As you can see, I've changed the order of my blog just a little. Recently I dusted off my trusty backpack, filled it with all my backpacker essentials (in decreasing order of importance: passport/ticket, cash, malaria medication, reading material, playing cards, clean clothes) and hit the road for 2 weeks in Lesotho. I figured that this trip was much more closely related to my tour around Uganda and Kenya last year than it was chicken thieves, so I jumped ahead a few chapters. Don't feel bad if you don't know much about Lesotho, with just 2 million people it doesn't get a whole lot of press. The first thing you may not have known about the country is that its name is pronounced closer to "Le-SU-tu" than it is "Le-SOE-thoe". Over the course of the next blog entry or two I'll be sharing a few other sights and stories of the place in the form of a day-by-day journal. So here goes.



Wednesday

On Wednesday morning I hopped on a flight from Kilimanjaro Airport to Johannesburg, a flight which unfortunately took around 6 hours because it stopped both in Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam along the way. From there I had the choice to take either a bus or a taxi to Johannesburg's downtown bus station, and in the interest of time (since my onward bus ticket was already purchased) and safety (Jo-burg has a notorious reputation for crime) I decided on a taxi. Once at the bus station I confirmed my ticket, and went about purchasing from a local shop the South African "Simcard" that would allow me to use my mobile phone. As chance would have it, the employee that sold me the simcard was Tanzanian, and we had a good laugh in swahili. He also advised me, while making the throat slitting motion, not to leave the bus terminal. I felt better about my decision to take a taxi. Half an hour later I was loading my luggage onto the coach, and six luxuriously comfortable hours after that, I was in the South African city of Bloemfontain.

While I was in Bloemfontein I picked up a South African newspaper to see what was going in this new land. Of particular interest to me was an article which invited an expert dietician to review the foods that South African Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, aka "Dr. Beetroot", has repeatedly emphasized as useful in the fight against HIV/AIDS--many say to the detriment of more mainstream methods of HIV prevention and treatment. These so-called "Superfoods" include garlic, beetroot, lemon and the enigmatic and previously unknown to me "African Potato", and the South Africans went so far as to display these items on their official stand at the recently held Toronto AIDS Conference alongside condoms and anti-retroviral (ARV) medication. Although a well-balanced diet is believed to be essential for those on anti-retroviral medication, presenting these foods as alternatives to the treatment of HIV, rather than supplements, is, in the words of Stephen Lewis, worthy of a "lunatic fringe". Some excerpts from the expert dietician's review of the usefulness of these four foods in combating HIV/AIDS:

Beetroot: "Beetroot is not a good source of iron when compared to other excellent sources, such as beef, chicken, eggs, spinach, sardines and lentils. It is thus not effective in the treatment of iron deficiency aneamia and people living with HIV/AIDS...Increased iron intake through supplementation can potentially reduce resistance to infections."
Garlic: "There have been no human studies to date which consistently and conclusively show garlic can improve immunity or immune response"
Lemon: "There is no significant research on the effect lemons have on HIV. Although lemons have a high vitamin C content, lemons are very sour and can aggravate those patients with mouth sores and lesions"
African Potato: "A study on the safety and efficacy of the African potato in HIV-infected patients had to be halted and reported to the Medical Control Council. It was terminated because HIV-infected patients who had received the plant extract supplement [from the African potato] showed severe bone marrow suppression after eight weeks of receiving the plant extract and a decrease in CD4 counts."

That such strong support is coming from the top of the South African government is quite troubling, and can only have a negative impact on the race to get those infected with HIV on life-prolonging and life-strengthening anti-retrovirals. Although it was a mission of at least an hour, I eventually tracked down African potatoes for sale once I had arrived in Lesotho and had the salesman pose for a picture. And so ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, an African potato vendor with an African potato:


                                                    Got HIV?



