Moshoeshoe’s Day (World Wise post)

This blog post is part of a series of activities that I'm doing for the Peace Corps' World Wise program. The program links Basotho and American schools through various activities such as blogs like this one and friendly letters.

  Hi boys and girls! How are you? I hope it’s starting to feel like spring in America. I know you have had a very snowy winter.

   This month’s blog post is about the most important cultural event in Lesotho, Moshoeshoe’s Day. Say it with me…Moh-Shway-shway’s Day!!

   This special day honors King Moshoeshoe I, the founder of Basotho nation. He was a great warrior and was strong allies with the world famous Shaka Zulu.

   My school hosted the Moshoeshoe’s Day ceremony this year, which was held on March 11. Six other schools attended. This is how the day went down:

Early in the morning, it started raining like bats and frogs:

 Rain never stops the show in Lesotho, though, because the element is saluted in the national anthem and is vital for this agricultural society.

But the sun later came out and the school choirs sang very beautifully.This school had a beautiful choir!

Teachers and I wore our new traditional seshoeshoes (se-shway-shways).

This is the latest design and is all the rage in Lesotho! But don't we look like pumpkins? LOL. 

After singing, we climbed the mountain for sports

The school is on a mountain and located next to a mountain that we use to train our athletes.

This big green field is our track!

This is what it looks like on top of the mountain.

This was the crowd. They are the best cheerleaders!

They kept the onlookers entertained and runners motivated. Yeah! Here's video of the crowd cheering the runners on:

Here are the runners. All of them worked very hard!

You better believe that Tsoaing Primary School students ran their bums off!

Tsoaing Primary School took top honors! We’re No. 1! Yeah!

The school had a very good showing on Moshoeshoe's Day! We sang well and ran fast! Yeah!

It was really a beautiful day! Teachers and students at my school worked very hard to put on an amazing cultural event. All of their hard work and preparation paid off. 

Is there anything more specific you'd like to know? Please let me know. I'd be happy to answer your questions.