a trip to the Kingdom in the Sky

It’s really hard to summarize anything I’ve done here into just a few paragraphs. I mean, I tended to write a novella every time there’s been something to say, and then it still just doesn’t do justice to the entire experience. Africa is a place that can’t be understood until you’ve actually been there, and even within Africa there are so many differences. Lesotho is a great example of this because it is a country within another country, yet it is so vastly different from South Africa. You wouldn’t expect it to be so different necessarily because it’s more than, like, twenty times smaller than its neighbor.

We left for Lesotho on Saturday at 5:30pm on the Intercape bus. Some things about this bus. Because it was an overnight bus, it’s called the Sleepliner, and the seats (we found out in the informational video they showed us) reclined to a 150 degree angle. Pretty sweet. It was actually extremely comfortable. What was a bit less comfortable was what they had us watch for, like, 5 hours at the beginning of our journey. When we were booking our tickets, we’d heard Intercape was reliable and convenient – especially for our wallets – so I had no problem taking the bus. We were joking when we first got on, wondering how they manage to keep all the buses running that they do with such nice service and buses with such low prices. We decided that it’s because they’re definitely sponsored by a TON of religious organizations. The video we watched talked to a bunch of Christian music groups about their music, explained why evolution isn’t real, and encouraged us all to accept and learn to love Jesus. I just wanted to sleepppp. Luckily they finally turned it off shortly before midnight although I did still get woken up every few hours when we would reach a rest stop. Despite these things, I was physically comfortable and rested by the time we reached Bloemfontein around 8:30am, Sunday morning.

Getting to Malealea was a trick. We took a taxi from the bus station in Bloem to the border at the Maseru Bridge. We went through passport control and then drove across the border where our taxi had to turn around. From here we took a taxi into the city of Maseru which is also the capitol of Lesotho where the mini buses were. After a few confusing minutes with lots of yelling and honking, we got on a mini bus that would take us to another mini bus area. This next mini bus actually brought us straight to the entrance of Malealea Lodge finally arriving around 1:30pm. So it took about 5 more hours to get from Bloem to Malealea; it’s technically only 3ish hours but we’d read that it should take 4-5 hours.

We checked in and were showed to our rooms in Basotho (ba-soo-too) huts. We were told where the bathrooms were and reminded that their electricity comes from generators which turn off at 9:30pm; luckily we knew enough about the lodge that we had a few flashlights. After putting our stuff down, we walked around the lodge a bit. Everything was painted very traditionally and with the set up of the buildings spread out with connecting dirt and gravel paths, it felt a bit like a summer camp. After pausing a minute to remark on the wild peacocks wandering around, we were able to look past the trees to the mountains in the distance.

Since it was still early we decided to walk around the village a bit. I’m guessing we looked a bit awkward and lost though because a guy came up to us asking if we wanted to be showed around. He introduced himself as Jucius and told us that he worked for the lodge as a guide and could take us around. We agreed and though it started out pretty awkward with us just asking sporadic questions and otherwise walking in silence, it got better by the end. Our first big question though were the huge plants lining the pathway, they looked to me like overgrown aloe plants. Turns out, they were aloe, a particular species that grows to be bigger than a person. As we reached some houses, a bunch of kids saw us and came over to say hello and walk with us. The primary language is Sotho and the secondary is English, but most young kids don’t learn English until later so they know “hello”, “bye-bye”, “thank you”, and maybe another phrase or too. They were adorable and all wanted to hold our hands at the same times.

We eventually got them to let go when Jucius asked us if we wanted to try locally brewed beer (which I definitely wouldn’t called beer since it was made of grapes). It tasted just like Savannah Dry which is a popular alcoholic cider here. Once we got back outside the kids swarmed around us again and we continued walking slowly around. He suggested that we could walk over to a museum that had stuff on the history of the Sotho. The museum was set up in two huts and had pictures, traditional clothes, pots, jewelry, and other things. We walked around as well to see some of the plants around and talked about the climate and nature of Lesotho. Jucius also explained how Lesotho has a king and prime minister but each village has a chief who is in charge of everything. One of the things the chief also does is give land to people once they are of age (21) to build a house or farm. Most families farm with the most popular produce being maize and wheat. They also have lots of animals, primarily sheep, cows, and horses/ponies. In the other hut they made us mint tea from one of the plants we had seen while walking outside. We talked more about Lesotho and Rachael asked him a question that I was a bit hesitant to bring up.

