So many conversations

Most of the times when I hear people talk about their travels, it is about the sights they have seen and things they have done. It’s a wonderful part of travel. But to me the people I meet and the conversations I have are the most rewarding and interesting part of traveling. Some conversations are lengthy, some fleeting but they all leave me feeling I know a little more about the places I am visiting. So in some of the next few post I will highlight a few of the conversations I will remember most from this trip—in no particular order.

Flora – Flora is an amazing woman, a farmer from Kenya who is educating her fellow farmers on climate change. She’s clearly a woman on a mission who’s in charge of her world. Strength of character and fortitude for all women to emulate. We met at a climate change workshop at the conference and sat together at lunch along with another farmer from Kenya, We talked about her work with fellow farmers trying to educate their neighbors on climate change and how to combat it day to day in their farming. She does it through song and dance with a passion you can see in her eyes and hear in her voice. African oral traditions in practice.

Kiarahu, a rather elderly Kenyan farmer who was so proud of his life’s accomplishments and how he is now trying to help the next generation achieve the same success with sustainable farming methods. He showed us his “laptop” computer. A photograph album and notebook where he has documented the growth of his own farm from barren savannah to flourishing farm and the notebook where he keeps the thanks he has received from the other farmers he has helped.

These were what many people would call “simple” farmers, and they aren’t the researchers and scientists, but they are people who are making a real on the ground difference. And there is a generosity of spirit that comes through and touches your heart when you talk with Flora and her friend.

There was our dinner with the faculty at Mekelle University where conversation ranged from poetry to politics. Like all academics they have a passion for their discipline and like nothing better than to talk about it. And we had dinner with a faculty member from Social Sciences (where they have the literature and history departments), a historian, a physicist (he also runs the library and ICT) and the Dean of the college that has the library school (he is also a physics professor). But they talked about the war, and when you listen to them you can feel how close to the surface those memories and emotions are and how quickly they could surface again. They blame Italy for inflaming ethnic tensions between two groups they see as one people.

There were the conversations at the conference where so many attendees wanted to know why the US won’t do more about climate change. I didn’t have an answer for them except that the US has some very stupid politicians don’t believe it is real. This makes no sense to people who feel they see the real effects in the day to day lives. Of course, it makes no sense to me either.

There was the conversation in the airport with a former diplomat with FAO who wanted so much to understand what was going on in American politics right now (don’t we all). He said he was so hopeful when Obama was elected and it did so much for US standing around the world and that it was sad to see that eroding. And, as an economist with FAO and had strong views on the need for the US to understand the need to adjust to a standard of living that was more sustainable for the sake of the rest of the world. I confess when I’m here and I see the poverty around me---I agree, we have much, much more than we need.