A RETIRED GP from Colwall rubbed shoulders with royalty when she visited the little-known African kingdom of Lesotho.

Jenny Houghton spent 10 days in the landlocked state, which is surrounded by South Africa, as part of a fact-finding mission for international development charity Send a Cow.

She shared time with the country’s monarch King Letsie III and showed examples of how, with the right training, advice and raw materials, impoverished farmers could begin to yield healthy crops.

Mrs Houghton, who has been involved with the charity for seven years, said: “The king was lovely. He knows a lot about agriculture so the idea was to show him how the Send a Cow project worked in such a dry country.

“His brother, Prince Seiiso, is also the patron of the charity as well as being the high commissioner for Lesotho in the UK.”

The fearsome climate and the difficulties of the Sotho language posed occasional difficulties for Mrs Houghton and six fellow volunteers from the charity.

“I had been to Uganda and Rwanda before but Lesotho had much more extreme temperatures and draught than the other countries.

“We also had to do various speeches and things and had to make sure we got the pronunciation right. They use a lot of clicking noises which are hard to master.”

Mrs Houghton, who worked as a doctor in Birmingham and now lives in Evedine Lane, Colwall, said returning to Herefordshire last week proved a greater culture shock than her visit to Africa.

“When I get back home and see all the greenery and people having plenty to eat and drink, it strikes me as being so different because back in Lesotho they are struggling to survive.”

To find out more about donating to the Send a Cow charity or becoming a volunteer like Mrs Houghton, visit sendacow.org.uk or call 01225 874222.