Lesotho - Internet

[<sefika@macs.nul.ls>]

Folks,
  I am sending this mail from National University of Lesotho, as you 
can see from the Email address <sefika@macs.nul.ls>  ".ls" is the 
toplevel domain for this small African kingdom completely surrounded
by South Africa. It has never been a part of RSA - it is a small
mountainous country that supplies most of the water for RSA. Very
third world, and its fortunes are inextricably linked to South Africa.

I am staying a beautiful lodge 2 Km outside of Roma, the University 
town. Yesterday I climbed Thaba Bosiu - Moshoeshoe's mountain
fortress from which he defended the country - and defined its people -
during the turbulent times at the beginning of this century, when
the Zulu started the internecine wars between the black tribes.

I also spent a morning in one of the rural towns, ostensibly looking
for Bushmen paintings around a large sandstone outcrop close by,
with the help of a number of teenagers there. We found none.
I learned of a bead game, very similar to nine mens morris, but
it would properly be called twelve mens morris, as it is on a
bigger board with more pieces. Otherwise the rules are almost
identical.

The National University has a 9600 baud connection to the rest
of the world, only a month old. However, none of the computers
within the University are networked - this one is networked by
modem within the campus. The computers are new - 486 or Pentium,
but traditional networking on campus uses Novell and Microsoft.

There are three Linux installations - one next to me is broken,
but maybe it is fixable ...

I am headed to a Music festival in Rustlers Valley, just outside
of Ficksberg, RSA, over Easter weekend, then to Bloemfontein,
Orange Free State, to get new tyres for my Motorcycle, and then
I may come back here.

Cheers,     Andy!

PS. I have missed describing Oudshoorn, WCP, a Afrikaanse speaking
stronghold whose Arts festival I forsook for the Music Festival
this Weekend.

PPS.   Ditto - Mossel Bay, a seaside resort, where I stayed in
a stationary train at the beach.

PPPS. Ditto - The Buffalo motorcycle Rally at the other end of the
Garden route. Another time, maybe.
 
Garden

--
sefika