On 7th February 2012, I received a very nice postcard for my dear friend Khotso from Lesotho. We’ve been friends for more than 3 years. I knew him from my friend who was studying his master at ITS, a state technology institute in Surabaya. Khotso was a lucky student who was granted a scholarship from Indonesia Government through a developing countries scholarship. He studied his master for two years in Surabaya and he also had 1 year Bahasa Indonesia lesson before his study was started.
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| It's my sister on the left, me in the middle, and Khotso in his traditional costume |
He’s the first African guy I know and we became good friends since then. We had good time together. He left Surabaya to his homeland in October 2011. We still contact each other via e-mail and postcard. Here’s the first postcard I received from him. I love this postcard. This is super awesome.
The postcard has a view of Maletsunyane Falls. It’s Guinness record holder for the highest commercial abseil in the world. According to Wikipedia, it’s a 192 m falls, but according to the postcard it’s a 204 m falls. It is located near the city of Semonkong, 75 miles (121 km) southeast of Maseru. My friend Khotso lives in Maseru, the Capital City.
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| The postcard |
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| Khotso's postcard written in Bahasa Indonesia. He still remember the language. yeah!! |
The waterfall is so amazing. It’s beautiful and green. I’m so lucky I can get the postcard of the falls pic since I love nature. I tried to browse some info about the falls but I couldn’t find a lot of information. But, I check a site for those who want to feel the sensational experience of hiking and sliding down from top of the falls here. What an amazing place. Will I want to try? Definitely not. Well actually I think it’s cool, I’ll think about it.
Another unique thing from Khotso's postcard is the pictures of a unique hat from Lesotho, which is called Basotho hat. You can see the hat image on the bottom right and left down corner of the postcard. I once wore this hat when I visited Khotso’s in his new home that he rented with the other foreign students. He had a very neat room anyway, mine is so messy FYI ^_^ .
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| I'm wearing the Basotho hat and Khotso with the fury hat. We're holding Lesotho flag |
The hat is quite heavy to me. It is made of straw and of roughly conical shape. It is topped by a complicated knot about 5 centimetres in diameter. Basotho means 'people of Lesotho'. And this hat becomes a symbol of the country.
As quoted from h2g2.com, “The Basotho hat is the national emblem of the Kingdom of Lesotho. It appeared on the previous national flag but was replaced when the flag changed in the early 1990s. It still features on most logos of Lesotho-based organizations.
The common belief is that the shape of the hat was inspired by the shape of one of the mountains visible from Thaba Tseka, which itself was the mountain fortress that was key to the establishment of the Kingdom of Lesotho.
In Maseru, stands a large building whose roof has been thatched to resemble a Basotho hat. As well as housing the tourist goods shop, this building serves as a universal point of reference for any directions in Maseru. The hut was destroyed in the looting of 1998, but a body of concerned (and presumably lost) local residents raised the funds to rebuild it. It was reopened in January 2001.”
Khotso also has another unique hat. The fury one. It is made of squirrel or such animal. I’m not quite sure about this, I forgot what he said to me the last time we talked about the hats. Isn’t the hat cute?
Thank you Mas Khotso for sending me the postcard. I will never forget our friendship. Hugs Khotso!!!
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| The last picture we took few weeks before Khotso left Indonesia |
Source :
http://www.wikipedia.org
http://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/A644609
http://www.placeofsmoke.co.ls/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5&Itemid=8
http://www.wikipedia.org
http://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/A644609
http://www.placeofsmoke.co.ls/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5&Itemid=8
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