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.

The best travel towel I have found. I'm sure I've mentioned it before. The funny thing is, it's not even a travel towel, but it's better than any of the 'official' travel towels I have tried which you get at the fancy camping stores. And a lot cheaper. I bought a pack of them at a hardware store and then cut it into quarters. It functions well as a washcloth and for drying (because it is so absorbent as advertised).  And the towel itself dries well and quickly. It is best though to hang it somewhere in the sun and open air, such as  in the picture. The infomercials say they last 20 years, but my experience is they last 6-12 months with heavy usage. The wear results mostly from wringing it out to help the drying process.

Really difficult to get the exposure just right so that it feels like what I was looking at. Maybe someone has advice on how to do this reliably. My strategy was to just take about 30 shots and hope for the best. Seems like there has to be a better way.