Three days in Lesotho

So I should preface this by telling all that don't know- Lesotho is a country. I didn't know before I came to South Africa. It's small and exists inside of South Africa, like Swaziland.

We went there and like every new place, I perked up and just tried to absorb as much as I could. There are lots of people that live in South Africa and work there, and vice versa. People need to get their passports stamped each time they leave and return. You can imagine how quickly people go through passports that way.

So often here, things are so much the same but just that little bit different. Like, the lighting in shops is often much more dim (than the crazy burn your eyeballs fluorescent light in the States.) There weren't walls preventing anything interesting from being seen.

Anyway, we were looking for a petrol station and took a wrong turn. Boy, was that the most interesting wrong turn I have ever been a part of! We were in the midst of this market, with the shacks held together with tarp and rope and sticks and bricks on top of the tarp to hold the cardboard or tin slab roofs into place. The roads were uneven and some were just food, it's pretty common to see corn frying on little grills, and fruit stands. Men were standing around wearing balaklava's. I think that's what they are called-the masks that have holes for your eyes and mouth. It was late afternoon and not cold at all!

One booth had snake skins and birds hanging from ropes and random leather bits. It looked like nothing from an animal was wasted. Boxes and boxes were filled with what looked like bird nest material. I had no idea what most of the stuff was so I was straining my head to look. Then the few cars in front of us stopped and there didn't seem to be any way to turn around. I realized the radio was on, and I was missing out on the called out conversations in Sesoto, the language they speak there. So I turned it off and rolled with window down a little bit to just be a part of the world. A couple of nice guys motioned for us to roll down our windows and gave us direction about how to get where we needed to go. Thank you Lord for them. With people walking all around us, and with how narrow the street was, we were stuck!

The next few nights we stayed in a Pastor's house that has been empty for a few months. The lovely people there cleaned it all up for us. We were actually across the street from the residence of the American ambassador! I did want to say Hi, but I resisted the urge. We had such a blessed time there, and it was all over much too quickly.

Some other quick impressions- Taxi drivers honked their horns all the time! They just drove with their hand on the horn. They especially honked when they saw us. These were actual taxi's, not like in SA where it's a million people crammed into a van. The roads were really nice and smooth. (except for that market street!) Last but not least, it's warm and sunny and people are wearing coats and insisting that winter is coming. At church today I was wearing a short sleeved shirt and someone said, "Wow, you are dressed for Summer!" And I said, "Well, to me, it still feels like Summer!"