This pano is of the inside of a traditional Basotho hut where Rebecca and I slept a night. We shared the hut with a couple of birds all night, who took shelter from the rain and cold. Located deep within the mountains, the village of Ribeneng is only accessible by horse or on foot.
This pano was taken in a remote village accessible only by horse or on foot, deep in the heart of Lesotho. The hut with the two white chairs just outside the front door is the one we stayed in overnight.
This past weekend, Nate and I traveled to the tiny landlocked country within South Africa called Lesotho (pronounced Le-soo-too). The trip was nothing less than a real African adventure!
Called “The Kingdom in the Sky,” Lesotho is a spectacularly rugged, mountainous country populated by a hardy people, the Basotho, who live in isolated communities too small to be called villages. Having never been colonized, Lesotho boasts a culture mostly free of Western influence. Even in the more urban areas, of which there are very few, the Basotho wear traditional heavy wool blankets tied at the neck, muck boots and funny-looking Basotho hats worn by tribesmen in the more remote regions of the country.
We stayed at Malealea Lodge, a unique model of guest accommodation in that it helps the locals in many social projects. Among the ways that it has had an impact on the community, the lodge helps raise money for the local school; hires and educates local guides for treks; runs an HIV/AIDS project, an irrigation project and a soil erosion project; offers skills development training and an adult education program; and more. There are numerous walks, drives, four-wheel-drive trails and horse treks from the lodge, which take guests to scenic waterfalls, lovely mountain expanses, ancient cave paintings and isolated villages.
We stayed overnight at the lodge one night before heading on a two-day adventure on horseback. Early Friday morning, we saddled up and, along with our guide Tsepho, rode six or seven hours deep into the mountains, crossing beautiful rivers, passing through tiny villages and stopping a few times to stretch our legs and take in the stunning scenery and expansive sky on what was a gloriously sunny day. It took us both a while to adjust to riding and to learn our horses—and to trust our horses, as some of the descents were hair-raising for sure. I wasn’t so sure about my horse, with a name like Judas…
Our journey ended at a remote village where we deposited our things in a traditional Basotho hut and were taken on foot by another local guide to the base of Ribeneng Falls. That night, we satisfied our trekker’s appetite over candlelight with a portion of the camping food we had packed and climbed into our sleeping bags at 7:30 p.m., as it was already pitch-black dark. Among the sounds interrupting our sleep during the night was a majestic thunderstorm rolling through the mountains, with thunder cracks lasting several solid minutes in length.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Staying in the village was definitely the real deal in terms of experiencing Africa! The villagers at Ribeneng share life with pigs, chickens, newborn puppies and a donkey roaming around, all of which have to be shooed out of the huts from time to time! There is only one outhouse for the whole village, we had to purify the water we collected from a nearby spring and, no joke, we smashed a couple of pretty big spiders in our hut that night! Proudly, the village rooster announced the morning at first break of dawn, right as we had finally managed deep sleep.
We awoke to a drizzly morning and saddled up, heading home on a different route requiring our horses to navigate treacherous trails and steep ascents and descents down to riverbeds. It rained on us for a few hours, and there were moments of true excitement (or rather fright!) when our horses encountered and had to calculate their steps though particularly muddy or slippery patches. The scenery became even more lush and beautiful with the rain, so the feeling of being chilled to the bone by the wetness was something that didn’t discourage us too much.
After stopping to see San Bushman cave paintings, we arrived back at the lodge where we enjoyed hot showers, the nightly performance by the choir and band formed by the locals to entertain lodge guests, a home-cooked dinner by the fireplace and hours of conversation with a couple we met from the Czech Republic.
Overall, our adventure in Lesotho was a great getaway of a trip. We highly recommend Malealea Lodge to anyone and the overnight horse trek and stay in the village to the adventurous among you! We promise you’ll have fun either way.
We hope you enjoy a taste of the sights and sounds we enjoyed in this beautiful, special place. 3D panos of the village, our hut and the local band performing at the lodge are forthcoming.
It’s a little crazy that we can now count on 10 fingers the weeks that we have left here in South Africa. In these final two months, with so much still to wrap up before we can begin to feel closure, it’s tempting to kick into high gear and do, do, do in order to get it all done. Our calendars and task lists these days are a little overwhelming…
Given this, I’ve been thinking a lot recently about an important concept that Allan and Annie stressed at our team orientation back in August: the concept of “people over task.” Not task over people. This notion challenges how I was used to operating in the U.S. I love checking things off a To Do List and feeling that sense of satisfaction. But in adjusting to life in Africa, I feel like I’ve learned a healthy appreciation for being relational over being task-oriented. Sure, I’m always going to be task-oriented to a certain degree given my personality, but here, my pace has slowed down; and while before, I would have become impatient with people being late or church lasting hours on end or a short drop-in visit turning into an whole afternoon at someone’s house, now I’m used to it and these things don’t trigger that same sense of impatience within me. This adjustment hasn’t always been easy and certainly didn’t happen overnight, but I’m thankful for the chance to have experienced it this year in the context of a different culture.
We’ve had Will’s friends Tim and Julian with us this week, eagerly joining us in much of the work we do in the township. Tim remarked to me and Nate the other day something along the lines of “how do you guys handle the deal with time here?,” meaning how do we handle what we like to refer to as “Africa time.” This is an expression we use to refer to the fact that things here usually start 15 minutes late, that plans are usually changed last-minute and that, to operate without being constantly frustrated, one has to continuously roll with it, whatever “it” is, with a positive attitude. Much of “Africa time” is centered around relationships, especially in the township where being relational is everything. You simply won’t get anything done unless you slow down and get to know people and develop flexibility as a lifestyle. It’s simply a matter of priorities, too: intentionally placing relationships over projects or goals.
