...I was on the way home from my last trip to West Africa. Sierra Leone and Liberia via the Gambia, on account of a bird strike.
We made two Krio films. Exclusive breastfeeding and malaria.
Sep 012010
Apr 202010
I managed to catch a flight from Zurich back to Toronto on Tuesday. Airspace over Switzerland had been shut down since Saturday.
I naturally gave up hope of flying out Monday, the day of the original flight and had re-booked for Friday, via Heathrow.
Friday I said a tearful (oops) goodbye to my colleagues at swissinfo, the international service of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation. I spent more than two wonderful years in Bern (and Zurich, Geneva, Bangladesh, Washington, Sierra Leone and Liberia). I cleared my cubby hole, desk and hard drive.
Monday I was back at work, at the Zurich airport, interviewing stranded passengers. It at least gave me something to do.
I showed up again on Tuesday, hoping for something. The line was long, like the stand-by list. Zurich airport's check-in desks are staffed by people who work for a company called Swissport. That meant they don't do things like rebookings, even at the airline counters - at least not for Air Canada.
I'd given up hope I would get home before Friday (and there were murmurs British airspace would be shut again) when I got a telephone call from my mother saying she had gotten me a seat on the flight. Mothers are great for these kinds of things.
My baggage was rushed to the airport. I found out several minutes later Air Canada wanted 275 francs to ship my stage piano home. It's still in Switzerland.
I am not. AC879 departed on time and some 18 hours after I got up, I found myself in an airport van.
From air traffic to 401 traffic. The latter is slower and more congested.
Home now, sorting and unpacking, trying to match socks.
More to come.
Dec 232009
This is a piece from my November reportage to Bangladesh. After spending a couple of days in Sunamganj District in the north, I flew south, to the edge of the Sunderbans, a protected mangrove forest. and spent time with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation visiting villages affected by Cyclone Aila.
Cyclones are nothing new to southern Bangladesh but villagers say that storms are coming more frequently and with increasing intensity. Switzerland's development agency has pioneered a program that provides villagers with cash grants to invest in business opportunities.
Lives have changed over the past couple decades here, along with the weather. Cyclones are breaking the embankments meant to protect villages and protect the rice paddies from salt water. Aila washed away shrimp and fish farms, and the increase in the water's saline content means that rice has become more difficult to grow.
The Bekaa Valley is a two-hour drive from Beirut, depending on the mode of transport. Compared with Beirut, a cosmopolitan place with a Mediterranean, the valley is distinctly "Middle East".
The Bekaa Valley runs from Lebanon's north to the country's south. It's Hizbollah country. To the east is another set of mountains and then Syria.
Traveling north for a couple hours I reached Baalbek, home to the the world's second largest Roman ruins.
Yup, it's that big.
This mosque was right next to a restaurant where the shawarma sauce- chador took place.
Fact is, the Lebanese make some of the best shawarma in the world, along with great kebabs and awesome falafel.
I was enjoying a shawarma in a small restaurant. I had finished and crumpled up my wrapper into a small ball to throw away. Unfortunately for the chador of a woman customer, the spiced yogurt that had pooled somewhere in the wrapper exited out a small hole in a fine mist and onto the side of my garment.
There is a look on one's face what comes with the feeling of "oh my God, what did I just do!?!?!?" and a bit of a guilty conscience. My eyes immediately turned to the counter, as to convey with the shawarma- and falafel-maker "I didn't mean to".
His gaze didn't meet mine. Implausibly, nobody noticed, including the woman, who was standing less than a metre away. I was very surprised.
There was a quick decision to make: people here don't speak English. Should I point to her soiled outfit and make an "eek, I'm sorry face"? Should I bolt?
I tried to make myself as invisible and nonchalantly bolted. Into the mosque.
More pictures from the trip here.
Sep 172009
I know Sandra Lako, so I may be biased but it's tough to watch this and not come out with a great sense of respect for her commitment to the children of Sierra Leone. She left the country after having managed a children's clinic in the capital, Freetown, for four years. We need more people like this.
The Vanguard, a Lagos broadsheet, reports that a medium-sized ungulate was arrested for attempting to jack small car in Nigerian capital.
It was a shocking sight yesterday as men of the Kwara State Police Command paraded a goat as an armed robbery suspect.
The goat "suspect" is being detained over an alleged attempt to snatch a Mazda car. The mysterious goat, according to the Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Tunde Mohammed, while briefing bewildered journalists at the Force headquarters, is an armed robber who attempted to snatch the said car, Wednesday night, and later transformed into the goat in a bid to escape arrest.
Jan 232009
A few Swiss display the most bizarre, cross-cultural method of re-capturing a beast.
Cosmos the reindeer had had enough of dragging tourists around ski slopes in Melchsee Frutt, central Switzerland, and made a run for it just before Christmas. Cosmos is one of a herd of nine reindeers kept for breeding and trekking. The owner has had to resort to ingenious tactics to try to woo the escapee back into the fold.
My colleague at swissinfo, Tim Neville, wrote an excellent piece on an experimental organic vineyard in Valais that aims to restore the natural biodiversity to the region.
High on a hillside in the Alps, Hans-Peter Schmidt has begun an experimental vineyard where ancient clues for solving climate change may lie buried in the soil.
"Look at this," he says, stooping low to claw the earth. "See how black it is? This soil is alive. It could have a huge impact."
That's because Schmidt is no ordinary winemaker. Here in canton Valais, where about 140 producers make some of Switzerland's most popular wines, Schmidt runs a vineyard where the soil captures tons of carbon dioxide and methane gases each year while nurturing rich pinots noirs.
He is what agronomists call a climate farmer, seeking to restore the soil's natural biodiversity while simultaneously preventing greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere.
And speaking of grapes...
Jan 192009
At some point back in the summer, I had a few spare minutes, no shortage of creativity after work, and a pocket cam. It's an odd combination and when you combine it with some editing software and more spare time, this is what you get:
Jan 192009
Justin is sorting through about 800 photos from four days.