car. It was frightening, really, but we made it right when we said we would at 8:00 PM on the dot.
So this Moshoeshoe day weekend we are dedicated to resting, relaxing, and catching up on things that were left undone while we rushed to get grades done, do parent conferences, and get all things set for the trip. We went to Bloemfontain yesterday where Jay acquired a new hair clipping set, Sarah got a haircut, and we purchased new pots that don’t have a non-stick lining (the stuff on ours was coming off on our pasta!). Today the name of the game is sleep, exercise, and laundry. Tomorrow it will be back to the grindstone to prep for Tuesday’s return.
We hope you all are well and having wonderful adventures of your own! We’re turning now to prepping for our trip to Japan in April (yay!), and also planning for our time home in late June, July, and August. We hope to be able to see many of you on our visit home!
~S&J
