A Traveller’s Eye, A Thinker’s Heart

I like to tell stories. I like to take photos.
And I like to share them. Enjoy.

  • A NIGHT IN COPENHAGEN

    A NIGHT IN COPENHAGEN

    Padma and I preferred to drive everywhere in Europe, rather than flying. So when we decided to visit Norway and meet my family, we decided to drive. We arrived in Copenhagen in early evening after driving all day from Bonn. Just enough time to enjoy the long summer day and take a stroll through the

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  • A LIONESS ALL FOR MYSELF

    A LIONESS ALL FOR MYSELF

    Itโ€™s Sunday and Iโ€™m not working on finger millet so I took the morning off to visit the Nairobi National Park. This is almost an urban park as it is a mere 15 minutes south of Nairobi with its skyline visible from the park โ€ฆ and yet it truly is the home to some very

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  • THE CORIOLIS EFFECT

    THE CORIOLIS EFFECT

    โ€˜Howโ€™s the weather in the southern hemisphere?โ€™ Ben asked. We crossed the Equator just north of Kisumu so we felt obliged to get the token tourist shot. A man with a bucket and some water beckoned us over for a demonstration. We knew he was just after a few shillings but let him show us

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  • A TALE OF TWO MARYS

    A TALE OF TWO MARYS

    Once upon a time a man married two Marys, which is something you can do in Kenya. The man passed away but his two wives, the Marys, lived on and prospered while growing finger millet. Finger millet is a traditional crop of Eastern Africa and once grew abundantly in the Western Kenya near the town

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  • JOY IN THE FINGER MILLET FIELD

    JOY IN THE FINGER MILLET FIELD

    Margaret, a progressive farmer in Kakamega County of western Kenya, suffers from diabetes. So she planted finger millet at a time when all of her neighbours planted maize. She likes the finger millet because it is high in nutritional content, is gluten free, and has a low GI. Magaret has been growing finger millet for

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  • UGALI AKA WIMBI

    UGALI AKA WIMBI

    My colleague, Benjamin, and I travelled to Kenya to learn about finger millet and check up on some projects the Crop Trust is supporting. Neither of us had ever eaten finger millet so our hosts made sure weโ€™d change that. Our hosts brought us to a small village called Ekero in Kakamega County which was

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  • JONAH, THE KENYAN TEA PLUCKER

    JONAH, THE KENYAN TEA PLUCKER

    Itโ€™s an all-day journey from Nairobi to Kisimu, where my colleague, Benjamin Kilian, and I will look at some finger millet pre-breeding projects. Halfway into the journey we climbed to 2400 metres on the western side of the Riff Valley and entered prime Kenyan tea country. We stretched our legs and met Jonah, a tea

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  • MORAG, THE QUEEN OF CASSAVA

    MORAG, THE QUEEN OF CASSAVA

    The last time I saw Morag Ferguson I was shoving hummus into my mouth and washing it down with arak. Itโ€™s been 25 years since Morag and I worked in Syria. The times have changed, but not Morag. I caught up with Morag at her home for the past 15 years – Nairobi, Kenya. Morag

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  • BAALBEK, THE CITY OF THE SUN

    BAALBEK, THE CITY OF THE SUN

    While on assignment in Lebanon, I took an afternoon off to vist the ruins of Baalbek, located in Lebanonโ€™s Beqaa Valley. They are among the worldโ€™s most impressive and best-preserved Roman archaeological sites. Once known as Heliopolis, or the “City of the Sun,” Baalbek was a major religious center dedicated to Jupiter, Venus, and Bacchus.

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