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 BLANK CALENDAR … SO A BEACH WALK
With the exception of a couple routine doctor appointments, a visit by a screen door repairer, and some Aussie visitors in August, I’ve got nothing on my calendar for the rest of my life. No travel plans, no meetings, no weddings, no holidays, no social engagements. Nada. Nothing. Zippo. I like that. Particularly since Padma…
-
CROSSING THE BRAHMAPUTRA
The Brahmaputra is one of the mightiest rivers in the world. From its source on the Angsi Glacier in Tibet it flows nearly 4,000 kilometres to its mouth in the Bay of Bengal. Our hosts at the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute wanted to take us to a char on the river. A char is a…
-
THE PEA OF THE CHAR
As I jumped off the horse cart and landed on the sandy soil of Charbongram, an island in the Brahmaputra River in Bangladesh, I kicked what appeared to be a weed. It was a scraggly, prostrate plant somehow surviving where no other plants could. ‘That’s grasspea,’ said ICARDA pulses breeder Shiv Agrawal proudly as if…
-
GRASSPEA IS A GRACIOUS GIFT OF GOD GLOBALLY (5G)
As I stood in the middle of a 28-acre community managed grasspea field in West Bengal, India, I asked how the villagers divided the tasks of managing the field. There were puzzled looks on the farmers’ faces. ‘There is no labour with grasspea … only sowing. God does the rest.’ Former ICARDA pulse breed Ashuthosh…
-
SHUSHILA SPEAKS OUT
As our convoy of three cars arrived to Bamuliya, a village an hour out of Bhopal, we were met by a gaggle of men. They escorted us to a field neatly planted with grasspea. I asked which of the men was the farmer and then attached a microphone to his shirt. I forgot some equipment,…
-
THE EPIPHANY. THE MENTOR. THE INSPIRER.
In February of 1986, I was lying in a hammock somewhere on the Caribbean coast of Honduras and I was deep in thought. A Honduran environmental organisation was paying me to photograph the national parks and document some environmental issues. I kept swaying in the hammock during the heat of the day awaiting better light…
-
THE ROADSIDE MARKET IN PNG
If you want a good sweetpotato in Papua New Guinea you don’t need to go to a supermarket. Just pull over on the road … on almost any road (but there are not too many roads in this super rugged country). My hosts from the National Agricultural Research Institute and I drove past a market…
-
SAKE IN AN IZAKAYA WITH A FRIEND
In December 1981, I was standing on the sidewalk in San José, Costa Rica while watching the Tope parade. A marching band clad in blue uniforms pounded away on their instruments. I looked out amongst the band members and spotted my mate Glen Snyder blowing away on his trombone while keeping in step. Glen and…
-
A DAYAK WELCOME IN BORNEO
The inter-tribal warfare amongst the Dayak people of Borneo in the old days was pretty brutal. But once the tribes made peace they welcomed their former enemies in a ceremony called ‘tampung tawar’. Now the Dayak use the ceremony to welcome visitors. My colleague, Beri, and I came to the village of Tumbang Samui in…
Adventures Agriculture Backpacking Bangladesh BOLD Bolivia Botswana Canada Cassava Chickpea Colombia Community Seedbanks Costa Rica Cowpea Crop Diversity Current Affairs Egypt Environment Eulogy Family Finger millet Finland Flora Food Security France Friends Georgia Germany Grasspea Greece Guatemala History Hitchhiking Honduras ICARDA India Indonesia Ireland Italy Japan Kazakhstan Kenya Kyrgyzstan Language Laos Lebanon Liberia Life's Experiences Literature Lousiana Malaysia Media Mexico Monaco Morocco Mozambique Nature Nicaragua Norway Pakistan Papua New Guinea Peru Philosophical Photography pigeonpea Portugal Potato Recollections Religion Rice Sierra Leone Sorghum South Australia Spain Sweden Sweetpotato Switzerland Syria The Gambia The Netherlands Togo Turkey United States Vietnam Washington Western Australia Wisconsin Zimbabwe
What are you looking for?
If you see this after your page is loaded completely, leafletJS files are missing.