The perfect cap to the best year to date. Happy 2010, everyone!
Location: Sycamore Plow (AKA The Frye Family Farm). 2 hours outside St. Louis, Missouri.
The Setting: An Unnamed Hostel, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Cigarette in hand and wine out of a tea cup — it’s the British way.
“All roads lead to Johannesburg. If you are white or if you are black they lead to Johannesburg. If the crops fail, there is work in Johannesburg. If there are taxes to be paid, there is work in Johannesburg. If the farm is too small to be divided further, some must go to Johannesburg. If there is a child to be born that must be delivered in secret, it can be delivered in Johannesburg.” –From the book Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
Words and photographs — and my first attempt at a video compilation (with apologies to Ken Burns) to introduce you to the amazing children of the mountain kingdom of Lesotho.
Before embarking on my trip to South Africa, my former boss and a good friend had advised me to bring with me pens, t-shirts, stickers — little things to hand out along the way. He was telling me from his experiences of traveling to impoverished countries in southeast Asia. I’ve also heard of others giving away polaroids back when those didn’t cost $2.50 a pop on eBay. Most people in places like Africa and Asia probably have never seen a picture of themselves, so it would be something they’d keep forever.
The first journal entry from my recent South Africa trip is not, oddly enough, about South Africa. “TIA. This. Is. Efffrica,” to quote Leonardo Dicaprio from the epic film, Blood Diamond. In other words, anything goes. Here’s an introduction to the amazing people and landscape of the mountain kingdom of Lesotho.
Amphitheater Backpackers
Lesotho (pronounced /lɨˈsuːtuː/) is “highest” country in the world. And by that I mean two things: 1) it sits 1,100 meters above sea level — hence the biblical tagline, “Kingdom in the Sky”; and 2) marijuana production is one of the 3 main sources of income, according to a UNESCO study — the other two are international aid and money sent home by those working abroad.
