For fun, I have added this photo taken at the mall...of a bank money guard...its just not every day you see a guy carrying an AK47 around!!!! This is a fairly common occurrence here....downtown...at the grocery store...wherever money is being transfered. Kind of scary to think what would actually happen if someone did try to rob the money truck. Would they just start shooting. Just wondering. We are just back from the MOUNTAIN Kingdom of LESOTO. It was a long drive up there...for the Rotary conference. Some of it was quite a bit of fun...but crossing the border was hellacious!Every time you went into the country of Lesoto, you had to stop on the South African side...to get passport checked...and stamped...and then back into your vehicle, to drive about 150 yards, to exit the car once again...and go into the Lesoto passport control area....AGAIN!!! And then get stamped again! THERE were also long queus ( lines ) that we had to stand in...waiting for the few windows of border people to get to us! Then when we were leaving the country we WERE supposed to go through this whole process AGAIN! I say SUPPOSED to because when we returned to the South AFrican side of the border that evening....on our way back to our B& B....we were waved through by some very Lazy border guards. We didn't realize this was a problem until we tried to enter Lesoto again the next morning! There was much murmuring...and gnashing of teeth, before we were dragged....er ....I mean escorted back into the very bowels of the Border crossing building!!!!!! Where I said to the gentleman....that indeed we had driven in and out on the same day...but that the guard had WAVED us through. At which point he became a bit agitated and said....MADAME, you must get out of your vehicle every time you cross the border...and get your passport stamped! Have I mentioned that my passport is almost full now.....with all the back and forth that has gone on in the last 4 years...and South Africa will not let me reenter the country....without at least 4 empty pages..???? Now I am not sure why this is their policy...but I beg every border person to please stamp an empty space on a used page on one of the first 16 pages in my passport...trying to reserve the last empty 5 pages in my book. I am scheduled to return to the US one last time near the end of OCT...so need to save that page! But if it meant getting out of the back rooms of this border crossing...I would have promised anything..including ALWAYS stopping at the border....as the law says...but which none of the signs at this particular border say!!!!! So we went on to our meeting....and Bob stopped at the rug factory..only to find out they don't sell to the public any longer...so no rug.... but we did buy a small handwoven wall hanging and some funky lesoto hats, a few little hand made dolls and about anything that any vendor offered to sell us at the border while we waited in the long lines!!!! I will post a photo or two after getting them off of my camera....still no cables for the old camera. I did manage to sew this evening as I listened to the cricket match....just 4 patches from all the leaders and enders...but have almost another 100 of them to put into a quilt...of some sort.HAve sewed on my navy schwe-schwe quilt squares...still have to do another step before start constructing the final block...but think I have about 20 blocks worth ready to be pieced ....soon!!!!! I did finish another Baltimore block, and am working on the difficult one with roses and rosebuds. It is coming along nicely.Just not quick enough.I have also been playing with some orphan things to hopefully get assembled into something usable.... :o) Lets face it...can then be donated..or sewn into a picnic quilt for the car!
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