Brunch, new friends and lizards

I am sitting alone in my little lounge listening to the torrential rain outside as I write this.  It has been an interesting day – I have spent most of it away from Beautiful Gate but I have met some very interesting people, learned a lot about Basotho Culture and generally feel that it has been a worthwhile and fulfilling day.

The entrance to the cafe - so beautiful!

 Laury, Nthabiseng and I crossed the border first thing without any difficulty although he border official always seems to want to have a chat to me – today one of them gave me a Sotho lesson!  We headed off for Brunch at the Living Life Cafe that I had gone to with Bryan last Saturday. Such a lovely place and I was able to enjoy it even more this week as it was not a new experience.  I chose smoked salmon, poached egg and toast and fruit juice which went down well despite waking at 6.30 feeling a little dodgy.

At Living Life we met up with a couple of missionaries who had been working out here for some time in different places around lesotho. One was an American doctor and the other a New Zealander who shared a lot about how the earthquakes have affected her country and indeed her family. We shared stories of things they had experienced and things we were experiencing at Beautiful Gate.

As I was queuing up to pay, an Englishman was behind me and I asked him where he was from!  He now lives in Ladybrand and works in Lesotho but previously he came from Maidenhead and used to play in a rock band and his drummer used to live in Taplow!  What a small world huh? You travel literally to the other side of the world to come face to face with someone who used to live less than 5 miles away!  Sadly I never asked him his name – possibly due to the fact that he was wearing lycra cycling shorts and it was not pretty!

We had a little delay getting back over the border – just sheer weight of human traffic and this time i didn’t have to fill in the immigration form – sometimes you do, sometimes you don’t – it depends what mood the officials are in!

I was reading my book in ‘siesta time’ out in the sun when Benno called out to me. I was meant to be going to his and Wendy’s house for dinner at 5 but he was about to leave BG after a seminar he had held there so he thought he would save time and petrol and take me then!  A quick change was called for and a quick wash but within 5 minutes i was on my way to their house.  Wendy and I (who I only met less than 2 weeks ago when Ray was up) spent a lovely afternoon chatting about everything really and I learned a lot from her about life in Lesotho (She and Benno are from Canada and she is a teacher out here in the International school).  I was a little startled when a lizard walked across the floor in front of me but apparently that is quite common. He played a good game of hide and seek and we never caught him!    Another English lady who is working here as a missionary from Jo’burg and staying with them arrived too and then Benno. There was also a young 6^th form student from Wendy’s school who was doing some studying at her house (now that would be frowned upon back home!!!!!!) and all 5 of us sat down to a lovely fish supper. We had fish and rice and salad and butternut squash and my favourite thing – pitta bread stuffed with chakalakah!  I will be buying at least 1 tin of chakalakah to take home with me and I am wishing I had a 2^nd suitcase allowance at this rate. I cannot imagine how I am going to get everything back in my suitcase that I want to! I think i will be giving things away soon and come home with no clothes!

 Anyway we had a lovely evening which included 2 powercuts and Benno brought me home about 9.30 which enabled me to have a shower as i walked back to my house as, as previously mentioned the longed for rain has arrived again!  It has not rained since last Friday and the crops are so so thirsty. It was lovely to feel rain on my skin – my skin feels as parched as the ground.

me in the beautiful oasis of 'Living life' cafe

 Had planned to spend some time with the children today but that did not happen. It has been a good day though and a chance to make some new friends and learn about so many things. Wherever I go out here there are so many nationalities who gather together and we enjoy laughing about our differences as well as celebrating our similarities. It has made me realise how ‘English’ I am.  The man from Maidenhead summed it up today when he said ‘England is not necessarily a good place to live at the moment but it is the best place to be from’!  I like it!

Have a good rest of the weekend.....J x