Hmmm. Doesn't seem like I  can upload a photo for some reason. So imagine if you will, and shot down and alley looking out onto the main street which I took leaning out the window of my hotel. Had a good but longish trip from the airport, and a really great meal last night which consisted of fried shrimp, baked fish , fried fish, vegetables, rice, and a locally famous soup. Waiting for our ride right now to take us out for the day. I am hoping to be able to upload photos later.

No photo this time sorry, since I'm using an airport computer and there doesn't seem to be an HD card slot. I discovered that Thailand now has a policy of requiring health clearance for travellers coming from certain countries in Africa and Latin America where Yellow Fever is a threat and you need proof of the vaccine in order to enter. I do have that, but then you also need a stamp from the health department in the airport before you pass immigration. That's the thing I didn't do, and only learned that I needed this after standing in the immigration line for 45 minutes. So for those of you coming from Africa or Latin America to Thailand, the Health office is just a few metres outside the entrance to the Immigration area. Go there with your completed health form (which they will give you on the plane most likely), and your yellow fever vaccine certificate, and your completed immigration forms (also from the plane). Get in that line and get the stamp. Then go to the immigration line. They do have someone checking to see if you have the required stamp, but only when you almost reach the immigration desks, not where you enter the line. I noticed a number of people from my same flight had to stand in that 45 minute line twice as a result. I hope this saves someone the same experience.

My last post from Burundi. Sadly--it's been  a good trip. This is mixture of plantain--one of the disease resistant varieties I've been telling you about--and Mucuna pruriens (aka. Velvet Bean) which is a green manure crop, capable of producing high volumes of organic matter (as you can see), and nitrogen which makes it a natural fertilizer, increasing yields without addition of any chemical nutrients. This makes it cheaper for the farmer, more easily accessible, and is better overall for the health of the soil. The program here is just experimenting with this--a technology that has been proven in other parts of the world--but we need to work with it and make some adjustments so that it will be well adapted to the local situation. From this particular experimental field, generously offered to us by a local farmer, we are able to run such a test, as well as produce and multiply seed  to share with others.

Technically  this post is not actually from Burundi,  I'm in the Nairobi airport where they've given me an hour of free  internet. Thanks Jomo Kenyatta International.

This is a grey crowned crane hanging around at one of the nicer hotels on the beach on Lake Tanganika. Was in meetings again today, so we decided to have a change of venue at least to a scenic location. I think they feed  this bird or something in  order to keep it hanging around. Sort of a living lawn ornament.

There's  tonnes of valleys  and ravines here that are being farmed. They look  pretty nice so here's  the photo.  Actually today I  was in  meetings all day, so  this shot is kind of cheating since I took it yesterday on the way back to Bujumbura.

This is Nyakazu nature reserve, close by some of the communities where Floresta Burundi is working. These cliffs must be at least 100 metres in height, and from where I took this picture you are looking down on a dense tropical forest. The ranger that accompanied us told us there are chimps down there. I am hoping next time I return that we can hike down into the fault and exit on the plain in the background. It's pretty spectacular--an unexpected pocket of vibrant wilderness surrounded by otherwise typical farmland. I've been visiting farms only a few kilometres from here for 4 years, and had no idea this was hidden away in the nearby hills.

Real quick because I'm almost out of battery and I'm sitting outside the internet place which is actually closed on Sunday, but the wifi still works. Here's a picture from church (Catholic) this morning. Totally in Kirundi so I didn't understand anything. Since I had the time I worked out that there were probably 1100 people in attendance, plus or minus 50 babies on women's backs. And there's 3 masses on Sunday and one on Saturday. That makes somewhere around 4400 people attending every week. Just so you know.

Sorry that all my pictures are about banana propagation but I've been involved in trainings for the entire week and haven't got out much. This is one of our staff digging up a macro-propagated banana shoot which now has it's own roots and can be planted out in the field like any banana plant.

This is a banana propagation system being promoted by our local partner. I may have talked about this before, but this is a method which lets you multiply many times more banana shoots than  the traditional system. You can see several dozen in the photo. This is a particularly critical time for banana here since there is a disease, BXW which is devastating the older varieties. There are only a few varieties  around  which are resistant and getting those out to farmers is urgent.  We have trained local community groups to use this system and now they are able to multiply these seedlings to supply farmers in their area. This will restore the ability to produce banana since the traditional varieties are  being seriously threatened as well as  create on opportunity for these community groups to make some income from selling these superior plants.

After all this time, and all the flights I've  taken, flying still amazes me.  If you told people 200 years ago, that someday there would be big metal vehicles that weight thousands of tonnes and could carry 300 people many kilometres above the surface of the earth and cover distances that 'normally' take days or weeks, and on top of that you could get a hot meal and a cold drink, they just wouldn't believe you. Even now I don't believe it, especially when I'm standing in some farmer's field where they are barely scratching out a living next to a mud hut--well, it just doesn't seem possible that perhaps a few hours before I was on one of those giant metal  birds.

