Raindrops falling on my head...

In contrast to last week, the past couple of days have been rather slow at the clinic since most of the physicians are attending the BIPAI (Baylor International Pediatric Aids Initiative) network meeting in town. I had to practically beg the clinic directors to allow us to attend, and we were granted 2 days each. So on my days at the meeting, I arrived at the conference area to find that the Lesotho Sun is actually a very nice (though very westernized) hotel. Interestingly, it has a bar that could easily rival an upscale Vegas lounge with its chic decor, fluorescent signs, and floor to ceiling windows overlooking the entire city. It even had its own cinema built in and a casino! I quickly realized this is where all the Americans and British ex-pats have been hiding....

Aerial view of the Lesotho Sun nestled on a hilltop

The hotel pool overlooking the city center

More lovely views from the poolside

Maseru city center view

Although there were several sessions that were extremely informative and thought provoking, my favorite part of the conference was actually the lunch buffet (no surprise there). Of course, I exercised absolutely no self control while serving myself a little bit of every menu item offered and I ate until I literally thought I would explode. The spread was amazing, with everything from BBQ ribs to succulent lamb chops to T-bone steak to raw oysters to several dishes with some sort of curry :) Oh, and the weirdest thing that happened during lunch was while I was busy feeding my greedy tapeworm, a young man sat across from me and started waving. Turns out we shared an infectious disease rotation at the hospital I work at - about 3 years ago - I'm still stunned he remembered me! At the time he was a visiting physician from Argentina and after that month he moved to Africa as part of the Pediatric Aids Corps. What a small world!!

Anyways, in my post-gluttonous guilt, I decided to walk to the city center (downtown) and do some exploring after the conference ended. I still look the wrong way when crossing the street but I made it across the highway miraculously unscathed. After blindly walking for about 15 minutes, I stumbled upon the Cathedral of Our Lady of Victories. I had seen pictures of it when I had first arrived and tried looking for a Catholic church, but I had not had any luck convincing any one to help me find it. So it was a pleasant surprise, indeed, to not only find it, but to actually sit in on the last part of evening mass. It is a simple but beautiful building and though I couldn't understand the words being spoken (it was conducted in Sesotho), I immediately felt a sense of belonging. It was nice to finally relate to something after weeks of being surrounding by everything foreign. There was no organ or choir :( but the congregation was very interactive and you could tell they were singing with their hearts. 

Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Victories

After the mass ended, the lights were turned off quickly and I took my cue to exit the building. So I sat on the outside steps and watched the traffic of cars and people circle around the church in the afternoon rush to make it home before dark. And then the moment I was waiting for - the gradual transition of the sky from a fiery orange to a cotton candy pink and the setting of the sun behind the mountains. It's hard to believe that I'm so far away from home but in that moment, I definitely felt fortunate to have the opportunity to experience a new country. I called the taxi company when rain drops began to fall on my head and I laughed when the dispatcher answered "Hello Bay-lah lady". I guess there may not be cutting edge technology in Lesotho, but there is certainly caller ID. 

I made it back to the Cottage just as the lightning and thunder claps grew louder and closer and I ducked inside the covers. I found out there have actually been people struck by lightning in Lesotho...don't know if that's true or not, but I'm not taking any chances...

Much to our dismay, the torrential downpour has not ceased since then (I'm reminded of that scene in "Forrest Gump" when he was in Vietnam and it kept raining for days...). The electricity has been present only intermittently during this time. If the weather keeps looking like this, we may have to cancel our trip to Semongkong this weekend :(   But I'll keep my fingers crossed that the rain stops so we can still go... 

Forrest wading in rain water