Gold mining has become a big deal apparently in the past 5 years or so. Mostly companies although some local prospecting also takes place. Local folk get little benefit, and only seem to have to cope with the ensuing evironmental fall-out.

A village in Mon State on the eastern side of the country. Just one year ago or so, this was a restricted area due to fighting between local rebel groups and the army. One of my Thai colleagues said it's like Thailand 40 or 50 years ago. It's kind of like this place has been frozen in time and now they're thawing out in the summer heat. Speaking of heat, did I mention how hot it has been here? 35-40 degrees. I've been drinking water like crazy, litres and litres.

Close call this morning. When I  went to grab  my toothbrush, I knocked the toothbrush holder out and it started to fall into the toilet. I thought, "Oh man, that's the end of that holder." But then it bounced off the edge of the seat, and bounced across to the other seat, and then miraculously bounced back up into the air where I was able to snag it. Phew.

Early day today. Up at 4. Will be on the road at 5. I am told it is a 5 or 6 hour drive to our destination and I'm warned that part of the road will be quite bad. "Jungle road" was the exact term used. I don't get much occasion to travel jungle road, but I've had numerous trips where I was warned about the road, and it turned out to be not so bad. I've seen a lot of terrible roads. My standard is still a road in the central plateau of Haiti where every time I drove it, there was a point where I would stop, get out of the vehicle, look at the rocks in front of me and ask myself if I had ever driven over this before and why. Still I'm excited about jungle road.

I am here! Didn't think it was going to happen this morning. Long story. Anyhow lots of exciting things happening here. This I think is really the place to be right now as this calender in my hotel attests to. For lack of a better way to put it, it's a great time to be alive I think.

Two great things about Thailand (there are many): chillis and ice coffee.

If you haven't been here, chilis appear in just about everything. You know how in Toronto if you ask for something spicy they might put maybe a half a green pepper in something and you still have to add hot sauce? If you're a pepper addict you know what I'm talking about. Well here, spicy is just about regular and if you ask for something spicy it might put it over the top. Plus on every table in every restaurant there's a container with chopped green chilis in vinegar, chopped green chilis in fish sauce, crushed dried chilis. Really it's a dream come true.

The other thing is iced coffee. I know that in the past few years iced coffee has become a thing, but it was a thing here long before it was a thing everywhere else. Plus it's dispensed on almost every corner. Between capsaicin and  caffeine, I spend most of my time here in a state of over-stimulation.

Last night I went the the famous 'night bazaar' here, which is one the biggest and best craft markets I have seen anywhere.  You can get just about anything you want from cheesy  t-shirts, to exquisite wood carvings. This time I also noticed a booth selling real estate. I barely buy souvenirs anymore unless I see something really great.

Well today is a  big travel day. To an uncertain destination. I suppose I am speaking metaphorically, but I also mean this geographically. If I was speaking metaphorically I could probably say that every day.

It's hot. So hot locals are saying it's hot. So hot the water coming out of the tap is hot. Not desert hot I suppose, but warmer than I would like it. Luckily I'm staying in a place for the next couple of nights with some sort of A/C which is bringing the temperature down from 'sauna' to 'just-slightly-more-than-comfortable'.

I'm in an airline airport lounge drinking free espresso and working on my laptop. Which pretty much everyone else around me is either on their smartphone or some kind of tablet device. Just 2 or 3 years ago, most would have been on laptops with a handful on phones in a similar scenario. Now I feel like some sort of brontosaurus pounding away on my keyboard with large hoof-like appendages.

I'm a little bit nervous about this trip, for reasons that I can't get into in much detail. If I tell you it's a question of paperwork I hope that will suffice and that I am  hoping it is favourably resolved soon. I will keep you posted as much as I can.

On a different note, when I was passing through customs in Europe, the officer said very little except,
 "Travel a lot?"
"Yes." my somewhat weary answer.
And  that was the entire sum of our conversation.

Salzburg, Austria, which is about 2 hours by train from the Munich airport. I had an all day layover so decided to try to add another country to my `collection`. The woman at the information booth laughed when I said I wanted to go to Austria, and told me it couldn`t be done with the time I had before my flight. So I went immediately to the train station and purchased a ticket. Granted I didn`t have a whole lot of time there, but had a chance to walk around, get someone to take a picture of me with the Austrian flag, and had time to stop for dinner in Munich on the way back (some sort of schnitzel type thing--not that great but local, and ordered in some restaurant where they didn`t speak much English.

