Munene, the journey...

Nothing is too small for God Nothing is too big God is everything God is not mocked God does not mock God is Do not despise anything Do not think yourself too big for anything Do not think yourself too small for anything For you are God A true expression of what God is A child of God A part of God Therefore there's nothing to fear Whatever action you take Wherever you go Whatever you choose Whomever you choose That you have chosen And nothing else could have happened There's no other place you could have been Here you are Right here is where you are And nowhere else And yet everywhere else And therefore, nothing to fear Nothing at all

They said we should wait. The wazees were deliberating. They were discussing "important" issues of national security and interest. So, we walked out. We stood by the door. It was raining hard, and we strained to stand as close to the wall as possible, to avoid getting drenched. Inside, the air was exuberant. The wazees were laughing heartily as they imbibed to their fill with nyama choma and Tusker baridi . My stomach was grumbling. I looked around at my friend. She was shivering. "She's going to catch a cold if we don't get somewhere warm soon," I thought to myself. I could stay here and wait to see the wazees and tell them why we had come. Or I could save my skin and call it a day (or night). I chose the former. I motioned to Wanjiku to follow me. She seemed shocked. We had come so far, having walked in the wind and rain for two hours. She was heavy with child, and due any day now. We passed the Toyota VXs that had transported the wazees to

You think you will have another chance like this, nigga You think you will have time to do this again, nigga You think the world will wait for you, nigga You think she will wait for you, nigga Get up, get up, get off of your fucking butt Life ain't a rehearsal You gotta move, gotta move, nigga If you don't move, you will regret this moment, nigga Seize the moment, take the moment, nigga Leave the fear, leave the fear, nigga You can't fear your whole life, nigga You can't regret, can't r3gret nigga Keep it going, do the hustle, nigga Make the money make the dough, nigga Lov3 your wife, love your kids, nigga Let them know, every day, nigga If it's not for the love, leave it, nigga They gotta come first, today, every day, nigga

We need to cut other people some slack. I need to.  Everyone's struggling in their own way. They are. To judge others, is to miss out on who they are. It is. To refuse to be empathetic is to disregard our humanity. It is. Especially when they are loud, obnoxious and annoying. They are. That's when they need our love the most. They do. And by loving them, and being kind, we render our hearts open. We do. And when our hearts open, we love more fully. We do. And when we love more fully, we truly live. We do. Where love abounds, joy follows too. It does. And where joy is, contentment and peace is there too. It is.

Kenyans are growing tired of empty promises by their leaders. We elect representatives and executives, who then turn their backs on us. They no longer represent what we want as a people. They take us for granted. And so they take us for a ride. They rob the country and bleed it dry. Of course politicians will not pay for their sins. No, we do not have a system that punishes corruption in political power. The three arms of government are in constant quarrel as our country is mortgaged to the highest bidders. Oil exploration blocks are decided while we fight about whether or not Miguna Miguna should be allowed back into the country. In the midst of election petitions, it emerges that the IMF representatives have been in cahoots with the Treasury and Central Bank to doctor records and basically misrepresent the state of the economy. Regardless, of what it is, Kenyans are angry. So, should we take up arms? Should we resort to violence? Should we arm ourselves and eliminate all thos

President Kenyatta joined other African heads of state on March 21 in signing the #AfCFTA. What does this mean for Kenya? It means that Kenya's goods and services could have a broader market to sell to. It also means that locally made goods and services will face increased competition from similar products in the African market, especially if other countries have a comparative advantage. What is the projected net effect of these two sides of trade? Well, it's difficult to predict. It depends on which goods are on the schedule of reduction of tariffs both for other countries and Kenya. Pres. Kenyatta signs the AfCFTA Image courtesy of PSCU   Looking at other similar regional pacts such as North America's #NAFTA or the EU, we can see that trade between countries increases many fold. But as in the case of Mexico which saw the bankrupting of peasant farmers due to cheap corn and other agricultural produce from subsidized American farms, the aggregate effect might be po

