Fall

Fall has arrived in Lesotho. Someone was correcting me again last week. I said I was going home during the summer. “Winter”, they pointedly reminded me. Yes, the leaves on the trees are turning fall colours - in late April. We have also our first frost, and it is that time of year when one begins to layer up to stay warm when inside.

Fall does have its advantages. We no longer need the mosquito net at night to obtain a quiet and restful sleep. The number of bugs in the house is noticeably less – no five centimeter long praying mantises on the walls. And the grass will not need to be cut for a few months now. Though not related to winter, we have also finally gained the upper hand on the ants who were using our home as their preferred restaurant.

One interesting aspect of ‘winter’ in Lesotho is that it brings on the winter gardening season. I have been developing a couple of small garden plots at our place and my cabbages, swiss chard, peas, and cauliflowers were doing great!! ‘Were’, being the operative word. I was also enjoying some long tailed little birds that began to visit our yard, though I was wondering what it was that was chewing on my flourishing cauliflower and cabbage plants. There seemed to be more and more of the little birds, and then I noticed a couple of them, down in the garden, voraciously attacking my plants. (It seems that it is not only cats that our loyal ‘guard’ dog seems indifferent to.) Then to make matters worse, on the last Saturday of April we had a severe, late season hail storm. A couple of days later, about seven of the little feathered ‘friends’ showed up just to made sure there was nothing left. It had me thinking of the plagues in Egypt.

Plague and pestilence.

Fall has also been a season to say goodbye. Our good friends and neighbors, who were also colleagues at Beautiful Gate, returned to Australia in late April. We had the privilege of accompanying them to the airport, and seeing them off. They are now taking a bit of time at home to rest, reorient, and reflect. They both talked of ‘when’ they will return to Lesotho, and hopefully their desires fit into God’s plans and we will see them back here sometime before our own time comes to say goodbye. But for now the yard is emptier, and we miss their energy and presence. And while one cannot simply replace friends, there certainly is another presence, with lots of energy, in our lives.

We are delighted to have my niece, Jillian, visiting with us. We picked her up in Johannesburg on April 25. She keeps me on my toes and she brings a lot of youthful energy. She will be helping out at Beautiful Gate a few days a week, we have plans to see some of rural Lesotho on weekends, and a trip into the Eastern Cape, including a game park and the ocean, is scheduled for June. She has settled in well, and has enjoyed meeting her internet chat friend from here in Lesotho.

Internet chat pals.

Jillian will be returning to Canada with Wendy and I when we visit home in early July. But it may be a long ten weeks for me as I am already saying there are too many women in the house, to which she and Wendy offer no sympathy whatsoever. Sigh … ☺

~ Benno ~