Mom and Dad Commute to Lesotho

I’m so grateful that my mom and dad were able to come visit me for three whole weeks in Southern Africa. We traveled through Lesotho and all around South Africa together. This blog post is dedicated to the time that they spend in my current country of residence, Lesotho:

Prior to arrival, I was a little apprehensive that my parents were coming to visit. Being the most undeveloped county in southern Africa, there are no five-star (or four-star) hotels, no successful tourist attractions, and no one educated in hospitality that we are used to in the US. Also, being in both the winter and dry season, driving up into the mountains of the mountain kingdom could be dangerous, and the beautiful waterfall scenes would be diminished to a few little drops. But I figured that they could at least see where I live and meet my host family.

On the first day that they were in Lesotho, my parents came to visit my village. They came to my house first, where they met my host mother, host brothers and host sister (they met my host father at a later time because he was at work). I gave them a tour of my rondeval – my wall of a few photographa, my bathing buckets, my bed and every other ordinary object has never been photographed so much. Then we went to my school where they were able to see the library, staff room and classrooms, and meet a couple of the teachers and some of my students. My students were very shy!

Me and my mom walking to school

Me and my dad in front of the staff room

The next couple days, we went to the southern part of Lesotho, at Malealea Lodge. My parents were able to sleep in a rondeval with electricity and indoor plumbing. We were joined by my friend, Kristy, who lives in the south. And from there, we went hiking, relaxed and enjoyed the mountain landscapes. In Lesotho, there are very few marked hiking trails so all of the hikes require a local guide to show you where to go. We had fun just exploring the mountains and being adventurous. And although my parents came during the coldest week of the winter so far, we all were able to enjoy the mountain kingdom.