Got up at 8.30 and had breakfast from 9am. I then went to my room and packed up. Afterwards, I checked out of the room and left my bags at the front desk. Wardah and I then went to Sarinah Mall to get some souvenirs. The 5th floor of the Sarinah Mall has a lot of souvenirs: masks, carvings of gods, paintings, mugs, musical instruments like gamelan and bamboo pipes, carvings of animals, fridge magnets etc. this is an excellent place to buy souvenirs. I intended to go to the National Museum, but I was tired from walking around in the Mall. So I sat in the restaurant downstairs and worked on my blog. Later I had ramen chicken curry at the Food Court in Sarinah Mall. It was approaching the hour of 6pm, so we paid for our cab to the airport. We left Artotel at 6.15pm and we were in terminal 2 of Soekarno-Hatta Airport at 7pm. Unfortunately, we could not check in immediately, so we waited till 9pm for check-in to be available. We checked in, and went through security.

Our day began at 12pm when we drove to the School of Business and Management. We met with Heru Prasetyo who used to work for REDD+. He made a presentation about his work at REDD+. He seemed very knowledgeable about the topic of managing forestry, but he was cynical about the politics of land and forestry management. The bickering between the merged Ministries of Forestry and Environment Missed opportunities by the government when REDD+ was disbanded Funding tied to REDD+ deliverables from the Norwegian government lost due to lack of structure in how the money would be channeled in the government of Indonesia We left at 3pm for Artotel. When we got to the hotel, I napped for an hour. We left for Tugu Restaurant at 5.50pm. A Bali restaurant, it had all the features of Bali: huge carved figures, gamelan music, offerings in front of entrances etc. The dinner was awesome. The most remarkable parts of it included a Balinese dance. It brought back all t

Directorate General of Climate Change We began our day at 9am, with a drive to the Ministry of Environment and Forestry to meet with Indonesia's lead climate change negotiator. Directorates of Mapping, Climate Change 2020: 26% emission reduction (unconditional); 41% with international support Forestry Rehabilitation of degraded lands Peatlands restoration Social forestry includes REDD+ and non-REDD+ National registry systems on climate change: by 2020 Provides data and info to the public about actions Currently voluntary, but will be mandatory by 2020 Verification: ???? How is that Fugitive energy emission: from transmission Achievement so far Little assistance in form of grants; so it's difficult Not achievable by 2030 We met fellows of the Thamrin City located in the Sarinah Mall

We met the Special Envoy to the President on Climate Change. We discussed Indonesia's international obligations on climate change, and what they were doing about it. Some of the issues raised included Role of the subnational governments in the formulation and implementation of climate change policy i.e. they should be a part of the conversation; as should private sector, academics, universities and research institutions Climate change + development goals (SDGs): adaptation; mainstreaming development goals; national adaptation plan EcoMosque Program: received awards; save water, energy and proper waste management Youth want to be taken seriously in the conversation about climate change Blue carbon: marine ecosystem conversation Enforcement of climate change not popular because it feels like punishment Need to find the middle way between development and conservation Afterwards, we went to WRI where we met Pak Koni who

We started the day at 10 am at AMAN which advocates for the indigenous peoples rights, land tenure, wellbeing. Voice in the govt. for indigenous people Model for civil society in other countries => indigenous people Jokowi has not delivered promises on six commitments to improve the lives of indigenous people, even after delivering 12million votes Government public policy has ignored indigenous people Criminalizing of people, activitsts etc. Development aggression: the use of development to take away the rights, lives, land, resources of people Engaging politicians Parliamentarians, district heads etc. UN rapporteur report: provides bullets to bring coverage and agitation on the rights of the people Info for addressing issues on the global platform

We spent the day at CIFOR where we met with a couple of people and discussed different aspects of forestry conservation: Forest fires: cheapest way to convert secondary forests into oil palm plantations Value of forest fire conversion is much higher than any potential benefit from using other method Forests are improving and stabilizing Cycles of burning affects Malaysia and Singapore; nothing done: policy is reactive Costs $47b due to haze Swidden Ancient practice for restoring soil fertility It has been sustainable, all along; not the cause of the haze?? 3-4 years' cycle Sustainable palm oil:  EU report on Indonesian palm oil not being sustainable Tension btn US/EU priorities on sustainability, with agenda of Indonesia on development REDD+ policy: struggle because of financial flow problems Policy in Brazil not automatically transferrable because of the different contexts Subnation

Lake Toba We left Lekjon Cottages at 9.30am, aboard our ferry to the mainland of Danau Toba. We then boarded the bus to Medan. We got to Medan around 2pm. We checked into our Jakarta-bound flight at Kualanamu airport at 3pm, and grabbed lunch at an airport eatery. We departed Medan for Jakarta around 5pm. And here we are. From Jakarta, we bussed to Bogor where we stayed at a really nice hotel for the night.

