Heather's Adventures in Lesotho

CF is focusing its PMTCT interventions this year on two districts, Maseru and Thaba Tseka (TT). This week I had the opportunity to finally get out of Maseru and visit TT – about a four-hour trip from Maseru. The ride out there reminded me a lot of Peru, except that the roads were wider and paved most of the way. most of which is spent driving up and down switchback roads along the mountains. We left Wednesday after lunch and spent the night at Buffalo Lodge in Thaba Tseka proper. The next day we picked up box lunches (cold chicken and rice), the District HIV/AIDS Coordinator and left to visit two health centres. That was when the real adventure began. We drove up and down, back and forth, over the river and through the woods (okay, there aren’t really woods) even further away from Maseru and Thaba Tseka. What a sight! It was amazing to see villages literally built up on the foothills of mountains. What do people do for a living all the way out there? Why would they settle there in the first place? The first half of the day was not bad in terms of weather, but then the wind picked up, the temperatures dropped and I even saw my first snow! It was primarily just blowing through the air and not sticking to the ground, but it was snow nevertheless.

After visiting the two health centres we headed back to Thaba Tseka and spent the night at the Buffalo Lodge again. That night was pretty cold because the electricity kept going out. (I actually didn’t think that much of it until I woke up in the morning and my bed was significantly warmer than overnight. Then others at breakfast told me about the electricity and I put two and two together.) When we started the car the temperature outside registered at -8 degrees Celsius! We left first thing to get back in time for a meeting and only dropping by a hospital on the way.

(Unfortunately my camera batter was next to dead so I didn’t get many pictures. Since TT is a focus district, however, I’ll be out there semi-frequently in the coming months.)