Seepage and other things...

Tomorrow will be the start of our second month in Lesotho. If our first month is anything to go by, we will be in for an amazing year! We have just returned from another fabulous weekend away. We headed off somewhat early on Saturday morning. We were planning to be in Katse Dam for the 11 o’clock tour, this meant rising at 5:30. Katse is the first of the dams in the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. It is in the centre of the country, deep within the Central mountain range, at 2000 metres and 4 ½ hour’s drive from Maseru. Matt couldn’t contain his excitement, a real test for him and Jeepy and lots of interesting dam facts!! He proceeded to tell me all about the ones he had already read up on, on our rather long journey! Despite this, the journey was spectacular. Some of the views even stopped Matt talking! On our way up, we crossed the Mafika Lisiu Pass (3090 metres) only to find three vans of party goers dancing to trance music at the viewpoint. As we looked on disapprovingly we realised that amongst this group were our teacher friends from Wales and the director of Dolen Cymru, Jon. He has been visiting Lesotho this last week and we had spent a couple of days with him in Maseru whilst he familiarised himself with the country. He certainly looked like he was finding his feet at the pass!

Matt and I slunk off 50 metres down the road to the Bokong Nature Reserve and had a sedate cup of tea overlooking our first view of the Katse reservoir. To give you some sense of scale, it was not until after a further 1 ½ hours driving that we actually caught sight of the magnificent dam. We caught up with the party busses at the visitors centre in time for the tour. Matt was most interested in the presentation about numerous facts and figures and I’m sure he will share with you if you come to visit. Please don’t let that put you off coming! The tour included a walk within the dam wall itself. Once we were snugly inside, we were introduced to “seepage”. The tour guide appeared to be trying to reassure us that the water coming out of every nook and cranny was normal seepage... although not everybody was convinced! After the tour, we parted from the party and headed to Katse Lodge for lunch, followed by a stroll around the botanical gardens (where we discovered the cure for cancer) then watched the sun set with a lager in hand.

Today we woke at a more leisurely time and headed back to Maseru. We stopped off at the Bokong Nature Reserve again for hike to a nearby waterfall. Given that we were out of breath just from walking up the few steps from the visitor centre to the car park we did well to walk for two hours at 3000 metres. We returned to Maseru after stopping off in Leribe for a cup of tea and a chat with three of the Welsh teachers. We met up with Jon and Helen and headed off to our favourite spot to watch yet another spectacular sunset. The trip was far more successful than one we attempted in the week, when it was raining and the traffic meant we missed the sunset.

I got back home after a pizza (I cunningly ordered the mustard one... they have some amazing flavour combinations here!) and have just spoken to my grandmother who was busy celebrating her 90^th birthday with cake and champagne! Technology is a wonderful thing!

let there be light...

After waiting for two weeks for the landlord and then a further week for the hospital maintenance staff to sort it, I elected to sort out our kitchen light myself. I don’t own a tester here so there was a small calculated risk involved but without any injury/electrocution we now have light in our kitchen! All that is left is to put a lick of paint here and there. Earlier this week I had given up on sorting the dripping tap in the bathroom. I made an attempt to find the isolator for the water mains, which was an experience. I deduced that there must be some pipes behind a large piece of board in our downstairs toilet. I removed this to find a space shared with our neighbours. I could actually see through a vent into their downstairs toilet! In this space there were indeed some pipes and a tap but also several nests, some skeletons and a decomposing bird – lush! I turned the tap to find that I had successfully turned off the water, but only downstairs. I looked up in the space to find another tap further up. I donned a white coat and clambered into the space, dead bird and all. I was about 2 inches short of reaching the other tap... most frustrating! Kit came home to find me in a very dirty white coat, and nothing else! It turns out I couldn’t access the base of the tap in the bathroom anyway without removing tiles and plaster... not a job for the Leatherman! I might make yet another request from the administration at the hospital but am not going to hold my breath!