I feel like I could learn German. It just sounds familiar somehow. That`s what they taught us in school anyway, that German and English were two of the most closely related European languages. I had to learn what Flughafen meant for sure, (airport) so I could find my way back. In the end I made it back with plenty of time to spare. I sort of felt like going to the information booth and telling them, but I wasn`t sure what the point of that would be.

This is Hohensalzburg Castle. I did not actually have time to go and visit, as per the airport information booth advice.

Due to an unfortunate incident involving automotive fluids my travel bag of many years is no longer useable. Last weekend after an extensive search, I got a new one which seems to fit most of my (some would say excessive) criteria. I won't really be able to approve until I've  got at least one whole trip with it but so far so  good. One thing I've noticed is that I travelled so long with the old bag it almost became an extension of my body. I knew exactly where every pocket was and could sling it around virtually unconsciously. With the new bag I'm having to think about it. The pockets the balance a lot of little things.

Driving in Port au Prince is a nightmare. It is actually possible to run out of gas in a traffic jam. I sat stuck in traffic on a narrow street, basically one dirt track for about 45 minutes while two large dump trucks tried to make their way down this passage with  and  against a two way flow of regular traffic. Part of the thing is that some drivers drive right up to each other from opposing directions so that neither one has anywhere to move, and everyone behind them is bumper to bumper so then there's no where to go. Then everyone sits while that works itself out. Multiply that by two dump trucks and you get the idea. I would have taken a picture with my phone but several people have warned me that armed robberies are on the rise in town and smartphones are one of the things being targeted.

This is the Artibonite watershed. As you can see it straddles the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic with the source of the watershed being in the DR and the endpoint in Haiti. It is a critical river system in many ways, one of them being it is a major source of agriculture for Haiti. Proper management of this watershed would obviously require cooperation between the two countries. Funny thing is, it is even hard to find a map that shows the entire watershed. Existing maps I have found tend to show either the Haitian portion or the DR portion. It is as if the other half didn't exist or something. I had to create this map myself, such as it is. The little green triangles indicate the communities on both sides of the border where we are working.

Three days of training and practice in field research. This is a plot with bagasse compost as a treatment. Comparing it to rabbit compost and no compost at all.

I'm not sure, but I don't think there are many things quite as humbling as someone bringing you  a  bucket of water to bath in. And there's not a whole lot you can do  but say thank you. There is a shower here, but it is of questionable value, even when  it is working, and this morning it stopped working altogether. Bucket showers of course require a completely different strategy since you are required to wash while at the same time pouring water over yourself. If you haven't tried it you really should. It's kind of like driving and texting at the same time. Or what I imagine that would be like.

Last night there were June bugs everywhere. Or the Caribbean equivalent of June bugs. Sorry I can't tell you if they are different. But just like Canadian June bugs they were recklessly slamming into everything before falling to the ground and struggling helplessly on their backs. During the night they kept crawling inside my shirt and a few times I rolled over  on  top  of one to an unpleasant crunching sound. Fortunately  they  don't bite, and as far  as  I  know they  don't carry disease. They're like the insect equivalent of the lemming, harmless, but a little hard to understand. 

I'm sitting in our office waiting for a training to start. It officially starts at 9, but probably about a 3rd of our staff a going to be late, because of some demonstration which blocked traffic on the highway. Protesting a lack of work or something. Such is life here. Waiting. I wonder what percentage of my life has been spent waiting.

this is an historical moment for me and my blog. The first time i've posted from my phone. Admitting that I suppose only betrays how far behind the times I am although tapping an entire paragraph out on this tiny keyboard doesn't seem terribly efficient to me. On the other hand I have an entire hour and a half to hen peck out whatever nonsense I want so what's my hurry?

I'm wondering how many times I sat here at gate A9 of Terminal 3. A bunch, maybe 40 or 50? Enough times to figure out how to be the first one here in the morning. It's like getting to the office early.

