Mia Farrow sleeps with only a rope. In Darfur.

Who knew? Turns out Mia Farrow has been travelling to Darfur, Chad and CAR for a while now. Here’s NYTimes columnist Nicholas Krstof, who has been there a few times himself, and been one of the main people that has bought the plight to the attention of the US people and Government, on Mia:

Several years ago, Mia Farrow asked if she could accompany me on a trip to Darfur. I didn’t know her then and didn’t like the idea of traveling with an actress who would probably need a blow dryer and flinch at the dirt and danger. So Mia went on her own — again and again and again…

….I take a light sleeping bag, a tarp and occasionally a tent. All Mia carries is a rope — she puts the rope in a circle in the sand, and goes to sleep in the sand in the middle of that circle. She claims that if scorpions approach, they’ll hit the rope and keep going around rather than climbing over it.

Mia Farrow has now launched a Darfur site for the Olympics – so if you tire of lackluster medal counts then head to darfurolympics.org, and get an alternative perspective.

But wait – there’s even more to Mia. Mia has been adopting children from tough parts of the world for a long time, long before it was “cool” – the last in 1995, the first 3 in the 70’s. She had a total of 15 kids – 4 of her own, 5 adopted with a partner and 6 more adopted as a single mother. Amazing.