Air Force One

I flew out of Lesotho this morning. My whole departure was a bit hectic due to a snowstorm that blew in on Tuesday night, and so I don't think that I have quite processed leaving. My farewell party with the teachers ended up being on Thursday morning and we were pressed for time as Belinda and I needed to hit Hlotse and the Help Lesotho office AND get to Maseru (where we stayed last night) before dark.

Parting is such sweet sorrow. As 'M'e Mapelesa said, " We are not happy AT ALL.". It was espescially hard to leave the boarders. One of the boys came to my door and gave me a gift of 20 rand, "To buy some sweets." I accepted his gift so not to embarrass him but know that his gift cost him a lot. The teachers gave both Belinda and me Basotho blankets, and 'M'e Mapelesa had a red Sesweshshway dress made for me, that fits me perfectly and, as they all said, makes me look like "a new bride". The only thing that made leaving at all bearable was the promise to come back sometime in the futue. And I will.

Our flight from Maseru to Johannesburg was, well, unusual. As Belinda and I checked our luggage, the power went out. Belinda had an e-ticket, but a checkmark beside her name seemed sufficient to get her her boarding pass. Because the power was out they were unable to xray our luggage and so we were brought behind the desk to verify the contents of our bags. When we told her that one bag contained blankets, the attendant simply kicked the bag a couple of times to her satisfaction. All of this might not have been so strange except that we were informed that our flight was going to be delayed a bit becuase we had to wait for the Prime Minister to arrive because he was also a passenger on the plane. This was confirmed by the arrival of the Lesotho Defense Force in parade dress accompanied by a marching band. They played for awhile before a convoy of motorcycles and cars arrived and the Prime Minister and the First Lady got out, shook some hands, and then got on the plane and sat two rows ahead of me and Belinda.

As I cried my way down the runway, I considered tapping him on the shoulder to ask him what he was planning on doing to help improve the living conditions of the people in the rural communities, the old and the sick, the poor single mothers and orphaned children without water and electricity, travelling on poorly maintained roads in shells of vehicules from 1950. I felt that this was an imporaant question ask as it was a lot of the rural communities that voted him back into office in February despite the protests of the young people in the more urban areas. As I whispered this to Belinda, she pointed out that the large uniformed military gentleman sitting in front of us might prevent me from asking me question. I think that she was probly right.