Just a practical note for those of you who travel to Burundi. I've discovered Brussel Airlines. Direct flight from Brussels to Bujumbura. Eight hours, no transfers, not waiting in some other random Africa airport. Plus the meal comes with all things Belgian.

The conference is over. And my flight out of Monterey  is about  to board. I  got a  chance last night to  go to the Aquarium here, which is great. This is a shot in one of the jellyfish tanks. Very  amazing. And we were able  to ask a whole lot of questions of  one of the staff here, who was extremely knowledgeable and enthusiastically answered all questions. I learned a lot about jellyfish, which, it turns out are pretty amazing. Turns out they are kind of on the threshold of  being animals  at  all. They have  no organs, and hardly any concentration of nerves  which could be considered a 'brain' of any kind. So beautiful though. This particular one also happens to be quite poisonous.

Finally I got this creature,  whatever it is to cooperate.  It  was  being  coy the  whole  time,  but this shot should  make it identifiable. Several  other folks here at the conference also thought it  was a sea otter. Since it's somewhat uncommon to see, I'm kind  of excited. Again, if anyone has better id.  abilities pls weigh in.

Conference is  pretty much over for me.  It's  pack up, airport, home.  Well  worth the trip. 

From my beach walk this morning, in the tidal pools which form when the water levels are low. At high tide all this would be underwater as you  can see by the kelp. The first shot is an anemone, I think, and  the second I'm pretty sure is a crab. I don't know  what kind of crab though. Someone help  me out with the id.

The ocean is so beautiful, you just sort of point your camera in that general direction and snap the shutter, and something good is likely to happen:

From my morning walk after breakfast. I found several starfish in an intertidal pool just kind of sitting there. They actually look kind of fake, starfish do. But on closer inspection you can see that it's moving, albeit slowly. And there's little tentacles or suction feet things on the bottom that it seems  to be able to (slowly) deploy. The movement reminds me of how a snail or slug moves. I guess they're in the same family. 

For those of you from California, I suppose this is no big deal, but I wandered down to the beach again between workshops and dinner and came across a bunch of seals (harbor seals, I think), just hanging out on the rocks. For me this was very exciting, although for locals maybe it's like seeing a squirrel, or a raccoon or something, I don't know. I was actually looking for seals, out in the ocean, so when I glanced down and saw them just out there in the open on the rocks it was pretty cool (for me). Also some black thing swimming around pretty fast, which I'm guessing was a sea otter--check the first photo. If anyone knows, please confirm. Whatever it was, was kind of camera shy, and both times when I saw it, it soon disappeared when I lifted my camera.

This is that sound I could hear last night. I got up this morning before breakfast and went for a walk. This beach has been turned into a state nature preserve, and is two minutes walk from my room. At breakfast the various people I was sharing the table with were all talking about how beautiful it is here. None of them were from this area. There were 3 Canadians, 1 Kiwi, 1 Texan, 1 New Yorker, and 1 Oregon(er??). Anyhow, for all of you who said I should take a couple extra days and just wander here: I am very sorry I ignored your advice. First workshop starts in 15 minutes. Gotta run.

I've arrived at the conference centre where I'll be for the next few days...conferencing. It was 64 degrees when the plane landed which is what in Celsius? All I know it's a big relief. Let's say it's the temperature where you think, "should I put a sweater on, or just stay in a t-shirt?"

Sorry no photo yet since it was also dark when I arrived. Tomorrow morning though, first thing, I promise. Well, maybe right after breakfast. What I can tell you is that I can hear the ocean. At first I thought it was was a highway, but no, it's waves breaking on a beach...I'm telling you, it is going to be very tempting just to skip out on the  meetings  altogether and just wander around here, even the conference grounds literature says there's lots to see. No one would even know...

For those of you that wonder what I do when I'm not travelling, here's my list of stuff I did today:
1. Got up
2. Ate breakfast
3. Corresponded with contacts in SE Asia about a trip planned to that area
4. Worked on planning ideas for a new program (somewhere in Africa--location to be revealed)
5. Helped translate a technical document about plant propagation into Haitian Creole (used Google Translate)
6. Researched and downloaded data on tree cover in SE Asia  (see image below)
7. Packed
8. Went to airport
9. Sat at airport
10. Still sitting at airport

A full day really.

This file shows percent tree cover in 2010 for part of South East Asia. Most of the work is done in advance by folks at NASA and their partners. Estimating tree cover is not an easy thing and there are a number of ways of doing it, each with varying levels of reliability. Interpreting the data for our purposes or in order to be able to post it on a blog like this is another whole step.

It rarely happens but my arrival gate in Amsterdam and my departure gate are right next to each other. Literally a 10 metre walk from where I got off the plane to where I get on again to go to Toronto. In fact I started heading deep into the airport assuming I would have a bit of a hike as one usually does. The first photo shows the plane that I was on which came from Nairobi. The second photo shows the plane I'll be getting on at the next gate over. So a very low stress situation. In fact in the second photo if you look closely, you can see the reflection of the sign for the neighbouring gate where I arrived.