Shades of Joy

Joy comes in many shades...

A few weeks back it presented itself in many gorgeous shades of green and earth tones of brown as we headed way out into the rurals of Lesotho to visit a young gal from Holland who has recently married a Mosotho. It was joyous to see this young and courageous couple tackling all the challenges of their new life together, trusting God. So lovely to view the rolling mountain upon mountain and valley upon valley with all the tiny villages perched throughout.

Then, better yet, to view pure blackness strewn with shining white specks: a pure night sky full of stars. No electricity does have a few benefits! And quiet! Did I mention the sound of absolute crystal pure stillness that just fills a soul with peacefulness... What colour is stillness? What colour is peace? I think it is the most gentle powder blue imaginable. Wonder... Wonder full...Wonderful! A wonderful weekend it was!

Then, on Thursday last, joy came in mud-brown ;-) and the great fun of another hiking trip (kind of...) with the IB 1's. I decided that we'd never get around to hiking trips if a)I wait for them to plan or b)I wait for the rain to stop, so I suggested that we do a Tuesdays for Two thing where we do a two-hour small hike up the little knoll in town every Tuesday just to get in condition, have a chance to discuss plans for longer hikes, gauge who's up for longer hikes, and slowly build their mandatory 50 hours of activity they need to graduate with their diploma. (Two hours a week DOES add up, over time!)

Anyway, we couldn't go last Tuesday because I had Parent/Teacher meetings so we scheduled for Thursday. Of course, Thursday comes and it's pouring all day but those crazy kids are packed into my classroom ready to go--no less than twenty-five of them! I say, "Oh, you guys, it's raining. This is crazy. You guys are crazy. You don't want to do this, do you (hoping...)?" Yep, they did. So I stalled them until at least the rain let up, then we headed out for what was actually a three-hour hike since, of course, there were slower ones.

All-in-all it was such good fun and a highlight of the week. Having to help very reticent young adults who were really quite fearful of a couple of scramble spots but convincing them that they COULD do this was rewarding. (Considering Basotho ARE mountain people, most of the ones I've met aren't! They are very fearful of heights or anything close and I've had some express that we white people do crazy things like climbing mountains just because... ;-)

But it WAS fun! The kids all got to the top and started singing and dancing! Then we headed down...(Did I mention, it had started raining again!) A good part of the way home we were jumping puddles and trying to avoid too much mud, and then these kids started singing and dancing again for most of the way home. I was just absorbing their joy! Some of the tunes I recognized but with one I was just chuckling when they were singing ... Sesotho, Sesotho... something something....Wendy...something... Yeh, that's the only word I could understand, so I laughed and told them it was creepy to hear them singing when the only word I recognized was my name ;-) (I also thought it was quite funny that they'd decided somehow that they should call me Wendy versus Mrs. Fath which is what they normally call me ;-) Anyway, the song was about conquering the mountain with me ;-) Oh, yes, I get my rewards! Joy--muddy, rain-soaked joy!

~ Wendy ~