In The Other Kingdom

Dumela.

It is the end of week 2 already at Waterford Kamhlaba and I'm already under a lot of strain. 10 homeworks over the weekend. Bleugh! But I've settled in and back into the rhythm of school. The weather is not so cold as last term and I have been able to be in shorts a lot. That's nice.

At this time last week I was chilling in Lesotho.This time last year I was in Fiji. I am now in Swaziland. Interesting ain't it? Anyways, why was I chilling in Lesotho? Well we had a French trip to this other little kingdom in Southern Africa. Now thats a lot cooler than the French trip at home! At home Garden City ga call it a French Trip hahaha. Oh and we were to spend 4 days in French. Interesting.

Lesotho. Click to enlarge.

We left at 6:00am on Friday (read: 7:00am) and had a Loong trip ahead of us. With me were Sofia, Anna, Emily, Yuscah (Mozambique), Ousman (Senegal) and Sandi (Swaziland) among others. Most of the trip would be cutting across South Africa to get to Lesotho. Lesotho is an odd little country that is completely surrounded by South Africa. Its like Fiji only the Pacific Ocean is South Africa. Crazy aye?

Basti (Germany): "Women love the simple things in life... For example men."


Sitting at the edge of a huge cliff



Where was I? Yes, well we got throught the South African border smoothly, and the long ride through South Africa began. We passed through the towns of Amsterdam, East London, Bethleham and Standerton. Don't worry, we were still in South Africa! (Lesotho is not THAT far!)

Its still pretty darn far though. It was supposed to be an 11 hour ride. Naturally it ended up being a 14 hour ride, including two stops and two border stops. At the border of Lesotho I got that old excitement of entering a new country I had never been to before. We entertained ourselves by dressing an egg like Dimitri and pretending it was Emily and I's child, like those American sex-education classes (according to Sofia). We set ourselves a target to keep him safe throughout the weekend. He lasted almost four hours before I chucked him out the window.

Only in Swaziland moment: Stephen, Basti and I are coming back from town, toward the huge Waterford hill. As the taxi is going up the hill, the driver seems to be struggling to control it. I ask the driver if we should walk, but he shakes his head, turns the taxi around and reverses up half the way. At least a kilometre. Hahaha. Where there's a will there's a way

So at 9pm we arrived finally, in Moricha, an hour from the capital city (Maseru) to the guest house where we were staying. The French owner greeted us jovially in French and we introduced ourselves. I got the usual 'ooooh' when they heard I was from Fiji Fidji. We had a delicious dinner of some French meat and crashed to bed.

Over the next four days we climbed two mountains, saw dinosour tracks, had a picnic, swam in a lake, visited Maseru and the Alliance Francaise, as well as an IB school in Maseru, where we met our fellow IBs, and spoke a lot of French. We learned a bit about the country as well. Unlike Swaziland, the King has no power, and the people love him apparently. It also looks a very poor country, and the landscape is amazing. Just mountain after rocky mountain, and valleys. That seems to be all the country is made of.

It was a loong ride...
sorry you have to tilt your head
for this one i cant make it straight

In Lesotho, playing 30 seconds, a game kinda like charades but with speaking instead, Sandi's turn. Sandi: 'What is something that we really want since we got here?' Theresa and Relish at the same time 'MEAT!!
(The answer was Facebook)
After four lovely days, on Tuesday, we had to go home. :(  Awww. We said our goodbyes (in English) and headed to the bus. Sigh. Stuck in the bus for another 13 hours. It passed pretty fast. We arrived back at Waterford Kamhlaba at around 9pm. Uneventful journey, spent telling jokes and making up jokes. My joke made up:
What did the Stop sign say to the Give Way sign? any guesses? I'll mention next time anyone who can get the right answer. ;)

Sooo back at Waterford. We had rugby training today. Played sevens. Gosh, I am not physically fit at all.
 Do you know that feeling of intense hatred of that person who is walking slowly in front of you and blocking your way? They seem like real idiots sometimes don't they, and you just wanna take a blunt knife and stab them or something.

Rugby tournament last term.
Waterford Kamhlaba

Fiji has just lost 49-3 to SOuth Africa. But I thought they actually played alright, apart from a couple of periods in the game. We were really taking it to them at some stages! Go Fiji! Do us proud! Stephen is worried we gonna get Wales. We might. Remember, last world cup we almost lost to Japan + got thrashed by Australia before beating Wales. ;) Wales suck. I prefer dolphins.

Ok. Got to go now. Look out for post cards!
Enjoy the week. Relish the stress.

DKN