Kome Caves

We went to Kome caves this past weekend:

The drive was fairly NOT straight forward, but fortunately we didn't make any wrong turns, just that Google sent us down a rough terrain and we had to find a new route. We ended up getting some instructions from local village kids who directed us.

Also had to take some dirt road on the way there, and tested my driving skills (first time driving on left side of the road).

Kome Caves

Material these caves are made from - clay

The caves themselves looked surprisingly artificial.  It looked plastic!  But actually they used wood as a scaffold and put clay over it to make it look like little cave huts. 

Inside the largest cave

The tour guide provided some interesting history. The most interesting was how the caves were a refuge to hide against cannibals. Apparently toward the east were some cannibals and there is a place called the gap of traditional dress, which was so named because that's where the cannibals hang all the traditional dress of the girls they ate. And the bottle caps twinkle in the breeze.  Another landmark is the mountain of trapping. That was named for the place where cannibals set traps for their prey. When we asked why they eat humans and not animals, the tour guide said it's because humans are slower. O_o

Kome caves are named for the first person who discovered them. Mr. Kome was flying away from a war when he discovered the caves in 1824.  The cave houses built there are still the same houses built then. And now the ppl living there are descendants of the lion, leopard, and cat clans while the kids are in the 6th generation.

National plant of Lesotho - Spiral Aloe

There is also a hill named the hill of drowsiness.  That's because Mr. Kome is a traditional medicine man and he put traditional medicine there so that when enemies reached that cave, they would fall asleep and when they woke up, they forgot where they were going and only where they were from.  So they just return to where they came from.

Afterwards, we went to Teyateyaneng (TY for short), where we saw traditional weaving take place. Apparently each of these large blankets take 4 weeks to make!  The ladies take one threat at a time and place it one on top of each other. These are really expensive, so I only got osme coasters for souvenir. 

Hiking with the Hash House Harriers to Lion head Mountain

Start of our hike:

Can you see the lion head profile?

Yay! Top of the lion head!

Looking out into Maseru (Lesotho capital)

Little kids amused by the photos LK took.

Back to the school where I was ceremoniously initiated into the Hash House Harriers!  Involved some drinking....of water.

Baylor COE

Baylor Clinic of Excellence:

This is where I'll be working for the next year!  Isn't it a beauty?

Visitor Doctor's Office (you can find me here!)

Classroom

This is the Queen Mamohato Hospital next door - it's so beautiful and new! It even has a helicopter pad, but unfortunately no helicopter yet because it's built with the intention of expanding in the next 10 years.

View from the clinic

Look how beautiful this clinic is!

Speaker from Beautiful Dream Society told real stories of human trafficking victims.  If it's too good to be true, it's not true. 

Buying a car, getting a work permit

What a pain it is to buy a car. My coworker LK is trying to buy a car from another coworker, everyone agrees to the transaction, but the actual change of ownership involves getting a bijillion documents  (certified passport, letter with witnesses and lawyer stamps, etc), going places, getting in line at each, being told you don't have the right documents, getting in line again, and getting redirected...and maybe repeat another 5 times. 

We were told our driver would know where to go, so he dropped LK off at the transport office, but after a long wait in line, the person wrote down the following places she needed to go before she could come to this office:

1) Lra  (government complex + form)
2) Interpol  (police headquarters )    certify letter with 2 witness
3) Roadworthy  (foso testing station)   car inspection
4) CID (pitso ground)
5) Traffic office (maseru)

Well, if it looks like gibberish to you, it's gibberish to me too. 

When I asked what we needed to get our workers permit, JB (seasoned doctor here) said we needed to get our documents sent in by the driver, and then after 3 weeks do the following:

1) Pick up file in one room of a building,
2) Pay in another room
3) Back to first room
4) Then lady with type writer will type something
5) Go to the police to pay for card
6) Cross street to white trailer to take photo and print card.

It's like the amazing race!.. but not so amazing. Anyhow, no more complaining about getting orientation stuff done at Baylor!

Ladybird and the stamp fiasco

First trip to South Africa! - to Ladybird for their farmer's market and for CY's haircut!  Oh...what an unexpected adventure!

Today we followed another car of expats to Ladybird, South Africa because CY was getting a haircut from special asian-hair-cutting people in Ladybird that are non-existent in Lesotho - well, in addition to checking out their farmer's market, meet with other expat friends to eat at Living Water, and check out a Chinese store. 

