Lesotho Women Power
Day 239
We arrived in the Drakensberg yesterday to glorious weather and a stunning view of the tallest mountains in Southern Africa. A large area of grasslands led out behind the backpackers lodge towards the mountains. The sunset across the grasslands, behind the mountains was stunning last evening, it was truly an African scene. The further east and north we travel the land looks more and more typical of what you imagine Africa to look like. As good as this all sounds we are off today to a new country, well only for a day but a new country nonetheless.
Hands up if you’ve heard of Lesotho. Anyone? Two hands up if you know its a country. Lesotho is landlocked by South Africa and often mistaken, by myself admittedly, as one of apartheid’s independent “black” states. Its wasn’t, and was never part of South Africa. Also where South Africa has seemed European at times Lesotho prides itself on being very African. Its also one of a few nations to lie entirely over 1000 meters. Unfortunately its also one of the worlds poorest nations and the HIV/AIDS crisis is hitting the country hard. Incredibly the life expectancy has fallen to 35 years. Today we are headed over the mountains and border for a look at a very rural and remote village in the “The Kingdom in the Sky”.
Jordana, myself and 3 others piled in to a mini van as our driver and guide Zee introduced herself. We began to drive through the rolling grasslands of the Drakensberg, a beautiful region of South Africa. Just over the mountains lay the small country of Lesotho. We turned off the tarred road and onto a rough dirt road, more like a path. After 20minutes of bumping along we reached the international border crossing. We were stamped out of South Africa and then drove off. “Zee where is the Lesotho customs?” I asked. “Naw, they don’t have any here, at other crossing yes, but not here.” I guess they figured it was a remote crossing and didn’t need it. I was disappointed, no Lesotho passport stamp for me.
On the Lesotho side of the mountains we drove down into a beautifully green valley. A river flowed beside us, one that Zee explained had flooded last week after a sudden heavy thunderstorm. She was here with a tour and had to drive 8 hours the other direction to another border post to return to South Africa. Today the skies were clear blue, I hoped it stayed this way. The road was more like a dirt track with never a meter of smooth section. We came to a river where some guys from the village were working on building up the riverbank that had washed away a few days before. They wanted money from Zee for crossing the river, she said no. “You are doing this for your community, not for money.” She was right, and she had a way of putting it that the guys eventually bought. Hell I bought it, Zee epitomized African women power. They agreed and eventually hoped in with us for the ride.
If Zee was a powerful woman then I’m not sure what to call the next African woman we met, she was superwoman. We pulled into a school in this tiny remote village. Boys played on the football pitch, girls sat around skipping and giggling in their school uniforms. That combined with the stunning valley setting of this village that the modern world has yet to touch made for a special day.
We climbed out of the van and were introduced to the principal of the school. She was a short lady with short hair and full of contagious energy and passion. She began to tell us the story of the school and the struggles they’ve had. She was a student here in the 60’s and actually helped build one of the blocks used for classrooms today. The kids back then helped build the school on there recess hour. How incredible is that? This was a community school, meaning that one man started the school in 1952 and it has been run by the community ever since. Being such a remote region the government schools were to far away for students to reach regularly, hence this was a very important learning centre. She showed us around the classrooms and led us into her office. We were all amazed at her enthused and the way the school was run. It was inspiring. Not only was the school run for kids education but she explained how adults from the village have come in for classes and to create traditional crafts to sell. The school was more of a community centre and it was an incredible thing. Lastly she was very grateful for our visit, explaining how the money from the tours has helped improve the schools immensely. For example they use blackboards now instead of ripping cardboard boxes to write lessons on. Maybe most inspiring was her passion to improve the life’s of each and every person in her community. She was full of ideas and action, she hated lazy people as she stated several times. God she made me feel guilty for not doing more to help out someone less fortunate. To say she was an amazing lady was an understatement.
Besides the principal the children made this a great visit. They posed for photos and were amazed to see them on our photos after. I decided to take a short video and played it back for them. They just freaked out. It was a an experience that left us both smiling as we left, sure the village faced problems but this was a true positive in Africa. From the school we hiked up a steep hillside where Zee showed us some ancient bushman paintings. Very interesting stuff, yet sad that it won’t be there for much longer. Erosion will soon wipe the painting clean, Zee estimates in 2 years nothing will be left.
We left the incredibly picturest village late in the day and raced back to the border. The post closed at 5pm, we made it and were soon back on a smoothly paved South African highway. I wished we spent more time in Lesotho. We watched another beautiful sunset that evening as storm clouds moved in. Soon we were hit by one of the most powerful thunderstorms I’ve ever seen. High wind, torrential rain and large hail. The power went out and we just sat around with the others from the tour talking about Lesotho. Even though we missed out on passport stamps in was still a fabulous day.
Tags: Africa, Lesotho, South Africa
Michael Coroneos
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