Travel to Lesotho, South Africa.

Country/Town Visited: Lesotho, South Africa
Date of stay: April 2011
Where you stayed: Lumelang Guesthouse (Pitseng)
Tour or pre planned: Pre-planned visiting friends 

Our destination was Lesotho, known as the Kingdom of the Sky. It’s a tiny country, landlocked in the remote mountains of South Africa. To get there we drove from Johannesburg to Lesotho. 

Touching down in Johannesburg, I felt an incredible mix of emotions, unlike any I have ever felt before in my life. An uneasiness about landing in the city deemed “the rape capital of the world”, and an excitement about entering a completely foreign, exotic continent which I had only dreamed about.  Our friends had arranged a ride from the airport and we were met by man wearing a Scottish soccer jersey. He was the one to drive us, through what I believed to be the gauntlet of rapists, muggers and robbers that my wild imagination had constructed on the long 14 hour flight from Brisbane. Instead we were greeted by a beautiful smile and this was my first experience of the sincerity and kindness that the Basotho people completely encompass. We drove the entirety of the 7 hour journey accompanied by beautiful Sesotho Gospel Music. The only word to describe the experience: surreal. 

We arrived late at night and fell asleep quickly, only to awake to an incredible 360 degree view of mountains completely and utterly surrounding us (see image below). The feeling of which, I can only describe as “protected”. My anxieties and fears were gone as the sun rose over the landscape. The mountains around us felt Strong, Wise and Beautiful.  

The Sesotho formal greeting is. “Le Gay? Ki Tang. Where are you? I am here.” It is all about being present... The first Basotho person I met that morning, was a woman named Me Mapaballo. She greeted me with a warm welcoming smile, adorned with a giant bucket of water upon her head. As she passed it to me, I realised how heavy the bucket was and I dropped it to the floor, nearly knocking the entire bucket over. She cheerfully laughed at how I could not carry the water like she could. Me Mapaballo and I quickly became friends. I was surprised to learn that she was a Grandmother. One of the many grandmothers who help run the community and take care of the many orphans (including the children to her own children, who have passed away because of HIV – 1 in 3 people in Lesotho have HIV, making it the highest incidence of the disease in the world). She is also the first person that I have ever met that is HIV positive.

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