Mangrove, as you may know, is an important habitat in the Caribbean and many tropical, coastal regions. It's a breeding zone for many fish species, supports unique birds and plants, stabilizes shorelines, purifies water--all in all a critical global ecosystem. The problem with mangrove is that it occupies the same kind of space that also happens to be ideal for tropical paradise hotels and resorts. If you've stayed in beachfront all-inclusive, you've probably been sleeping right on top of former mangrove swamp. Millions of hectares of mangrove have been chopped down, bulldozed in, and otherwise removed for the sake of tourism. I don't have anything against beach hotels--I have to admit I'm quite enjoying my stay here. This particular resort at least has, within their property, preserved a small area of mangrove as a nod to environmental responsibility. You might be able to tell that this particular mangrove is not the most spectacular ever, but it's something, and far ahead of what most resorts are doing. This morning, when I was taking these shots, I saw many guests walking by this small preserve, sadly unaware of what it might represent. I suppose that mangrove and tourism can co-exist. And I know there are folks working for that. But historically as we all know, dollars trump, well, everything. Maybe that's changing. One can only hope.

I think this boat was scuttled on purpose in front of the resort beach for the appearance and I suppose for snorkelers and divers. It gives you something interesting to look between naps.

Now and for the next few days at an all inclusive with my brother and his family. First time ever for me at an all inclusive. In fact my brother just offered me a drink from the mini fridge and at first I protested because of the charges to the room. Still not used to the all inclusive idea. There may not be many photos over the next few days. For those of you who take local transport, the way to get here is Expresso Bavaro a bus that runs from Santo Domingo to Punta Cana in about 3 hours, maybe 3.5. Don't get off at the Punta Cana airport though, like I did. I thought I would be able to take a shuttle from the airport straight to the resort, but no such luck. Instead I ended up taking 4 different local buses and spending about 2 hours to go 25 kms. Total cost 90 pesos or about 2 USD. I could have taken a cab direct for somewhere between 25-50 USD. The thing I should have done is take the Expresso Bavaro bus right to the end of the line, Friusa, and then one local bus to the resort.

I should probably mention that I think I had malaria. First time ever, at least as far as I know. And I'm not completely certain that I had it this time either. But Thursday during the day, I started feeling really tired. I didn't eat much lunch, and went home early from work. As the evening went on I was feeling progressively worse, with a fever and chills, headache, nausea, and diarrhea. I lay in my room in the dark, feeling terrible, and spending what little energy I had debating whether I had malaria or not. Finally I decided that it probably was. It was an important decision because I try to always carry an emergency dose of anti-malarial medicine with me, for exactly an occasion like this. So I dragged myself out of bed, got a glass of water (not that easy believe me), and started the treatment. The idea is that you take a whole bunch of medicine on day one, and knock out the parasite. This is followed up by several days of more mild doses to completely eliminate (hopefully) any residual bugs lurking in your blood. Maybe it was just psychological, but within minutes of taking the first dose, I started feeling better. The next day I was back at work, although still feeling a bit queasy, but by day 2 I was almost 100%. Today is my last day of drugs. Good thing I'm on vacation.

Whales in Samana Bay. Humpbacks I suppose. I'm a bit embarrassed to say I don't know for sure. One of these actually jumped out of the water, very spectacular I guess. Too bad I was looking the other way when it happened. All I saw was the green swirling pool of bubbles where it landed. I could have taken a picture of  that but decided not to. Still it was pretty exciting just being around them. And I have lots of shots of them doing less exciting things like this. 

And this is me actually on vacation. I  know this shot is totally cliche, but I can't resist. Samana is on the eastern part of the island, and while still a tourist destination is less developed than some other locations. Tomorrow we hope to go out into Samana bay and see whales which come here to mate in the winter. 

Some of you I know, think I'm on permanent vacation, so here's a picture of me doing something. We wanted to know soil depth in this field.

Part of the workshop over the last couple days has included meeting with a small group of farmers (about 10) and asking them to identify soil problems in their community. The post it notes below show their perception of soil problems ranked by importance. The top one you see there is burning, ie when farmers burn their fields before planting. There are a bunch of reasons why farmers do this, but the end result is they get a short term increase in crop yields, and a long term and permanent loss in soil productivity. The photo below shows a couple of fields (upper right) that have been burned. I think if you take a closer look you can see how it leaves those fields, vulnerable to erosion. There's a long list of reasons why burning fields is not a great practice in the long run. The objective of this week, as it has been in other countries, is to help farmers think about how to resolve these problems through their own observation and ingenuity rather than us as an organization swooping in with all the supposed answers. Easy to say, not so easy to do. A three day workshop  such as this is only a step in the journey. I wouldn't even say the beginning because we've been working at this a  long time. Slowly but surely we try to improve. Poco a poco.

