In the Kilimanjaro airport where I believe I can probably guess someone's original just by looking at their shoes. Not to put too fine a point on it, but all the Europeans and North Americans are wearing hiking boots and all the Africans are wearing dress shoes. There's a few exceptions of course but you'd be pretty safe betting on that one in this airport. 

I just had (at Tel Aviv airport) one of the most thorough security checks I've ever had. Actually I would say it was 3rd most thorough.  In all 3 cases I have felt like at some point the person questioning me switched their focus from assessing me as a risk to just trying to figure out exactly what I do. That seems to mystify some people for some reason. Also not everything I do makes sense so that doesn't help. In general security checks don't bother me--mostly I figure what they do may actually keep me and others safe.

Saturday night traffic in Tel Aviv

20 hour layover in Tel Aviv. It was originally supposed to be 14 hours but never mind,  it means I was able to spend a few hours admiring the Mediterranean. Also worth noting that website travel posts gave somewhat conflicting info on whether things were open on the Sabbath, which is when I happened to arrive. Turns out that things are open in certain areas like Old Jaffa, but not so much in the other parts of town I tried to visit. Trains and buses do not run until evening which means I had to rely on a cab to get me to the city. If I had arrived any other day I would have been fine. Still, it was good to get a bit of a walk in and soak up some pleasant 20 degree weather.

27 minutes 28 seconds from economy parking to gate--pearson airport

44 minutes airport door to gate, SDQ

 Day 6 from hotel window. And finally, a work-related picture. The second photo here is a mahogany which exhibits characteristics of 2 different species, the local, native mahogany (Swietenia mahogani) and an introduced species, Honduran mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla). In general mahogany is a highly valued species for timber, and used in furniture, crafts, etc. The problem for farmers is that mahogany is slow growing and they can't turn a profit fast enough. Honduran mahogany is now preferred for planting because it grows faster but the trade off is that, while the quality of the wood is good, it is not as good as the native species. The tree in the photo is likely a hybrid of the two species and may therefore have good qualities of both, that is faster growth, but also higher wood quality. Turns out that in the tree world, there is lots of hybridization, or mixing of species, and in fact the boundary between species is not nearly as clear as once thought. The tree you see in the photo is in a plantation where the two species are planted in alternate rows, and over time we are hoping to collect seed and better understand the hybridization (mixing) process. Maybe even develop a seed source that combines the best characteristics of both species. But that is much further down the road.

Day 5

Day 3 and day 4 from my hotel window.

The view from my hotel room day 1 and day 2. Mostly the other things I might take photos of this week are people sitting in meetings, people hunched over documents, people, looking at slide presentations, people hunched over a different set of documents. So this may not be the last pictures you see from my hotel window.

21 minutes 37 seconds to gate at Pearson. This includes getting from the commuter parking lot to main building.

This week, among other things, we are doing a survey of crop yields. Understanding how much farmers are producing is a common practice worldwide but trickier to do among subsistence farmers. Reasons for this are many and one of the key reasons is because the typical subsistence farmer is growing a mix of many different crops in small batches. So while any single crop might do well or poorly, this might not give us a fair picture of whole farm performance.

This week we will try some strategies to try to paint that bigger picture, which I can talk about more later.

Trip is nearly over. I saw some travellers with backpacks heading to bus station this morning while I was eating my complimentary hotel omelet, and I found myself wishing I was moving on to the next destination too. If only I could find someone who was willing to pay me just to wander around the planet with no particular goal in mind except to learn about this amazing, beautiful,  cruel, frightening, aggravating, fascinating world we live in. 

I think the surprise of the trip was Sofia. I was expecting drab and utilitarian, but what I found was vibrant and fascinating.  I guess I was a victim of Cold War brainwashing. Other than the scamming taxi driver it was a delightful experience.

In the late 1800's the Russians, Bulgarians, and several other Balkan countries fought the declining Ottoman empire. When Ottomans were finally driven out of Sofia, there was no bell to be found in the principal church at the time, the Hagia Sofia church since it had been converted to a mosque. A bell was found (provided by the Russian army I think), and suspended from a tree just outside the church so that it could be rung to celebrate independence. The bell remains outside the church in a tree to this day

Just to balance out the universe I guess, I had a bad planning experience after my good one this morning.  I had been warned on several travel websites that there were sketchy taxi drivers in town. I thought I had done my research and knew the rates , but I ended up in a scam taxi anyways. In the end I didn't pay as much as the driver was asking but more than what I think I was supposed to pay. It really soured my experience here. I was so mad I walked most of the way back. I know that most cab drivers are decent and honest, but there's enough bad ones out there to make me never want to take a taxi again.