Watch this space for more news and pictures as we have planned yet another trip this weekend... but no horses this time!!

Falling from a great height

We have had an eventful weekend and are now are aching in funny places!! Friday evening was our second Sesotho class. Progress feels slow, but is being made. After greetings (which we missed) and body parts, we moved on to classes of nouns. In Sesotho there are 14, all with different concords (for constructing sentences) and different plural prefixes! I was most interested to learn that in Sesotho there are 3 different words to refer to someone without using their name, translated to "so and so". This apparently allows you to talk about someone in their presence without them knowing!

We started Saturday morning with our second game of tennis. I didn't lose as convincingly this time! More bizarrely, though was that our game was watched from a tree above by a vulture. I felt quite tired by the end of the game, but didn't realised I looked that shattered!! After tennis we returned home to chat to friends having just woken in the UK and about to have dinner in Australia on Skype. Technology is fabulous.

After "Skyping" we popped to Ladybrand across the border with plans to luncheon and pop into some shops. Lunch was really lovely but all the shops were shut on a Saturday afternoon. We therefore came back to Lesotho and played some cards. Although Ladybrand is only a 15 minute drive away this trip did require 30 minutes at the border control and 4 stamps each in our passports! I understand the formalities can be simplified once we have our residence visa for Lesotho.

Saturday evening we were invited to the Scrases for the evening. They are a couple, both doctors, who too have come over from Wales to work here. They were most welcoming and hosted a lovely evening of food, wine and chats.

Now the tale turns to Sunday and our experience of pony trekking. The Basotho pony is a breed of horse most suited to the treacherous conditions of the mountains of Lesotho (fortunately). They are descendants of the Java horse brought to the Cape in the 1600s by the Dutch East Indies Company. They are renowned for their surefootedness and stamina. Our experience of the Basotho pony started shortly after 10am in a town called Morija, an hour’s drive south of Maseru. Our friend Helen had experienced riding out of Morija from her previous trip to Lesotho. The three of us set off up the mountain with our guide Kefoe - a most splendid chap. We slowly made progress around one side of a valley before crossing it to the other. On the way down to the river’s edge my saddle slipped forward, I followed, much to the displeasure of Tina, my horse. She promptly leant forward and down I went. Apparently it was quite a graceful slide off the horse and onto a grass verge. I must say I didn't feel to graceful lying there with my left foot still stuck in the stirrups looking up at Tina's bemused face! Fortunately I wasn't harmed physically and was able to get back up into the saddle for the ride up to our lunch stop. I kept a close eye on the saddle hereafter and got quite good at dismounting to correct it when I saw it move. The ride was fabulous, there was some discomfort, especially when Tina started to trot after the others, but the views made up for it several times over. We have agreed to go back soon when I have been promised equipment more in keeping with my size.



My final bit of news is that we have just returned from a Monday afternoon game of tennis which was disastrous. I lost the set to love!! I'm blaming the aching bits after my 3 ½ hours on Tina!!

Week 3 and Kit finally does a bit of work...

Whilst waiting for my official application to volunteer with the Hark Audiological Service to be approved by the Ministry I tried to make myself useful last week. On the Monday I headed off North to Leribe at 5.30am (school starts early here!) to spend the day with Sian (one of the Welsh teachers over here for 6 months with Dolen) at a fully inclusive primary school.

The school is linked to the church and convent. I was made to feel very welcome and sat in with Sian on double English classes for year 5 and 6. Approximately one quarter of the pupils are profoundly deaf and some pupils have learning difficulties but they all attend the same classes. This is pretty challenging for the teacher as the classes are large and an interpreter is required. The children were very patient and some hearing children would occasionally take on the role of interpreter to explain things to the Deaf children when they saw them struggling. It was fascinating to see.

Sian told me that since primary education was recently made free for all and every child must be given a cooked lunch of papa, some children who had missed out on an education have returned at a later age and joined classes. In each class therefore there are quite a mix of ages present with some quite bit older than their fellow classmates.

