20/21 JULY 2100
LESOTHO – Country number 17 – LESOTHO
MASERU
Arriving at Park Station’s long distance taxi rank I’m quickly told ‘follow that lady’ who is hustling a couple of people away from the taxi. When I question a few folk about where exactly the taxi to Lesotho is, I receive two very different answers. I decide to go with yesterday’s place but later I find I should have ‘followed that lady’ (of course!). Waiting in the minibus, after a couple of hours of filling up, another minibus pulls up to transfer us to another station – this is where “that woman’ was going. We pull in, we pull out, we empty the bus, we fill another. OMG Eventually we get away and it’s a long drive over the country side to finally arrive at Maseru bridge around 5pm. Immigration on both sides is dead easy and soon I’m buying a Lesotho sim card and ask the ladies at the stalls if they know if a guesthouse in town. There is fallen sign and they ring this number assuring me its cheap, clean and in town. I’m soon picked up by Molapo who explains that his guesthouse is not yet finished but he will show it to me anyway.
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| Molapo was such a gentleman |
Very odd – the Royal Guest House is nearly 6kms out of town at Ha Tsolo but when I telephone the Maseru Backpackers they are fully booked til August with a visiting American high school, BAH. Molapo takes me to a mall if I want to get any dinner or food, then tries a local guesthouse who want 400 rand for a room. Too much, she cries, so Molapa suggests that I can stay at his guesthouse if I am happy to use the bathroom in another room – no problems and only 150 rand. The three rooms are new – two rooms have beds but empty ensuites and the third room has a shiny new ensuite but no bed! I’m provided with a heater and extra blankets cause baby it’s cold outside, and there I sleep very well. Next morning I contact Lesotho Girl Guides and Molapo kindly drives me into town to make sure I get there safely. Its nice to cossetted but has the disadvantage of not making me learn where I am and how to get back there!.
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| Gorgeous Girl Guide Leaders |
I meet with Millie Konote, GG administrator, Konosoangt Seetane, Projects Commisioner and then her sister Mpho Seetane Lesotho’s Deputy Commissioner. They are all so friendly and warm and I hare about tier latest project with Unicef and more projects in the pipeline which are Lesotho Girl Guides’ financial lifeline. Mpho and I head out to check the Tourist shop, Lesotho Hat and on our return their driver has arrived and takes Millie and myself to meet with Chief Commisioner, Angelina Khoro. She has just returned from the World Conference yesterday and is so energetic, friendly and welcoming. I also meet with her supervisor to further the cause of Girl Guides and to illustrate that is not just her who is travelling around the world for Girl Guides. We parted ways and I head out to a small village, Morija, to visit it’s ‘must see’ museum. For anyone planning to make the effort, what can I tell you but to stay home! It went something like this:
Me: “Hello”
“Yes?”
Me: “I’d like to visit the museum”
No response
Me: “Is the museum open?”
“Ten bucks”
I pay and ask where to start – bad move! I had unwittingly courted a guided tour.
Me: “Is that a real dinosaur bone”
“You know I asked that same question and I don’t think it is. I think it’s just rock” (no one explained to her what a fossil is?)
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| The Lesotho Hat HONESTLY |
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| The Police tent REALLY |
Me: “These are casts of dinosaur footprints from Lesotho?
“I don’t know, I’m only new here.”
And so it went on, into a second room of dusty exhibits with old signage.
Me: “What do those totems mean?”
“They are made of wood”
Me: “Yes, but what do they represent? Do they have any meaning?”
“I don’t know”
I honestly believe she was there just for her good looks, because she was gorgeous to look at. lol
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| Check out this cladding - aluminium cans |
Leaving Morija, back to Maseru to head out to St Agnes where the best crafts come from – alas I’m too late and all the weavers have gone home. But it was a lovely ride home in the sunset, checking out the countryside. Molapo telephones me to enquire if I am ok because I have not returned and its dark - I assure its ok, and am ready to catch a taxi back now. Then came the hard bit – making my way back to the guesthouse. I knew the suburb, but the drivers wanted to know where in Ha Tsolo. No idea so another call to Molapo who tells a driver where I want to go (I’m still none the wiser) and the driver tells me to “ring the daddi (form of respect for a man)” when I am dropped “because there are many criminals there”. HMMM Off we go, and I find my safe and sound. Next morning I pack to meet up with Sara (net her in Durban) who is coming into Maseru from St Roderique. We lunch together and get the bus that leaves at 2pm. Four hours later we get to the end of the line at St Roderique. Its nearly dark and Sara leads the way with me keeping up to arrive at her house.
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| Such an important message for all african girls |
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| The modern Mosotho woman |
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