The weather was a lot better today and so we decided to go for a hike. Neither A nor I are frequent hikers, so we picked a medium leveled hike of about 5 miles, that ended up taking about 3 hours. It was perfect! The landscape was gorgeous and the view was spectacular once we reached the top of the hill behind which the loch was located. Here are some pics:
After a lot of climbing, we finally reached the lake.
After a Scottish breakfast at the Anchor Hotel this morning, we booked a taxi to the Ferry Terminal in Kennacraig as no busses connected until much later in the day. Well on the ferry, we bumped into a woman that had been on the bus yesterday, and who was on her way out to this part of the country for the first time. It turned out that she was on het way to her first day of work in the cafeteria on the ferry. She was a bit nervous and it was quite sweet. But what a fantastic job to be on that ferry! The ride took about two hours hours and the view was spectacular, even though it rained a lot. Andreas and I drank coffee and caught up on everything that had happened since last time we met.
The stop in Port Askaig was quick and all we had time to do was to walk the 30 meters or so between the ferries. The little hotel where we were supposed to have stayed was right there in the harbor by the ferries, and both Andreas and I thought when we saw it that our involuntary overnight in Tarbert might not have been a bad thing after all, since the little town where we had stayed seemed a little more happening than Port Askaig.
Once we reached Jura, the bus schedule seemed to have a lunch break and wouldn’t leave until about 2 hours later, so we called the hotel who called “Alex the bus”, who picked us up 20 minutes later and gave us a tour on the way up to Craighouse and the hotel. He offered a guided tour during our stay, which I think we will take him up on before we leave.
We are now back at the hotel (The Jura Hotel, which is lovely by the way) after walk up to the little cemetery in an abandoned croft village a bit up the hill. It’s raining a bit, but it’s not too cold and the fog and the mist somehow adds to the beauty of the landscape. A little tired after our walk, and with a book and a small glass of Jura Whisky at the hotel pub (which is seemingly the only pub in village), and with the rain tapping on the windows, we both feel like this trip is already everything we expected!
I didn’t spend many days in the U.S. after my trip to Rwanda, before taking off again; 2.5 to be exact. Had I known I would be traveling for work, I would have planned better, but I didn’t at the time when I booked my holiday and so I barely had time to repack before I was on my way out to Dulles again, heading for six day’s holiday in Scotland. Why Scotland? I’m not sure how the idea came up exactly, but my travel companion Andreas and I started to form some kind of vision of a journey through Scotland when we were in San Francisco a few years ago, and then a few months later National Geographic Travel had an article on the Hebrides, and this trip has been in our thoughts ever since.
And now we’re here! Since Andreas lives in Stockholm, we met up at Edinburgh Airport and took a bus to Glasgow (about one hour ride) where had lunch. We were then supposed to take a bus to Kennacraig and connect with a ferry to Port Askaig, where we were supposed to spend the night before taking a last ferry over to our end destination, Jura. However, the weather worked against us, or at least not according to our plans, and the bus driver told us that the ferry between Kennacraig and Port Askaig had been cancelled due to the strong winds. But we took a chance anyway, and got on the bus and started calling hotels in Tarbert (an area close to the ferry, where the bus driver said there should be rooms), and after three calls, we got a room at the Anchor Hotel – a lovely inn in the Tarbert Harbor. A few hours after we arrived, the storm came in and we were warned that the electricity might go out, but in the end, all we got was a cozy rain storm and some hail while we enjoyed Scottish ale pie in front of a fire place in a small local pub. Somehow it was exactly as I imagined Scotland. 
While my team spent much of their time going around the country and talking to farmers and institutions, I had a lot of meetings and events in Kigali and apart from the excursion to the lake on Wednesday, I didn’t have time to get out of the capital more than on Saturday, when I met up with part of my team who were already out talking to dairy farmers. One of the areas that we are looking at is how to sustainably and viably balance the needs of a growing livestock sector with the needs of other crop sectors with limited land available. It’s a challenge that many countries are likely to face in the coming years given the increasing demand for livestock products that come with income increases. But it was inspiring to hear the stories from the farmers we met of how getting a cow changed their lives and how, as their little herd grew, they were able to improve their housing, purchase health insurance, and send their children to higher education. Knowing the hard work and determination it takes to keep livestock, I was really impressed with the achievements of these dairy farmers!
These last pics are from a dairy cooperative and several of the farmers we met were part of this cooperative. The top and the bottom picture demonstrate different types of ttansport used for milk collection – obviously the difference in efficiency is enormous. The little sleeping calf was a new addition to one farmer’s herd, only seven days old.