But on the plus side, Sofia has an organization called Free Sofia Tours which provides twice daily tours of downtown Sofia. Very interesting and I highly recommend it if you pass this way. I was thinking it would be great if such a thing existed in Toronto. Here is part of the tour in the subway, where the Eastern gate of the Roman fortress of Serdika has been preserved and incorporated into the subway structure. Not only that, the stones on the ground are part of the Roman road that went all the way to Constantinople (Istanbul). Pretty cool, at least to me--hope you think so too.

Sometimes travel plans actually work exactly the way they are supposed to.  I chose my hotel in Sofia because it is near the bus terminal  (where I would be arriving ) and it had distinctive architecture  (which would make it easy to find). First thing I see when I walk out of the bus terminal is this:

Not quite as easy to see in this low resolution shot as in real life, but the light coloured building with the turret at the end of the street is what I wanted to see. I also chose it because it is close to the subway which will take me to the airport. Turns out there is a subway entrance right in front of the hotel. It is not always that everything falls in place so nicely, especially in a place you have never been before. It was kind of like a small reward at the end of a trip.

The first thing I did on arriving in Sofia is go to McDonald's. I have never done this anywhere while travelling but somehow it seemed like the right thing to do this one time. You have to understand that I grew up in the Cold War and it has very much shaped my thinking about how things are. Can't fully articulate my feeling, but McDonald's being the epitome of western capitalism deep behind the former Iron Curtain means something to me.

Today I had one of those fortuitous experiences that ever tourist hopes for and is thankful for when it happens. I got to a museum that was interesting and important to me but unfortunately just as they were closing. But a few of the staff very gratiously offered to take a few minutes to explain things to me. Which was the best thing. Their explanation gave me a behind-the-scenes view of the history here and our conversation ranged well beyond the museum to education, politics, regional conflict, and Syrian refugees. Unfortunately a happening like that is rare and can't be repeated I don't think. It can only be appreciated for what it is. 

About refugees, apparently because Hungary is closing their border this is putting more pressure on countries in the Balkans. For example there are lots of refugees in Belgrade, the Serbian capital. Both private citizens and government are doing what they can, but these are not countries with a lot of resources. I myself have not seen many or possibly any, although today I saw an old man who looked like he was weary from walking a long way. He was wearing dirty clothes that looked more middle eastern to me than Balkan, and he was carrying a small cloth folded up on the corners, like he was carrying his possessions.  Perhaps he was just a local homeless person, but he just looked like he was from far away in every sense. If so you wonder where he might be hoping to go, and what has got him this far all on his own.

The Nis (neesh) Fortress in the city of Nis, Serbia. Much like the fortress in Kotor,  this is an aggregation of constructions by various powers at different times.  In the background  (under the green umbrellas) are the remains of a Roman bath--not a military installation by any means, but evidence of an occupation going back a couple thousand years. In the foreground, the domed building is the hamam (Turkish bath) the first Ottoman presence on the site built in late 1400's. The Ottomans also built a major walled fortress a couple hundred years later which you see a piece of in the background,  and maintained control of this for a hundred years or so until Serbia gained independence.

Nis as a town is much more like what I would call a "normal" place. That is I think I may have escaped the tourist bubble. The bus to get here from the coast did not have a single tourist as far as I could tell and no one I interacted with spoke English. In fact one of the bus company staff here, when I asked if she spoke English just glared at me like she would rather shoot me than talk to me. I moved on to the next wicket not wanting to be glared at or shot and found other staff much more helpful.

I'm sitting at modern shopping mall in Kotor, Montenegro at the foot of the Kotor Fortress which is a UNESCO world heritage site. Normally I would not consider heading for a shopping center when something so fascinating is nearby but I have to confess, I feel pretty good.  And by "pretty good", I mean the air conditioning is blasting and I'm not out there in the thirty-who-even-cares-how-many degrees sun. It is stinking hot out there. Is it just me, or is there some kind of change in the climate going on?