I had forgotten that this week is Mardi Gras/Carnival. Which means a lot of people here are in a partying mood. It's pretty quiet in this little town right now, but the owner of the house where I rent a room has a grandson who takes part in the carnival parades. I asked if I could take a picture of the just the mask, and instead she made her granddaughter put the entire costume on. The more I look at this outfit, the scarier it looks to me. It's tough to see maybe, but the eyes are bloodshot, and there's two crocodiles squirming around on the side of the face. Not to mention the big shiny teeth. I'm not quite sure how the religious significance of this all works. Frightening spirits wander the world until Lent, when they disappear because it is such a holy time? In any case I hope that no such spirit is hanging around in the house tonight! Or ever for  that matter.

It's raining here. Which is only notable because Jan-February are usually dry months. So while getting rain in February is not 'freakish' weather, it does seem consistent with my experience of the last couple weeks, where rain in Tanzania was totally unexpected, we had a big and these days somewhat unexpected snow fall in Toronto, and now rain in the drier season here. Three anecdotal data points collected by me, a random traveller, do not a comprehensive climate study make, but it sure seems like something unusual is going on at the moment on a global level. Who knows, maybe the rest of the world is getting normal weather. Maybe rain and snow are actually following me around. Which would be really disappointing considering I'm actually taking vacation time next week to enjoy the Caribbean sun.

I have to say, I love the DR. It's true that, and someone accused me of this the other day, that I say that about every place I go. Which makes my statement seem somewhat less meaningful perhaps, but there's lots to love here. Beautiful weather, especially this time of year, hot, but not unbearable, beautiful people, lots of green trees, mountains, beaches, rivers, waterfalls, birds. Next week, when I take actual vacation, I'm hoping to see some whales. I'm excited about that since I've never seen one not in museum or aquarium. There's a list of animals I hope to see someday which includes leopards, crocodiles, gorillas, and chimpanzees. In the wild that is. Seeing them in captivity doesn't count. But, my week of work begins now. I hear someone at my door to pick me up.

One trip ends and another begins. Lately it seems I travel more than I stay in one place. Today's journey begins in Toronto and ends in the Dominican Republic. Work of course, but purely by coincidence, my brother and his family will be vacationing in the DR next week. So, I'm going to take a few days vacation and try to track them down at their resort. I'm looking forward to it, but tracking them down may not be straightforward, since there is no direct transport from where I will be on the island to where they will be on the island. Advice on the internet tells me I can take a series of local buses (guaguas) that will get me there but that remains to be seen. I will let you know how that goes. In the meantime, I'm focusing on the upcoming week which involves discussion with local staff of sustainable agriculture and research. Also will let you know how that goes.

But this morning my main objective is to nap on the plane.

Last installment for this trip, and another in my series of 'micro-vacations'. That is instead of wasting 6 or 8 hours sitting in an airport, I waste the same amount of time somewhere outside the airport. Sometimes that turns out to be interesting or fun, and sometimes, like today, it ends up with me wandering around aimlessly in the rain/snow without a proper jacket until I get so cold I decide to go back to the airport. This flight got into Amsterdam at 5:30 am for starters, and at this time of year, it doesn't get light until about 8:30 or so. Which means I also spent a good deal of time walking around in the dark, on mostly abandoned streets. Still, it wasn't a total loss. I managed to see about a dozen canals, 5000 bicycles, 3 cheese shops, 4 Starbucks, 5 shwarma places, and 6 McDonalds. 

I should also say that the train system here is quite good (this is well known), but I really think that the train system in Kuala Lumpur still wins for ease of use. I should start another blog just rating train systems. I've seen a bunch, and generally they're all really good, but I think the ticket machines in Kuala Lumpur win in the most user-friendly category, plus signs are available in 3 or 4 languages including English, which makes getting around pretty obvious. I did notice that Amsterdam also uses Bombardier trains. I guess trains is something Canada does well, I just never knew, because we seem to send the cool trains overseas. Too bad.

