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Mokhotlong, Lesotho

Safety

Safety in Mokhotlong, Lesotho
What do other Racers need to know in order to be safe? Current safety protocols/precautions in place? Any relevant issues/concerns? Any precautionary suggestions?

People’s Opinions

  1. We felt fairly safe here for the month. Girls walked alone to the Shoprite, gym, and wifi. People would randomly walk in to our house (always people associated with the church, but it would catch us off guard regardless). Men would shout at us whether we walked alone or in groups. Anyone alone would always be home by dark.
  2. It is quite safe, but take precautions like normal. Don’t leave valuables around outside or things that you think might not turn out so well. Also, it is fine to hike the hill behind the mission house IF you ask your host and they say it is ok…Just always ask your ministry host like you’ve been told for the billionth time and everything should be ok.
  3. So safe! However I don’t advise hiking the mountain directly behind the ministry site (at least not the very top portion) because this little three month initiation school was going on (looked kind of like a tribal cult meeting – this is a traditional thing mountain people do in order for boys to become men and they all get circumcised) and they saw us and came up to us on their horses and held us captive for a little while. They demanded that we delete any photos if we took any and they were calling their authority to see if they should let us go or not. The guy lied on the phone and said we had already left to allow us to escape. Very sketchy, lol, but we were unharmed. Don’t go up there though hah.
  4. Mokhotlong is pretty safe place. We walked around at night in small groups and never felt unsafe at all. Our host drove us around in trucks most of the time because of the rough terrain but I felt safe enough to walk any where I needed to go for ministry or hiking etc.
  5. We felt very safe. Walked alone to wifi and hiked in groups. Watch your valuables at the house – if they are visible it can be tempting.
  6. Be cautious walking through the taxi area in front of Shop Rite. It can be chaotic, lots of people will be hollering at you.Don’t walk alone anywhere, always have one other person with you.Walk in groups at night if you have to be out at night.

Ministry Summary

Ministry Summary in Mokhotlong, Lesotho
Breakthroughs? Suggestions? Concerns? On a scale of 1-4 (1 being not at all, 4 being absolutely) how strongly would you recommend another World Race team go to this ministry location & why?

People’s Opinions

  1. We’d do devotions at the the hospital and school each morning at 7:45 a.m., and then come back home for breakfast. We’d go to the school at 10 a.m. each day to move rocks (something we couldn’t ever really figure out the point of) and then return home at 12. We’d then go back to the school from 2:30-4 each afternoon to move more rocks. We helped with the soup kitchen on Monday mornings at the hospital. We were supposed to help with the youth group on Friday nights, but got rained out 2 of 3 weeks. And we were able to share a devo with the prison guards once, which we enjoyed a lot. On Sundays we were asked to preach/share testimonies at various churches. We fought pretty hard to not be split up for Sunday mornings, but would split 2 and 2 in the mornings for hospital/school.The manual labor parts of ministry felt pointless, but each church we visited seemed encouraged by what we shared. We used our manual labor time to listen to sermons/podcasts to try to make the most of the monotonous time.
  2. Ministry was very slow while we were here. Maybe an hour a day so make the most of it when you have it. Tsepo was our closest connection and he has a lot of amazing things to pour into you. Communication is really challenging and requires a lot of work on your end/your TL. Look for opportunities to evangelize but it can be very challenging without a translator, although you can always just pray for them in english! There is a lot of walking and the location is beautiful so bring tennis shoes.
  3. Soak up every moment of all of the things you get to do! Tsepo is incredible and has so much wisdom to share. Take advantage of every opportunity to build relationships, whether at Shop Rite or Fish n Chips or just some random person you pass every day to ministry.
  4. Also! The ministry hosts are AWESOME! Tsepo is hilarious and a really good translator. Oliver is so cool and wise. And Obed is really cool and has a really nice family. The women at the house are so cool too especially Mama Joy (as we called her). You might meet Bulara or Dankee at church, they are so cool! Also there’s an extremely nice missionary family that lives super close and would always bring us cookies etc, they were awesome. Everyone you’ll meet is awesome.
  5. Ministry was super awesome and we had a pretty full schedule. We preached at soup kitchens, a hospital, a prison and several village churches in the mountains. We also were helping build an orphanage the entire time, and this was super rigorous some days. Prepare to share a word/testimony all the time, and have plenty of opportunities to share the gospel. This was absolutely our favorite ministry on the Race.
  6. Throughout the week, we were able to do a variety of ministry. Usually it was only for a few hours a day. We had soup kitchen 3 lunches a week, prison ministry one day, and preaching in church. We we asked to give a “word” at all of the locations, so be prepared! It is a great opportunity to share the gospel alot. We spent a good amount of our off time either in bible study together, catching up on things, or doing ATLs around town. Go visit and work in Oliver’s fabric shop 🙂 Not having assigned ministry all the time allowed us to be free in finding ministry to do.
  7. All of WR Fusion was with the same host, Hillock Harvester’s Church. They do a TON of stuff. There were ample opportunities for preaching and evangelism, the most I’ve had so far. We also went to a lof food programs. Our main ministry was assisting with building an orphanage to be run by the church. It was hard work but the kids at the school nearby always liked to join in with us and we had a good time. Our hosts were amazing! So kind and genuinely interested in our journey.

