Having almost finished my blog, it completely disappeared and despite being here with two technical guys it was clearly my fault that i lost it and i must have pressed a button! Nightmare!
Anyway I am going to start again!
The day started off as normal with playgroup where we set up a little craft room and did lots of sticking and gluing with feathers and pompoms. They had a great time.
I opted out of feeding the children as my house had enough help and I came back home to cook tonight's dinner so spaghetti bolognese was duly created. Meanwhile the Steves were suffering frustrations with the internet including someone putting their foot through the floor, cables being cut to the wrong lengths and downloads just not happening.
I had invited KB who as many of you know is a friend i met out here in 2006 and had seen him every year since i had been coming. He had arranged to come between 1 and 2 with his new wife of two months but i feared it may have been in Africa time.....I had also arranged to visit 'Jewels of Hope' which is a charity based at Beautiful Gate premise which helps youngsters make jewellery to raise enough money to give them an education. Just as i was taking the rest of the group into meet the director of the charity, KB and his wife (whose name i never actually mastered) arrrived, wearing their best clothes. It transpired that they had walked to visit us from the other side of the city a journey which had taken nearly 2 1/2 hours in over 30 degree heat.
We had a lovely time chatting to them and i gave them a tour of Beautiful Gate where they asked some really tricky questions which were challenging to both Anita and me. KB had been to Beautiful Gate many times before and had even helped us to decorate the chapel when i came with Emma in 2008.
Having walked all that way to see us, Steph, Linda and I took KB an this wife home which you may remember from previous blogs is a long way away and up the side of a mountain. I manouvered the mini bus up an unmade road dodging children and sheep not to mention pot holes and managed to stop before the road was blocked by another car. We had to go and say hello to KB's parents and i was reminded of how tough life is out here - the small house now holds KBs parents, his younger brother who is 10 and now the new Mr and Mrs KB. Amazing and thought provoking. We left there and i drove back through the city centre to give the girls a taste of City life in Maseru - it was a slalom of taxis, children and adults walking across the road whenever the mood took them and general chaos. There were people everywhere and it took us a good while to get to the shopping centre to buy much needed food supplies. Linda was experiencing mild road rage and i was impressed at myself at my 'hakuna matata' mentality. I was truly in Africa mode and I have just switched off all my western way of living - time is beginning to have no meaning. It reminds me of the first time I came when I wanted to know what time things were happening and I was told they would happen when they happened. now I hear myself saying exactly the same thing. Linda may ask -'what time are we doing such and such' and my reply is ......'whenever it happens'. This could be interesting when i get back to work next week!
We finally got to the supermarket and had a chilled out shopping experience buying enough food for the next couple of days including lots of juice as we seem to be drinking an awful lot of fruit juice to try and keep hydrated. We finally made it back to BG to find a group of people gathered outside our house with Steve. At first I didnt recognise them but then I realised that it was Nurse Moyo who was the BG nurse last year when i was here. She had called by to say hello - she now works in the mountains as a nurse for the government (despite them not being willing to renew her work permit when she worked here before!). Such a lovely lady and it was great to see her again - she said she will always remember me which was such a compliment. Having given the American children their presents (eventually) we managed to cook the spaghetti and settle down to dinner. The lightning and thunder was moving in, it had got oppressively hot and quite dark and we remembered that we still had washing out on the line..........
It was quite a relief to sit down to a lovely meal which we followed with chocolate! We spent the evening talking non stop about life the universe and everything! I attempted to blog before but now seem to have succeeded. i did manage to make a phone call (via Virgin who offer free smart calls) to Jo which was lovely. Having shown her wedding album to loads of people who knew her today, it was lovely to pass on all the messages of congratulations to her. it reminds me again of how small the world is. I have friends out here now who i would never ever had without beautiful Gate and BG is an international world in its own right. When i was up in Malealea the other day I was talking to a South African about an Australian (Alan) who we both knew. There was I an English girl, 5000 miles away from home talking to someone in the middle of nowhere about a mutual friend another 5000 miles away.
The evening is coming to an end - we have gone through death, work, family and life and it is great just to be able to sit and talk - something the Basotho are so good at but with Western busyness it is so much overlooked.
Time to turn in and hope the frogs don't croak too loudly tonight - they did a good job of keeping me awake last night!
Thanks for reading - sorry for meandering have been talking too!
Jenny x
The downloads completed last night :)
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