However, when we got to Ladybird, which might have been 30 min from the Lesotho-South Africa border, CY realized we only got one stamp, not the two stamps required.  And these immigration/border stamps were so important, that we called someone at the COE to tell us what to do, and they said not to try to cross back to Lesotho or we'll get arrested.  So apparently, when you reach the border and exit Lesotho to the no-man's land, you have to get an exit stamp. Then when you cross from no-man's-land to South Africa, you have to get an entrance stamp.  But we totally missed the entrance stamp because for both, you have to park your car, physically come out, line up, and get a stamp. So one of the influential/head bosses at the clinic had to drive to the clinic, meet us, and explain to the police men what was going on, so we could get our SA-entrance stamp.  Although we had made it in time for CY's haircut appointment, by the end of this stamp fiasco, the haircut salon had closed, so we just had time to go to Living Water.

The Living Water farmer's market, really was more like a one-room selling fair.  It had some cool stuff, but I wouldn't really call it a farmer's market. But the restaurant itself was really cool.  When you go in, it feels just like someone's home. And the food was delicious!  I had their long-cooked chicken pot pie (yup! worth the wait!).  

Quiche, milk tarts, and apple tarts at the Living Water "farmer's market"

Living Water restaurant - love the ambiance!

Chicken pot pie, onion marmalade, and salade

Afterwards, not sure if it's because it was because it was a Friday night, but crossing the border required another hour-long wait in line, and then maybe another hour to get all those stamps.  What a pain!  Man, probably gonna be a while before we try to cross the border again. 

Arrived in lesotho!

After 36 hrs of 4 planes, 3 countries, finally arrived in Lesotho! (Houston-->dc-->accra, ghana-->Johannesburg overnight--> maseru, lesotho). By a stroke of luck, i got placed in business class from dc to Johannesburg bc plane was overbooked. Yay! Miles of leg room, flat bed, 4 course meals...my chair even had a massage option! Probably first and last. Haha.

Annoying thing happened in jo-burg tho- I was told I could only have 1 bag and not the two they had checked in Houston....what?! Why?! I had taken my bags all this way already! Ah well....should be used to this unexpected shelling out of money by now.

View of Lesotho from the plane

Airport. The minivan is a "Combie" - Lesotho version of a very compact bus and crazy drivers

View from outside the Lesotho Mashoeshoe Airport

Thank God I arrived safely in Lesotho though and had no issues finding the person picking me up. Funny when I asked how he recognized me, he said he just knows the BIPAI ppl now.  Haha.

So he took me to the bipai clinic (center of excellence or coe) and met some of the clinic bosses and ppl of influence. Also got 1 minute to get on a computer to quickly send a message to family that I was alive! Woot!

BIPAI COE (center of excellence clinic)

Then we went to get some groceries for the day...but since the place I was staying wasn't really on the way to the grocery store,we got stuff before going to see the place...which was kind of a mistake bc it was definitely lacking a few things. ..like garbage cans, pots, soap, adapters....but whatever. Also cuz it was so new didn't even have the stove connected or dead bolts -which was quickly remedied. Despite all this complaining, all in all it was great :D. New, clean, has clean and hot water, gated community, guard, my own place with 2 bedrooms (come visit!!!! ;P). I was just happy to find some milk. Mmmmmm...milk!  

My house!

Also found out my rent will go towards supporting the Beautiful Gates Orphanage. Yeah! Here's their website: Beautiful Gardens

But no internet yet...and not for a few days so the first few nights I felt really lonely and homesick :'(. Made worse by the fact that I was living several miles from my coworker...so no one to hang out with. Maybe ill make some local friends, but there's a slight fear of venturing out since I'm kind of in the middle of nowhere.

Saying Bye to Friends

Still haven't totally settled in that I'll be going to Lesotho for a full year.  Maybe it's cuz we've been to so many weddings these past couple of weeks (DU, AS, TK, VE).  I've always wondered how I'll be living abroad for longer term (1 yr in global health speak really is quite short). First went to Africa (Sierra Leone) for one month, the next time two months, then the last trip was three months.  Now it's a year. Well, I'll see how I tolerate it. The last couple of days have been a lot of good byes. It's a nice reminder of all the wonderful people I was fortunate enough to meet in the last two years:

HUGS small group and remix!

Gonna miss my family:

People keep on asking me am I excited?...I don't know...it's a mixture. I used to be super excited, but now I'm mostly sad. :( So ambivalent...