I used my rusty sign language and chatted to some of the children. Their sign language is quite different to BSL but we got by (with the help of paper and pen at times!). After the morning classes the children gave me my Sesotho name (which you then keep). After a tense few minutes of them pondering and whispering and me worrying they would they would soon christen me...”crazy big nose lady”....they called out ‘Laretto’ which means Laughter or Love (I can’t remember which). I breathed a sigh of relief.... In the afternoon, the older children sang and danced in the open air and everyone joined in with all children signing the lyrics and the Deaf children following the rhythm and movements of the others.

There were few school buildings, no electricity, minimal equipment, snakes in the latrine (!)...but regardless of any of that, there was such a good feel to the school and for what it was striving for. Sian’s enthusiasm was quite infectious! Some of teacher’s told me of some success stories where some Deaf pupils passed their end of school exams and went into neighbouring secondary school with an interpreter to support them.

On Friday morning I had been invited to assist on a Paediatric Special Needs clinic that runs once a month at the QEII Hospital. It was good to see the place where Matt has been working these few weeks. As I entered the hospital who should I see coming the other way with his team but Matt himself off on the Friday Grand Round. Brief introductions were made but it was good to put faces to names of Matt’s colleagues.

Despite Matt having carefully drawn me a map so I wouldn’t get lost... I still managed to find myself at the door to the Mortuary when a kind lady put me back on the correct path. The clinic was held in the schoolroom of the Paediatric ward. It was a clinic that a Psychiatrist (Andy) had set up about a year ago. Some of the children we saw had been seen previously and some were new referrals. The age of the children ranged from 6 months to 12 years and presented with a vast range of different problems. Once an interpreter had been located the clinic began. Many children have HIV, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and some with sight and hearing problems. I could see Andy struggling at times to offer solutions when there were no wheelchairs available, funding for equipment and lack of medications. An extremely frustrating situation to be in when you can see the genuine need for things you get hold of so easily back home.

Tennis

I hope you like the new layout of the blog.  I thought the old one was a little too narrow, but now the picture posts look a little odd!  It will remain a work in progress.  You will note that I have added a link to Dolen Cymru.  They are the body that support the link between Lesotho and Wales from the Welsh side.  They have been invaluable to Kit and I in our move and if there is anyone out there that is tempted by our experience and would like to come out, I would recommend contacting them.

 

The week so far has gone relatively smoothly.  I have,  however, been battling with a little more bureaucracy after having a week off it last week!  It is all part of the experience of Lesotho but it does take me away from the hospital where I am very much needed.  At work I am continuing to develop a feel for what can be done and how.  Tomorrow I intend to go out and visit a site on the outskirts of the city which hosts a large outpatient HIV centre, the TB clinic for Maseru and the multi-drug resistant TB unit for the country.  It is also the site of the new hospital which is due to replace the QE II within the next couple of years.  If possible, I hope to eventually spend time there on a regular basis.  More news about that in due course.

 

Kit and I have just returned from our first game of tennis.  We joined the Lesotho National Tennis Club which is a 10 minute walk round the corner.  I took some tips from Kit after her recent lessons in Bristol, which did improve the usually poor part of my game, my serve.  Unfortunately I was so amazed I kept serving in I was never ready for her return and she beat me once again quite convincingly!  There is a lovely tennis coach at the club who offered me some lessons (I didn’t realise I looked that bad!) I might take him up on the offer.

 

It is a just a short one today... but more news with pictures of us on ponies after the weekend I hope!!

Malealea

Lovely Malealea

I’m sitting in our flat after a gorgeous weekend away looking out at a most tremendous hail storm beating down on Maseru.  I have never quite seen anything like it.  The rain is thick and horizontal, even obscuring the view across the road, and the hail stones are filling up our balcony!!  I must not be too distracted as I have a blog to write...

