(This time I want to start my blog the proper way, since I have not been in touch for so long.) The weather has been brilliant (32–35 °C, bright blue skies during the day and then, shortly before sunset, thunderstorms with heavy rain). But why am I writing about the weather at all, which does not seem unusual for a summer in southern Africa? In fact the weather is currently a relief for all Basotho that we can hardly imagine, because last year almost all of southern and eastern Africa suffered a drought worse than any in 30 years. And that is how I got to know Lesotho on my first trip in May… dry, parched and brownish-yellow. But this picture has changed dramatically in the last few weeks. Everywhere new green is sprouting on land that had been dried out for more than a year, the dams that supply Mafeteng and the surrounding villages with water are filling up again, ponds and pools have formed everywhere, and at night you cannot miss the almost deafening concert of frogs.
And last but not least, the plants in the school garden are growing as if there were no tomorrow.
But it is not only the weather that is brilliant. The last few weeks in general have been wonderful. Once the final exams had been written, we (pupils, trainee teachers and I) could devote ourselves to the really important things in “lessons”. As non-teachers we were not authorised to mark the final exams or write the reports, so we had to (sarcasm alert) devote ourselves entirely to entertaining the pupils. So, having had to play the “evil” teacher supervising the exams only the day before, we turned into children’s entertainers who, I think, would not be out of place on any cruise ship or holiday club. As the holidays did not start until 30 November, we were kept completely busy with work in the garden, trying to do a bit more teaching and playing “Capture the Flag” on the sports ground. Anyone who does not know what “Capture the Flag” is can google it… I am sure you can manage that, having already found my blog in the depths of the web.
By the time you read this blog post, I will most likely be back in Germany. I am writing from Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo airport and I am not sure whether I will find Wi-Fi here. But why am I on my way home? Lesotho is currently on its long summer holidays until mid-January. I am using this long break from teaching for a bit of home leave and will then be in Lesotho from mid-January until probably the end of June. I will also use the opportunity to finally upload my pictures, which has not been possible until now, as I have only been using mobile internet and it was too expensive for uploading a whole lot of pictures.