This is tom tom, a dish specific to certain parts of Haiti, particularly Jeremie and the North. Tom tom is commonly made from breadfruit, although it can also be made from maize or cassava, and is ground into a flour and then a thick porridge is mixed which is then eaten with a sauce. After 20 plus years of going to Haiti, I finally had my chance to try tom tom. An exciting culinary moment for me because I had always thought from the descriptions I had heard that it strongly resembled ugali or fou fou eaten throughout Africa. In fact the resemblance was uncanny. And delicious. I think I should become a food anthropologist.

After spending all week talking to nearly everyone about the elections in Haiti, I think things can be summed up in one word: disenchanted. Nothing else to say about that really.

Here's some Christmas lights in Port au Prince to cheer you up.

26 minutes 34 seconds from parking to gate. slower than usual.

Today's trip is to Haiti. Main activity is a crop yield study although so soon after the election and only a couple months after Hurricane Matthew, there will be a lot to see.

Every election changes a country a little bit. Maybe not much but a little. As a Canadian, I have been following the evolution of the US political situation with considerable but slightly detached interest. However, after spending a week here, and having had a chance to hear from a number of people from a personal level, I feel like I haven't been taking the situation seriously enough. Regardless of who had won the election, I think this represents a major societal shift. I don't know exactly what that means, and I'll continue to watch with interest as our American friends (and we too) figure that out. 

Today I think I won the transportation game. object of game is to arrive in a new country and get from one place to another using local transport without getting overcharged, scammed, pickpocketed, groped or anything else. So I visited the Intramuros area of Manila which is the old walled city built by the Spanish 500 years ago. On the way back I grabbed a local taxi which runs a semi regular route which didn't drop me right at my hotel but within 2 minutes walk: 25 pesos or about 50 cents. This compared to the taxi I took from hotel to Intramuros which cost about 5 dollars.

I had read warnings about taxis in Manila so I was a little wary so be careful.

Everywhere there are black and white images of the King honouring his memory. Many people are wearing black or dark colours. TV shows are all about him all day. Buildings are decorated in long swaths of black and white cloth. Even Google Thailand has changed their logo to simple black and white. This period of mourning will apparently continue for 30 days.

Fishing in Thailand

This is the kind of tired that I am not a huge fan of. Sitting all day in meetings--no physical activity--but still tired because of having to focus for long periods. Then I came home and ate 2 huge bowls of rice. Now it's 7 pm and I don't feel like moving. Plus I've only been here 4 days, so my body still doesn't quite know what time it is.

These are all good things. The meetings are about things that I really enjoy talking about, with people I really enjoy talking to--staff here who work directly with farmers and are passionate about helping farmers. And the rice was delicious. And if jet-lag is the biggest problem I have in my life then, well, I have no right to complain.

On my way to Thailand for  a bit. But to tell you the truth I feel like I might be going in the wrong direction. It feels like Haiti is calling.

Still lots of things to do in Thailand, not the least of which is to take part  in the 25th anniversary of UHDP, our partner organization there.

It's been raining alot for the past 3 or 4 days. Almost continuously I would say. A few breaks here and there which we've used to get as much tree measurement done as possible. Below is a photo of the Haina river overflowing a bridge and stopping traffic. Doesn't look like much in the photo but the current running over the road was definitely strong enough to pull a vehicle into the river. We found another way to go around. The rain has stopped for now and there was a little bit of wind last night but at least in this part of the island things haven't been too bad. Today I am supposed to fly through Miami. It will be interesting to see what happens with my flight.

Not really much to tell about hurricane Matthew so far. It rained a lot today and I got soaking wet because we were out measuring trees on farms. The Haina river doubled in depth over the course of the afternoon and children were out of school just in case. My colleague from Haiti says it's is windy and raining.

Meanwhile this was the view on the weekend. A bit gloomy maybe but pleasant nonetheless.

Hurricane Matthew is expected to pass over land in the southern part of Haiti today. It will likely miss the Dominican Republic, but likely it will rain some. Hopefully nothing too disastrous. Will keep you posted.

A cocoa plantation in the making. This was a acacia plantation which was good in that it provided cover and timber for the farmer, but now she is replacing the acacia with a higher value and more diversified system. You should be able to see cocoa, cedar, sapote, and banana, all of which will interact beneficially to protect the farm and generate higher profits for the farmer. A true win-win.

The view from my fishing spot. Didn't catch any fish but does that even matter?

One of the topics this week is training strategies. The staff here are using visual aids to help train farmers and they are pleased with the results. Here's an example

If you look beyond the wall in the photo you will see that my hotel is right across the street from a police station. That's a good thing right? Like probably nothing bad is going to happen here. At least that's my logic.

