Royal Rendezvous for Africa's Gift
It’s day twelve of our African Adventure and our alarms are set for six thirty. The bread van is due at seven and we have literally hundreds of sandwiches to make for hungry school kids’ and community lunches before we can relax a little. I throw on my everyday work clothes of serviceable navy running shorts and vest top, make a flask of tea and eat a handful of nuts to see me through the next couple of hours until breakfast. Arriving promptly at the self-catering kitchen I find our sandwich team assembled with… no bread. The van is delayed. Bread will be here “soon” we are informed. It better be- those sandwiches aren’t going to fill themselves, and we can all imagine the hungry children for whom this oh so basic lunch will be a rare treat. We set to, helping Chef Ska as best we can prepare some of the morsels the King will be savouring. Ska demonstrates how to knead the dough for the local staple, steamed bread we have been enjoying for our Lodge lunches. Clare and Juliet crack on with that, while in my communications role, I video Ska making the bread, with close ups of the Gourmand ‘Best in World free cookbook’ framed award the recipe comes from proudly displayed on the buffet table. I also see another framed picture showing the attractive cover of Captured Heat: Cooking for Body & Planet nutritional cookbook: recipes and stories by Ska, background to the cookbag by Ken, due out later this year. Ideally, they need a corporate sponsor to make the book affordable to the marginalised among our customers. I pray the perfect partner steps forward- maybe a VIP in the audience today will see the opportunity to be linked to such a top quality, world-changing project?
At that moment a cheer goes up- the bread has arrived. Dozens of brown and white loaves in trays have been carried down from the car park by eager helpers and we quickly get a production line going, speeding up as we improve the process. I am on buttering duty. I tip the loaf out of its plastic wrapper, butter one half for the meat paste filling to stick, pass to my neighbour to fill, slap the top on and when they whole loaf is used, it goes back into the bag and empty tray. Backs ache from bending over the table. It’s hard to work out how much filling to use. Hard to think some kids may end up with just bread and butter if we don’t get it right. Juliet sets too, grating more of the processed meat as we start to run out. The butter is melting in the rising heat.
Six of us, locals and charity team working alongside each other to make eight hundred sandwiches. An hour passes quickly with laughter, chat, singing, speeding up as we go… two hours go by, imagining happy locals munching. The Wattle Warriors are back from last minute work at the farm; they wash their hands and extend the production line good-humouredly. Faster now, we’ve done it! I take a photo of the stacked trays with us all grinning with thumbs up to remember this moment of shared purpose, achievement, cooperative Awe. The MDT arrive to take the trays away to feed the five thousand and since Ska is on top of the arrival drinks and food, we can head back to the Lodge for our own late breakfast and to get changed into our Africa’s Gift team polo shirts.
As we walk across the immaculate gardens bursting with colourful blooms, we realise how busy the grounds have become while we were on sandwich duty. We dodge between hordes of men in smart shirts and suits, women in gorgeously coloured prints and headscarves, some wearing unsuitably high heels for a farm visit- oh dear. It’s like an African- style Buckingham Palace Garden Party, I smile to myself. Apart from the soldiers in army fatigues, dark glasses and machine guns patrolling around the flower beds!
I have just finished my breakfast when Juliet approaches looking worried. Not like her. Faye, come quickly to the games hall, she says, the women have misunderstood about only demonstrating the use of agave fibres as cookbag filling today and have got the remaining wool out again. Can you explain? They are just trying to be helpful while they are waiting for the royal retinue, but with an hour before the helicopter is due to land, there is a woolly mess all over the floor and some of the stations have been moved. Oh dear. We know these areas are critical to making the points Ken needs to the King and Ministers, so we hurry in together. The women are smiling, laughing, singing a beautiful harmony- and more bags have been completed already.
I thank them for their hard work, explaining as best I can that they can relax for an hour as we quickly sweep the floor and pack the wool away again. Just until the royal visit is over, I assure them, then feel free to get the wool out again to fill more bags. Today is agave day! I take pictures of the action, a video of the women singing and Linzi takes a photo of me with two of The Magnificents- the feistiest ones I have made such connection with. Nyasha will get her three purchases, after all, and all my wonderful fundraisers will see their remaining twenty bags distributed around the local community tomorrow before we leave. Linzi takes a video for me to post online showing my supporters back home how valued their contributions were as the women sing in the background.