Some advice on staying healthy in the rural tropics. Do NOT do what this guy is doing, ie, going barefoot. Walking around in bare feet is a good way, among other things to pick up soil borne parasites. In this case, the individual in  the photo ignored such sound practice because  it was extremely muddy and he didn't want to wreck his shoes while trying to get his vehicle unstuck, calculating that in a low traffic area with few animals around he might be OK. Still not advisable. Such a person would be best advised to monitor his health carefully, and  possibly get some basic lab tests done upon arriving home.

Maybe this doesn't look like much, but this is a plot where farmers are doing their own experiment (Farmer Field School). This particular experiment happens to be about Conservation Agriculture, a type of tillage and soil management system where farmers try to disturb the soil surface as little as possible. Here you can see a plot where farmers have used a 'ripper' which basically cuts slices into the soil to allow moisture to be absorbed. Anyhow, the point is that farmers are trying several different conservation ag treatments on this same piece of land in order to figure out for themselves which one is best for their situation. Every week they meet and visit the plot, make observations and discuss/analyze what they've seen. This was really the purpose of the  visit to Tanzania this  week (like Burundi), not getting into various bad  situations with vehicles.

Really bad luck with vehicles this visit. I was driving this one when the wheel dropped right off the vehicle and went rolling ahead into the ditch. Fortunately this happened in a flat spot and in a populated area so we weren't stranded and the vehicle didn't end up anywhere disasterous. No one was hurt either in the car or passers by. Furthermore there just happened to be a guy (in the blue suit jacket) standing around at this intersection, on a Sunday who was knowledgeable about cars (may or may not have been a mechanic, I'm still not sure). So we spent the afternoon sitting/standing around until the wheel was back on, and then droving, rather tentatively back to our point of origin. Again fortunately we had only gone a few kilometres, and even in that distance we had to stop twice to re-tighten the lug nuts. 

Tuesday, we went to visit another organization to learn about their experience with Farmer Field School. We got out to a community and had a chance to talk with one farmer and then it started to rain. She invited us into her house to wait out the rain, but it continued to pour for sometime (incidently that kind of rain is totally unexpected this time of year). When there was a bit of a break, I suggested we move on since we had other sites to visit. However the road was slick and with absolutely no traction we ended up careening off the road and into was was essentially a mud pit. Our attempts to get out by spinning the tires only dug us in deeper until we were buried up to the axles. We tried all kinds of things to get out, collecting rocks to put under the tires, digging, even jacking up the truck so we could get rocks right under the tires (at which point the jack broke). Finally after about 3 hours and 20 metres of getting stuck and unstuck repeatedly, we finally got ourselves onto dry land and safely back to a paved road. Everyone was exhausted and cold since we were soaked from the rain which continued to pour and make the job more challenging. Below is me making my contribution to getting us free. Even the farmer we had talked to came and helped.

This week in Tanzania the main topic is Farmer Field Schools. This is a method of training that puts the emphasis on farmer knowledge and farmer participation in learning. By definition it also moves the emphasis away from the organization and organization staff. In a sense it sort of levels the playing field. FFS is not new, but we are just starting to try it out. Below is a table based on an experiment run by farmers which compares the traditional flat vegetable production bed to the double dug bed which takes advantage of several ideas to improve production such as closer spacing, use of compost, and natural insect repellants. All of these are low cost measures which even the poorest farmer can use. You can see in the results below that the double dugs outperform the traditional system, and not only is the yield more than twice as much, but the production season is almost twice as long. Again, this is not new in principle, but this is data collected by farmers that actually work with us, and helps both them and us learn more. Maybe for some this is just a boring table, but I think the content is pretty exciting.

SN	Item description	Double dug	Flat bed
1	Area size	1m x 6m	1m x 6m
2	Crop planted	Kale	Kale
3	Fertilizer	Compost	Cattle manure
4	Spacing	23cm x 23cm	34cm x 34cm
5	Number of plants	90	55
6	Plant repellants	applied	NA
7	Rate of pests and diseases infestation	Very low	High
8	Production period	5.5 weeks	3 weeks
9	Production in bunches	105 Bunches	46 Bunches

Sorry these posts have been late and the last three have actually been in reverse in terms of timeline, as I've been catching up from last week. I'm now in Tanzania, and will hopefully post something more current later today.

