The Basotho and me

The Basotho and me

In death we bond
The Basotho and me
On a glorious morning
I heard your scream
When the death bell tolled

The pain in your cries
As I rubbed your back
Connected us
Me a cultural stranger
You huddled in your tearful sorrow

A young life departed
A friend is gone
A colleague forever missed
A brother lost
A husband mourned

If I’ve seen him once
They’ve seen him a thousand
Still we mourned together
The Basotho and me
A fate granted so unexpectedly

I’m a cultural stranger to sorrow
The West easily detached
They suffer sorrow all too often
Enmasse they gather together
In hundreds or more

Through the wake in solidarity
I followed in footstep
I hugged and held hands
Offering what I can
Not much from where I stand

The hymns in unison
Lifted heavy spirits high
Tributes and sermons in foreign Sesotho
So genuine and heartfelt
Struck universal cords of grief

At the end of processions
The longest for me
A friend said
“You’re one of us now.”
We are all humanity

The Basotho and me

This is an original poem written for World Moms Blog by our mother of twins,  Dee Harlow, currently living in Lesotho. You can also find her on her blog Wanderlustress.

Dee Harlow (Laos)

One of Dee’s earliest memories was flying on a trans-Pacific flight from her birthplace in Bangkok, Thailand, to the United States when she was six years old. Ever since then, it has always felt natural for her to criss-cross the globe. So after growing up in the northeast of the US, her life, her work and her curiosity have taken her to over 32 countries. And it was in the 30th country while serving in the Peace Corps in Uzbekistan that she met her husband. Together they embarked on a career in international humanitarian aid working in refugee camps in Darfur, Sudan, and the tsunami torn coast of Aceh, Indonesia. Dee is now a full-time mother of three-year old twins and continues to criss-cross the globe every two years with her husband who is in the US Foreign Service. They currently live in Vientiane, Laos, and are loving it! You can read about their adventures at Wanderlustress.

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