Lesotho, Day 4: Last Day of Work

This was the last day of meetings in Lesotho, which is good, because I’m about meeting-ed out.

                

I decided to get an extra half hour of sleep this morning, and did 30 minutes on the stationary bike in the gym instead of going for a run. It’s not a bad gym—it has a few treadmills, ellipticals, and bikes, as well as weights and whatnot—but I’ll always prefer working out in the real world to doing something in the gym. It’s been a while since I was on a bike, though, so I probably needed it.

                

We got our first surprise of the day when Mo came to pick us up at 8, telling us we had a meeting at 8:15 with Christian Health Association of Lesotho (CHAL), the largest health NGO in the country. He says he told us about this yesterday, but nobody had any recollection of this and we really weren’t dressed appropriately; I was in khakis and a shirt (with my boots on) and our exercise planner was in jeans and a sweater. He changed into a suit and tie; I didn’t realize what was going on and stuck with my attire. Anyway, we ended up late, but that was fine (African Standard Time…). We explained the exercise with the representative and invited any nurses or doctors to give or come to academic sessions. She seemed very interested and said she would get with some of her people to see if anyone wanted to talk. Seems positive.

Site of our meetings

After that, we went out to Maruja, which was where the first Huguenot missionaries came. They have a museum about the history of Lesotho, and we were scoping it out for a potential cultural day activity. During the MEDRETEs, there’s usually a day during the weekend to “experience the culture” of the host nation. This should really be changed to “tourist day”, because it’s really about being a tourist. There’s usually a market involved and everything. Anyway, we went to this museum, which explained the history of Lesotho from the big bang on (skipping large chunks of time, obviously). It was pretty interesting, but I’m not sure how much it would be enjoyed by the people on the mission. I guess we’ll find out.

Replica huts at the museum

             

We had one final meeting of the day at 1600, with PEPFAR. We told them about the mission and asked them if they would be willing to give some academics, and not only did they say that they would be, but they also gave us the names of more NGOs that they would put us in contact with. It was pretty much a win-win, and a productive meeting.

                

The rest of the team is flying back tomorrow, and I’m not leaving for Kinshasa (by way of Nairobi) until Saturday, so I have the day to myself tomorrow. I’m thinking I’m going to go hiking. One of the guys at the Embassy said that there are plenty of hiking trails to try that are right around the hotel, so I figure, why not?