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.