After three days of exhausting manual labor at the construction site for me and painting site for some, we finally earned a day off.
Unlike other rest days when we would explore or just chill at the compound, this one was promised to be a thrilling one. The reason is — we have been indulged a lunch with the Royal Family of Lesotho.
Upon arriving to their residence, I was a little surprised to see that their residence consisted of several houses, an archive, and small post office. No massive baroque palace or large grandstands. When lunch was about to begin and everyone sat down a modestly dressed man, seemingly in his 40s, greeted us. It took me about a minute to process that this was the king. Then the prince, princess and the queen appeared: all dressed in the same manner.
I had an opportunity to share the table with the prince, having expected him to be on airs I kept a straight earnest look. However, after a few minutes of ice breaking it turned out not only that the royal airs were not needed to him, but also that we had plenty of commons: soccer and video games. On top of that, he was soon to start his bachelors of Economics at a university in England. Being an international student myself and an Econ major, I was fascinated by the amount of things we have in common. I should say I enjoyed talking to him.
Later this day we stopped at a mall and a liquor store, to buy traditional Basotho Blankets and local wine respectively. Having finished our shopping spree we stopped at a restaurant for dinner. To say I was impressed would be an understatement, I truly didn’t expect to see a restaurant of this class in Africa. I finished this day sipping an Aperol Spritz, just as exhausted as I were the day before, this time not from carrying cinder blocks but experiencing previously unknown to me.
-Artem G.