The excitement is palpable. The crowds are swelling. The local police are out in force to provide a royal escort to the farm. The king is an hour late, but no one minds. The goodwill is enormous, the catering team, Lodge staff, choir and the band are ready. The are way more than fifty VIPs out here who the Lodge catering team have made their signature butter chicken lunch for. It’ll be like the feeding of the five thousand again, I whisper to Juliet. It’s understandable, since this is the first royal visit to Malealea in many of their lifetimes, absolutely no one wants to miss out.
A cheer goes up, the atmosphere is electric, the King’s helicopter swoops overhead to the adjoining field and as His Highness sweeps into the Lodge gates in a fancy off-roader, the choir- half women of all ages in Lesotho coloured sarongs and black Africa’s Gift logo T shirts, burst into song. Behind them, a row of men in the same tops with black trousers harmonise beautifully in the traditional song of welcome. The band play their makeshift instruments, draped in traditional Basutu blankets and – what’s this new garb I haven’t seen them in before?- Davy Crocket-style fur hats! The temperature is in the mid-thirties and I have no idea how they are not passing out.
At well over six feet tall, King Letsie cuts an imposing figure in tailored khaki short sleeved shirt and trousers, looking cool as a cucumber under his mocha brown leather Stetson-style hat as he is escorted to the welcome tables with the delicious food and drinks Ska had prepared earlier. All vegetarian, all cookbag favourites of His Majesty, she later told me. After the VIPs are seated and fed, we get a taste and I can concur; food fit for a King indeed.
Lodge owner Jackie, looking cooly elegant in ivory Panama and trousers, with a royal blue shirt, and Ken are either side of King Letsie, as Ken outlines the key themes of today’s visit which is focused on nutrition. There are the usual- thankfully short in this heat- speeches, including powerful messages from both Ken and the King. This is good. We need decision-makers and ministers to take urgent action on farming, hemp and eco cookbags, so this is Ken’s moment in the spotlight to win friends and influence people, endorsed by the King. Lesotho’s press are there reporting and the TV cameras are rolling. What a superb, unique opportunity to spread the nutritional word and challenge the King has created with this visit. Ska later sends me links to the press and TV coverage and it’s all positive.
Ken cuts an unmissable figure in Lesotho royal blue polo and blue and unique green custom-made King Moshoeshoe founder-of-the-nation cotton wide leg trousers. Even his hat and trainers are made in these Lesotho flag colours, as he guides the royal retinue to see the agave fibre production by our energetic farm workers, today busy scraping the pulp off the leaves on their benches set up in front of the pony trekking centre. People are fascinated and get their phones out to video the process and what Ken is saying- a good sign, we agree.
The King is directed to the games room opposite where The Magnificents and their comrades are busy weighing and stuffing bags with dried agave, while two sewing machines whirr. The layout looks perfect, the energy is fantastic, so many phones are out recording held over heads all around the room it looks like a Coldplay concert. Us Cookbag Commandos are bursting with pride.
What’s this? As King Letsie moves to watch The Magnificents on the fibre fluffing, weighing and bag stuffing line, totally unscripted, those feisty females in their Africa’s Gift T shirts, dust-busting blue surgical masks and elbow-length red rubber gloves break into our fun song made up together yesterday, Hello King, how are you? Uh oh, how will this go down? I look at Ken. I look at the King. I am so proud of their courage to shine during their one moment in the spotlight, but how will His Majesty take it? Thankfully well, and the girls hush when Ken indicates it’s time to move on to the pegging, sewing and cord threading stations. He admires the growing pile of brightly- coloured finished bags and heads out to the waiting off roader to be driven to the farm. As I turn to give The Magnificents a hug, a team round of applause and thumbs up at a great job: You sang our song… for the King!, I feel a great weight lift from my shoulders. That’s my part over, now I can really enjoy the rest of the day.
