The Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho: Tarra and her invisible "big white car"

--- I'm currently in Lesotho, a tiny landlocked, mountainous kingdom surrounded by South Africa. I had to take a small prop airplane to get here and I have to say that my heart was in my throat the whole time. Flying over mountains in a small tin can with wings is not my idea of fun even on a good day. As I was flying into the capital city of Maseru I was simply in shock looking at the surrounding landscape. I had to rub my eyes and look twice to make sure I wasn't in northern Arizona. The reddish cliffs and rocky mountains surrounded by valleys of light green vegetation, brown brush, and red dust made me homesick for AZ.
---I was in for more of shock when I arrived at the airport. My prior experience with airports in Africa resembled something of a scene from the movie Apocalypse. Crowds of people, porters, and frantic obrunis/yovos/expats [insert local language name for strange sunburned foreigner here] jostling each other, shifting duck taped bags full of the everything but the kitchen sink, shouting out greetings, madly bargaining for taxis, and trying to cram 50 close family members into the back of a small Toyota pickup (circa 1983). I confess I kind of missed that chaos because all that greeted me in Maseru was a couple of tired looking customs officials, a stray skinny dog, two taxis, and a few snazzy looking Land Rovers belonging to the usual list of NGO suspects (i.e. UNICEF, World Vision, CARE, etc...). My taxi took me to the small B&B (in name only since there is no breakfast) and I dumped my stuff and headed off to meet some high and mighty folks that are here from Boston University (as a few of you might recall the university where I hope to ONE DAY earn my PhD). Needless to say they weren't doing too bad in their digs (4 star hotel with internet access). Gee, now where did all those BU tuition dollars go hmmm.....?! On the way to meet my contacts I encountered a policeman (with the rank of trooper, as he related to me) who was puzzled as to why I didn't (and I quote here) "have a big white car to drive around." At this point in the early evening and afer walking a couple of kilometers I was asking myself the same thing!
More later...