Village Hike in Lesotho

Our local guide took us into a local shop.

And a house where the woman brews her own beer.

The yellow flag means the beer is fermented and ready.

A local school that is sponsored by the campground we are staying in.

Local transport.

Out for a walk with chairs.

Another shepherd.

Beautiful, natural surroundings.

   

       

Thursday, December 7^th.

Today I had picked out two hikes to do. So at nine I headed up to the reception area with five other members of our group for a guided walk through Malealea, the local village of 800 people. We visited a couple of local shops and a small 'restaurant'. Then we walked through the town where we saw lots of children playing and people working. We visited a lovely woman who brews her own traditional light beer. She explained the process and gave us a small sample, it was awful. Obviously she doesn't drink her own brew, she has no beer belly. Then she told us that she had a can were we could put our tips, in a manner that said we really didn't have a choice. She also explained that the yellow flag outside her house indicated to the community that the beer was ready.

We continued and went to the local school and met one of the teachers. We were surprised to see that he had about fifteen little kids in the room, despite the holidays. It was great to see them and he had them introduce themselves in English and tell a little bit about themselves, including what they wanted to be when they grew up.

We visited the local community souvenir project where I bought another recycled copper bracelet. Then we walked back to camp where we made our own lunches.

After lunch Henning and I decided to go on a gentle two hour walk to the top of a gorge. This is a beautiful country and this valley is stunning. The vistas are huge and the valley is unbelievably peaceful. The only sounds were the bells on the necks of the goats and cows in the valley and a few birds. No cars, no traffic, just quiet. As we sat and admired the view and watching the goats, we had a real cultural experience. My German friend Henning, offered our Lesotho guide a South African biltong, which is a piece of dried meat. He obviously didn't know what it was but decided to try it. You could tell by the look on his face that he wasn't sure about it. Then I saw him picking his teeth and asked if it was stuck in his teeth, he said yes, so I asked if he wanted a Chinese toothbrush. He knew what that was and said yes so the Canadian guy gave him a toothpick. How much more of a cultural exchange can you get?

When I got back to camp I had a shower and relaxed. I worked on the computer for a bit before the choir and small band returned to entertain us again. I took videos of both groups. The band is incredible because they use instruments that are hand made out of very basic recycled items. While the band was playing there were a couple of loud claps of thunder. When we went back to camp the skies opened up and it came down. It was dark and we were standing in the kitchen area which has a tin roof and it was loud. There was incredible lightning and loud thunder. Jay had to run out and put a wheel barrow over the fire where our food was cooking in tinfoil. Later he gave up because the rain was putting out the fire, so he ran out and brought the packages in to the stove.

The rain let up while we had a delicious meal of leg of lamb, potatoes and salad. Then it started all over again and this time there was hail and the ground was covered. All I could think was thankfully we were not in the tents, but in our little cabins and thankfully they didn't flood. It was raining so hard that it was dripping through the tin roof, through the nail holes I guess. When there was another break in the rain we all made a mad dash to our cabins over the very soggy, hail coated grass. Nathan and I got into our beds and had a good talk about teaching until the solar lights went out at 10:00. He is a young man who has taught in India for two years and is now finishing his masters before going home to Britain to teach.