Chelsea's story: A Beautiful Place for Christmas. A week before we left for Lesotho, Dr. Rosenberg sent us an email wondering if we would like to play soccer with a team here. We thought it would be a casual pick up game so we thought it'd be a fun way to start off Christmas eve. Then we found out that not only was it actually part of an annual tournament that people from all over attend, but we were the opening match kicking off the games. As we planned our strategy the night before and explained the rules to those who had never played, we began to get nervous not wanting to make fools of ourselves in front of the friends we had made who promised to attend.
When we arrived the in the morning, we used our sesotho to track down a "bolo". Men took bets on the game as we took the field to warm up. The opposing team took the field, comprised of girls aged 14-20 and as the game began our competitive natures took over. We were fairly evenly matched, with both of our weaknesses being possesion and passing. Many kicks out of bounds and offside calls later, we were both scoreless at the end of the game so it went to a shootout. Although we lost by one shot in the shootout, we all had a blast and felt foolish for feeling anxious before the game.
Later in the afternoon we took quite a long drive to the Semonkong Waterfall. As we sat in the back of a chevy truck, climbing up the mountains with the wind in our hair, we took in the endless mountains all around us. Although the waterfall was but a trickle because of the drought, the scenery was just gorgeous. Its hard to believe the its Christmas Eve because of the 100 degree days and the fact that we are surronded by strangers who have become close friends instead of family, but it couldn't be a more beautiful backdrop for the holidays.
P.S. To all my family and friends back home, I miss you all so much and hope you're having a great holiday!
Love-
Chelsea