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.