The waterfalls (one of several) at Nyakazu Gorge. This place we hope has the potential to become a major tourist site for Burundi, and the Ministry of Tourism has designated it as such. We hope to be involved in helping the surrounding communities to protect it while also benefiting from it. So beautiful here. In fact it has occurred to me that if you want to help a country like Burundi, just come here for a visit. You don't have to do anything more than enjoy the beauty of it, but try to travel in a responsible way. The business that your visit may generate, and your interest in natural areas such as this can really help. 

I managed to catch this guy on the bicycle just as he disappeared around this corner at an impossible speed. He whipped past us in a car and I barely had time to get my camera up and take this shot. This is a long and very steep hill that drops about 500 metres from the countryside above to the town of Bujumbura below and bicycle taxis like this make this journey with two or three huge sacks of charcoal tied to the back. Braking seems to be done with one sandal actually made out of a car tire while the other foot is actually bare. I don't think it's actually possible to stop on this grade and at the speed we saw him go by. I'm guessing that if something happens he just throws himself clear and hopes for the best. One bag of charcoal can be bought in the country (top of the hill) for about 7 or 8 dollars and  sold in  town  (bottom of the hill) for 12-16 dollars

I left Bujumbura this morning to this sight. I am told that some kind of electrical problem started this fire, which is in the central market downtown. People were very upset and the fire department seemed unable to do much, I guess because of the electrical. The fire started around 7 am--I know this because I was eating breakfast at my hotel and I saw the first burst of smoke rising up a few blocks away. A few minutes later, I grabbed my camera and headed in that direction as were hundreds of other people. When my plane took  off a few hours after that, the plume of smoke was easily seen rising up in the centre of town and the fire looked like it was not showing any signs of slowing. A tragic day for the town and for the country

Today was a mapping day. We're learning about using some open source GIS software (free!) and how it can be used by an environment/agriculture NGO like us. At the end of the day we each put together a map based on some of the project results here and are submitting them for an informal competition by some folks that are visiting. Here's my submission to the contest for your consideration.

Another photo from the hike yesterday. I got all excited because I thought this was a  partially eaten fruit and therefore evidence of primates. After I took the photo though, I noticed the broken fragment floating in the water (top of photo) which means it's much more likely this just fell from a tree and split open on  a rock. Very disappointing. Everyone seems to claim that there are chimps down there and I'm determined to see one if there is. We spent some time in the office debating this possibility. I kept ascertaining (slightly obnoxiously) that maybe these were monkeys or baboons or something else, but no one's agreeing with me. One of my fellow hikers yesterday actually saw something, and is sure it's a chimp. 

I forgot to mention, in the second half of the walk we were in farmland but still some distance from any major road. People were somewhat amused by my presence since it doesn't seem like many foreigners get back that way. One guy though took one  look at me and abandoned his bicycle, goat, even his sandals and sprinted off down the trail as if his life depended on it. I'm not sure why he was so scared--one of my companions said it was because he was afraid of white people,  but it was more like he had just seen the Dark Lord of Mordor or something, I mean he was beating it down that trail--which is also why I don't have a picture. I've heard many times of people who are afraid of foreigners, and I actually have kind of figured that things like that may have happened in the past, not anymore. A first for me for sure.

The Nyakazu fault, as I've probably mentioned before, is this hidden natural paradise in the middle of pretty typical farm land. I've been visiting this part of the country for 5 years, and never knew this was here until last year, because it's tucked away in this deep valley/fault. You can't even see it really until you get right to the edge of the fault and then you look down and see this incredible green rain forest. We have some visitors coming later this week to see, and so several staff, a local guide and myself walked from top to bottom today as a  trial run. It was tough, the vegetation is thick--genuine jungle--and there's plenty of loose rock, some small enough to turn your ankle, some large enough to crush you if you were in the wrong place at the wrong time; not a hike for the unfit, or the clumsy. It's a wonder I made it to the bottom really. Total distance about 8-10 km from where the trail (and I use  that term loosely) starts to where we  could pick up a road where  a vehicle could  get to. We want to make this fault part of a watershed management project, working with local farm communities  to help them improve their farm income  while at the same time protecting the natural heritage. A very fun day, lot's of rock scrambling, and although I'm exhausted, I'm looking forward to going back with the visitors on Friday. Which means you'll be seeing more photos at some point after that.

