Landing in Maseru (8/26/09)

My flight this morning was on the smallest plane I’ve ever been on . . .

The specs of the Jetstream 4100:

Max passengers: 29

Length: 19.25 m

Wing Span 18.29 m

Height: 5.74m

Distance in cabin between passengers: Not enough to escape the bad breath of the man across the aisle from me. Yuck!

View of Lesotho’s Mountains: Priceless

I went through customs and the health screening, which involved filling out a sheet saying that I didn’t have any of the possible symptoms of “Swine Flu”, and that if I developed any of them I would report it immediately. Like promised, my two bags of luggage actually were there to meet me (even though they probably took up half of whatever storage space there was on the plane). I was picked up from the airport by smiling Dimpo, and taken directly to the clinic, unfortunately in my travel clothes that I’d been wearing for almost 2 days. I was given a key and taken to the cottage where I will be staying to drop my stuff, which is within the gated grounds. My super nice roommates left me a cute welcome note (and an invitation to the sangria in the fridge : ), and then Dimpo drove me to the Shop-Rite. While I love grocery shopping, this was the most rushed and inadequate shopping I’ve ever done—good thing I brought lentils and trail mix and peanut butter. I was amazed by the number of food items in bags instead of cans/jars (i.e. pasta sauce).

I then got a quick tour of the clinic—which is ridiculously pretty. I’ll post pics soon. There is even a playground outside that was filled with kids. When I brought my computer over there to try to access the clinic’s wireless, I was quickly surrounded by kids who wanted a closer look at my laptop and wanted to talk to Rafe on Skype with me—unfortunately he was not online—next time. More clinic details to come after my first day tomorrow.

I have unpacked, and attempted unsuccessfully to recreate Rafe’s Dal recipe—even though he left me specific measurements for the spices and everything. I don’t have measuring spoons/cups, or a colander than can actually hold my lentils while I strain and rinse them. Hopefully I’ll do better next time.

Morning prayer before clinic is at 7:50am, and maybe my jet lag will have worn off by then for my first day of clinic. Wish me luck!