Rethabile Masilo is a Mosotho in Paris. Mosotho is the singular form for someone from Lesotho and Rethabile's site On Lesotho is a good place to learn about that country in southern Africa known for its unique headwear and mountainous landscape. The closest we got to Lesotho was driving past Kokstad on the R617 but even there we could see the scenery give way from rolling hills to the more dramatic peaks and valleys of the southern Drakensberg.
"On Lesotho" led me to the blog of Greg Alder, a Peace Corps volunteer teaching English and learning about life and Sesotho (the language of the Basotho - that's the plural of Mosotho) in the village of T'soeneng. I admit I spent a good chunk of today reading through the past entries tracing Greg's transformation from a California parking attendant to a Basotho English teacher (with some breaks for surfing):
Almost thirty of our students live at school. They're referred to as the boarders or hostelers, and their hostel is right next door to my place. The boarders help me with my crops, let me play soccer with them. I take them down to the river to swim. We see each other all day, every day, and are becoming a quasi-family. At night they sing and dance; it's loud, but their voices are splendid. Some come over my place to help me with Sesotho, listen to my headphones, look at photos of my friends and family in America. "When you go back to America don't leave me," a girl said once. On Wednesday they all left me to spend Easter with their families. The unusual silence on that night kept me awake in bed for hours.
The comments section is quite good too featuring comments from "xoxo mom" and plentiful Kings vs. Lakers trash talk.
Rethabile also has a link to Africa's Bunny Hill wherein the Globe's intrepid Africa correspondent Stephanie Nolen discovers a truly African ski experience on the hills of Lesotho. (Another article by Nolen on Lesotho's textile industry appeared earlier in August) The piece is great and refers to a South African phenomenon we discovered on our recent trip:
The idea stuck with us, grew into a plan, a way to cope with an icy Johannesburg winter. The temperature dips only a wee bit below zero here, but since nothing is heated, and there are gaps beneath our doors big enough to pass the family Bible through, winter is a misery.
As an ex-South African friend wrote: "it's ridiculous. The houses are nice and cool in summer, but they seem to have a bit of a mental block about winter. All those stone floors and walls... Shiver..."
Nolen's travel writing is great and this reminded me of her evocative description of Ibo Island in Northern Mozambique - since the Globe is charging for the privilege you'll have to look at Google's copy. Its probably worth using this method to look up her recent articles on Darfur. Nolen was also recently interviewed on CBC Radio's The Current.