Lodging

Lodging in Mokhotlong, Lesotho
Where did you stay? What were the accommodations (sleeping arrangements, toilets, showers, etc.)? Cost (per person per night in USD), Contact info.

People’s Opinions

  1. We stayed in the “mission house” (and everyone in town knows exactly what/where it is … in case you get lost). We shared the house with a young couple and their baby; they were the most fun part of the month and we enjoyed learning from/about them. Letsema (the husband) spoke English well (and is a teacher at the school) and Matabo (the wife) didn’t understand/speak as much english, but we had so much fun getting to spend time with her anyways. Their baby Thandiwe is the cutest, happiest baby. The house had one room with 5 beds for our 4 girls, and then our male squad leader got his own room. Our showers were hot regardless of load shedding, but we did go without water for a few days at a time. Fill all the random water jugs in the kitchen/bathroom with water while it’s running to wash dishes/flush toilets when the water cuts out. Pour water in the tank of the toilet and flush it that way, rather than pouring water straight into the toilet. We had a large kitchen and cooked for ourselves for the month, which was great.
  2. Rooms were nice! 2 of the beds were broken in the girls room but we made it work — there is plenty of room and a lot of storage! We didn’t have running water for 20 days so prepare for that. It was nice when we did have it! There is power on and off, much more reliable than water. The kitchen has 3 gas burners and there is a common living space to eat meals together.
  3. Several rooms with bunks.The nights were cool (in February) which was a nice break coming from hot as heck Asia. Keep the windows open and take advantage of not having mosquitos. The days could be quite warm though, keep the windows open during the day but the bedroom doors closed. The flies will drive you mad.The outhouses are decent for the amount of people we had (15). The water went out frequently, as people below had mentioned. Keep jugs of water full in the bathroom for flushing and hand washing.We had no hot water all month. Not sure if it was just us or what, they tried to fix it. Be prepared to potentially have to boil water if you want it hot.
  4. There are several rooms with bunks. The beds aren’t the comfiest in the world. Nice toilets and showers that are hot. However the water goes out quite frequently and so does the electricity. Went two weeks without water at one point during our two months and had to shower in the local creek (which was really fun actually). Also will have to poop in the longdrop which smells putrid. All in all, really good lodging.
  5. We stayed during August. It started off very cold both during the day and night, but has warmed up significantly toward the end of the month. I would suggest bringing some warm clothes if you are coming during winter/spring months, or get to Pep (a clothing store near the mission house) to get some warmer clothing.
  6. The lodging was a solid 8 out of 10 for race standards. Harvester’s had several bunk rooms and two toilets and two shower rooms. HOT showers. The only downside is the lack of heating. We were there in June for dead winter when temps at night were well below freezing. They had tons of blankets for us but those only go so far. So all in all, great lodging and hopefully you find yourself there when it isn’t the middle of frost bite season.

