Here's the final result,  although a) I'm not  sure there were 400 people.  My guess would be 200 to  250 and  b) as  is often the case, the people that ate, I  don't think really realized  how much work went into the preparation--I  wouldn't have either if I didn't see it myself. The day started with Catholic mass and I would say  maybe 50 people took part in communion. Then their  were plaques handed out to some of the elders in the  family ('the oaks'), then the meal,  then merengue and swimming. Although  with the heat, more people seemed interested in swimming.  I  did neither.

This morning my landlady, and the organizer of this family event started her  day  at 6 am  and  has  been running around ever  since  like a benevolent dictator of a tiny country, commanding her army of 4, "Get another pot!", "Don't put so much salt in!", "Go fetch me more onions!", "Make Bob some breakfast!", and so on. I've slipped away for a  couple of hours to try and get some more  data entry  done. Just a little bit everyday.

Yet another pile of surveys to plough through. The stack in the back I entered this  afternoon (about 1/6th of the total) and the stack in the front is unentered (and  about 1/3rd of the total). This survey looks much more intimidating because it is 7 pages, versus the Haiti survey which is printed on 2 pages but both surveys have approximately the same amount of questions and therefore represent the same amount of work more or  less. I've got a week and with the help of the head agronomist here, I think we can get it done. (I'm in the Dominican Republic now, by the way)

On a completely different note, the family where I rent a room when I am here is having some  kind of big family gathering tomorrow for a mere 400 people. The woman in  the middle, with the black hat on has taken on  the responsibility for preparing food for everyone. Crazy. But she owned a restaurant for many years. In the photo is one of 2 pigs they are  cooking, and I don't know probably what seems like about 50 chickens. I'm invited, and actually it seems like I'm almost obliged  to go. I'll let you know  how it goes.

Somehow in the process of answering the question in the comment to  this blog, I managed to delete the entire Sept 9 entry. So here I am reconstructing it from memory (unfortunately I also deleted the comments):

I`ve probably talked before about participatory methods. Pictured below is an exercised called a  wealth ranking (aka poverty ranking). The idea is that community members with the help of a facilitator identify the different economic classes  in their own community  and the associated characteristics that distinguish each class.  For example one of the criteria  this group  used was number of animals owned,  with the `rich`class being seen as owning 15-20 animals,  the `middle`class 2-4 animals, and the `poor` class 0-2 animals.  A number  of other criteria are identified and outlined by the group until they are satisfied with their definitions, and then  a ranking takes place. Each group member is given seeds as counters--in this case 10 seeds per person-- and the everyone  places the sees in  the three classes according to how they think those three groups are distributed in  the community. In  the end you  get a pretty revealing picture  of the economic structure of the community.

A small victory. The survey  data for Haiti is completely  entered and  now  exists in  digital  form. This  meant pretty much a solid week of sitting at my  laptop as  surveyors  brought in  the forms from the field,  typing in  the  information and then double checking  every single data point before finally sending to  the  online data base we  set up for  this purpose.  I  recently read  a  stats  analysis  book where the author claimed that he  spends  about 80% of his time getting data ready  for  analysis,  and about 20% of his time  actually  doing the analysis. I was comforted  to know  that, because  I thought  maybe it was only my problem.

Today was a rather uneventful day of meetings and data entry. Meetings to talk about research, meetings to talk about watershed management. Pouring through stacks of household surveys and typing numbers into boxes on my computer. Sorry I've got nothing more than that.

Here's a Google Earth 3D view of one of the watersheds where our work is situated. I spent the better part of this afternoon working on this and related maps. Kind of pretty, huh?

Sunrise in Haiti

More pictures of little trees struggling for survival.  One of my favourite things I guess.  

A farmer plot fenced off to protect seedlings. You can see trees growing in the fenceline and hopefully the little blobs of green inside the plot which are trees too.

Same plot up close. Not sure if you can see but there are dozens of trees here, about 1.5 to 2  metres tall. This plot is probably about 18 months old.

Another plot about 5 years old. For those who know this is the Pere Albert Memorial plot.  You can see outside the fence there is not many trees at all, and one of the culprits lurking for more food.

A tiny leucaena which has seeded naturally from the larger trees in the above picture. In a couple of years this little tree and a half a dozen others I saw scattered around will start to fill in the space in the bottom part of the plot in the picture above. Here's to you Pere Albert, where ever you are.