The fortress at Kotor was started over 2000 years ago give or take and was added to piece by piece over the centuries by various world powers of the day. To me it is one of those crazy impressive structures that awes you with the engineering and near superhuman determination required to build it. Beyond that it is sobering to be reminded in such a stark way what lengths we go to in order to fight with each other --or defend ourselves from each other--depending on how you want to look at it.

Sorry, I waited too late at night to take this photo of Dubrovnik, Croatia. A 15th century coastal town with a walls, turrets, narrow cobble stone streets. Commerce is thriving today just as I imagine it was 500 years ago, except today's trade is souvenirs, and boating excursions instead of copper and gold. A very pretty place and I will provide a better shot when I have a chance to retrieve some from my camera.

The Neretva River in Bosnia Herzegovina. Important as the boundary between first, the East and West Roman Empires--significant perhaps because these would come to represent Orthodox and Catholic faiths--and later on, the boundary between the Christian West and the Muslim East (under the Ottoman empire). Ground zero in a sense and a physical and metaphorical line between worlds that have clashed for centuries. It is so beautiful here it is hard to believe that such lines exist at all or that in today's world they may be intensifying. 

Visited the Historical Museum in Sarajevo today. Very moving account and display of the besieged city in the early 1990's. That, combined with a walking tour of "Sniper Alley" left me with--what can I say? A few hours of touring around does not in any way bring one close to understanding what having your hometown surrounded for over 1400 days would be like, but--the physical signs of a 20 years past conflict are still perfectly evident: bullet holes in walls, shell marks in the street.

I'm posting this courtesy of the Stari Grad municipality of Sarajevo free wifi. Pretty progressive I would say. Can you imagine if my town made wifi available as a public service? I don't even know what the logistics would be like on that.

Anyhow, I'm at at riverside patio just down the street from the Latin Bridge where Archduke Ferdinand was shot--the incident that triggered World War I. Sadly, this is one of the very few facts I can say I legitimately learned in school about the Balkans. In fact the corner where you see "museum" in the photo is the exact spot where the infamous deed was done. 

What is fascinating to me is that there are so few moments in history where one single event so clearly defines an era. More often it seems to me, history is an accumulation of a bunch of small and less well defined events that add up to make something observable. 

"Sure" you say, "the causes of WWI were much more complex than that".  But the fact remains that a decision by a very small handful of people or maybe even one guy, precipitated a continental war that lasted years and cost millions of lives.

Brussels airport, which claims to be one of top airports in Europe, at least according to the video I saw on the plane. Who am I to argue? (Well, if you know me, I'm likely to argue...)

Video also told me that the Brussels airport is the largest retailer of chocolate in the world which is totally believable given the quality of the chocolate here. I hope to buy some on the return flight. Don't ask me for any.

The Killarney hike while tiring, was rejuvenating. I think all that scrambling up and down hills and sweating somehow purged my system.  In my mind it seems like a good idea to do that kind of walking more often but good intentions....

Right now I'm actually looking forward to just sitting inert on the plane for a few hours.

Travel notes:
My doorstep to airport on public transit = 2 hours 10 minutes
Airport entrance to gate = 17 minutes 1 second

Made it to Silver Peak and back. Many hikers do this trail, so not such a great feat I suppose, but for me it was hard and I'm tired. But I feel good, even rejuvenated. This is Proulx Lake, and this is really the colour of the water. And the water here is about 5 or 6 metres deep looking almost straight down. Next stop, Sarajevo. 

The good news is that we'very been able to book some of the best campsites on the Silver Peak trail because other hikers have beenough cancelling out in the past few days. The bad news is that other hikers have been cancelling out because rain is forecast for most of this week. Forecast keeps changing though so I'm optimistic about not hiking soaking wet every day.

Got some vacation lined up (yea!). Hiking to Silver Peak in Killarney Provincial Park followed immediately by bus-train-walking in Eastern Europe. Yes, for some reason this year, I've managed to end up with trips booked back to back. Perhaps subconsciously I've succumbed to the 'adrenaline junkie' travel method--barely leave yourself enough time between trips to unpack and repack just to test your endurance. Whatever the explanation, I've got these piles of stuff started in my living room, one for hiking, and one for Europe. This I tell myself, is helping me prepare for both trips at the same time. Also I'm trying to accumulate a sufficient body of knowledge about E. Europe to allow me to navigate successfully. Below for example is a map of the tram line in Sarajevo, which I hope to use to get from the airport to the city centre. In fact, the tram line does not connect to the airport, so I will have to take a bus (I think) from airport to tram line. This also has become one of my things: taking on the public transit system instead taxis. Also part of the adrenaline agenda it would seem.