Food / Meals

Food / Meals in Mokhotlong, Lesotho
What did you eat? Where did you get the food? Cost (per person per day in USD)? Contact info (if applicable).

People’s Opinions

  1. We cooked for ourselves and shopped at Shoprite (5 minutes down the hill, visible from the house). The kitchen was adequate for us. Teammates found that chicken didn’t keep well, with how often the power went out, so some people bought canned tuna for protein.There’s a man (Tabataba) who sells bags of popcorn for 5 Rand from a stand at his house! It’s a wooden stand, if you look left on the street above the taxi rank while walking down to Shoprite, you’ll see his stand. We made friends with him and supported his business as much as we could. He also helped us get connected to a driver to help us at the end of the month.
  2. We decided to ask if we could cook for ourselves to drop the carb intake and it worked great! They offer to cook for you but we found it was inconsistent and we weren’t sure what to expect. Talk to your team and decide what’s best for your group and communicate that early! There is a fridge and a lot of storage – the shoprite is super close and groceries are easy.
  3. Food was great. Make sure to ask the host how much y’all are allowed to eat — clarify whether or not the amount of food put out is for just y’all or for the staff as well. Also, make sure you have water filters. We had running water about half the time we were here and clean drinking water about half the time.
  4. All meals were prepared for us by the staff.They had asked for suggestions of some things that we would eat in the states (what kind of meat, what kinds of sides). We had a lot of rice and pasta. A variety of meats. They were really great!Polony nearly made all of us feel queezy so we asked them to stop serving that. They were incredibly gracious and asked that if anything is not what we like or making us sick to let them know, not to let food waste or let them make it if we don’t like it.There are not many restaurants still except Fish and Chips and Mamopeli’s. Get the fat cakes and Mamopeli makes great cookies and pizza!The Shop Rite is a fine place to get produce from but we were advised not to get meat from there as it was full of oil. Lots of good snacks. Be warned, the watermelon precut tastes like Shop Rite. Pretty weird.Get some seedless grapes! They’ll be some of the only ones you’ll see on the race!
  5. We liked the food at first. After two months it got slightly old. The ladies make every meal and are amazing. You will eat PLENTY of food and there are always leftovers. The food is very traditional, and we pretty much always had rice or pasta or pap with some sort of meat or sauce. There aren’t a ton of restaurant options, pretty much only Tulip’s which is a fish and chip place owned by an Indian and a Pakistani. We loved them at first but also got worn out on that after two months. A Shoprite opened the day before we arrived which was super amazing, it’s a pretty legit grocery store like two minutes from the ministry site. Also check out the meat market for fries and fatcakes.
  6. We liked the food at first. After two months it got slightly old. The ladies make every meal and are amazing. You will eat PLENTY of food and there are always leftovers. The food is very traditional, and we pretty much always had rice or pasta or pap with some sort of meat or sauce. There aren’t a ton of restaurant options, pretty much only Tulip’s which is a fish and chip place owned by an Indian and a Pakistani. We loved them at first but also got worn out on that after two months. A Shoprite opened the day before we arrived which was super amazing, it’s a pretty legit grocery store like two minutes from the ministry site. Also check out the meat market for fries and fatcakes.
  7. Don’t buy “fresh” items from the Chinese market. Mountain mini market and the fruit stand will give you better products.
  8. The food was very traditional. At first we were reluctant to eat everything that was prepared because we wanted to save some for the ladies that cooked it, but we were assured that everything was for us. Also, there were a couple markets that were very close and a new place called Fish and Chips. They served fish, fries, sausages, and grilled/fried chicken. We ate there often and it was only about $2 USD. There is also a place called the Mokhotlong Meat Market that is good and also very cheap to grab food. My team is with 2 other team this month and no one has lost weight. We have rice, pap, pasta, or potatoes for every meal. I hope you like carbs.
  9. Our hosts provided full three meals a day with very very traditional food. Pap/sheema, noodles, misc meats, porridge, cabbage, etc. Most of the squad went hog wild on coke and snacks because we were so hungry from all the construction work and there was a good grocery store within a 5 minute walk.