Lesotho, despite being an extremely tiny country, has one of the highest percentages of HIV/AIDS in the world, above 30%. She asked him about how the country and how the village deals with it and what is being done in terms of education and awareness. He said that there are clinics and such where people can go for free tests and where they can get condoms and whatnot. Since it takes a while for HIV to show up on a test if someone has been infected, people are encouraged to go somewhat regularly to the clinics (which we passed by a few days later as we hiked) and get tested. He said that even if people could not have gotten HIV any time recently, they are encouraged to get tested because there is no knowing if they could’ve gotten it other ways since sometimes kids will imitate their parents and have sex so there’s no knowing until you’ve been tested. It was a bit of a shocking statement but I tried not to react visibly to it considering how nonchalantly he said it; it seems that it is neither unusual nor bizarre to them that such a thing would happen.

Eventually the sun was going down so we started walking back to the lodge, encountering many people making their way home. Everyone was extremely friendly although I kept wishing they wouldn’t stare at us, say something with a smile to Jucius in Sotho, and then say a simple greeting to us in English. We parted at the gate agreeing that we would most likely see him the next day though we didn’t have plans yet. Back at the lodge we went to the dining room for dinner and bumped into some other CIEE students who had been at Malealea for a few days and were leaving early the next morning. Dinner was fantastic and afterward we relaxed before going to another room to play “30 Seconds”.

I had heard of this game before but hadn’t gotten a chance to play it yet. It’s kind of like “Taboo” but with a few clear differences. We split into teams and then going around the circle, a person picks up a card with 5 words/phrases on it. The timer is turned and they have 30 seconds to get their team to guess as many of the things on the card. You just can’t say any word that’s in the word they’re trying to guess (obviously) but you also can’t do thing like sounds like or rhymes with. However many of the things that are guessed correctly, you move your team piece that many spaces on the board. There were surprisingly a lot of American things on those cards but we occasionally got stumped on people or places that there’s no way any of us would guess.

We kept a careful watch on the time and at about 9:29 without warning we suddenly found ourselves in complete darkness. We took this as our sign to pack things up and get going back to our rooms. As we left the building though, the other people we were playing with told us to turn off our flashlights to get an idea of how dark it was. After feeling completely blinded, my eyes began to adjust but still we could barely see. There was no moon and even if there had been, it would have already been behind the mountains and there weren’t any lights within eye sight. The only light was from the sky. And oh my goodness. The sky. It was absolutely spectacular. I’ve never seen nor do I think I’ll ever see anything quite like it. I have never seen so many stars in all my life and the Milky Way stretched all the way across the sky. It was at exactly that moment when I realized where Lesotho got the nickname “Kingdom in the Sky”.

The next morning we woke up to the sound of cow bells and roosters. It was cold in the huts but once we were out in the sunlight it was really warm so we got ready quickly and then decided on what we should do for the day. I don’t remember what I said about pony-trekking in my pre-trip message, but basically it’s the most popular activity for people visiting Malealea and Lesotho in general. There are many places you can go and there are even overnight trips although we opted not to do one of those. We decided to do the 5 hour trek that would take us to the bushman/san rock paintings of Tohlang and the Botsoela waterfall.

In the tack room we met the guy who would be showing us around, his name was Dan. In case I didn’t mention, these are all their Christian names that they go by, not their Sotho names. After introductions and paperwork, we walked over to where the ponies were waiting. These ponies have been bred specifically to handle the rocky, mountainous terrain in Lesotho but they were pretty tall, about the same height as some horses. My horse was brown with a white star and black stockings, a bit shorter than the others but pretty energetic. I think we were a good match because we’re both pretty stubborn and try to forge our own path; after I got over being a bit nervous, I felt pretty comfortable and figured out how to deal with being on a horse.

We went to the paintings first. The ponies could only take us so far down the mountain into the ravine and we had to hike along the side of the cliff for a bit until we got there. There are 3 caves with paintings but because of soil erosion we only got to get to 2 of them. Still, it was so cool and really interesting. The paintings which are only a few hundred years old mainly depicted things like humans hunting various animals of the region. The figures were all a redish brown color but apparently there would’ve been some white in it that has faded. I thought they were fascinating. I tried to take pictures but against the sedimentary rock it’s hard to say what stands out more.

By the time we got going again it was close to noon and really warm and the sky was amazingly blue with big fluffy white clouds. We made our way out of the ravine and along the mountains eventually going back down where we walked along a small brook/creek. Because it is the winter months they told us the water is much lower, it’s much more like a river during the rainy summer months. After over an hour we had reached the point where we had to hike down to the waterfall. I know we’ve been to Vic Falls and nothing can compare, but it was still very beautiful. We were able to walk along the rocks right to the water’s edge because the water was low but Dan said that during the summer it’s a lot more water coming down from the mountain springs. I could’ve sat there for a while just watching and listening to it but we still had over an hour ride back to the lodge so we hiked back up to the ponies and were on our way. On the way back, my horse must’ve been excited to get back because there was a little friendly competition going on between the ponies and we got back much faster.