Fish farming We left for our hotel on the opposite side of lake Toba at 6am and got there in about 50mins. It was a cool ferry. We learnt that Toba is a volcanic crater lake, formed over 750m years, after a volcanic eruption that changed the climate of the planet. At the hotel, we got breakfast: hurriedly done and not very good, but just barely palatable. We climbed on the ferry and we went to see fish farms. I really liked the design of the fish ponds in the lake. However, we learnt that the government had banned further development of such ponds and termed them unsustainable. Red, black and white Later, we went to see a Batak traditional dance and explored Batak history. We learnt that the gecko is a sign of good luck for the Batak people, while the water buffalo is a sign of the strength. I really like the architecture of Batak houses which look like boats, with sharp upper edges. We participated in a traditional Batak dance. The Batak like red, black an

The day began with an elaborately laid breakfast at 9am. The camp opposite our own got visited by a famous orangutan, called Jackie and her young. So we went to check them out. Add caption We played in the water for some time, then we crossed the river a couple of times to the waterfall. The waterfall was beautiful, cool, refreshing. At the waterfall, I was crowned the Lord, King Raja himself by one of the guides. He made kingly garb from leaves and vines. We played some more in the water, and then went back to our campsite. We had a fruit snack, lunch and then broke camp. We rafted down the river to our hotel. It was loadsa fun. We competed with the other teams to get to the hotel. Having started last, our raft boat was able to make up for the lost time, and was leading at some time. In the end, we came second after a closely-fought battle with the leading team. We got back to our rooms, and I changed and I am here writing this post. We are supposed to prepare f

We began the hike at 9am, having split into two groups: the slow team who called themselves torutgas, and the tigers. The tigers took the harder route, while the tortugas took the easy route along the river. With Zack The hike was fun, a lot of fun. We went up hills, down valleys, crossed rivers etc. Some parts were tough. I slipped and fell a couple of times, as did everyone else. We ended up crawling on all fours in some sections, because they were so steep. Because it was a rain forest, it was damp and wet in some sections, and therefore very slippery. We had a break to catch our breaths and get some a fruit snacks. We had lunch at around 2pm. We got to our camp site at 4pm, tired and hungry. Luckily, tea and biscuits were on the ready. After the snacks, we had a dip in the water. It was cool and nice. I also learnt to skip rocks on the water. Afterwards, we changed into dry clothes, had dinner, and more tea and coffee. Then we played jungle games: This is a

Oil palm bunch This was zesty Tofu making in the background Rubber We began the day at 10 and Dede and Danny and his group showed us around the Bukit Lawang area and village. We saw many things Roof making from palm tree leaves Making of tofu Making of brown palm tree sugar Rubber plantations Rice plantations More importantly, we came in contact with leeches, and Julie got a bleed from one of them In the afternoon after lunch, we had a session with people from Orangutan Haven who explained to us about their works Afterwards, Kelly, a former student of the program last year (2017) explained about the Orangutan health project Self-medicating orangutans Use of their medicines for humans Parasite research Afterwards, Dede and Danny gave us a list of the things to bring to tomorrow's hike and day and night in the jungle. This place has a lot of monkeys, cheeky ones at that. They go throug

We began the day at 9am. I woke up not feeling well still. I was queasy and weak. After breakfast, getting my laundry, we left the Aryaduta hotel to Manado airport. We checked in our bags and flew to Jakarta, where we had a two-hour layover. At the airport We caught our connecting flight to Kualanamu Airport, Medan, where a bus was waiting for us. Our guides Dede and Danny showed us to the bus, which then took us to Bukit Lawang on a 5-hour ride. During the journey, it rained and water got into the bus, and dripped on me while I slept. For a moment, I thought it was a creature and was horrified. We got to Bukit Lawang at 11.30pm, where the rain continued to pound. We crossed the infamous bridge in the torrential rain, got our rooms assigned and we chit chatted for a bit. I am rooming with Russell. Went to bed at 1am amid the rain.