 

Friday night was the start of our Sesotho lessons.  Having missed the first week, which was greetings and family, Matt was overjoyed to discover that the topic for Friday’s lesson was on parts of the body (litho tsa ‘mele).  He then competed with the Sri Lankan dentist to find out all the necessary Sesotho words for their respective work.  I now know how to say I have a chest infection and to ask which tooth is hurting!!  After lessons, our friend Helen came back to ours for dinner, which was fun!

 

Saturday morning, after rehydration, we headed off south of Maseru to a place called Malealea.  After a 1 ½ hour drive we arrived at a gorgeous lodge.  It used to be a trading post but now has a mixture of rondavels and farmhouse buildings for people to come and stay.  It’s used as a base for pony trekking and hiking into the surrounding mountains.  We are starting to get a feel for how small Lesotho is, as on arrival in the lodge we bumped into a couple we met last weekend at the eighties party!  As we were heading out of the city for a relaxing weekend, they were heading into it for another weekend of partying... Matt and I are officially old!!

 

We left the horses/ponies breathing a sigh of relief as we decided to head off on foot, down into the Pitseng canyon and rock pools.  Clutching our photocopy trail map, determined to manage without a guide, we headed off out of the lodge gates.  One hundred yards later, a young school boy joined us and pointed out we had missed the turning!!!  Matt, the human sat nav, did not look impressed.  He blamed the lack of compass (we’d left it in Maseru) and the dodgy photocopy!  Fortunately “Vicks”, the school boy, had completed his chores for the day and was very keen on being our guide.

 

We walked for 3 hours up and down craggy rocks, past giant aloe vera plants, and through maize fields with Vicks chatting to all the herd boys along the way.  There were some amazing vistas (photos to follow).  We followed the Pitseng river and lunched by some rock pools, after a most inelegant crawl on my belly to get to the ledge where we could sit and eat.  Vicks really put us to shame as he shot up and down the rocks like a mountain goat, in bare feet even, whilst Matt and I huffed and puffed!!

 

In the evening, back at the lodge, we were entertained by a local choir and band.  Both were very good; the band however, had all homemade instruments and were most enthusiastic about their music and dance....

 

... I just got distracted by a hailstone landing in the living room... this is one amazing storm...

 

...The sun set as the band played their last number.  The gong went for dinner, which was a relaxed affair of home cooked pap, spinach, beans, and... half a cow!  I chuckled when a vegetarian lady came in and asked the cook what she could eat!!  After dinner we sat and chatted to a couple from Pretoria and watched the lightning storms over the mountains in the horizon... spectacular.  Electricity was off at 10pm but we didn’t manage to stay up till then... perhaps we are really getting old!!

 

We awoke to beautiful sunshine and clear skies and set off after breakfast on a 4 hour drive back along some windy tracks, over mountain passes and through beautiful valleys.  I think Matt was really happy spending Valentine’s day with Jeepy – his new love (see photos)!!

 

The storm seems to be easing, so I might risk connecting to the internet!

Some more thoughts about work

I have completed a full week at work and have got a much better feel for it all.  The shock of it has lessened somewhat and I feel I am actually making some impact, which is great.  I will try and give you all a little flavour for my working week.  The day starts at 8 o’clock (or shortly thereafter) and I do a ward round with the team and see half of the ward’s patients.  After the round is the time for jobs, there are bloods to be taken and lumbar punctures on a daily basis, the results of which are often available the following morning.  I try and take this opportunity to familiarise myself with the other half of the ward.  They are looked after by another consultant who does his ward rounds at 7am before anyone else is at work.  It is not really an ideal situation, but hey!

