A little note from Amy!

For those of you who don't know me I'm Amy-Coll's little sister. Me Mom and Dad went to Africa in July for 2 weeks to spend some time in SA with Coll and to see Lesotho aswell.
We flew into capetown and met Coll at the airport. We spent 3 days in capetown and went to Table mt., Robben island and other tourist attractions. Then we hired a car and drove along the coast,stopping at villages and towns along the way. One of the places we stopped was Albertinia where we did a Safari. It was amazing!
The food and accomadation were sooo cheap and really good everywhere. The food was out of this world(probably my fave thing about the trip!). Another place we stopped was Plettenberg where we did Whale watching...O MY GOD!! It was sooo cool-the whales where under the boat and everything! They were 17 ft(i think) long! We did another Safari in Addo. This one wasn't guided, u just drove through yourself and you had to spot the animals. It was way better than the first one because the animals weren't locked in and we saw 47 ELEPHANTS!! All of the towns were along the coast and they were famous for surfing-we watched so much surfers and they were brilliant!!One of the towns was Jeffreys Bay were there was a huuge surfing competition and everything revolved around it!
We drove back to Capetown and flew to Lesotho.We went to the ambassadors house and had a dellicious dinner and a great time! When we got to Maputsoe we saw Coll's school,its soo small and there's only one tiny toilet for loads of pupils! The village was so packed with people selling things in there stalls and women with babies tied to there backs and it's like something out of a Trocaire add. But they were all so happy because they dont know any better. There just happy with what they have and you dont fell sorry for them but at the same time you know that they need help. We went to the orphanage to visit the kids and they were soo beautiful, they were so good and always smiling.When your there you dont think about them all being sick or anything like that. They're just kids,the same as at home. Coll's house is actually alot nicer than i expected(but its still pretty basic) and she's well looked after by everyone who knows her. We met Father Tim-a lovely man who really understands what needs to be done there and how to do it.We met Elana-an Italian girl living next to Coll. She's a teacher in the nursery and she's Coll's best friend out there.
Everyone at home is really proud of Coll and we're so happy to see how settled in she is. I miss her lots but she's coming home for Christmas so thats something to look forward to!

Beautiful Lesotho Landscape

The landscape around Lesotho at the moment is so amazing and changing every few miles and every few days.

eew

English School Boys

The second quarter exams have been sat and passed!.....now only 8 weeks till the main one - a lot of work to be done but hoping for just as good an out come!

Holidays 2

Here are some random pictures of our holiday. There's more to come........

Holidays

Cape Town

Well I just waved Mom, Dad and Amy off for there long trip home. They have been here for two weeks and we spent two days of that in Cape Town - doin' the tourist thing and seeing the sights, before we headed along the coast on the Garden route and then spent our final few days in Lesotho.

Initiation School

I was delighted to get to one of the ceremonies of the Maswati village initiation school.
It started with the slaughtering if a sheep (ugh!) – I think I got to see more than I wanted and the smell was unbelievable! Then it’s the women’s job to clean the intestines and fill it with left over meat to make sausages. The men butchered the rest of the sheep and started cooking it….
We spent the next few hours watching dancing, songs and story telling….. This was class!
The chief and the sangoma (traditional doctor) then brought us to the kraal (A resting place for animals and where the first and last parts of the school take place). Initiation school is not talked about and is a kind of taboo so to be able to go there and be told about it was impressive!
We met with boys who have graduated, as you can not see the boys who are in the school. This school is for males and females, and as a female we were only allowed to hear about there roll of girls, but we managed to get some info out of the lads after!
When we went back to the village it was time to eat. Seeing the sheep slaughtered and how it was cooked did nothing for my apatite!

Maputsoe

Here's a few sights I see everyday in Maputsoe.