Transportation

Transportation in Mokhotlong, Lesotho
What transportation did you use to enter the country? Where were you coming from? What transportation was used to move throughout the country? Be sure to include the cost per person in USD and contact info if applicable.

People’s Opinions

  1. We came from Swaziland, so Jumbo (at AIM) helped us organize transit. It was expensive, but oh well. Sandile (a driver we had in Swazi each day) drove us to the Lesotho border, we crossed into Lesotho with him, and then a driver picked up our team to go to Mokhotlong, and Sandile continued on to Maseru with the rest of the squad.To leave Mokhotlong, Tabataba helped us find a driver, and Letsema (the man we lived with) knew the guy so we felt safe about it. We met up with our squad in Maseru at Pioneer Mall, and the 4 of us girls switched to the other vehicle (headed south through Lesotho before entering South Africa) and our male SQL and the team headed north to Joburg continued on with our driver. It was kind of a complex meetup/split up, but it worked for us and wouldn’t have been possible without using private drivers. But we found private drivers to be the safest and most reliable option for us.
  2. Long Distance: For transport from Maseru, you will probably want Oliver to help. The ride from Maseru to Mohkotlong was astronomically expensive and over double our normal budget. Unforunately for us, we were told the price two days before travel and could not make other arrangements. Don’t fall in our footsteps. In your initial email to the host, you need to express your budget forthright and explain that you can NOT budge. They can make arrangements for cheaper. It’s not the most comfortable ride but it’s not the worst. Be prepared.Local: Be prepared to walk a lot. Always carry sunscreen! You never know how long you’ll be walking or in the back of the pickup.
  3. Expect lots of walking. You may have to walk two hours to the furthest village church on a Sunday. Otherwise you will get to places in the back of a pickup truck. Sometimes you can just hitchhike, locals will totally give you a ride. We also would take a taxi back from the church sometimes if it was raining.
  4. We walked most places or else were loaded into the bed of a pick up truck, but there were affordable taxis available for 10+ rand.

Medical

Medical in Mokhotlong, Lesotho
Information on local hospitals / doctors / pharmacies. Where would someone go in a medical emergency? (addresses and contact info).

People’s Opinions

  1. Be drinking water and lots of it. The altitude and the sun combined with a lot of walking gave several terrible headaches.Make sure to be washing your hands and carry hand sanitizer for local ministries and hospital ministries.Have hand sanitizer prepared for when the water goes out, because it will.
  2. Be drinking water and lots of it. The altitude and the sun combined with a lot of walking gave several terrible headaches.Make sure to be washing your hands and carry hand sanitizer for local ministries and hospital ministries.Have hand sanitizer prepared for when the water goes out, because it will.
  3. Everyone got sick at some point over two months. Make sure to bring hand sanitizer for when the water goes out and you can’t wash your hands. There’s a hospital/clinic nearby that you can go to for medicine.
  4. Everyone got sick at some point over two months. Make sure to bring hand sanitizer for when the water goes out and you can’t wash your hands. There’s a hospital/clinic nearby that you can go to for medicine.
  5. Unfortunately we had several stomach bugs go around during our time in Mokhotlong. The hospital nearby was very capable and our hosts always wanted to go with us for interpreting and just smoothing out the process. I suggest vitamins. We couldn’t pin down the source of the sickness besides we were frequently very cold and that can just wear down an immune system.

Communication

Communication in Mokhotlong, Lesotho
Did you have cell reception / Internet service? Where? Carrier / Provider, where did you get phones / SIM cards, cost? Country code?