It was so hot in my room last night I decided to grab one of the earthquake tents  and sleep outside on the porch. This morning when I woke up, I got up and went to grab the stuff sack to start taking down the tent and this huge tarantula jumped out of the stuff sack and onto my hand. I jumped too and yelled. So lesson learned, keep the stuff sack inside the tent.

At 4:40 pm someone from the community told me with absolutely no trace of irony that there was a soccer match between two local teams starting at 4pm and if I was interested I could watch since it would be starting soon.

This just cracks me up since starting at 4 means anytime but 4.

Haiti earthquake consequences

Ever wondered what has happened in Haiti since the earthquake? Heard the news reports about how there's been no progress? Here's a couple of photos of a hillside where we did tree planting in the aftermath, between April and Oct 2010. In the first photo, you'll see there are a bunch of contour canals still in place, and the little green patches in the mid foreground are all trees. I skidded down the hill--about a 45 degree slope to give you a closer view of some of those green patches now 1 to 1.5 metres tall.

I'm not trying to say that Haiti is suddenly going to be reforested. Those little trees have a long way to go...

Made it. Even landed about 10 minutes early. So no ill consequences of Hurricane Irene here. Apparently there was some flooding damage in the north of the country, but for the most part Haiti was lucky this time around. I was worried because when we did our evaluations in 2008, Haiti had just been hit by 4 hurricanes in a row, over about a one month period. So I was afraid we might have the same thing happen again.

"On the road again, I just can't..."
Wait? I could wait really. However, duty calls or something. Flying just as hurricane Irene hits the east coast is probably not my greatest idea ever, but the airline seems to think it is ok, so here we go.

On a completely unrelated note, yesterday an important Canadian political figure, Jack Layton, leader of one of our parties here, the NDP was laid to rest and his life celebrated in a huge ceremony in Toronto. I learned that one of his favourite songs was "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen, and it was performed at the funeral. It's a beautiful song, and one of my favourites too, but it got me thinking about what songs I might want performed when that inevitable day comes. Morbid maybe, but for the record here's a list of possibles:

When I survey the wondrous cross, Isaac Watts

There is a redeemer, Keith Green

Be still my soul, Jean Sibelius

Redemption songs, Bob Marley

We shall be free, Garth Brooks

Not to put too fine a point on it, but here are the ticket stubs from my recent trip, plus one receipt for a shower in the Narita airport!

Home at last, thank God I'm home at last. So the journey home began in Tanzania 2 days ago and ended in Canada this evening. I was figuring on the plane--lots of time to do so--that I spent about 55 hours travelling, either flying or in airports, and about 70 hours from the time I got up on the first travel day until my head hits the pillow after this blog post. This I believe is my personal record for longest single travel 'day'. Made longer of course by the fact that the return journey retraced steps back through Thailand instead of going through Europe--which would be shorter, but ironically not cheaper (I do not understand airfares).

There's things about Japanese culture that fascinate me. Like the ultra-politness: bowing, handing things to people with two hands. I feel like one of the only things that remains with me after three generations is the not wearing shoes indoors. I don't like that at all, even in someone's house where they do wear their shoes.

The sad thing is I know so little really about the countries of my ancestral origin. And speak more of other languages and no Japanese, German or Gaelic. So I'm thinking maybe I might plan my next vacation trip with the ancestral origin theme. Start in Scotland, go to Germany, then Japan. I guess that would be 3 week trip at least.

The final airport of the journey. Had a 14 dollar shower. Here's a photo which should be more than obvious as to where I am.

In another airport and no way to upload a photo, sorry. The Africa trip is done, and I'm on the 2 day journey home to Canada. After a couple more days I'll be heading off to Haiti. As I think I may have mentioned it is a hectic schedule and I can feel it wearing me down. I need a vacation. And I know, I just had a vacation a couple weeks ago, but somehow I'm still tired.
Anyhow, yesterday, I found myself quite by accident (I think) in an informal discussion with a couple of staff who work for a local institution in Tanzania--which will remain nameless, although I will clarify that it is not the organization I work for. I was surprised at how candid these folks were about corruption and political problems within and without. It made me feel good in a way partly because it made me feel like part of the 'inner-circle', and partly because it was just good to hear folks talk frankly about problems in their own country. I don't know if that makes any sense to you.

