This past week we took a trip to the small landlocked country of Lesotho (pronounced ‘Lehsootoo’) with some of our colleagues here at Refilwe. We spent Monday driving through the Maloti (Malooti) Mountains, a mountain range that seems to make up most of the country, to a lodge on the side of a mountain. The next three days were spent on horseback, riding through the mountains and up to Thabana-Ntlenyana, the highest peak in Southern Africa. Late last year Cliff and I had the opportunity to hike the Inca Trail in Peru, which was a similarly incredible experience: while riding up to a peak did not bring the same personal sense of triumph walking up one did, there is certainly something to be said for the wildness one feels riding a horse up a mountain; not to mention enduring the saddle of a horse for three days!
Our first day of riding was my birthday and what an amazing birthday it was! It was certainly not spent in the usual way- I didn’t even get my 65 Facebook notifications until Saturday- but it was incredibly memorable. We spent the whole day riding through the mountains, surrounded by nothing but spectacular views and the occasional herd of sheep, goats or bulls. After 6 hours of riding, we even had a party of sorts, huddled together around a small fire to stay warm, singing, dancing and laughing. The group that we traveled with was made up of 6 of us from Refilwe and three others; it was a great combination of people, all well traveled and good-humoured.
The trip was organized by one of the women we work with here at Refilwe. Now seems like a great time to introduce you to her and two others we work with regularly here. In the above picture you can see, from left to right, Claire, Jaco (‘Yacoo’) and Annetjie (‘Anakie’). Jaco is the project manager at Refilwe. He left a secure job in the finance industry about 6 years ago to take the position here and works very hard and long hours to ensure things run smoothly. Jaco is incredibly passionate about sustainable development and has so far been a great boss to work for. Annetjie joined Refilwe in 2007 after living and working for Samaritan's Purse in Liberia. Annetjie is a nurse, however recently took on an administrative role at Refilwe, focusing on fundraising and various other projects. She, like Jaco, lives in a house on the property and is a God Parent to two teenaged girls. Claire is the most recent addition to the Refilwe staff, starting her position just a few weeks before we arrived. Claire oversees the health and social welfare projects that Refilwe runs; she is Amanda's boss. Being such a close-knit community, we are enjoying not only working with each of these people, but are also forming great friendships with them too.
After three days of horses, camping food, good conversations, great laughs and cramped sleeping conditions (we all crowded into a Basutu hut like the one above. It was a very authentic experience, to say the least!) we set off on a long journey back through the mountains. We drove back to South Africa via a different route, wanting to see some different scenery as well as visit the Khatse Dam along the way. We had to stop frequently for photo opportunities! The trip took a bit longer than expected and we almost ran out of petrol (not so much our fault as the fault of the petrol stations that were out of petrol along the way)- but luckily we made it with about 10k's to spare to a place that boasted a tank with actual petrol in it.
Now we're back into the swing of a full week of work back at Refilwe. There have been a huge amount of public holidays over the past month (at least one if not 2 holidays every week!- and we thought Australia had a lot!) so this is the first full week for a lot of us, not just those of us who are constantly going away on adventures. While we loved the experience we had in Lesotho, we are very glad to be back and re-immersed in life here at Refilwe.
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