People’s Opinions

  1. We used Econet sims and they worked well. The econet shop is in the parking lot with Shoprite. You buy airtime and buy data from your phone. If you buy airtime from Shoprite, it’ll save you a few rand. We would by 80 rand airtime and then attempt to buy the 50 rand 2GB weekly package, and it would always prompt us with an offer for 30 more rand to buy another 1.2 GB. So we’d do 3.2 GB per week for 80 rand.There’s two wifi spots in town, in the gravel lot to the right of the Shoprite/Pep parking lot. The spot on the left has horrible wifi at a higher price. The place on the right has flashing lights and red cabinets inside. They charge 5 rand for 20 minutes, and it works pretty quickly to download/upload stuff. The staff are kind, just don’t overstay your time or it’ll frustrate them. Also, no wifi during load shedding — they didn’t have a generator when we were there.
  2. Our sims worked great — there is an internet cafe that costs 15 rand per hour and is a 5 min walk. Ask the host they will show you where.
  3. My international SIM did not work in Lesotho, either calling out or calling in. Neither did the other TL’s phone. We purchased SIM cards from the store next to Shop Rite and bought minutes in Shop Rite (it seemed like that was the only way we got exactly what we paid for).

    There are 2 wifi cafe’s in town. The women who work there are nice. The wifi wasn’t spectacular. It took half an hour to download a dozen or so songs on Spotify. It was fine for my TL call and other things that needed to take place but not the best.
  4. There are 2 wifi cafe’s in town with pretty decent wifi. It is roughly $1/hour, or 5 rand for 20 minutes. They are really nice there 🙂For this month, half of our teams were in Botswana and half in Lesotho. For some reason my TL phone only worked calling the people in Botswana, but they couldn’t call me. We never figured out the reason why, but just a heads up in case it happens.

Financial

Financial in Mokhotlong, Lesotho
Location of banks or ATMs, notes about transaction fees, best places to exchange money, and other money related advice.

People’s Opinions

  1. There are ATMs outside Shoprite that worked well. 2000 rand limit per transaction. The ones down at the far left end only work for cards from that specific bank, so don’t even try haha.

Translators

Translators in Mokhotlong, Lesotho
List any local translators – name and contact information, languages spoken

People’s Opinions

  1. Tsepo was our only translator for hospital ministry. We didn’t have a translator at the school, but most of the kids understood English. The preschoolers do not understand any English so they have to be shown how to do any games, where as the older kids could understand instruction. We’d always ask, does everyone understand? And then clarify if necessary.At churches, random church members would translate for us, and other church members would chime in to help if necessary.

Off Days / Fun Activities

Off Days / Fun Activities in Mokhotlong, Lesotho
What activities did your team experience? Recommendations? List locations/contact info. Any locations to be avoided? Any extra safety tips for off days?

People’s Opinions

  1. We slept under a cove at the river one night and it was really cool. You can also hike mountains around the area. Would probably avoid the one directly behind the ministry site. You can ask Tsepo to take you to Sani Top, it’s a good time.
  2. On an off weekend, go to Sani Pass. It’s home to the highest elevation pub and hostel in ALL of Africa. It’s in the top 5 best views on the race and a really nice place. It would be something for a small group to do – pitch in and stay a night out there.

Other Important Contacts

Other Important Contacts in Mokhotlong, Lesotho
Additional ministry opportunities, local pastors, etc. Relationship & follow up suggestions

People’s Opinions

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Tips

People’s Opinions

  1. Tsepo was really difficult to work with for us. It didn’t seem like he listened to what we’d say, and he was pushy during ministry. He’d cut us off mid testimony/explanation if we weren’t getting to the point fast enough for him. Our TL fought hard to get us a sabbath each week, and eventually had to tell him “we’re taking a sabbath this day” instead of asking for permission.He also seemed to be following us around town, which made us uncomfortable. When 3 different people would go to the store at 3 different random times of day, he’d always “run into us” there and then proceed to buy nothing before leaving. At first it seemed coincidental, but eventually it felt like we were being almost watched.Our male SQL became our primary point of contact with him if he stopped by the house randomly, and the rest of us would remove ourselves from the situation. We felt disrespected a lot by the things Tsepo would say to each of us.

Additional Info

Additional Info in Mokhotlong, Lesotho
Anything we’ve left out? Any additional suggestions to make travel easier for others?

People’s Opinions

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