By the way I got all the way here with all my stuff. At customs here the only thing they asked was if the drone was used or not. Seems like people travelling with drones is just part of the background now. Also so far I don't seem to have forgotten anything. And I slept like a baby last night. I think it's going to be a good week.

Here's all my extra stuff. And it's alot of extra. Like 4 times normal. Including, you can see the tube with the red cap, a travel fishing rod. That's right, I'm carrying fishing gear which in the past I would have thought of as frivolous, but I'm eager to see if I can catch anything in Dominican rivers. I will let you know of course

I hope I haven't forgotten anything. I haven't travelled in over 4 months so I'm actually feeling a little bit out of practice. Also I'm really short on sleep and I'm catching myself making little mistakes like nearly forgetting my toothbrush. And setting my boarding pass down in a random place, something I would normally not do. So the chances I've forgotten something this time are pretty good. I have a checklist and I went over it a bunch of times but I can tell my brain is not firing on all cylinders.

There's a lot of extra things I had to bring on this trip too which means more things to forget. Like the drone for example. Which by the way, airport security didn't even bat an eye at. Drones are commonplace now I guess.

The drone on this trip is not just for fun. I'm hoping we can scan some farms and use those scans to learn more about structure and productivity of those farms. I've been practicing all summer at home but this will be the first real test. 

Trip is over and in almost every way surpassed expectations. We did not see gorillas,  but every day of this week I was amazed and surprised. Here's a photo of the Kirwa forest on the 3rd morning of our hike.

Today is mostly an office day: heard a presentation about project progress so far, right now in a meeting about project finances. There is a long list of topics to cover and we will likely work into the evening. Tomorrow we will actually get out to communities and see with our own eyes the results that we've been hearing about. 

This trip is kind of an exciting one for me. Going to our new project in the Kakumba watershed in Congo. I've been there before but only during the set up phase of the project. This will be my first time to see how things are unfolding on the ground. All reports are good so I am optimistic. Plus we get to hike from Lake Tanganyika up to nearly the Itombwe plateau. I've been taking lots and lots of stairs to be fit enough for this but it will still be a big challenge. I just hope the rain which is forecast doesn't block our plans.

1 hour from airport parking lot to the departure gate today. One of my slowest times ever, mainly because of the security check. I don't mind if it gets me safely to my destination. It's a good thing I showed up early though.

No, sadly, this is not northern lights. I was hoping I would catch them since Fort McMurray is at 57 degrees north and it is a fairly common occurrence. This looks like it could be, but actually it is light from a tar sands extraction plant just a few km north of the city. 

Fort McMurray, Alberta. At 57 degrees north, this is the furthest north I have been (as my friend here pointed out). Lucky for me they are experiencing a bit of a heat wave. Yesterday it was a balmy -12 C, and today it is forecast to go above 0. I can tell you it is sunny and very pleasant.

Here is a shot from an exhibit along the highway. This is retired equipment and a technology that apparently is no longer in use here. It is difficult to capture the massiveness of this equipment. Machinery like this, and so many other things about this town tell you how much effort has been put into extracting oil. At least up til now.

Wait. Wasn't I just at the airport yesterday? At least this time it's for vacation. I keep checking for my passport and then feel so good when I remember I don't need it. Don't need to fill out an arrivals card, don't need to pass immigration, don't need foreign currency. It is very exciting. 

The result of this week's efforts. Grey line is water temperature, and blue line is water depth. You can see there was a major rain event on Thursday night and a resulting sudden rise in river depth from about 0.3 metres to 1.5 metres. It was great to be able to check that the installation is solid and was not washed away by all that water. Five days of data doesn't really tell us much. We probably need at least 3 years of data, and better still 5 years of data before we can start to make any kind of meaningful interpretation. Fortunately the logger will just keep taking readings automatically. There is always a risk of vandalism or theft, but the station itself weighs 100 lbs, and is fastened with both a stake and a metal cable, so there would be some work involved for someone to take this thing away. Not entirely out of the question, but not something that someone is just going to do on a whim. But time will tell. At least 5 days out, everything is going well.

Last night I overheard some guests at the hotel talking about how land prices have jumped by huge amounts in a community called Juan Adrian. This because of a new highway under construction from the centre of the country to the west which is transforming Juan Adrian from sleepy mountain village into bustling, near-urban way-stop.

We all have heard about the world's shifting population, and how for the first time in history there are more people living in cities than in rural areas. For me this shift tends to be mostly invisible, and so it is a bit shocking to have such an in-your-face manifestation of global change. This also likely means more deforestation and erosion in a place that was otherwise stable. The area where the highway is going slices right through the very top of the Maimon watershed which feeds the Yuna river, which ultimately flows into Samana bay, a critical breeding area for humpback whales. Not that road building is going to immediately threaten whales, but everything is inter-connected, and protecting the source of the Maimon and Yuna river becomes more important and urgent than before. 