The Kakumba watershed in the 'winter', or perhaps more appropriately, in the dry season. Farmers burn their fields for a variety of reasons most of which are actually pretty reasonable, but the end result is greater erosion, declining soil health, and ultimately a loss of ability to feed one's family. The challenge of reversing the community habit of burning fields is a great one, as our project manager is Congo is contemplating.

Yesterday, I saw monkeys! Seeing monkeys in and of itself is not that big a deal, but it is the first time I've ever seen monkeys at one of our project sites. Most of the places where I work are, let's say, very agricultural, and there's not that much room for wildlife. But the Congo basin, as I've probably mentioned before is the site of the second largest rainforest in the world and even in the farm communities where we are (just beginning) to work, there are still pockets of forest left. It is one of our hopes that, together with farmers in the area, we can intervene to not only help people protect their precious farmland, but also to help them protect the wild areas that still remain nearby. This is in a sense the notion of preventative medicine versus curative medicine. Or dealing with the problem early instead of waiting til things have gone way too far.

And just so you don't think that there are monkeys just falling out of trees everywhere here, you should know that in order to see these ones, we started hiking around 7 am and reached the spot in the photo around 8:30 so, hiking over what I would say is pretty rugged terrain.

It's true that this photo looks a lot like a picture of a bunch of trees, but I swear to you that there are monkeys. Had I taken video, you would see the branches moving around as they jumped from tree to tree.

This morning about 3:30 am I woke up to the sound of a loud argument between a man and a woman. The argument went on in several languages, including occasionally in English, I guess because both of them wanted the entire world hear their side. What I heard in English was the woman screaming,"Give me my money!", and the man saying,"Get out!". I also heard snippets in French that sounded like, "Shut your mouth", and "I don't want to talk to you". The whole thing went on for nearly an hour. Fortunately for me, I had to get up early anyway to get ready for this bus trip. So just a few minutes ago, while I was waiting in the lobby for my ride, I saw a middle aged man leave with his luggage in a large SUV, and a few minutes later a young woman leaving with no luggage. 

Mind you, counting travel hours that way is a bit misleading since the 40-60 hours includes about 7 hours at a hotel. Which is where I am right now, with internet connection, a working shower, and drinking cold water supposedly bottled from the 'Source of the Nile' (in fact on the bottle label, 'Source of the Nile' is actually in quotes).

Kigali is in fact in the Nile watershed, and somewhat close to the source, so I suppose a water bottling company could make that argument. In any case, the bus that I get on tomorrow morning, will wind its way through the mountains towards the border, and at somewhere in Nyungwe National Park will cross over from the Nile to the Congo watershed. Interesting thing about Rwanda and Burundi, that both countries sit atop the divide between two of the most important watersheds in Africa. One wonders how that geography is linked to the history of this part of the world.

13 minutes 6 seconds, airport entrance to departure gate. Pearson airport, terminal 3.

Today I head  back to Congo. Just got back this morning from a GIS conference, which was great, and this afternoon I'm at the airport again. So I don't know how to count my journey. When does one trip end and the next begin? And yes, I do mean that in both the existential sense as well as the time keeping sense. Numbers-wise it doesn't make that much difference. If I count from now til I reach my real destination in Congo, it's about a 45 hour trip. If I count since I left the conference last night til I reach Congo it's probably more like a 60 hour trip. This is totally OK, because I got to go to an excellent conference where I learned a tonne, and now I get to visit a really beautiful part of the planet which is the Congo Basin. Everyone should do it.

Me and the Rwandan flag. One more country to add to the count.

Not much blogging (actually none) on this trip although there was plenty to blog about. Among other things, the scenic bus tour through Rwanda and eastern Congo turned out to be an intense and grueling journey, definitely a test of one's stamina. Not totally unexpected, but there were a couple or three moments when arrival at the destination was not at all certain. I also witnessed a new record for number of people on a minivan, 31. No, I'm not kidding and for comparison, the previous record (as witnessed by me) was 29. That leg of the journey featured a bench seat where all of the padding had worn off, so I was basically sitting on the pipe frame that would normally hold up the padding, and the board that had replaced the padding on the back had a nail sticking out of it and occasionally into my back. 

