Contrasts

A few weeks back I was invited by some friends to a happy hour at one of the two “luxury” hotels in Maseru. Nestled on the top of one of the hills around the city, the Lesotho Sun is a decent hotel but, like many grand hotels you run into in developing countries, one apparently born of an unfulfilled optimism about the country’s future and now a few decades past its prime. One of the biggest attractions is an outside patio with pool and bar that has a magnificent, sprawling view of Maseru. As we enjoyed our drinks and the view, we noticed someone had started a large garbage fire in the yard of one of the tiny cinderblock and corrugated iron houses at the base of the hill. It soon began raining bits of plastic ash, causing most of the revelers to withdraw into the confines of the bar.