I made it!

Lumela! Greetings from Lesotho! I have finally arrived in Maseru. Delene and I arrived last friday and met with Bishop Adam Taaso. I could not be happier to have finally arrived. Lesotho is a beautiful place and the people are warm and inviting. I feel right at home here in this mountain community. Lesotho is known as the Kingdom of the sky, which is a fitting title! Asheville, NC has a nick name of "The land of the sky," so I think it is fate that I have been placed here for the year.

Maseru, Lesotho

My time here in Lesotho will be spent doing many different things. For the first three months, I will be living here in Maseru, which is the Capital. I will be living and working here at the Diocesan office. They have a nice boarding house that they have graciously let me stay in. My work will include helping to create a communications strategy, which will include a new website for the diocese. Its going to be a lot of work, but I think the end result will be very helpful to the diocese. After my 3 months here in Maseru, I will move up to Mantsonyane to work with the St. James Mission Hospital. The work there will be similar to the work with the diocese. A new website for the hospital will allow them to stay connected with donors and let the world know what's going on! Im excited to be doing this kind of work for the diocese and the hospital because it will allow me do find all sorts of interesting stories to share. I think it will allow me to get closer to the communities that I will be working with.

The Diocesan Office and Boarding House

Living here in Maseru has been great so far. The boarding house is great because people come from all over Lesotho and Southern Africa to stay here. I've been able to meet so many interesting people! It is also nice living where I work because I dont have to walk far in the morning to get to work! Each morning here at the Diocesan office starts with an 8 o'clock mass in Sesotho. The structure of the service is very similar to what I am used to at home, which is good because I would be completely lost without that knowledge. I have started taking some Sesotho lessons with the Bishops wife, Matsepo. It is a very fast language but I think I will be able to pick it up with some practice.

Bishop Adam in the Cathedral

Although I am very excited to be here, I do miss all of my new friends that I made in Cape Town. Everyone at the HOPE Africa office was so welcoming to me for my short stay. I cannot thank Mpho and her family enough for hosting me at their house for my stay in Cape Town. I felt like an old family friend. On my last night in Cape Town, the whole HOPE Africa staff took me out for a dinner on the beach! We went to a restaurant called Snookies and ate some delicious fish and chips. We ate our dinner on the beach with one of the prettiest sights of Table Mountain you can see in Cape Town. I cant thank the HOPE Africa staff enough for their hospitality. Sala hantle! 

HOPE Africa dinner on the beach