Things I am looking forward to on this trip:

• adding a new country to my checklist
• a scenic bus tour through Rwanda and Eastern Congo
• the possibility of being witness to the launching of a new program for our organization--please note this is not a slam dunk, so many things could push back, postpone, undermine, derail, or otherwise frustrate this process. All the usual philosophical cliche's apply: Murphy's law, 'nothing is ever  as easy as it seems', 'that that don't kill me, can only make me stronger', Ok, that last one is a bit of a stretch, fueled by the double espresso I just ordered and my inability to sleep on airplanes. In fact at this point I'm barely ahead of the proverbial army of monkeys randomly typing at keyboards. I mean this is a bullet point that has apparently turned into a rambling paragraph, hardly making a point at all, bullet or otherwise. Can't wait to get to a bed somewhere and sleep. That is still 14-16 hours away I expect.

Schipol, from gate arrival through security check to reaching my departure gate, 15 minutes. Sorry, wasn't alert enough to set my stop watch. I realize that almost no one cares about the time it takes to process me through airports, but I figure that someone out there is mining data on traveler perception of airports, and this is my contribution. Plus it amuses me in an environment otherwise largely devoid of amusement--unless you consider duty-free shopping to be a form of amusement. Also I have a theory that some airports are better at this than others and eventually I hope to collect enough data to prove it, at least to myself.

This trip will have the added feature of taking a bus basically all the way around Burundi to avoid possible political things. Actually it will be one bus for about 5 hours followed by a public, shared taxi for another 3 hours. So including transfer times, border crossings, etc it should be a 9 or 10 hour trip. Should be very scenic.

30 minutes from entrance to gate, Toronto Pearson airport.

This is one of the first microwatershed projects that Floresta Haiti ever did. I think about 2005 or 2006 so it's just slightly over 10 years old. Good to see that the trees are still there. The darkish green trees in the centre and left of the photo are 'frenn' (Simarouba glauca) which is a species native to Haiti. The lighter green trees on the right of the photo and further up the slope are eucalyptus (not native). 

One of many beautiful waterfalls on our hike to install water quality monitoring equipment. Tough job, but somebody has to do it.

Airport time from entrance to gate, 22 minutes. Minor delay because I couldn't use the ticket kiosk for some reason. Otherwise a good morning so far. This trip to Haiti to work on a new (and hopefully improved) way to handle data, and a new way of monitoring water quality. This in particular I am pretty excited about. A battery operated data logger that will automatically collect information on water depth and water temperature. There are several practical issues to sort out like how to protect such a device from cows and children, but we are working on that, and the possibility of getting some really valuable data back makes it worth the effort. We shall see. I'll let you know how it goes this week.

See, this is the thing: I can be sitting here on this pretty beach, in the cool shade, enjoying a cold beverage, looking at the beautiful mountains across the shimmering lake, and just 15 minutes down the road, this fragile political situation may or may not be unfolding. It's a contradiction of the highest order.

The other day a colleague of mine was explaining how he was trapped for 4 days in a guesthouse in a capital city with nothing but the bottles of juice and bread that he had somewhat on a whim purchased the night before. Well the next four days was serious city-wide rioting so intense that guesthouse staff wouldn't even cross the road to come to the guesthouse. So there my colleague was, all alone, rationing his juice and bread. At the end of this story, he sighs and says, "Ah, Africa", conveying in one succinct phrase a deep and passionate love, and at the same time an equally passionate frustration.

While I am not much more than a glorified tourist, I have some sense of what my colleague was expressing. This place can make one profoundly happy, and at the same time drive one mind numbingly crazy.

The good news it seems to me, is that people seem pretty willing to talk about the political situation. And fairly open about complaining about the government. That's got to be a good indicator doesn't it? Isn't that what we do in democracies, complain? 

Day 5 of 8: There's something very sad about the fact that I am in Africa this week and so far I've talked more about my luggage than anything else. This may be a bad sign, I'm not sure.

On the other hand, I'm really don't know what else to talk about. Talk about work would go mostly like this:
'Had some meetings. Talked about some stuff. Agreed on some stuff. Set dates to do some stuff. Talked about more stuff."

I can barely think about writing about that, let alone imagining that someone wants to read about it.

