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.
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THE CORIOLIS EFFECT
‘How’s the weather in the southern hemisphere?’ 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
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
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
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 we’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
It’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
The last time I saw Morag Ferguson I was shoving hummus into my mouth and washing it down with arak. It’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
While on assignment in Lebanon, I took an afternoon off to vist the ruins of Baalbek, located in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley. They are among the world’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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BACK AT ICARDA
It’s taken me 25 years, but I’ve finally returned to the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, the organisation I once worked for. This time it wasn’t in Syria but the Beqaa Valley of Lebanon … but Syria was just a few kilometres away beyond the mountains in this photo. The location…
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REPLENISHING THE SEED OF THE FERTILE CRESCENT
Ahmed Amri stood in the middle of a checkerboard-patterned field. “This field sums up the diversity of wheat in the Fertile Crescent,” said Ahmed. “All the plots are wild wheat, but each one is slightly different, and any one of these could possess a beneficial trait which could help crop breeders develop wheat varieties more…
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