While here, we’ve made friends with so many wonderful people at the Powerhouse. It’s amazing the community that we feel so at home with here; and as I ponder how that has happened so naturally over the last year, I know it not only has to do with the fact that we are brothers and sisters in Christ and so share a bond that spans nationality and race, but with the fact that we have allowed the “people over task” concept to begin to affect the way we live.
As I contemplate heading home soon and feel tinges of nervousness about getting sucked back into bad habits and old ruts, I pray that this new way of living will not be threatened by the felt-need to be, or to appear to be, busy all the time. Why we Americans feel this, I don’t know. And while I’ll admittedly always glean that feeling from satisfaction of “getting ‘er done” and checking off the check list, I want to continue to place people and relationships ahead of tasks needing to be accomplished, with God’s help. To our friends back home: you’re welcome to help us on this, too!
We welcome any thoughts, comments or ideas you may have about how to navigate this topic.
“Learn from the people. They will feel valued, and your presence will be a positive experience for them. Whatever else you accomplish will be a bonus.”—Duane Elmer, Cross-Cultural Servanthood
Instead of canceling class today (since almost everything else it closed today) we decided to go out and cover the presidential election. We broke up into three groups of three and spread out to various polling stations in the township. It was a lot of fun and great to see so many people out voting. All day the polls had long queues, which close tonight at 9 p.m. I hope we’ll be surprised by the results (which should be in a few days), but I fear that despite all the controversy, Zuma will become the next president. See some of the photos the students took below. Thank you again to all who donated cash or cameras to make the class possible!
Also, I couldn’t help but take some photos myself. I uploaded them to a service that I recently discovered called Demotix. It is a citizen-journalism website and freelance photo agency. Professional freelance journalists, passionate amateurs and ordinary citizens can upload their photographs to Demotix and share them with the community of news-addicts. Demotix then takes the best uploads and licenses them to newspapers, networks and websites around the world using their industry contacts. It’s like the people’s wire service. And the best part is that if they sell, I’ll make some money! You can see my photos here.
Another song, led by our friend at the Powerhouse Vincent Mabena, affectionately called “Little Vincent” or “Vince” so as to distinguish him from Pastor Vincent.
Thanks go out to Brenda Leeuw for translating the lyrics loosely into English from Zulu.
Hamba, hamba vangeli
(Go gospel, go)
Hamba, hamba vangeli
(Go gospel, go)
Hamba vangeli elisha (Go new gospel)Intsibi edihe zinye (x6)
(Iron sharpens iron)Hamba vangeli elisha (Go new gospel)
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
I’ve been spending a good amount of time lately working on a story about the refugees from Zimbabwe living in Mamelodi. I’ve gotten to know a few people really well, and one of them is a man named Vugani and his family. His story will be featured soon, so I won’t go into the details now, but this past week Vugani needed to renew his permit that allows him to be here. Pretty much every six months Zimbabweans (and other refugees from Mozambique and elsewhere) have to go downtown to the Home Affairs office and renew their paperwork that allows them to be here under asylum. It’s an ordeal to say the least that is filled with corruption and frustration that becomes a very demeaning experience. And it’s not inside the office where the problems occur; it’s waiting outside, where people camp out the night before to get in line, where things get hectic. (Check out Will’s post as has more details and he shares his reason to be there as well.)
Women are separated into their own line, which is pretty civil though long and crowded. The men are in their own area where a system created by street thugs has evolved to get people into separate lines with about 10 in each line. Each opportunist promises to get those in his line(s) to the front of the queue, but only if you pay him first. Then he bribes the guards to let in his people (or he can take off with your money leaving you to come back the next day and try again). They only let a certain number of people in each day so if you don’t pay one of these guys, your chances are pretty slim that you’ll get in. The money these guys make compared to the average working man’s salary is astronomical, and they’ve usually pocketed it before 6 a.m.! The worst part is that those people waiting in line are already struggling to survive, many of them without work with families to support both here and back in other countries. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention the police batons and belts that are employed while attempting to control the crowd.
It wasn’t safe for me to walk around in the open with my camera but I did get some shots while we waited in the Vito. Shooting through a closed window in virtually no light with moving people and slow shutter speeds was a challenge, but I have to give credit to the Canon 5D Mark II at 2000 ISO and higher; it performed wonderfully. I also thank God that He ordered my steps, as I headed into the experience without much idea what I’d be getting into! But as I often pray, God showed me what He wanted me to see. And despite only being able to shoot from the Vito, I was able to get some shots of Vugani which will add to his story. Please note that some names have been changed in order to protect their identity.
The photos were taken over two different mornings starting before dawn until around 8 a.m. The last day Will and I drove through downtown Pretoria checking out the early morning sights, which were fabulous!
We continue to love worship at the Powerhouse. Click the link below to hear a song from a recent Sunday.
Special thanks to Gloria Nyathi for helping translate the lyrics from Tsonga.
Loko mi hi vona hi te tani
(We are what we are)
Hi yena Yehova
(It is because of the Lord, Jehova)Hi sasekile ma hi vona
(We are beautiful as you can see)
Hi katekile ma hi vona
(We are blessed as you can see)
Hinkwaswo ka swona
(All of these)
I tintswalo ta Yena
(Are the grace of the Lord)
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Powered by WordPress and designed by Wpdesigner.