This photo was taken about 20 minutes ago and should give you a pretty good idea of where I am. Other hints include that I am using my laptop perched on the edge of the balcony of my room because it seems like a good spot to get internet connection, and someone on the road just called me 'Baba'. Which is a first for me by the way and a bit depressing.

So I thought I might try making you guess where I am, in this case, based on a lousy photo snapped in a hurry. Still there should be plenty of clues to get this one. The most precise guess gets a free drink on me.

The main reason for this visit to Thailand was for a training course in participatory methodologies. These are techniques that allow communities and organizations to engage in meaningful discussion and at the same time catalyze the process of change (hopefully for the better!)

The course lasted 2 days, the first in the classroom and the second in the field doing a practical exercise. These photos are of community members where one student group went to apply what they learned. The students of course cannot be seen since they were in the background facilitating the exercise.

Community members drawing a map of their village

Community members explaining the map the the student facilitators and the instructor (me!)

So a little good news story for you: One of the villages that we partner with here in Thailand has qualified for a government pilot project for community forestry management. If you're patient with me I can try to explain as briefly as possible why this is good news at least to me. About 5 years, ago, we started working here (through our local partner organization, UHDP, Upland Holistic Development Project, www.uhdp.org) on assisting rural communities to develop forestry management plans. This was necessary because the government was establishing new national parks, and the park boundaries overlapped with the villages where people were already living. Like in many places around the world, this is controversial, because on one hand the park is protecting valuable nature and biodiversity, but on the other hand it threatens the livelihoods of people living in and around the park. Opinions vary on how to handle such a tricky situation, but we set out, with UHDP, and the communities to develop maps using GPS, and management plans that would demonstrate how communities could responsibly care for forest area, and sustainably exist within park boundaries. Did I mention that this started 5 years ago? It was a long and convoluted process involving many changes and uncertainties in forestry law, all the while training and encouraging communities to draft their own forest management plans. Finally this year, one of those communities was approved along with 18 others in the region to be part of the government pilot plan. There is still a lot of uncertainty ahead, but there have already been positive consequences, since we have seen an increase in tree planting and the establishment of agroforestry plots in the area. This positive change seems to be a result of the increased confidence farmers have about their land which gives them the freedom to make the long term investment in planting trees. Good news, and it feels good to have played even a small part in helping this community to get to this point. Who knew that the way to get more trees planted would have to do with teaching farmers how to use a GPS?

An agroforestry plot in Thailand, mixed trees and agriculture, mimicking a natural forest

I'm in Thailand, and should be blogging about Thailand, but here's some catch up on the camping trip. I wasn't sure which picture of rocks and trees to show you so here's a random selection.

Seriously, I think I should just drive around with a canoe tied to the roof of my car all the time. First of all, it just makes me happy to look up and see a canoe on the roof of my car. Second of all, it doesn't really change my fuel efficiency much (surprisingly). Third, it is a whole lot easier to find my car in parking lots.

Had a great canoe trip and hope to provide some photos and details tomorrow.

I had a chance between breakfast and the morning sessions to get out and go for a quick hike. It was great to be outside the conference meeting walls for even a few minutes. This place is quite beautiful as I hope you'll agree

.

There is a lot of information to absorb in a very short period of time at this conference. I'm thankful that I have at least some basic idea of what is going on so I am not completely blown out of the water, but people are using these tools, on a much higher level than I can cope with at the moment. But is is exciting to see the amount of enthusiasm and innovation that is going on. Almost too much innovation. How am I supposed to choose among so many options?

Now I'm at this conference, which was a bit of an adventure to get to. My flight was late, so the car rental company I had a reservation with had closed, and I had to get a car on the spot from another company that was still, lucky for me, open. Then I had to drive up through the San Bernardino National Park at 1 in the morning. I realized at some point that this trip is actually stretching my comfort zone more than the Haiti trip. When I go to Haiti, I know who I'm meeting, and how I relate, where I will sleep, what the meal and bathroom protocol is, etc. The conference situation is totally new. Getting here itself was a stretch. One might even argue that the 'language' is unfamiliar, since there are numerous technical terms which I don't know or am just learning. This irony is underscored all the more by the fact that I just got back from Haiti the night before last, and then immediately turned around and came up here. In a few minutes I should go and register for this thing.

