Well what a day - we started off by going to church at 8am! Unheard of for the Dobsons! I have to admit I fell asleep but i think it was a good service - we went to Victory Church in the Cinema in the Shopping mall. WE went early for a couple of reasons - first so that we could have the rest of the day to go to Malealea (more details later) and secondly, I was told that ifi went at that time I would have a chance of seeing some of the children from Beautiful Gate who had moved on. After the service Kristen rushed us outside to see the children come out of Sunday school. First I saw Refiloe who had been the little girl who had been on oxygen at BG when she first arrived and it was wonderful to see her fit and healthy, then my little Thaboho emerged who was in a playful mood and was hiding behind everyone and then came and played with me - that almost made me cry. Then the little boy who i had first met on my very first visit to BG came out and gave me a huge hug and that was it! I was gone, the bottom lip wobbled and I just wanted to cuddle him forever. They looked so fit and well and happy, it made me feel a lot better.
We headed off to Pick n Pay the Supermarket and did some shopping for the next few days which was fun - taking men shopping in England is bad enough - let alone in Africa. I think we bought all we needed but I suspect it will be the girls going on our own next time (I hope so anyway!!!!).
We came back home and put the shopping away and then headed out to Malealea - a place I had never been to before. It was about an hour and a bit away and we got a chance to see what i call 'The real Lesotho'. Lots of rondevals (round houses), shepherds, mountains and donkeys. Linda, Steph and Steve loved it and it was a real pleasure to see them experiencing the Africa I love.
I had never managed to make it to Malealea before purely because on other occasions Bryan and Anita had either just been or were going the week after I left but fortunately Bryan gave us his Sat Nav so we made it without difficulty - apart from the last 7 km which were unmade roads and interesting corners. Nothing compared to to the roads that Craig and I had encountered in 2006 but the boys enjoyed the driving. We stopped for a picnic on the way which we had prepared earlier and had to find a place where we were not going to be visited by children from the surrounding area who had arrived unexpectedly and looked longingly at our water which i gave away as i had a bit of a soft heart!
Malealea was amazing, or as i told Eli when i got home, 'it was very nice'. We had a tour or the village by a local girl and we learnt so much about Basotho life. We were taken into local houses and we even met the chief who happened to be a lady. It was great to learn about the culture firsthand from a genuine local who had been brought up in the village.
Back home we had to cook at Anita's house as yesterday our gas canister was stolen from outside our house so we could not cook in our own house. Steph and I made a rather lovely chicken and pasta dish and then we indulged in cheese and biscuits (terribly English) before heading down to the Geurinks house and having a sing song. I am now sitting outside in a thunderstorm with torrential rain trying to write this blog while there is a lot of laughter around. If this blog makes no sense please blame Bryan as the hilarity around the table is quite raucous. We have had a lot of laughs today and I really feel that our 'eclectic' team has bonded. We are ready to start work tomorrow. There will be more laughter and more tears i feel sure and our day will start at 8 am tomorrow when Steve and Dobbo who have been renamed as Tweedlesmart and tweedlesmarter will be despatched to the office and will try and improve the wifi connection and us girls will head to the children.
More tomorrow - but as I write this is really is 'chucking it down' and we are contemplating how to get back to our house which is only 100 yards away but we could drown at this rate!
As i have said many times today.......Tsemaea Hantle... go well
Jenny x
Driving in the mountains was awesome
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