Thursday

Thursday provided me a brief glimpse into life in South Africa, for I would only remain there for a few hours before driving to my ultimate destination, the mountain kingdom of Lesotho. One moment I'll remember about South Africa was being asked in a parking lot by a random woman in a fluorescent vest whether she could "watch the car" I had just exited, and not knowing how to answer. I learned later that this car-watching service is commonly offered in South African parking lots due to high rates of theft and vandalism. We declined the service, which I suppose meant that this woman would sit back and watch our car get stolen if it came to that. A second South African experience I'll remember was chewing on "biltong": dried, salty, jerky-style meat, which I'm told is a local specialty. The ostrich biltong I gnawed on for a few hours was tougher than the heel of an old boot, which I'm guessing means it was some high quality biltong. I have heard that South Africa is a wonderful place to visit, but, aside from the car jackings and biltong, it seemed just a little too much like Canada to interest me at that point in time.

Thursday afternoon we were off to Lesotho, "The Kingdom in the Sky", so-known because the entire country exists at over 1000m above sea level (it is only country that could rightly claim this, and as such, has the highest low-point of any country in the world). My brief exposure to Lesotho's countryside on Thursday afternoon would give me but a small taste of the exceptional natural beauty that I would see in the days ahead. Lesotho is also known as "The Mountain Kingdom", and the two following picture is typical of the breath-taking rugged landscape that seems to cover the entire country. To me it doesn't really make sense to designate certain areas of Lesotho as "National Parks", for the whole country seems to meet the standard.


                                                              Welcome to Lesotho

Friday

On Friday we were off to the small Lesotho village of Malealea, where we would stay at the Malealea Lodge on the advice of numerous friends and guide books. The route to Malealea Lodge was well sign-posted, although it was often overshadowed by one of Lesotho's larger industries...


                                                                    We went right

With an HIV infection rate of over 20%, one of the world's highest, the size of the sign for funeral services is depressingly representative of the Lesotho reality. More on the HIV situation in Lesotho in a future blog.

Malealea Lodge had the reputation of being not only a friendly and comfortable place to stay, but also a socially responsible outfit that shared its success with the surrounding community by channelling tourist dollars to small development projects. On the hospitality side of things Malealea Lodge lived up to my expectations, with tasty food served daily, and comfortable accommodation in one of the "rondovals" pictured below. However it was the community service and integration side of Malealea Lodge that really made the place in my eyes: numerous classrooms had been constructed with the Lodge's help; a centre sold locally made handicrafts to visitors; the sewage from the Lodge passed through a series of ponds in order to be naturally broken down and safely returned to the environment; donations of school supplies and clothing were collected and eventually distributed to the community in a discreet manner through local organizations. I was impressed at the maturity with which Malealea approached its community development, in particular warning tourists about some potential pitfalls of sponsoring individual children: creating dependence, family or village jealousy, and wasteful administrative spending. A guy I recently met who has lived in Lesotho for almost two years made the observation that in very few Lesotho villages will you find a greater concentration of homes made from quality building materials, a spin-off effect from the number of local people that the lodge employs.


                                                          A Malealea "rondoval"

More Lesotho to come.
 

From the www.mzungudays.com mailbag (henceforth the "Mzungu Bag")

A seasoned Tanzanian traveler and resident recently raised this point in an e-mail:
You mention that "mzungu" is used for white people and "foreigners" in Tanzania. I have only heard it used exclusively for whites. An Indian, for e.g., is referred to as a "Hindi", and so on for Chinese or Japanese who I don't think are referred to as "wazungu". Am I wrong in this?

Very good point, thanks for your observation. Yes, the most common meaning of mzungu is indeed white person. However, I have chosen to expand my definition to foreigners in general because we are all prone to the same mzungu-like confusion and blunders. I have also on occasion heard Tanzanians referring to black (or whatever it's called nowadays) visitors as Mzungu mwafrika ('African mzungu'), Indian visitors as Mzungu mhindi ('Indian mzungu') and so forth, further justifying my inclusive definition. Anyways, someone of any race can walk around town saying Jambo left and right, and if you say Jambo then in my books you're a mzungu.

Mzungu Bag questions or comments can be submitted to mzungudays@gmail.com