Yesterday I ventured across the smaller valley to the shop to buy some eggs, beans, etc, and on my way back, my ‘Me saw me and called me over. She was working in the field next to the store, behind the house that was her childhood home. Chatting with the women was nice and they even gave me some moroho to take with me. Score! This morning, I got up with the intention of climbing the mountain that my house is toward the bottom of. My littlest ausi and her friend (the same one who accompanied me in the Great Propane Cyllinder Adventure) wanted to go with me. We started to climb up, and they told me that they had never climbed this mountain before. I guess when you live somewhere like this your whole life, doing things like climbing mountains isn’t on your to-do list. The girls needed to stop and rest every few minutes, but that was ok. My ausi was wearing slip-on sandals that were way too big for her, so I have no idea how she made it up (or down) the slope. At the top, the view was unreal. I could see the valley stretch out to both sides, and I had a full view of the villages below and of the ridges extending outward. I wanted to keep going along the ridge, but the girls were hungry and wanted to go home. On the way down, we had fun pointing to things we saw and asking each other how to say them in English or Sesotho. Toward the bottom, the girls ran as fast as they could through the pine forest that is above our houses, occasionally slipping in the pine needles. They ran inside and told my ‘me that we had just come from the mountain, and she was really surprised, like “why would you want to do that?” I have been getting this question a lot here…
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