Sophia (what a cutie!)

Aloe/Cacti Plants in Bloom

Bad Moon Rising

The Depth of Culture

One of the driving forces of the HIV/AIDS epidemic here in Lesotho is multiple concurrent partners (MCP). Many people have a "main" partner, like a husband/wife or boyfriend/girlfriend and then one or more on the side. This is the NORM. Many wives know for a fact that their husbands have a girlfriend on the side in the camp town and or in South Africa. It goes both ways as well. Wives often times have boyfriends in a nearby village or in the camp towns. So why is this so? Many basotho (almost all) are loyal Christians and regular church goers. I don't know much about the bible myself but doesn't it preach monogamy and staying faithful? Or maybe the missionaries left that part out when they arrived in this mountain kingdom in the 19th century and encountered King Moshoeshoe (Lesotho's founding father) and his 30 something wives. Traditionally, Lesotho was a polygamous country (is it still?) with men taking as many wives as he could buy with his cows. Bride payment is done with the exchange of cows. The going rate today for your average bride is 6 cows. But I myself have never met a masotho man with more than one wife. So does this mean that Lesotho is a polygamous or monogamous country? In my opinion it is very much polygamous. No, men are not taking more than one wife (in my encounters), but they are taking more than one partner. So fine, have your cake and eat it too. Have a girlfriend in South Africa while you work at the mine. Have a boyfriend in a nearby village while your husband is away in the mine. But why not protect yourself? Why not use a condom? This is a very difficult question to answer. For women it is much more difficult to have a say over sexual decisions. If a man does not want to use a condom, one is not used. And if a woman refuses to have sex, she has severed that relationship, and everything that goes along with it, like money, food, a cell phone, etc. The issue is complicated and has many different dimensions. But why the hell are men not taking more responsibility to protect themselves and the women they love? To many questions and not enough answers. So what's the solution? Do we push culture change and call it behavior change? Is polygamy a bad thing? Hell if I know, but I do know if something doesn't change basotho will one day become a lost civilization that school children learn about in history class.

What's Your Ecological Footprint??

Most of us who are in anyway environmentally aware realize that the majority of the worlds resources are consumed by developed nations. We drive big cars long distances to work everyday, we take long, hot showers, we leave lights on when not using them, our food travels 3,000 miles before it reaches our tables, the list is never ending. I will not go on about that but since I have arrived in Lesotho my lifestyle has drastically changed in more ways than one. One of these ways has been my consumption patterns. I am happy to say I do not consume nearly half as much as I did in America. On average I use about 20litres of water per day (more if its a laundry day). I don't have electricity but I burn through 3 or 4 candles a week and sometimes I burn paraffin. I don't own a car and barely ride in them, mostly I'm on foot, but when I do ride in a taxi there is usually black smoke coming out the exhaust and strong fumes to contend with. I don't use a flush toilet. I have a "pit latrine" (outhouse), so all my shit goes into a hole in the ground. I don't have trash pick up and I don't recycle. I burn all my garbage. Oddly though it seems I never really have a lot to burn. Is that the reduced packaging? Anyway, I am sure that I am less of a consumer here in Lesotho than I was back in America, but am I "greener"? Does less consumption equate to a "greener" lifestyle, even though I am burning my garbage and shitting in a hole? Do these things balance each other out? I took the "ecological footprint" test and a lot of the questions did not to pertain to my lifestyle in Lesotho and a lot of the answers I had were not an option on the multiple choice options, but I did the best I could. It turns out my footprint was really low (2.04) but I'm not to sure how accurate those results were for me. Let me know your thoughts and check out your ecological footprint @ www.myfootprint.org.

Surfing in Mozambique

Holy Cow!!

Hey all! I'm such a slacker and I apologize for not blogging in over 3 months! Really, everything is great and I am fine. I just got back from an amazing trip to Mozambique. It was awesome! Lesotho is great and beautiful. I cannot believe I've been here for over one year. Back to my site tomorrow after sun, surf, and yoga. It's going to be great! Hope all is well. Khotso, Pula, Nala.