 

The ward is a female general medical ward with the patients broadly grouped into either those suffering from the complications of HIV infection or those with the consequences of high blood pressure and diabetes.  On average they are much younger than patients on the wards in the UK, most of them in their 20s-40s.  A lot of them are really ill and deaths are unfortunately a common occurrence.  Tests and treatment options are limited but despite this diagnoses can be made and a reasonable number patients do get better and go home.  There is, however a steady stream of patients who when they first arrive on the ward it looks apparent that I’m going to struggle to have any impact on the outcome.  This was the case back in the UK, but there the patients were different.  Here they are often younger and are suffering from conditions which could be either cured or if not managed in an ideal set up.  I’m having to accept that this is the case and not beat myself up about it.  I wouldn’t be any good to anyone if I did.  Hopefully as the year goes on I’ll be able to contribute to some improvements.

 

Anyway, after the jobs, I am able to get home for lunch, which is fantastic.  I really don’t miss the long commutes to work and am very much getting used to my 3 minute amble round the corner!!  I don’t know what I’m going to do when we’re back in the UK and if I get a post in north Wales!! 

 

The afternoons are quite short and mainly for trouble shooting and seeing any new admissions to the ward.  There are 3 clinics which we share with the team which covers the male ward, meaning that each week we either do 2 or 3 clinics.  There is high blood pressure clinic on Tuesday, Diabetic clinic on Wednesday and a general clinic on a Thursday.  Clinics are amazing!  The main focus is efficiency which given the huge numbers of patients has to take precedence over holistic patient care.  I plan to keep track of exactly how many patients I see next week, but I estimate that in last Tuesdays clinic I saw 40-50 patients.  Thursday’s clinic was a little better, I probably only saw 30 and therefore had some time to actually talk to the patients!  Somewhat of a change from the 10 I’d see in the average clinic back in the UK!!  On clinic days we have to fit the ward round in around the clinics, which usually involves splitting the work load.

 

On Fridays we do a grand round, with the doctors from the male ward and see all the patients.  I have found this the best part of the week.  There is a lot of chat between us all both about work and other things!  The team  is made up of myself, Dr Cooper (the consultant - who is presently away until the end of the month), and junior doctors of varying experience: one from Tanzania, one from Cuba, one from India, one from west Africa (I believe) and two from Zimbabwe.  They are a great crowd!  On Friday afternoons there is an educational presentation.  Probably not the best time to do this but it is a good way of making sure nobody takes an early weekend.

 

Well that is my average working week.  At the moment I have declined the offer of any out-of-hours work to give Kit and I an opportunity to relax and explore.  I will review that when Dr Cooper returns, as I do want to do my bit, but don’t want to have to sit around in Maseru every other weekend when there is so much of this beautiful country to see!!

Thunderstorm city

Mid-week and another thunderstorm is brewing. Since Monday, every afternoon there have been great flashes of lighting, rumbling thunder, big splodges of rain and noisy birds.  Early evening, 50+ birds take to the sky outside our flat to catch their dinner. I am convinced they are birds of prey...I am reluctant to get the binoculars out in case they turn out to be pigeons.

 

Luckily not too much to report on the wildlife front, the odd cockroach and mosquito around the flat and beautiful yellow birds and black birds with elegant long ribbon like tails when we drive around. I will get a book and then can sound more knowledgeable rather than simply describing them. Lots of butterflies too, who sadly seem to have a kamikaze instinct and fly straight into the windscreen when driving.  Perhaps our exploration into the mountains this weekend will reveal a bit more. We are planning a trip South of Maseru to a place called Malealea for some walking and a night stay at a lodge... can’t wait.

 

Starting Sesotho lessons on Friday evening.  Helen (our friend from Dolen) told us about it so we’ve signed up for a term. It’s great with Matt’s short commute and 8am-4pm days as it means we have time in the evenings, something which Matt could not take for granted back in the England.  Therefore, evenings are pretty relaxing, with no TV, we spend time chatting, looking over maps and planning weekends, watching the odd DVD.    There is also the fun of cooking in the dark as there is still no light in the kitchen... our landlord is super laid-back.  Fortunately we’ve got quite used to working out the difference between a finger and a mushroom by now!

