Kelly and Jenny’s African Adventure: Part 2 - Lesotho or Life on the Left Side of the Road

After a few days in Cape Town, it was time for Jenny to see a different side of Africa, a side that I live.

After a short flight to Bloemfontein (thank goodness for Mango Air’s cheap flights) we picked up our rental car and prepared to head to Lesotho. Most cars here have manual transmissions, and since I don’t know how to drive a stick shift, Jenny got to experience driving on the left side of the road. I think she did a pretty amazing job, considering how nervous we both were about the situation. Actually, driving on the left was not the most difficult part. Our little VW Chico had no power steering under about 5km/hr, reverse was very tricky to find (but could also be found on accident!) and the blind spots were hard to adjust to. Add to that scores of people walking in the road, kombis passing on curves and people erratically slamming on their brakes, and you can begin to imagine the type of situation we were in.

We made it to the mall where we picked up some groceries and grabbed lunch before leaving town. While still in Cape Town, Jenny realized she’d made a bit of an oversight when packing and knew there was no way she’d be able to fit her growing number of possessions into the one checked bag she’d brought. After visiting a luggage store, she settled on “Iggy,” a giant, florescent orange suitcase that, honestly, she could’ve fit into. I should have known better, really. I should have told her it wasn’t a good idea. But at that point we still thought we’d be in rental cars, not public transport, for almost all of the rest of our trip. So it shouldn’t have been a problem. Yet another lesson learned. Iggy certainly has a personality all his own and made his presence known.

Our shopping excursion provided some much-needed relaxation and we were ready to drive to Lesotho. Jenny did a great job navigating South African highways and we arrived in Mafeteng just before dark. We parked the car in my compound, I introduced Jenny to my ‘M’e, hauled water and started dinner. I whipped up one of my favorites, Thai noodles (that’s right, I’m cooking Thai food in Lesotho) while we calmed our nerves with some wine and episodes of “Flight of the Concords.” Thanks to Jenny (and Will for burning them) for bringing me some new shows and movies!

The next day I took Jenny on a full walking tour (the only way to get a real idea of my day-to-day life) of Mafeteng. We started off at PSI/New Start where I introduced her to my counterpart Keletso and my supervisor ‘M’e Mosele. From there we visited the hospital and my library counterpart, Vikhile. We also stopped by Kingsgate High School, where I will hopefully be teaching life skills classes. Before doing some shopping in the taxi rank to get Jenny a Basotho blanket, we sampled makoneya (a traditional Basotho food; basically fried dough balls) and visited the Chinese food shop and Shoprite. For lunch, I took Jenny for a “plate,” a traditional Basotho meal of chicken or beef; papa (corn meal and water cooked until stiff), rice or samp (corn); beets; and carrot salad with ginger drink.

Despite rain off and on, we decided to try to drive up to Malealea Lodge during Jenny’s time in Lesotho. We made it, thank goodness, despite the poor condition of the road. It was nice to show Jenny the beautiful part of Lesotho, the part of life here that I don’t see very often but reminds me that this can be a great place to live. We spent time enjoying the scenery and took a pony trek with beautiful views of the mountains. Our guide spoke very good English and did a great job of pointing out the sites and villages during out tour.

Before we knew it, it was time to head to our next destination: Mozambique. But in typical Lesotho fashion, all did not go smoothly. Ever since my phone got wet earlier on in our trip, the battery had been losing charge quickly. My electricity went out for no apparent reason (usually it just goes out during storms or load shedding) leaving me with no phone and no way to charge our camera or MP3 player batteries.

We woke up very early, loaded up the car (Iggy and all) and began our long journey to Maputo, Mozambique. After experiencing driving in South Africa, we abandoned our original plan of renting a car in Nelspruit and driving to Maputo in favor of taking public transport. Brave souls, we are. At our final destination before the border, we unloaded Iggy, trudged through the gravel and up the road towards the taxi rank, visions of Mozambique beaches in our heads.

And that’s where I’ll leave you for today. Look for the exciting conclusion to Kelly and Jenny’s African Adventure: Part 3 – Beaches and Kombis and Kruger, Oh My!