Hi mom and dad and everyone else at home!! Sorry for the last blog… we had it all typed up and the internet late at night, so we decided to just re-type it today and combine yesterdays and todays.
Yesterday we started our day with a lovely breakfast then headed to the habitat site. After packing down over 100 wheelbarrows of dirt over the last few days. We were finally able to lay the floor. We took turns filling wheelbarrows with sand, rocks and cement. We placed 12 wheelbarrows of sand, 10 wheelbarrows of rock and 5 100lbs bags of cement. We all had our designated jobs to help mix and transport the mix for the floor. After a couple hours of mixing cement and laying it down the floor was finally done!! Maddy, Kylah and I then were in charge of making the bottom step for the entrance. Lindsay then had a great idea to have the grandma and the grandchildren who we are building the house for to put their handprints in the cement. Sadly, the cement was too wet and we were leaving soon so they are waiting until Monday to retry putting their hand prints on the top step. The house is coming along very nicely! The grandma and the family were all very pleased they watched the entire time! After the habitat site we went to lunch. Many different sandwiches one was what they call “toasted cheeses” which is just a grilled cheese. Then for lunch dessert we had my favorite CARROT CAKE!! After lunch we headed to the community center where the kids were preforming their traditional dances. First the little boys preformed their traditional war dance called “mokhibo” the older boys sat on the side and sang while the younger boys danced along with sticks. After the young boys preformed the “gumboot dance”. They sang and slapped their rubber rain boots. Then the girls preformed their “mokheblo” they had 2 girls dressed in their traditional skirts made of maze meal bags and TONS of bottle caps underneath so as they danced the bottle caps would rattle to the beat of the song. After the girls performance they let anyone who wanted try on the skirts and dance to the songs. Almost all of us tried but needless to say none of us could dance how they could. Everyone got a good laugh especially the older ladies from the village. After the dances we played with the kiddos for a little. One of the older gentlemen from the village makes sand paintings, sand sculptures, and 100% wool beanies and scarfs. We all got some cool things and got to talk to him about his work. He said he could make almost anything we wanted, and he could get it to us in a couple days. After we shopped around for bit Maddy, Mack, Emily and I went back to drop off our stuff and get ready to go on a run. We met up with our friends from the village to go on our run. We ran down to the river where we met up with Kyla, Hannah, Natalie and all their friends. It was very fun and cute to see all of them run with us. The river was definitely cold but it was absolutely breathtaking and not just because we are running at a mile above sea level.
Today was our free day so Maddy, Mack and I started our morning off sleeping in a little then going on a morning walk before breakfast. Breakfast was soooo amazing we had pancakes!! Great start to our day! Then we hung out and got all dolled up for church at 11am. The service was beautiful. It was a traditional catholic service. It was very structured but unlike catholic mass in America during the songs they would get up and dance. There were 3 older men would get in the isle with sticks that had feathers on the end and danced in the center of the chapel. It was very lively everyone singing and dancing. Unfortunately, I did not understand a single word because it was in Sesotho but it was really cool to be in the atmosphere. Everyone is super welcoming here and would greet us as they walked past us. We had to leave church early to make it back for lunch on time. After lunch majority of our group went pony trekking. We went up the mountains and down to the river where we got to see a cave painting of a bull that was over 10,000 years old. The pony trekking was so much fun and was hilarious. Maddy’s pony kept stopping at every stream to drink water, Lindsay’s horse was not having it her horse was kicking anyone who got too close. Don’t be alarmed though no one got hurt it was all just fun and games. Majority of the time we were just slow walking with our horses but towards the end the guides let our horses go a little fast which was very fun. A little scary for some of us but everyone had a blast! On the way back to the trading post Maseabata my friend from the village ran up to me on my horse and handed me a note. It was super sweet she was thanking me for being her friend and was asking me to come back next year. We ended the night having curry for dinner and milk and cookies. Today was a super fun free day! I’m looking forward to the rest of the trip! Happy Father’s Day to every dad at home reading this!!! Love you all and everything you do for your family’s! Love you lots dad!
-Sofia Didone