After relaxing for a while, we went to where there was a local choir and band performing. The choir was really enjoyable; I was hoping they would sing some of the Sotho songs that I learned in Choir for Africa but even though they didn’t it was really cool to see them. The band that performed after them was also really incredible. Their instruments were made from household materials like cans, few liter bottles, and such; I was simply amazed that these simply made instruments worked the way they did. A few men were dancing and singing with them and it was truly fascinating to watch.

Our last day there we decided to hike instead of pony trekking before we had to leave. This time our guide was Max and we set out in the opposite direction of where we had gone the day before. We walked through lots of fields all the way to the top of the gorge where we then decided we wanted to go down to the rock pools in the gorge. The path down wound back and forth since the descent was pretty steep but we were eventually at the bottom by a little stream which we followed quite a while before reaching the pools. During the summer Max said that the water is, obviously, much higher and sometimes they’ll walk in the pools or they’ll walk above it. I was kind of glad for the low water because we were walking around on the rocks that would otherwise have been hidden in the water.

After close to 2 hours we finally reached the rock pools which were absolutely beautiful and now I suddenly wished it was summer because even though we wouldn’t have had the walk we did, the water would be warm enough for us to go swimming in the pools. The rock was smooth from all the water that has been flowing there for so long having created 3 pools. The water was cold and looked almost greenish from all the algae growing on the rock. We probably could’ve stayed there for a while just relaxing, listening to the water, and taking pictures but from there we hiked almost straight back up out of the gorge. It was exhausting and the sun beating down on us didn’t help but we finally made it to the top and stopped for a while to catch our breath. I realized as we were walking just why I lost my breath so quickly and it wasn’t because I’m insanely out of shape, it’s because of the altitude of Lesotho. Every country has its lowest point and Lesotho’s low point is the highest of all other countries; the entire country is mountainous.

Before long we were back at the lodge and not too long after, we squeezed onto a mini bus that brought us straight back to Maseru and when I saw squeezed I mean that more than a few people were standing and I was sitting next to a woman with a large box and a cabbage on her lap. From there, we got a taxi to take us to the border which we walked across before going to find a mini bus that would bring us to Bloem. It took a little while but it finally filled up and we were on our way. It dropped us off at a different station so we took a taxi to the Intercape station and finally we were there with a few hours to spare before the bus came. It arrived early around 12:10am and we gratefully got on for our 12 hour bus ride back to Cape Town.

I was back in my house around 3:30 and after showering and throwing my clothes in the laundry, I began studying for my first final for Writing and Editing in the Media which was the next day at 5pm. For most of the next 24 hours, besides eating and sleeping, I studied and around 4:30 on Thursday I made my way up to campus, terrified. Luckily, Faith told me that SC1 which was the venue for my exam meant Sports Center 1; otherwise I would’ve probably spent my exam time wandering campus looking for an academic building with SC in the name. The final itself I’m afraid to say, wasn’t as bad as I’d expected, which makes me nervous but whatever, it’s over and done with. Then after the exam I power walked down to Rondebosch to a restaurant where we had an early surprise birthday party for a friend.

The rest of the week went by without excitement. My next final is actually tomorrow but it’s for a History of Antisemitism and he gave us all the possible essay topics and I can pretty much write those without having even taken the class so I’ll study some today and tomorrow and be just fine. My last final, which is on the day before I leave, I’m significantly more worried about but I’ll have over a week to study for that once I’m done with my next final.

One last thing is that on Sunday I went to Oceanview to visit my homestay family from back in March when we spent the weekend. With the end of the semester craziness, finals beginning, and traveling, it took a while to get a date that worked for me and Shamir (who had stayed with me) but we finally worked it out. We took the train down and got to spend a few hours there with them at church and then at their home. The kids seemed excited to see us and our host parents were as wonderful as before. I printed out a bunch of pictures from when we had first come so they could have some memories which they seemed to really like. By the time we were ready to leave, they insisted on driving us back which was extremely nice because it meant that they needed to drive for about an hour and a half back and forth. It was sad saying goodbye to them, especially the kids since they didn’t comprehend why I wanted to hug them before I got out of the car. I hope though, that we’ll keep in touch with them; I have their address and it would be nice to even occasionally say hello.

Whew. That was exhausting. Sorry for saying (probably) way too much about Lesotho. It was just such a different and incredible experience, I tried to do it justice even though I don’t think I did. In just those 3 days, I took over 450 pictures. Still doesn’t do it justice. You may have to wait for pictures, going through them and picking out just a few is amazingly difficult and I do still have finals. In any case, that was my last real adventure anywhere beyond Cape Town. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to do some of the last things I wanted to do here in the next (less than) 2 weeks before I come home. I’ve truly had an incredible experience being abroad but I am definitely looking forward to coming home and giving you all hugs and showing off my excessive amount of pictures. Anyway, wish me luck on my last 2 finals and we’ll see what the next few days bring.

As always,
Sarah