Of course the really big topic is politics here in Burundi. Things are very tense right now with elections beginning next month (ish). But I don't feel like I can talk about that either for a couple of reasons. One, much of what I know is based on rumour and speculation. I just don't think I have any business posting that. Two, the more official news you can easily find by doing some responsible internet research yourself. I would warn you though that you will likely discover articles that say everything is great, everything is fine. Myself, I am not qualified to comment on the validity of such claims, but recommend that if you find articles like that, you keep looking for other articles with a different perspective.

I will venture to say that it feels very much like things are on a hair-trigger. For a myriad of reasons, social, historical, cultural, political, economic, even environmental, there is potential for the situation to take a turn for the worse very quickly and without much warning. So, an entire nation holds their breath, waiting and hoping. Like the Scout motto I suppose--I think it's a Scout motto--"Hope for the best but prepare for the worst". If you're the praying type, now would be a very good time to do so. If you're not the praying type, well, think positive thoughts or something. It is not an exaggeration to say that what happens in the next couple of months could be the difference between a nation with a promising future, or a terrible tragedy.

End of day 1. Flight was good, no delays, and about 20 hours which is probably the fastest I've ever made it to Bujumbura. Somebody met me at the airport to pick me up. My hotel room is clean. The electricity works. There's hot water. No rioting in the streets. Yup overall a good day.

29 minutes 10 seconds from entrance to gate. YYZ. Slower than usual because I had to actually talk to a ticketing agent rather than using a machine. Which was more pleasant than using a machine anyways, I have no complaints about the service. Just that it's drawing down my average check in time.

This is day 1 of 8. Easy trip. At least logistics wise. I expect within that 8 days there will be about 4
fairly complicated hours and the rest should be the proverbial walk in the park.

I'm trying a new luggage configuration--yes, I'm sitting in an airport and there's not a whole lot to do, so I'm blogging about my luggage. This is a 15 litre rolling briefcase and an 18 litre backpack. This is about a 45% volume reduction compared to the other system I use. Plenty of room for one week I think. And I've finally caved in and got rolling luggage. I knew this day was inevitable, but sadly it is here. Sad because I'm giving in to gravity. Resistance is futile I guess, but all these years I've felt compelled to actually carry my stuff rather than roll it.

Day 37 of 38. On the road again. About 30 hours from now I should be home if all goes well. Never assume that though. It's been a good trip--not without its stressful moments and I'm exhausted but we got almost everything done that we set out to do. This morning was the first day in about 35 days that I just lay about, appreciating the ability to lie horizontally: something I won't be able to do for the next 30 hours. 

Seems to me Burundians are pretty happy today. There is really not much point in me trying to explain here. All you have to do is check any news links at all on Burundi today, such as this one: http://www.hrw.org/news/2015/02/18/burundi-journalist-be-freed-bail

It is pretty much all anyone is talking about. My unsolicited and outsider commentary is that a victory has been won for democracy here. I think you can see it in people's faces.

Wait, was I just complaining about how juicy that mango was? Here I am enjoying this great breakfast of freshly brewed local coffee, crusty baguette, eggs, and an amazing, perfectly ripe mango, and I'm focused on the little bit of juice running down my fingers. Yeah, sometimes I catch myself being ridiculous. What I worry about is all the other times I don't notice myself being ridiculous. Absurdity, I suppose, is just part of the human condition. We try to cover, with nice clothes, polite language, decent haircuts...well, I cut my own hair, so I don't even have that. Which by the way did I mention I need a haircut? Yup, day 34 of 38 I definitely need a haircut. And it turns out I didn't count the extra day of flying to get home, which means trip is actually 39 days. I should have made it 40 days just to be in solidarity with Noah and company. I wonder if Noah thought to bring mango on that boat.

Day 30 of 38: So far everything is holding up. I actually have a surplus of clean socks. I just had to charge my e-reader yesterday for the first time. And my electric water flosser is still working on one battery charge (amazing--but I'm expecting it to give out any day). I've change hotels at least 7 times. I haven't seen a gorilla though. And most likely will not. Those are so far upstream that it may be a while before I even get to a location where I could see one. And, truth be told, I've only spent about a third of my time actually in Congo. The rest has been spent in Bujumbura (Burundi) working on analysis and planning stuff. So even those two thirds of the time, I've been thinking about Congo--pretty much completely immersed in it (or is that submerged?). When I get home I think I'll take a day off. And I need a haircut.