 

More news soon.

 

 

 

News from the weekend

It is Sunday evening and time to reflect on our first week. It feels as though we have been here much longer than that. Some of our days have been very busy, others not so, but it has all been about new experiences. There have been new customs, new languages, new friends, new colleagues and very new working environments. All off this has been exhilarating but also quite exhausting. This isn’t helped by the dawn chorus outside our bedroom window and more recently socialising late into the evening!!

The limited experience I have had at work so far has been a little shocking. I had been very well prepared by colleagues who had been to QE II (the hospital) before as to what to expect, but nonetheless it vastly different from the NHS with a lot of young people suffering very serious disease. My main focus last week was learning the system. I shall be doing more of the same this week, but as the days go by I will look at doing more. I will write more about the experience of the QEII in due course.

To fill you all in on the weekend... we drove to Bloemfontein on Saturday morning. It was a pleasant 2 hour drive – much more interesting than the M4 to London!! We didn’t see that much of the city as we were on a schedule to get back for the first of the Six Nations (England v Wales). Despite that we did manage a little tour in the car (we got a little lost!) and ended up looking around two shopping centres. We had a lovely lunch in one (the Waterfront) looking out over a lake. Amazingly we bumped into one of the few people we actually know on the continent on two occasions whilst in Bloem!!

The rugby was an unusual experience! We were sat in the bar of the Maseru Golf Clubhouse with a modest group of young expats and our Welsh teacher friends we had met on Thursday; apart from the Castle and Maluti beers, we could have easily been in a pub in the UK. The teachers came across a month ago, through the same charity (Dolen Cymru) that assisted Kit and I. Not all of the group are Welsh, but the vocal ones certainly were. Unfortunately (for them) there wasn’t a great deal to cheer about as England won quite convincingly. I will admit I felt a little bit torn... sorry Peter! After the game, we joined the other expats for an eighties party at one of their houses.

Today hasn’t been quite so hectic. We managed to do some home improvements and go for a little sunset explore east of the city. We have attached some pictures of the views. It felt like we were on top of the world looking down on Maseru and surrounds. I somehow think we might be saying that a lot over the months to come.

Monday morning and a new week beckons.

apartment shots

End of the first week

We are settling in well to our flat and realising that we will have to adjust our body clocks back several hours to keep ‘in sinc’ with the movements of the city. It wakes early and as we are only a short distance behind the main high street we are wide awake before 6am with the beeping taxi drivers and bird song. I’m sure we’ll get used to it soon. 

 

On Thursday night we ventured out for an evening with a group of teachers who have come over as part of the Lesotho Wales Link. They have been teaching in the rural areas north of Maseru for 1 month now and were back in Maseru for a training weekend. We had a lovely evening – dinner and quiz.  It was great hearing about some of their experiences. There are plans to meet up again for rugby watching this evening....I may have to keep my England allegiances quiet.

 

On the work front – Matt got all his papers signed and certified and started work on Thursday morning on the wards at the QEII Hospital. It is a short walk from our apartment block just 100m up the main Kingsway. A much shorter the ‘international’ commute than he had  from Bristol to Cardiff! He will write more about his experiences I’m sure.

One of the teachers I met last night is keen for me to visit the school she is at in the North.  Deaf children are integrated into the mainstream school and she is teaching with an interpreter.  I am planning to drive there in the next couple of weeks (once I get a better feel for the roads and driving slightly Sri Lanka style...eek!).  I am still waiting to hear from the ‘Hark’ project but hope I am able to volunteer with them. Otherwise I am sure there are other avenues to investigate.  Housewifely duties will not keep me occupied for long (sorry Matt!).

 

We are up early and heading over the boarder soon for a trip to Bloemfontein and back for the rugby in the evening.  I’ve attached a some photos of our apartment and views from it.   

