Hello All!

It’s been a whirlwind first two weeks in Lesotho. We’re having a wonderful and challenging time, growing in many expected and unexpected ways. And we’re having a lot of fun, too. What follows are a few photos and short stories of our non-work adventures.

Before the photos of play (which is when we tend to take photos), let us say that life in Leribe is good. We have a comfortable, quite western apartment all to ourselves. We cook tasty food at home, particularly “chakalaka.” We run daily around stunning and ancient hills and crags while taking in breathtaking sunsets. We are healthy.

“Work” itself, at the Motebang District Hospital, is always a whole adventure unto itself.  We have been working in different wards (so Matt is not Mary’s direct “supervisor”…phewf!) and have been growing into our respective clinical roles. Even though there is still not oxygen and extremely limited nursing staffing, the doctor staffing situation is much better than a year ago… twice the doctors in fact! It’s still about half as many as are needed, but it’s much better for patients and learners alike. As could be expected, watching about 20% of your patients die is emotionally draining, but having your companion during loss has been a treat for both of us and we’ve been deliberate in honoring the deceased on a daily basis. Everyone at the hospital (from kitchen staff to random nurses she hasn’t met) seems to know Mary’s name. Is she the only redhead ever to step foot in the hospital or something?

OK, the photos:

Where we live. We are in the flatlands of Lesotho, with the mountains prominent on the skyline.

 

We headed up an epic 6000 vertical foot mountain pass on a weekend trip to find this view, looking back down towards the flatlands. Top 5 most beautiful things I’ve ever seen.

 Us. Matt’s suitcase didn’t arrive for a week, so he bought this shirt at a local store so that he could change out of his plane clothes. Mary thought that Matt looked like a Mormon Missionary crossed with a schoolboy. She was right.

This epic weekend trip to the mountains was actually us poaching a ride as part of Motebang District Hospital’s first ever “Doctor’s Retreat”.  Every single doctor from the hospital went on the trip. (A doctor from another hospital was paid to cover while everyone was gone) The trip was wonderful, hilarious and amazing. From a human resources perspective, it’s actually a huge step in terms of the hospital acknowledging the hard work of its physicians and taking steps to improve their sense of community and satisfaction (to improve retention). This is our van (courtesy of the Chinese Government) and our SUV (courtesy of LeBoHA), pulled over on the side of a precipitous switchback to take photos.

Matt thinks this lady is pretty. Who could argue!?

 Excited to be a part of this sunset in the “Kingdom in the Sky.”

The destination of the “Doctors Retreat:” Katse Dam. This massive collaboration between South Africa and Lesotho will provide water for South Africa and electricity to Lesotho. Lucky for us (and the Besotho people), the project has created a beautiful lake in the mountains that has become a “major tourist attraction” in Lesotho.

We did everything you could possibly do in Katse, including a pony trek down to the lake. Mary may have had something to do with this decision. Despite his initial hesitation, Matt took his riding skills to a new level on ol’ Lef (as branded on his pony’s rump).

 Mary didn’t stop smiling the whole pony trek, despite the fact that we were put on pony’s the size of large dogs.

 After pony Trekking, we took a boat ride around the lake. As you can see, we were well prepared for the boat to sink. Fortunately, we all survived and had a lovely ride.

The whole group at the Katse Dam. They have a highly eclectic group at Motebang Hospital these days, including physicians from Lesotho, the Democratic Republic of Congo,  China, Myanmar, Nigeria and the Philippines.  Each with unique motivations, clinical experiences, perspective, practice styles and most importantly, sense of humor.

And today, we left our front door at 6am and then hiked the ridgeline from our neighborhood to the cinder cone peak about 8 miles away. The route is shown here by Dr. Malek.

 The ridgeline…

Mary climbs the steeps.

Cinder cone summit!

On we go to 2 more weeks of adventure. Happy to share the first two with you all!

Much love,

Matt and Mary