The King and Not I

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In order to commemorate Peace Corps' 50th Anniversary, Peace Corps Lesotho hosted a gala celebration in Morija, on the grounds of the Morija Museum and Archives (a lovely spot):


The most notable guest of honor? His Majesty, King Letsie III, here being greeted upon arrival by my wife (how cool is that?):


Many of Lesotho's Peace Corps Volunteers were in attendance:

The Master of Ceremonies was none other than Ntate Clement, one of Peace Corps Lesotho's two Associate Peace Corps Directors, as Mosotho, a truly nice guy, and perhaps the most consistently well-dressed of Kathy's co-workers:

Kathy took advantage of the celebration to recognize Basotho members of the Peace Corps Lesotho team who have been working for Peace Corps for many, many years (one since 1967):

We were all treated to some traditional female dancing:

Kathy sat in the dignitaries tent, along with various ministers, the King and the US Ambassador to Lesotho (my wife, the dignitary!):


The newest batch of Volunteers was sworn in:


As part of that swearing in, they all got to shake the King's hand.



We then got to see some traditional male dancing. Unlike the female dancing, I had not seen this before:

One of the highlights of the day was a speech delivered entirely in Sesotho by one of the new Volunteers (this probably got more of a reaction from the crowd than anything else all day - certainly the most ululations):

Did I mention that my wife, in her new Seshoeshoe (seh-SHWAY-shway) dress, looked absolutely stunning that day?


Especially when she smiled:


The Volunteers provided us all with some wonderful musical performances, beginning with a couple of "traditional" American folk songs. "This Land Is Your Land" (my suggestion, actually):

Since I do not have any photos of that particular moment, here is the Volunteer with whom I played "Hurricane" at Tsehlanyane (as described in a prior post):


The Volunteers also performed "American Pie":

Then "America the Beautiful" and both the American and Lesotho national anthems:

After all the speeches and cultural performances, lunch was served. Kathy dined in the VIP tent with the ambassador, various ministers, and the King. Yep. That's right. She had lunch with the King. Be impressed...
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