Reflections on our return to Lesotho

Our trip to Lesotho was more emotional than I expected. As we drove from the capital city of Maseru into the country’s rugged Southwestern interior, the mountains climbing higher and the villages becoming more sparse, the feels started and spread throughout my body. I grew quiet and pensive about two thirds of the familiar route, where the road degrades from paved-but-pocky to barely-passable-gravel. As we approached the Gates of Paradise Pass, that warm feeling morphed into the kind of building excitement a kid feels on Christmas Eve. When the Matebele Cafe came into view, I asked our driver to stop the car with way more urgency than our 3-mph speed required. The shabby, yellow shack would not be considered a notable retail establishment of any sort, let alone a cafe, anywhere in the world. However, on a wall at home in Columbus hangs a picture of Meg sitting on an old car seat, in front of the Matebele Cafe, perched above the valley as it descends toward Malealea. After 15 years, we were back.

Lesotho is unique for other, not-so-great reasons as well. It’s one of the poorest countries in the world, ranked 165th out of 189 countries by the UN’s human development index (HDI). Its government and political stability are both fragile, though less violently so by African standards, with a military coups taking place in 1970 and again in 1986. In this year’s parliamentary elections, the ruling party, All Basotho Convention (ABC) lost every one of its 48 seats, most of which were won by members of an entirely new political party, Revolution for Prosperity (RFC) that consists largely of business leaders who had never previously sought or held political office. This is like the Rotary Club of Upper Arlington, Ohio and its members replacing the entire Republican or Democratic Party in Congress. A complete reset.

We could see the cost of that instability when we arrived. In the capital, there are modest signs of growth and development. More cars, a few new buildings. But in the rural areas, very little has changed. Malealea still lacks electricity. Moderate improvements in access to clean water (none of it pumped indoors) are the result of projects funded by independent NGOs and charities. The road to Malealea is actually worse than it was 15 years ago. The schools are also in bad shape. As has been the case for centuries, the livelihoods of the country’s citizens are dictated by rain and the associated harvest (or flooding), one season at a time.

Despite mixed macro and microeconomic progress, Malealea welcomed us back in the best possible way. The small, outdoor market we designed and built (funded by donations from friends and family) was not only standing after 15 years, it had expanded! When we arrived in 2007, we quickly noticed that tourists and guests to the Malealea Lodge (the economic center of gravity for the town and the surrounding communities) rarely ventured outside the resort’s gates. While The Lodge’s operations are deeply integrated into the local economy, guests had almost no opportunity to participate directly. That’s because there were no shops. Worse, the areas outside The Lodge were strewn with rusted out car hulks and leaning corrugated iron shacks. Our little market (and the clean up we funded) hoped to catalyze some commerce, enabling tourists to buy food and other essentials from local merchants who could, in turn, earn a living.

As our own lives back in America took center stage over the last 15 years, we lost touch with our contacts and work in Malealea. We had no idea whether our market still existed or was impactful in any way after we left. We found it doubled in its footprint, enclosed by brick walls so it could function all year, and occupied by two small shops, each with a small kitchen selling hot food. Even better, flanking The Lodge’s entrance were another dozen shops and even a barbershop. We can’t claim that our little project caused any of this. But seeing the potential that we envisioned come to fruition brought a big, broad smile across my face as our car pulled to a stop outside The Lodge.

We got started right away. The day after our arrival was World AIDS Day and the MDT was hosting a parade, followed by an event that included educational songs and skits as well as other programs to bring awareness to the AIDS and HIV epidemic which still rages across much of Africa. Lesotho is a bit of a success story. In 2007, roughly 40% of the population was HIV positive, causing the average life expectancy to plummet into the late 40s. Today, that percentage has been reduced to 21% (still one of the worst infection rates in the world) through increased education and testing as well as de-stigmatization, which encourages people to share their status more openly and, therefore, reduce the virus’ spread. And near-universal access to antiretroviral treatments (ARVs) means that HIV is no longer the death sentence that it was 15 years ago.

Throughout the day, we mostly observed and tried to learn as much as we could. However, we were called on to help prepare lunch for the 300+ people in attendance. Lunch consisted of bologna sandwiches and a mixed beverage served out of a giant barrel. Sydney and Oliver jumped right in (and I mean RIGHT in) and started shredding huge tubes of bologna. Because there wasn’t a slicer, the tubes of pink “meat” had to be shredded using cheese graters, then shoved by hand between two slices of bread, before being bagged and piled into plastic tubs. Sydney, a vegetarian, didn’t hesitate doing what needed to be done.

Another project where we spent a bunch of time was preparing for and co-hosting a Christmas party for the region’s children. It had been three years since the last one, due to COVID, and it gave the community’s children a reason to celebrate the season through games, food, and gifts provided by the MDT. We spent a couple days shopping for supplies and setting up for the party. The party itself was a whirlwind of chaos as we joined in serving food and drinks, handing out presents to over 300 kids, playing games, and painting fingernails.

We also spent several days helping out at the computer lab, where members of the community learn basic computer skills. We helped start this lab in 2007 when Meg and I unpacked a box of donated PCs that had been sitting in a closet, set them up, and started teaching a light curriculum mostly around the basics of how computers work as well as typing skills. Using the computers required a gas generator for electricity, which only lasted a couple hours when we had access to fuel.

Today, the lab is totally different. Solar panels and batteries provide consistent electricity to more than a dozen new computers. And internet access is now available via Vodacom’s mobile network. The whole thing was provided by Vodacom and the classes now include general networking and cloud applications like Google Docs. The best part is that our friend Moso Ranoosi, who set up the lab with us in 2007 and was an early instructor, is back and teaching classes to the kids in the community.

Our time in Malealea wasn’t all about work. We went on lots of hikes into the surrounding mountains and gorges, swam in rock pools, and went on a 3-day backcountry pony trek. For each of the last two years I’ve put over 3,000 miles on my road and Peloton bikes. None of that prepared my undercarriage for the rigors of riding horseback for hours on steep, rocky, and treacherous trails. The views couldn’t be beat, however, and the kids loved riding.

Throughout our stay, it was impossible to miss the lingering impact of COVID. In fact, throughout our travels, tourism has yet to fully recover to its 2019 levels. For some countries where more than half of the national income is derived from tourism, the effects have been devastating. The guestbook at The Lodge doesn’t have an entry from March 2020 until November 2021. And the entries since have been few and far between. As mentioned before, The Lodge provides a massive percentage of revenue to the region through employment and purchase of supplies. Many people are still hurting.

Our return also reminded me of who Meg and I were 15 years ago — as individuals and a young couple. Before marriage and kids, we had a vision of the life we wanted to build together. We had big dreams about the lives of service we would live and how we’d return to Malealea as often as possible. Time passed. Some dreams became real. Some remained just dreams. And others, like this world tour and return to Malealea, just took a little longer to realize than we expected. Another reminder that, as long as we don’t forget who we are, we can still come back to where we were meant to be.

Related posts:

Ana Franciscotty is an American self made businesswoman, Business Strategist and a real estate investor living in Florida, Texas, United States. Are you considering purchasing property abroad? You…

Todos los pueblos del mundo enfrentan la complejidad de la realidad en la que viven a través del mito. Este muestra de manera sencilla lo que racionalmente parece muy difícil de ser explicado y…

Unless you live under a rock then you’re well aware that we are headed into a recession. This recession will resemble closely to the 2008 recession, however the housing market will not drop as…