If you look very closely at the footpath in the middle of the photo, near the the ridgeline, you will see 4 or 5 farmers plodding their way up to the top. This is the daily routine if farming is your occupation here. Walk these trails, get to your field where you do the actual work you came to do, and if you harvest any firewood, or crops, carry those back on this same trail  In fact the farmers you see here are making their way home in the late afternoon. When they get home they will then have to cook dinner for their family. Exhausting. I just had a look at some research that showed that women in these communities work on average 15 hours per day. 

Congo reminds me of a river. Which is probably not the greatest metaphor since Congo is also actually a river. But I mean the country. Not that I am really in any way qualified to talk about what Congo is or isn't. Nevertheless, I know that rivers are never what they seem. There are currents and eddies, and it flows at different speeds, around rocks, at the edges, in the middle. If one navigates a river, one should be on constant watch, reading the currents, scanning for hidden rocks, maneuvering for the best, safest route. A river can be calm and beautiful, but just around the next turn it can be a raging torrent, terrifying and deadly. A river can pull you under and snatch your life in a second, or it can sustain you, quench your thirst, soothe your soul.

If you look at the bottom of this hill (mountain?) in the middle of the photo, you will see a line of trees, about 12 or 13 of them, all evenly spaced in a line. This is a native tree species known locally as kavungwe, a.k.a. Khaya anthotheca, a.k.a. African mahogany. What is exciting to me about this, is that first, farmers are cultivating this tree deliberately in their farm fields which means there is some potential for promoting more agroforestry in the area. Second, these trees were not planted. Kavungwe grows up naturally everywhere, and farmers choose to let it grow where they like. This is essentially a system that agricultural development practitioners have named FMNR (Farmer managed natural regeneration). One of the big advantages of FMNR is that it is considerably less costly and labour intensive than tree planting. So having the option of being able to promote FMNR, a system which some farmers here are already practicing traditionally, means there is the possibility of transforming a large area like this with little cost.

Please don't get the idea that I think this is a "problem-solved" scenario. There are plenty of challenges to confront before a hillside like this could change. But at least the seed of an idea is already there.

Day 18 or 38: The view from my hotel. Of those 18 days 1.5 were spent on the plane, and 5 have been spent in Congo. Widespread protests delayed the ability to enter the country, and those same protests inspired the government to shut down the internet and some mobile phone services (texting). I understand there was fear of opposition groups organizing more protests. This greatly inhibited my ability to work so I have been spending more time in Bujumbura than anticipated. But at least I can see the mountains of Congo...

The opening line of the movie The Quiet American says, "They say you come to Vietnam and understand a lot in a few minutes. The rest has got to be lived." The photo below, or at least the way I was feeling when I took the photo below is summed up by that line (except of course, replace 'Vietnam' with 'Congo'). 

I have to go backward a few steps to explain. Many months ago, actually a couple of years ago, we initiated a study of Congo to consider if we could set up a project there, and if so, where would be the best place to do that. We pulled together information from a wide variety of sources, looking at poverty rates, deforestation, ease of access, etc. This data crunching led us to a particular watershed that begins on the cusp of the Itombwe Plateau, a well recognized biodiversity hotspot, and feeds Lake Tanganyika, the second largest freshwater lake in the world. It seemed to have all the right conditions that would fit our priorities as an organization. We even had some trusted contacts in the area visit the site and do an early assessment. In spite of all these positive signs, there were still unanswered questions. 

Among those questions: would the watershed we had identified be a logical working unit, easily enough understood to be the geographic boundaries for any activities? Well it only took one look at those mountain ridges, on the hike I mentioned yesterday, to see how clearly the basin is defined as I think you can see in the photo below. 

Understanding in a very few minutes. The living, will be daunting.

We hiked part way up the Kakumba River valley yesterday. We were promised by a local leader that this hike would take us about an hour and a half. Three and a half hours later we were still about 200 metres short of our destination. Two hundred metres of what seemed to me at the time like steep climbing and would have taken me a good half hour. So we (or more accurately I) decided we should turn around and head back down. This decision was made partly out of exhaustion and partly out of concern about getting back to town in time that same night. A good decision I think although hurtful to my pride. I take some consolation in the fact that I wasn't the slowest, and several people were tired besides myself. I consider myself to be in reasonable shape, but see below a couple of the dozens of farmers who passed us on the trail walking with ease even with what I would consider excruciatingly heavy loads borne in highly non-ergonomic 'back-packs'.

