Sesotho word of the day: Joalla – home brew “beer”
It is the beginning of week 3 in Lesotho. So far, we have held numerous meetings in the capitol of Lesotho, Maseru, traveled to Durban, S.A. to import a car from Japan, investigated suppliers and equipment in the Durban area, gone through the first round of importing the car from S.A. to Lesotho, conducted even more meetings, attempted to open a bank account – turns out to be more difficult than expected, and have spent a total of 3 days at “home” in Bethel.
Although all of this work has been important, we are all very antsy to get started on the actual work we are here to do!
We were able to speed up the first round of importing our car into Lesotho this past week, however, to allow the clearing agency to release the car for the weekend. So we were able to spend the entire weekend in the “Phamong” region (the region in which Bethel is located). What a nice change from the city! We spent Saturday on a nice long hike along a ridge line, and we spent Sunday doing work at Bethel.
The hike on Saturday was amazing! (Pics below!) We scrambled up a steep slope to a ridge line, and followed the ridge line along, and came down on the other side. The landscape is severe and beautiful, and even more amazing, is that little villages are nestled into the hillsides way up in the mountains, way outside and above the access of any roads! The people in the mountains are even more happy and friendly than those that we have met so far. In one village that we encountered, the town (about 20 people) was gathered in and around a hut where 3 guys were playing home-made drums and tambourine-type-jinglers and an accordion (the accordion is somehow very popular here in Lesotho – go figure!). We were welcomed with open arms, and joined in the dancing for a while.
Another house in the village was flying a white flag, indicating that joalla was for sale. Basotho like to say that joalla is home-brewed beer, but it is really just fermented oats or something that forms a milky-sour substance. After we all tasted some – some of us more timidly than others – Tumelo negotiated a price for a small bottle of “the good stuff”, which was left mainly to him to take care of later that night.
Leaving Maseru tomorrow to go to Bloemfontein in S.A. to do a supply/pricing run.
It is the beginning of week 3 in Lesotho. So far, we have held numerous meetings in the capitol of Lesotho, Maseru, traveled to Durban, S.A. to import a car from Japan, investigated suppliers and equipment in the Durban area, gone through the first round of importing the car from S.A. to Lesotho, conducted even more meetings, attempted to open a bank account – turns out to be more difficult than expected, and have spent a total of 3 days at “home” in Bethel.
Although all of this work has been important, we are all very antsy to get started on the actual work we are here to do!
We were able to speed up the first round of importing our car into Lesotho this past week, however, to allow the clearing agency to release the car for the weekend. So we were able to spend the entire weekend in the “Phamong” region (the region in which Bethel is located). What a nice change from the city! We spent Saturday on a nice long hike along a ridge line, and we spent Sunday doing work at Bethel.
The hike on Saturday was amazing! (Pics below!) We scrambled up a steep slope to a ridge line, and followed the ridge line along, and came down on the other side. The landscape is severe and beautiful, and even more amazing, is that little villages are nestled into the hillsides way up in the mountains, way outside and above the access of any roads! The people in the mountains are even more happy and friendly than those that we have met so far. In one village that we encountered, the town (about 20 people) was gathered in and around a hut where 3 guys were playing home-made drums and tambourine-type-jinglers and an accordion (the accordion is somehow very popular here in Lesotho – go figure!). We were welcomed with open arms, and joined in the dancing for a while.
Another house in the village was flying a white flag, indicating that joalla was for sale. Basotho like to say that joalla is home-brewed beer, but it is really just fermented oats or something that forms a milky-sour substance. After we all tasted some – some of us more timidly than others – Tumelo negotiated a price for a small bottle of “the good stuff”, which was left mainly to him to take care of later that night.
Leaving Maseru tomorrow to go to Bloemfontein in S.A. to do a supply/pricing run.
posted by Libby Wayman at 7:38 AM
1 Comments:
Libs---
Love reading the site. The pictures are beautiful. We hope all is going well for you and your team. Keep up the good work and steer clear of the local brew, if you value your vision- ha!
Kevin and John
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