(My apologies for these very low resolution shots, I'm at a very slow internet cafe located in the local high school--it's the only one around and it took me almost an hour to upload these four tiny files)

Looking down the fault itself from somewhere near the top

One of several huge trees that won't fit in my camera view

There are also several nice waterfalls,  much bigger now than when I was here last since the rainy season is starting--which is another  thing, I wouldn't want to be walking down here if  there was a heavy storm upstream--flash  flooding seems like a distinct possibility

This is not muddy water, it's some sort of orange algae. Maybe it's very common,  I don't know, but in case it's some sort of rare species found only in this valley, I'd like it to be called Morikawus bobbii  please.

See, this is a scary hippo. If this was a Canada or US park, the hippo would be happy, like a clown, not to be taken seriously. But whoever sculpted this clearly thought the hippo is dangerous, ready to jump right of its pedestal and attack the nearest visitor. 

I had read or heard that people here turned away from the church after the violence of the 1990's. But I don't see it. This morning I showed up here (Regina Mundi, the biggest church in town) about 20 minutes late, and I couldn't get in. Every bench space was taken, and probably about 50 or more people were standing at the doors, or sitting on the stairs outside. I would guess there were probably 2000 people inside and this was only one of 4 masses on Sunday. Now maybe in the 80's they had 5 masses on Sunday, I don't know. If anyone has data on changes in church attendance I'd be interested.

Well, I didn't get to go swimming, probably just as well,  given the deadly hippos and schistosomiasis. It just seems kind of hilarious that such a dangerous animal seems so cute. I think it's the ears. How could something with such  innocent looking ears be so vicious?  Anyhow, this  is where I had lunch, a  restaurant on the beach, and for some reason this afternoon, a  veritable  wildlife  sanctuary.  There  were  ibises,  cormorants, flycatchers, and hippos of course. The hippos just hung out about 10 metres off shore all  afternoon. Most of the time you couldn't even  tell they  were there because they were submerged  or almost submerged. I don't even know why a bird would perch there. Does it know that's it's on a hippo's back? Most of the time it just looks like a rock anyways. And in the background is the dark and mysterious Congo.  This was one of those times when you have a sense of overwhelming beauty and no  way to really capture it. The photo  is ok I guess, but I sat here and ate my lunch (Nile perch) and just tried to take it all in.

Today is Saturday  and I'm  going to  the beach. And before anyone starts thinking I'm just here on vacation (I know you're thinking it) I am actually  here doing stuff.  The main things are research  for a new watershed project  we  want to start, and helping  with a mapping  project for a grass disease that is becoming a big threat  in East Africa. I  even got up this morning  and  did some work on both if you want to know.

When I go to  the beach  today,  I am contemplating  swimming. It's 30 degrees  and a quick search of the internet confirms that Lake Tanganika is much safer to swim in than Lake Victoria. I know a bunch of people who got schistosomiasis in Lake Victoria  a  few years back. Lake Tanganika is less populated, and the water is much cleaner. This also backs up  my  personal theory that Tanganika is cleaner because  the fish taste better.  Not much to go on,  a personal supposition supported  by anecdotal stories  from the web.

Ok, it wasn't quite what I was expecting which was traditional dancers and costumes, but it was traditional in the sense of being sort of your classic African bar with people gathered to mostly appreciate the band and hang out with their friends. Apparently it's called karaoke here, but not at all like karaoke in Canada. The  band was quality musicians who provided a good night of entertainment. Music upbeat and loud enough to be enjoyed but not so much you couldn't have a conversation if you wanted to. I was one of about 4 foreigner-types in the whole place if anyone cares.

It's Friday night and some of my co-workers have kindly offered  to take  me to see a traditional dance show. Which  is great, and I'm sure will interesting, but I'm still shaking off the fog of former time zones, and could probably  just as happily stay in my hotel room, read for a bit,  then drift off to sleep. Still, I'm excited about going and hopefully I'll come back with pictures.

Our office is right in the downtown area and about 15 minutes walk from my hotel. So last night I decided to walk home at 7:30 pm. Probably not advisable, and I was offered a ride by my co-workers which I refused seeing as it is so close by. This walk from office to hotel takes me by the market and bus station area, one of the most crowded parts of town. For some reason or other as I was getting near the market (maybe because it was dark and crowded--a bad combination in my mind) I started to get a strange feeling. Without really thinking much about it I diverted my route which required walking a couple extra blocks, but it just felt better. No exciting end to this tale sorry, I got home safely is all. And I don't even know if my feeling was substantiated in any way. Truth is even in day time I feel this is an area where one should be cautious. Here's a  picture from this morning.