Today, I had a series of meeting out by Lake Kivu (about 3 hours drive west of Kigali, and partially in the Democratic Republic of Congo) and directly after I had to connect to a phone conference with Washington DC and New Delhi. So I ended up connecting to a hotel wifi so that I could call in to the conference via skype and then sat for 1.5 hours on the hotel terrace, overlooking the beautiful lake while discussing agribusiness in South Asia before heading back to Kigali. A fantastic work environment! For anyone going to Rwanda, I can definitely recommend a stop at Lake Kivu – it’ amazingly beautiful!
On the way back, we stopped at King Ndaba’s rock (the folk tail about the rock is here) and these boys came up to entertain us with a song about the king. They sang really well in parts and had made a small instrument of a plastic bottle, a stick, and a string. Very impressive! There are clips with them on youtube, but they had improved a lot since. They even had appointed one of them as manager (their own word) to manage the money they got from singing. Very entrepreneurial!
I’m back in Rwanda. This time I’m here with a larger team and we are looking at different options to decrease volatilities and the impacts of risks in primarily agricultural production. I’m glad to be back because I really enjoy working in Rwanda. This time, I will get to see Lake Kivu, as I have meeting booked there. I also look forward to catching up with the two acquaintances from my Moldova days, who contacted me when I was here two weeks ago (the world feels really small sometimes). Admittedly, I also look forward to drinking lots and lots of Rwandan coffee, having tree tomato (tamarillo) juice, and visit African Bite – my favorite lunch place in Kigali. Here is a pic of Kigali; the rolling hills in the background illustrate why Rwanda is called The Land of A Thousand Hills!
For DCites (and DC visitors) who wishes to experience Rwandan coffee the way the Rwandans do, there is Bourbon Coffee on 21st and L Street NW – a Kigali cafe chain that has found its way all the way over to the U.S. capital and a few other American cities.
When I wrote my 2014 recap, I was thinking of what I could expect from 2015. Admittedly, I don’t think 2015 will bring any life altering changes for me and I don’t have any major new projects that I plan to undertake. However, I already have several exciting trips planned that I look forward to very much. As I wrote in my previous post, I am shortly taking off for two weeks of work in Rwanda. Since I work in agriculture and often go out in rural areas to talk to farmers, I tend to see more of a country and the people there during my business trips than most people do during their travels. (I need to point this out because I’ve realized that when some people hear the word business trip, they think I spend my time in stuffy airport hotels and windowless meeting rooms, which is almost the opposite of what my work-related travel looks like.) Immediately after my trip to Rwanda, I’m going to the Scottish Hebrides and Edinburgh with my friend Andreas for a week. It’s a trip that has been in the planning for almost five years, so it’s about time! Later this spring, I have work trips planned for South Africa, Malawi, and possibly Central Asia, and I’m hoping to make it to Stockholm at some point and also to go and visit my friend A in Los Angeles. Summer is still open but I have some ideas, including going up to New York at some point and maybe seeing Montreal. And then in September I will likely participate in a conference in London. So without any major events in the outlook for 2015, I will definitely get to see a lot of interesting places and meet many new people.
Map from MapsofWorld.com
I’m just on what might be my shortest work-related trip ever: I just spent three and a half day in Rwanda to present our work on agricultural risks for the launch of a joint report. It was a good event and there was a lot of interest in the topic of agriculture and risks, so I’m really glad I went (you can read some of the things the Rwanda New Times wrote about it here and here). It was fun also because two old acquaintances from Moldova (one of whom I worked with) saw my name on the invitation that went out for the launch event, and contacted me contacted me. The “development sector” (for the lack of a better word) is such a small world in a way, and it’s not the first time I cross paths with people on different continents and in different organizations. The visit was really short, though, and I barely had time to see anything other than the office and my hotel, but fortunately, I’m going back in a few weeks. Here is a photo that I snapped in the car on the way to the airport – streetlife in Kigali:
I forgot to include this little tree climber in my post on kids earlier this week. He sat in the tree, listening in on our meeting in his village, and when we were done, he let me take a picture of him. A happy pic to start the weekend with!
I saw this sign at one of the hotels where I stayed in Malawi. Apparently, this must be a universal food myth! One day when I’m bored enough, I might do some research on where the idea that you can’t go swimming after a meal comes from (rule no 2 on the board).
My grandmother’s theory was that this idea developed because people used to drink alcohol to their meals, and that made them less capable swimmers. But if this is correct, how did it reach Malawi?