I wanted to run to the Hyatt here in the airport in Dallas Fort Worth as soon as I got here and just rent a room and lie on a comfortable bed for a few hours. I almost wish I hadn't done it that one time because now it will become a huge temptation.

This current trip, just so you know, is to a conference on GIS in conservation. GIS stands for Geographical Information Systems which is, well, a group of technologies which help to represent information spatially. I'm just learning about it myself, and so going to this conference in order to learn. The greatest thing about it for me is that it means making maps, and if you know me you know I love maps. So getting to make maps is like a dream come true.

Here's a post-trip selection of photos from Haiti:

Metal drums flattened out to be used in the making of metal craftwork. This 'Fe Forje' is very beautiful and a famous Haitian artform, used for wall hangings, frames, signs, wall dividers, and numerous other things. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of the actual craftwork, which would have made the point much more nicely, but there is an entire village where in house after house metal worker artists are practicing their trade. Definitely worth seeing if you get to Haiti, and worth purchasing--I have none myself yet, but am always keeping my eye out for the right one.

Early morning coming down out of Gran Goave commune heading to the airport. The peak you see on the right is Pic de la Sel, the highest point in Haiti.

One of the newest hotels in Port au Prince, the Caribbean Lodge, which in the few months since it has opened has become an aid worker hangout. Building is constructed out of shipping containers which appear to have been modified especially for that purpose. Pricey at 125USD per night, a bit out of my range, but free and ubiquitous wifi, free breakfast and dinner, and more A/C than you could possibly handle. The concept itself is quite clever.

This hotel bed was so comfortable, I didn't much want to get out of it this morning. I did have to get up, get breakfast, so some computer work, etc, and I started wondering what it would be like to actually live in the airport. If that were even possible. It would sure be convenient for me--no more rushing to the airport, and begging people for rides, or paying for expensive shuttles. My room get cleaned whenever I want, and I can have food delivered to my door at any time of day or night. Plus the room is really not a whole lot smaller than my apartment. I'm pretty sure I could make that work. Right now I'm going to head out of the lobby, and go print my tickets.

Heard an interesting comment from someone today while talking about zombies (in Haiti). The comment was "I don't believe it, but I know they exist".

Let you think about that one...

Meanwhile, I'm back in Toronto, with a layover squashed between trips, trying to catch a few hours sleep in the airport hotel. After I log off here that is.

Some photos of the new high school in the community where our office is located. Nice rooms with lots of space, ventilation, and supposedly earthquake resistant.

Today was a day of mostly translating. "Interpreting" actually, as I learned recently, the difference being that translation is for the written word and interpretation for spoken word. I actually quite like interpretation. It's like you shut down entirely a major part of the brain and switch on another major part. I kind of wish I was a real, official interpreter. The challenge is to try and best represent the thoughts of the person balancing between a precise representation of their words and a true representation of the core thought. All the while on the fly with no time to look anything up. I just find it really fun and by the end of the day, feel like my brain has physically worked out. Maybe it's just my imagination, but I can actually feel my brain at times like this. If that makes any sense at all. Hard to describe if you've never experienced it yourself.

So I may as well keep blogging while I can because who knows when I can again. Seems to have something to do with the rain or something. I saw houses like this scattered around both in the city and the country side. Apparently earthquake and hurricane resistance, and provided by some agency or other. I heard a rumour that in order to receive a house like this you had to sign some document promising not to try to emigrate to another country, but I have absolutely no idea if that is true. Seems like something that wouldn't be true, but one never knows. Regardless, besides the house building I have schools reconstructed in a couple of rural communities now, as well as some debris removal work on the National Palace. It's nice to see that some reconstruction is finally happening. I suppose the biggest sign that reconstruction is happening is that Haiti is totally out of the news now. Seems as if the press only likes to report when things are going badly here.

Internet connection is a bit sketchy here in our office so I apologize for the failure to communicate. This week my main function is translator since we have a consultant here who is giving a training on a particular savings and loan system designed for people in poor communities. Since we've arrived it has pretty much rained every afternoon, and most farmers are out preparing land, planting beans etc. The following is one of those tropical afternoons when the sun is still shining down, but there's a dark cloud coming behind. After I took this photo it started to pour about 15 minutes later.