I think--not totally sure--but I think hotel staff are bringing me my breakfast this morning without me ordering. At least a coffee was delivered to my table without me asking for it. And I think I smell eggs frying. Two days in a row now I have ordered an egg and cheese sandwich, so I'm guessing that I'm getting an egg/cheese sandwich today too. Which is what I would have ordered anyway.

I want to say that this is the first time in a while when I have actually felt like blogging. I know that creative energy fluctuates up and down. Difficult to describe but I think everyone knows the feeling: when your energy is down, it is kind of like being a fly on a spider web--the more you try, the worse it gets. Or to put it another way, if you've seen the movie Limitless, the main character, Eddie Morra is trying to write a book, but mostly he is just sitting at his desk bouncing a tennis ball off the wall.

In any case we soldier on, right? I think it was Thomas Edison that said, "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety nine percent perspiration".

Today was a good day. So was yesterday if you're asking but today was good also. We secured the water quality monitoring station so it definitely will not wash away in a big storm, and trained staff in how to retrieve the data. Which turns out to be almost too easy. We have invested in some dataloggers which record data automatically and will continue to do so for as long as the battery lasts, about 1 year. And the logger transmits data to your smartphone which means no wading into dangerous rivers, no connecting with complicated cables, very easy sharing of data between users.

I'm also noticing, that at least the two times I have done a water quality datalogger installation, it leads one to some of the most interesting and beautiful places. The upper Ozama river, which you see in the photo, is practically national park material in my opinion. In fact it would be a good step to protecting an important source of water for millions of people, but I don't believe that any such plan exists. If there is a long term plan, it is likely to turn this area over to mining interests. By the way, if you look in the middle of the picture, on the far side of the river, you will see a white post sticking up out of the water. That is our monitoring station--but accessible by phone from this side of the river. Cool huh?

But I digress. This good day is ending with me enjoying a plate of cassava and salt herring--a traditional dish both here and in Haiti. And best of all, when I asked the waitress for water, she didn't bring me bottled water! She brought me regular drinking water like regular non-touristy people drink. Small victory, I know. Still, good end to a good day.

I have no pictures of the 2 staff members and 2 farmers and myself wading around in the Ozama River installing the water quality monitoring station. Mostly because it was raining when we were doing that, and also because my phone may be dead--because of said rain and river. I'm trying to dry it in my room right now using a zip lock bag and packing peanuts which may or may not work as a dessicant. I bought this phone because it was supposedly water resistant. But I guess wading around in a river doesn't count.

Nor do I have photos of us getting a vegetable delivery truck unstuck from the mud in the one lane road that leads to the river. Also no pictures of my pants splattered in mud from the spinning tires of the truck as it slowly slithered its way up the hilly mountain road--more of a path than a road.

And no pictures of the super drunk guy at the next table at this restaurant where I am eating. Even if I had my phone I probably wouldn't take pictures of that. Best that you trust me when I say he is super drunk. 

The view from my room. I guess it should be safe here with the police right across the street. I've never really worried about safety here. Not that things don't happen but I've never felt like I was in an unsafe situation. Honestly right now I feel totally relaxed. Or the nearest analogy to total relaxation that I can achieve.

Well it's not 30 degrees but I've shed my jacket and toque for a tee shirt. It will do.

Here's a view from my dinner table. I am super hungry having got up at 4 to go to airport and had a small sandwich between flights.

I think terminal 3 has improved the check in procedure or something. I felt like I got through in record time. 15 minutes from the parking lot which probably means less than 10 from the time I entered the terminal. 

This morning is one of those times when the strategy of entering the terminal with only the clothes I will use at my destination wasn't the greatest. It was minus 25 outside and I sprinted from parking to the terminal. I guess I would also say this is one of the few times when I feel actually glad to be getting out of the cold. Going from minus 25 to plus 30. Hope it's not too much of a shock to the system. 

The noodle shop where I had breakfast --which by the way was a quarter of the price I paid for my espresso at the Ritz-Carlton.

I also decided to be surveyed by the tourism board at the airport. I've asked so many people to take surveys for my work, I figure it is only fair that I fill in someone else's database once in a while.

Hong Kong harbour as viewed from the restaurant at the Ritz-Carlton in Kowloon. Hong Kong is a special administrative region or something so I am totally counting it as a separate country for my "country-counting" purposes. This may be getting by on a technicality but I'must still counting it.