We are facing a long walk to the farm until a local policeman on guard duty shouts hop in! to us, and we are grateful to squeeze into his flat bed, with local women filling the back, as we bump over the dirt track. Hundreds of children are waiting for a glimpse of His Majesty at the farm entrance, fronted by a children’s choir singing angelically to greet the King.
To their left are a dozen herdsmen in bright Basutu blankets, some of them also band members judging by the fur hats, some wearing the traditional Basutu conical straw hats, one in a black herdsman balaclava, one in an incongruous black pony club helmet, all sitting astride well-groomed horses who don’t move a muscle. They look noble, like the knights of old, almost as regal as the King himself and unexpectedly I well up at the sight. What a day.
As Ken shows King Letsie around the farm everyone has grafted so hard to ensure it looks this spectacular showcase, I am so proud of all our Wattle Warriors and team have achieved. I take some photos to send to the charity’s four supporters I came with on previous Activations. They respond quickly, relieved and impressed with how fantastic the farm looks now. The King plants the fruit tree next to ones planted by his brother Prince Seiso, another supportive friend of Africa’s Gift, and the Queen on a previous visit. He admires the immaculate compost heap and bio char pit, seeing the layers of organic matter behind the Perspex of the keyhole garden, all key components of improving nutrition across the continent. Leon is dressed in the full white beekeepers suit he was waiting for, now the queen bee is in residence. You look like one of the ghostbusters, I whisper and he grins. The King isn’t allowed near the hives by his security detail in case of unknown allergies, Leon later tells me, but he is nevertheless presented to His Majesty who watches another agave processing, washing and drying demonstration with interest. Cameras click, TV reporters talk into microphones and dozens of phones video all the demonstrations. It is everything Ken could have hoped for and more.
Leaving the community to have their sandwich picnic at the farm, the crowd troops back by car and foot to the Lodge, where lunch awaits after the King plants a spiral aloe in the grounds. The queue for butter chicken winds through the Lodge bar and food finally runs out just before we bring up the rear. Never mind, we are filled with adrenalin and can last until dinner, we agree. Later, Jackie tells us her catering team estimate over 150 people were fed- a few more than the fifty Ken had arranged to cater for. Looks like the miracle happened after all, I joked with him.
The King is having such a great time he spends an extra hour more than scheduled in Malealea, testimony to the excellent experience everyone had created. As his helicopter leaves and the crowds disperse, I create some photo montages of the day for Ken to share on our Africa’s Gift and Eternal Flame social media, while we take some time to recover before dinner. That night on the veranda, we all join to eat together for the last time: The Malealea Development Trust folk, Jackie and her husband, Ska and the rest of the Africa’s Gift K Team… we are exhausted. Happy, but exhausted. Inspired by Ken, we all gave everything we had to help make today the success it has undoubtedly been. Ken opens a bottle of fizz. Dinner for all regular Lodge guests by the incredible kitchen team who have already fed the five thousand today. Maluti and sauvignon glasses are chinked. The adrenalin has kept us going since six am, but now we need to sleep. A lie in tomorrow, late breakfast, and no agenda. Sadly, Nyasha, Nasha and Lindsey are flying on to their next destinations from Maseru tomorrow. The K Team will be reduced. It’s hard to see them go after such an intensely bonding week together. One last quiet day for the rest of us before we head back to Johannesburg and flights home.
If you would like to become involved in the work of Africa’s Gift and Eternal Flame, we welcome you to follow us on our Facebook or Instagram socials where you can see the videos and photographs I reference above. Liking, commenting and sharing stimulate the algorithms to show you more of our news, without which you won’t see us in your feed.
You can also follow Hopewalking.co.uk on Facebook and Instagram, where I recorded this and previous Activations.
You can several see ways to support by fundraising, donating, joining our Adventures and Activations or becoming a member of Africa’s Gift on our website www.africasgift.org
To sponsor an eco cookbag for £35, visit www.eternalflameworldwide.com
Gift Certificates for sponsored bags are also available to send you, to celebrate others’ anniversaries, birthdays or special occasions.
To discuss corporate sponsorship, links or to book Ken to speak at events, you can connect with Kenneth Dunn MBE on Linked In and email us kenn@eternalflame.world