Babies, Basotho ponies and beer!!!

We have had a busy last few days in Lesotho, doing things all over the place :) Last week I was in Labour and Delivery and Pediatrics at the hospital in Maseru, and saw one ceserean birth in the OR and another natural delivery...another Basotho boy and girl to welcome into the world! But because their practices are so diffrent from ours, I think I am done witnessing this event for now.....but the OR was a lot of fun - dressing up in the most ugly green scrubs known to mankind and seeing a similar operation as done in Canada. Actually the OR is the only similar aspect of health care in Lesotho so far.
This past weekend we went to our hosts' other guesthouse/lodge for the weekend in a town called Ramabanta, about an hour out of Roma on the most adventurous dirt roads you could  image tackling in a 4x4 pickup. All of the unpaved roads are full of potholes, creeks, people walking to school or town or herding their livestock, but the ones heading into the hills are twice as bad, with giant rocks sticking up every which way which limits your speed to about 5-10 km/hour. But these are the roads that connect remote villages to each other and the rest of civilization, and everyone uses them via truck, donkey, horse or on foot. We are getting used to them though and enjoy the surprise they present at each turn.....will we make it over that rock or through this ditch or not.....?
At Ramabanta we spent one afternoon pony trekking on the smallest but toughest horses I've ever seen or ridden. They navigate through the narrowest and rockiest trails and up the most slick and steep rock faces with absolute confidence, using their tiny hooves and surefootedness that they develop as young horses. And when you use a branch as a little motivation on their rump they even get up to a good speed too, however quite bouncy as their short legs give a short-strided gait. We had a blast exploring similar trails and hills on horseback that we've been hiking and driving by on other excursions.
We went on another all-day hike on Sunday and that evening I made a big achievement.....drum roll please......I finished  my first - and only, I assure you - whole beer EVER!! And it was Lesotho beer, called Maluti, to boot too :)
Only 4 more days here and then we head out on our Safari in South Africa, then home a week from tomorrow!!