The day began at 9am after breakfast. We rode our boat back to Manado and back to the Aryaduts hotel where we had left the rest of the luggage. I was still feeling nauseous and a bit ill, but I took it in stride. At 1pm, we left for the Coral Triangle Initiative. The presentation was a bit dry, and when we left the 2-hour presentation, we were still confused about what CTI does. By this time, I was starving because I hadn't had lunch and I had not eaten most of my breakfast. We went to a local restaurant close to the hotel, which Zack recommended we try the grilled fish. It was a decent meal, and I left still confused about how big the fish was. It was almost snake-like, with muscle and a lot of flesh. Later, we returned to the hotel to prepare for the following day and catch up on my journal.

We began the day at 9 after breakfast. After the usual logistics, we took the boat to a snorkeling spot. The water was incredibly clear and beautiful. Unfortunately, due to a hangover from the previous night's drinking, I was feeling mildly nauseous and uncomfortable with the whole water and boating business. Once we got to the snorkeling area, Adriane and Daniela did diving, while the rest of the crew did snorkeling. I had my life vest on, and was excited to try out snorkeling. Once I jumped in the water, I knew I had made a mistake. I panicked, held my breath and was terribly scared of being in the open sea with nothing to hold on to. I have never been so terrified in my life. For some reason, my whole body refused to relax, even though I was not sinking, I could not breath. I flailed my arms around and screamed for help from those around. Andrea tried encouraging me to just relax, but I was in flight mode. One of the guides held me and motioned for the boat to come

We took a boat from Manado to Bunaken Sea Garden Resort. Once we got there and had lunch, we were free to explore the area. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach, and pier. We had a couple of Bintang beers while at the pier. The calm beautiful sea beautiful macaw We also saw a couple of very beautiful and showy lovebirds and macaws. Later, we had dinner and we went around to explore the bar scene by night. We happened upon The Shack, where we drank some cheap local palm wine in copious amounts. In a bad mood, get some vitamin sea A local band was playing and we joined them in singing karaoke. They had a lyrics book from which we could suggest songs. We sang Hey Jude, Yellow, Fix You and other songs. We started with Coldplay's Fix You and moved progressively to Lemonade Tree, Hey Jude, Iris and many other songs. This was while we drank many many shots of the incredibly sweet, but terrible palm wine mix. It was made by mixing two palm

Woke up at 7am, and began preparing my bags to check out of the cottage. Once, I had breakfast, I joined the rest of the team to Bali Hot Springs. name says it all fried plantain and ice cream! awesome Mt Batur in the background, an infinity pool The journey there was beautiful as usual. But even more beautiful was Lake Batur from up close, with Mt. Batur in the background. It was amazingly beautiful. The spring pool was really cool. There were elephants spewing hot water. The pool was really warm and nice, and relaxing. Taryn, Andrea and I had 3hours of relaxing pool time, while Julie and Annisah had massages and spa treatments. Later, we bade Bali goodbye as we flew to Manado in North Sulawesi. We stayed at Aryaduts Hotel for the night, in preparation to leave for Bunaken the following day.

Vermiculture in progress We left for Chakra's house at 10am. Chakra has a house close to Permana Cottage. He told us stories of his experiences, and his inventions. He was once chased by people in Aceh after he made them a stove. We met this guy he calls Tarzan that was apparently raised by dogs in the forest. Tarzan can listen to honey bees and know whether they are agitated or not. Tarzan made us some honey bee salad. He makes use of what he calls 'appropriate technology' Built a kiln/oven which dries rice in 1 hour. (superdryer) Customized a diesel engine to use hydrogen for doing portable rice mills Moves from village to village and mills rice for the farmers: 100k of unmilled rice produces 65kg of brown rice and 45kg of white rice Permaculture: using wastes from one food process to feed into another process Using smoke from burnt rice husks to smoke bamboo which helps to preserve Using ashes from the bu