This is the Kambekulu river, one of the potential watersheds for a new project. If you study this picture for a while, a few things become apparent:

-people are farming on the very steep hillsides in the background

-there are very steep hillsides in the background

This area has quite intense geography and there are no roads back into those hills where we are thinking about working. This has both a plus and a minus, the plus being that inaccessibility has probably slowed the rate of deforestation (although deforestation is still taking place) and the minus being how difficult it will be for a project to effectively reach people. 

The forest that you see on these hilltops are right next to the main road that runs along side Lake Tanganyika. This forest also has monkeys, and some years ago used to have chimpanzees and gorillas. Gorillas even used to be known to walk right out on the road in the past. Not anymore as the primary forest has been cut and as hunting has reduced the gorilla population. Primates are actually a major problem for farmers since they eat the crops when they are ripe. As a result, part of farming is standing guard by fields as the harvest ripens. This also presents a very interesting challenge for a project that wants to help farmers feed their families while at the same time protecting wildlife.

Day 7 of 38
Well, we were supposed to cross the border today and begin meetings with local leaders. Instead today was a day of protests against corruption in leadership so all offices and places of work were closed. Protests in other towns such as Goma and Kinshasa against perceived irregularities for upcoming elections got violent. So instead we stayed put and spent the day in a peaceful and beautifully manicured hotel garden drinking espresso and planning project objectives. 

I have to confess that I was not thrilled about travelling for 38 days. I mean I've done trips much longer but these days most of my trips are 7-10 days. So 38 just seems like a lot. However it is allowing me to function at a much more relaxed pace. On a shorter trip I am counting every minute and feeling a constant pressure to get stuff done. A longer trip let's me run at a pace more like the local rhythm which is much more pleasant.  Don't get me wrong, there is still a ton of things to get done but it all seems manageable. Maybe you should ask me again on day 32, maybe I won't feel so calm about it... 

Day 6 of 38:
Luggage is still holding up. In fact since my arrival coincided with a weekend, I was able to avoid dipping into my supply of 'office' clothing, which puts me slightly ahead of my laundry schedule.

Bujumbura, still only in Bujumbura. Visa application today (hopefully), some baseline study prep, and if everything goes well. we leave tomorrow morning. In the meantime I've been--only partially guiltily--enjoying very pleasant montane tropic winter temperatures (mid 20's C), and freshly cut fruits at the hotel complimentary breakfast.

Things around here seem really calm and peaceful. Too peaceful? I have really limited ability to interpret how things look to me on the street compared to what may be going on behind the scenes. or what may be about to happen. I went for a walk today to run a few errands and just to start flushing out the jet lag. I didn't feel particularly unsafe. Not anymore than usual anyway. And I bought a local phone card which allows internet connection. I'd say it's as good as my connect back home. 

A nice feature which separates great airports is these small luggage carts. Easy to maneuver in crowds, lineups,  bathrooms etc. Unlike those monster carts I see elsewhere. This is especially useful if you're going to be in the airport for a while rather than having to lug luggage. Also available for free. I'm just saying, big airports....

It has been a long time since I had a major flight delay. By major I mean that my arrival time at my final destination has to get pushed back. In this case, I'll be arriving at 9 in the morning instead of 1:30 in the morning, which although later, is a much more civilized hour.  This particular delay happened to be on KLM, but they handled it pretty well, had my new boarding passes ready on my arrival in Amsterdam, and gave me a meal voucher (10 euros). All in all not a terrible experience. The worst part I guess was having to sit in the airplane for an extra 4 hours. Like I always say, it's a continuous miracle to me that a huge chunk of metal like that can get in the air at all and then come back down to earth again.

The time before when I had a major delay was probably 3 or so years ago. That one was Air Canada. The time before that was Emirates. These are all good airlines as far as I can tell. I see no discernible pattern as far as delays are concerned. And I would say that 95% of the time or more, my travel is trouble free.

Anyhow, now I've got a few hours to kill in Schiphol.

I may be trying to do something inadvisable; trying to fit a 38 day trip into carry on luggage. There is probably not even a really great reason for me to do that except my fanaticism about no checked luggage. This is further complicated by the fact that at my destination, it may not be easy to get laundry done. Also if at any point, a luggage inspection is required this will be problematic as there will be clothes everywhere. Every piece of clothing is packed tight and ready to spring once an opening is provided. I may have in this case, tried to fly too close to the sun.