My hotel room in Bujumbura. I would recommend this place if you're here. Reasonably priced, clean, free wifi available most of the time. Although by recommending it, I suppose I make it more popular and therefore harder for me to get a room. In fact last night I barely got in and had to push the manager to find me some space at 3 am when I got here. 

The white cone shaped thing at the top of the picture, that's a mosquito net if you're wondering. I didn't use it last night, although there may have been mosquitoes for all I know. It feels so good to sleep horizontally after  1.5 days of plane travel where you sleep in any position but horizontal. Not sure why the human body is best adapted to sleeping prone. But I suppose that's a good thing overall. 

Every year I go through all my photos and put together a calendar of my 12 favourites for the following year. Narrowing it down is always tough and there's usually a few photos that I wish I could include. So I'm posting the 'runners-up' here. I feel bad about having to leave these ones off the calendar.

 Scarborough Bluffs, Canada

 Monterey USA

 Bay of Bengal, Burma

 Yangoon, Burma

 Mae Ghok River, Thailand

Mekong River, Thailand, Burma, Laos (from left to right)

My last post from Haiti for a while. I've spent the past 3 days talking about mapping technologies with a couple different organizations. What I've learned is that there is a big need for community organizations to access and use mapping technologies but my perception is that many smaller community development groups don't have the resources to really take advantage of the mapping tools that could help them. We ourselves are just learning about the usefulness of them. Among many other things, it can really help an organization make better use of their (always limited) resources to have the biggest impact possible, as well as help them understand the kind of impact they are having. So the uses are there, the tools are there, and the demand  is there. I'm just not sure at this point how to connect all  those dots. I would love to spend all my time travelling around and helping organizations access and use these tools, but the way things are at the moment I don't have the time. I'm going to have to think on that some more. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know. 

This picture really has nothing to do with the post. I just like the way the sun is reflecting off the tops of the hills.

Early morning sky in Haiti. I thought this  had to be some kind of significant planet viewing. A quick search of the web tells me that Venus, Mecury and Saturn are visible in the early morning. The bright one I am pretty sure is Venus, the other two may be Mecury and Saturn,  I'm not so sure. Pretty cool to see anyways.  I wouldn't have seen it at all, except that a) I was in rural Haiti where there's not light pollution, and b) I had to get up at 5  this morning, so when I stumbled out to go to the latrine, this is what greeted me. 

Where I'm staying for a few days has a bucket shower. Everyone should learn how to use the bucket shower. Really not that much different than a regular shower, except you have to pour the water over yourself. This does require some technique. Truthfully these days, I don't have nearly as much occasion to use bucket shower as in the past. I'm getting lazy. So it's good to get back 

The damage from Hurricane Sandy in Haiti is insidious, I think is the best way to describe it. No sort of dramatic, media-worthy destruction to report, but multiple days of rain and wind right in the middle of the cropping season, essentially took out a good portion of the country's food supply for the next 6 months. You can see in the first photo below, in a shot I took looking north towards the Gulf of La Gonave that there are many whitish looking spots. These are areas that were stripped bare by the storm, and an indicator of the extent of damage. More serious really is that the bean and pigeon pea crops were wiped out or set back. The second shot is flowering pigeon pea (Pwa Kongo). I shouldn't have really  bean  able to take this picture this time of year. Pigeon pea should be well on into the seeding or even harvest stage by now, and people  would  have been counting on that for food or  income. Fortunately a second flowering  took place, although the yield will likely be small compared to the initial hoped for season. All  of these consequences remain hidden, and most likely the affected areas will suffer in silence until the next cropping season which  begins in March or April. For a more official assessment you can check Reliefweb: http://reliefweb.int/report/haiti/haiti-food-security-outlook-october-2012-through-march-2013

Off in the distance you can see the island of La Gonave. La Gonave is apparently a woman sleeping on the back of a whale with her hands folded. In her folded hands she has the secret to peace for Haiti. She was sent at the beginning of time to deliver this message but the whale carried her so gently that she fell asleep and has yet to wake up. During the day the whale moves out into the harbour and every evening he brings the woman close in to shore hoping she will wake and deliver her message of peace. Haiti is still waiting.