And so begins a summer of journeys. I was describing to a friend recently how many trips I had coming up this summer, and his comment was, "Oh good, so there should be lots of grumpy entries from airports on your blog". I don't know, I'm just always happy to hear that someone is reading my blog at all, regardless.

Actually the journeying started a couple of weeks ago when I went out to the Kingston area to help friends of mine who are building a house this summer. They have designed it themselves and are doing most of the work as well. I've been describing it as my-friends-who-have-been-so-generous-over-the-years-and-now-they're-calling-in-their-favours-to-build-their-house. Which is not really true. They're building it themselves because they want to and are the creative types, and their friends are helping them because they want to, and quite frankly I learned a tonne about house-building in the couple days I was there. I hope to get out there again if I can, somewhere between grouchy blog entries (this entry is being made from an airport, by the way).

Here is a photo of my friend looking out the window of his house's first wall for the first time.

There's a couple of moths who have been hanging out on my patio screen for the past few days. I was struck this morning by what seems to me to be the remarkable similarity between the moth silhouette and the shape of the B2 stealth bomber. I don't know, maybe you don't see it. But it is known that some moths are able to evade bat sonar (for real, look it up!). So is it possible that the military noticed that and copied moth 'technology'? Or is it a case where the military came up with the shape completely independently? Or is it just coincidence and has nothing to do with being stealthy at all? Or is it just my imagination?

Have a look at tell me what you think...

(the picture of the moths is mine, the B2 I downloaded from the web, just to be clear.)

Another trip comes to an end. and with the exception of a 3 hour delay due to mechanical problems, the return home was uneventful.

To answer the question that appeared in the comments section, there has been in the past manufacturing in Haiti, with clothes being one of the major products. There was a sporting goods company that made baseballs in Haiti but they pulled out in the early 90's due to political instability. There is also a free trade zone (or maybe more than one) where foreign companies are being encouraged to open for business, but I am not sure who is there or what they are manufacturing. Also in the neighbouring DR, a significant amount of the labour in the farm, construction and hotel industry is Haitian. Not a very complete answer sorry, but yes there is manufacturing on a limited scale, and potential for more.

So here's another travel tip which I don't think I've mentioned before:

When flushing with a bucket, be sure not to stand in the same plane as the direction of the bucket pour itself.

This is one of the results of the study, a map drawn by community members indicating the rivers, roads, various communities, forested and deforested areas, schools, clinics, and churches. There's a lot of info here that really wouldn't be available anywhere else, and is also surprisingly geographically accurate.

I spent some time trying to capture motorcycle images going by in front of my house. There was one that went by with 4 people, and I even saw one with 5 (two babies), but unfortunately couldn't get those on film. Here are the best of the ones on got:

For some reason I was dreaming very vividly last night. Pretty much as soon as my head hit the pillow and I drifted off. But probably one of the strangest things was not even a dream. My landlady--who is a retired restaurant owner, and who has been renting me a room and providing my meals for the past 2 weeks--arrived home late and discovered that there were leftovers from my dinner. So she calls out to me from the kitchen--keep in mind that I am in my room, dreaming vividly and that she is speaking rapidly in Spanish--

"Hey Bob, do you want to save these leftovers for tomorrow, or can I give them to someone else?" Being only half awake, I wasn't entirely understanding, so I replied,

"I had plenty to eat thanks."

So then she says,

"I asked you, do you want to save these leftovers or can I give them away?"

Still not entirely sure I was understanding (either words or the situation), I said,

"Thanks, I had enough to eat."

I hear her sigh, and mutter to herself, "he doesn't understand"

Then I hear her shuffle out of the kitchen into the backyard, out onto the street and shout,

"Hey, Haitian, come here!"

I don't know if she was just calling any random Haitian hanging out, of which there are often several, or if she was calling someone she knows (she knows a lot of people), but regardless, about a minute later she and some Haitian guy I have never seen approach my door and she repeats her question in Spanish and the Haitian asks me in Creole if I want to keep the leftovers or not. I say, no in Creole, he says no to my landlady in Spanish. She smiles, the Haitian wishes me a good night, then they both leave, and I close my bedroom door and go back to vivid dreaming, now confused as to when I am dreaming and when I am awake.