 

Moved into the flat today

Progress has been made today.  We got into the flat and the electricity has been turned on.  There was apparently a loose connection somewhere, but it took the men from the electricity company all of 30 seconds to solve the problem.  Saying that; we still have no light in the kitchen, which made cooking a painful experience this evening!  The main focus of the day has been settling ourselves in to the flat (pictures to follow soon).  There has been a lot of cleaning, the odd bit of repairing and some shopping too.  There are plans to travel to Bloemfontein to get some home wares this weekend.  I have also made progress with my job, having met up with the medical superintendent today.  It’s funny how things go in fits and starts!  What may tomorrow bring?

On the third day...

Today has been a day of two halves.  In the first half things didn’t really go according to plan!  Progress has been slow with the red tape of setting myself up to work here.  Unfortunately both the registrar at the Lesotho Medical, Dentistry & Pharmacy Council and the medical superintendent at the QEII were not available today.  I hope to make progress with this tomorrow.  Somewhat more frustrating however is that our apartment is without electricity.  So having moved in we had to pack an overnight bag and stay in a B&B for the night.  Again we hope this will be sorted tomorrow.  We are trying to adopt the laid back African attitude to life!! 

 

And now on to the second half of the day... we found a lovely B&B in the hillside to the south of the city.  It is called the Black Swan, and true to its name there are black swans in a pond, along with numerous other loud squawking creatures!!  A most restful spot!  After freshening up, we went for a lovely drive beyond the city limits.  We’ll leave you with some pictures taken of the gorgeous sunset and our gorgeous new Jeep (thanks Greg). 

The first full day...

We have now been in Lesotho for over 24 hours and have achieved quite a bit; more about that later.  I first wanted to share my feelings about the city of Maseru and its people.  Yesterday was probably not very representative.  It was raining and blowing a gale, it was also Sunday.  The streets were, therefore, relatively quiet.  We got up today to a glorious blue sky.  After breakfast we headed out on foot along the capital’s main street, the Kingsway.  It was 8 o’clock and the street and pavements were alive with commuters.  Most of the noise came from taxi’s that appear to have some need to beep their horns at regular intervals with no obvious purpose.  Whilst sat at the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (with 5 stories occupied by health and ½ to social welfare!) it seemed as though everyone that passed us wished us a good morning.  There was a lot of chatter and socialising with a very relaxed atmosphere about the place.  It was an experience very unlike any government building in the UK.  Walking back from the ministry I couldn’t help noticing that when people bumped into their friends, there was a marvellous outwards expression of warmth and friendship.  I couldn’t imagine the hugging and kissing on the streets of Bristol, never mind London!  Overall it appears to be a happy and welcoming place.

 

Now to the newsy bit... after an aborted attempt to meet the director of the ministry at 8, I eventually met up with her at midday.  Arrangements are slowly moving to get me employed: I have to collect a letter from her in the morning and take it to the LMC (Lesotho Medical Council) to get registered and allow me to practice.  I then have to meet with the administrative staff at the hospital.  Kit dropped in to the office of HARK (which provides audiological service in Lesotho) which was conveniently next door to the director’s office.  Between our visits to the ministry we went to the tourist information, the Lesotho Wales Link office and a mobile phone network provider’s shop... meeting smiling helpful people in all, especially Mpho in the LWL office who has been most welcoming indeed.  After the second ministerial visit, we had our first peek at the Queen Elisabeth II Hospital.  It was busy with buildings scattered about the site.  We tried to find the admin office, but the administrator found us looking rather lost outside x-ray!  She showed us to our accommodation, which... has a lot of potential, including a spare room for any potential visitors!  This afternoon we have been mainly shopping for household essentials.  After a long busy hot day, Kit and I retreated back to our hotel for one more night.  We were tempted by a cooling dip, but found a freezing dip instead.  It was very refreshing indeed!!  We are now heading off for a meal, before an early night and another day of Lesotho bureaucracy and delights!!