When opportunity knocks in Lesotho- You should ALWAYS take it. That’s what I’ve learned over the past few months living in Ha Selomo. So when one of my Form E students, ausi Thato, came up to me yesterday as I was leaving school, and asked me if I was going to come and visit her family in “upper” Ha Selomo today- I said, “Why not!” Sure, I had a massive amount of laundry waiting for me at home, but it was a gorgeous day… And after a long week, an afternoon of hiking sounded like a good idea.
My village, Ha Selomo, is actually made up of multiple smaller villages that cover a VERY large area in the surrounding mountains. The largest and most prominent part of the village, called “lower” Ha Selomo, has the main road in the region running through it (don’t get too excited, it’s still a dirt road ridden with potholes, ditches, and the like). This is also where I live (luckily enough!), with my host family. Lower Ha Selomo sits on a ridge line with the Maluti Mountain range as a backdrop… But just across the ridge that looms over lower Ha Selomo, lies “upper” Ha Selomo. As it turns out, there is a LOT more to Ha Selomo than I ever knew. My village extends from “my” ridge to the mountain behind/next to it!
Thato and I took off hiking, and along the way found some amazing vistas and outlooks over lower Ha Selomo (my part of the village), and the surrounding villages! Everywhere we went, I bumped into more of my students. They were all SO excited to show me their villages, homes, and families! The entire outing gave me a huge appreciation for how far some of my students walk to/from school everyday.
Thato, with the Maluti mountains in the background!
Lesotho is such an gorgeous country! For those of you who thought there weren’t mountains in Africa- I live in them! :)
Basotho man, with his house and son in the background.
As it turns out, our beautiful day turned into an afternoon of MUCH NEEDED rain. It honestly didn’t matter though… Thato and her cousin, Lerato, made us a delicious dinner, and on the way home we acquired a hoard of my students who joined us on the 1.5 hour walk back to lower Ha Selomo. :) It was a lot of fun, and I loved getting to know Thato and my other students better!
With Love from Lesotho… –M.E.
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