Back To Nam Sabi

Am heading back to Nam Sabi in Sagaing Region in two weeks to continue working on the Village Management Area and start putting together the application for a Community Forestry Certificate. Very much looking forward to this trip. More so, because son Luke will also be going along. [NOTE: Image shows U Aung Kyi from Nam Sabi holding the rope so that a crew member can measure the height of that tree]. 

Cup of Tea

You walk about 5 miles, much of this across streams and through rice fields and your boots are soaking wet, and you finally make it to the basecamp (see Basecamp) and all you want to do is sit down and take off your boots - and then someone brings you a freshly-made bamboo cup filled with hot (local) green tea. May have been one of the best (and most appreciated) cups of tea I have ever had. [NOTE: Curious that I took a picture before I took a sip].

To Nam Sabi

Ranger from Htamanthi Forward Station piloting us to Nam Sabi village (see More Pressing Plants). Something about the focus and skill, the seriousness, of the people who drive the boats in northern Myanmar. Very photogenic. Like the ferryman here.   

Field Shoes

Most of the time villagers don't have the right footwear for running transects through spiny rattan thickets. Flip-flops are usually the only shoe option. To get around this, we usually bring a large assortment of Chinese canvas field boots for people to use. Real cheap, they offer some traction, and they will keep a spine from going into your foot. As is shown above, trying on the field shoes is a much anticipated activity. [NOTE: You get to keep the boots after the fieldwork is finished]. 

[NOTE: I just added a new header. Shows me (a bit blurry) taking a photo of the skeleton of a ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta) at the California Academy of Sciences].

More Pressing Plants

So, here we are, sitting in the little patio space under one of the houses (on stilts) at Nam Sabi with plant specimens scattered all over the orange tarp laying little clippings of plants on a sheet of newspaper and pressing them. Some of us are working harder than others. Clockwise, starting with Yinhtan Syan Bay (in yellow t-shirt; selecting which cuttings to press), villager (watching), U Saw Htun (dozing?), two villagers (watching), Kate Armstrong (arranging a specimen on the newspaper), Myint Thein (reading the newspaper), and Kyaw Zin Aung (helping Kate arrange the specimen). That's my yellow duffel at the bottom left of the image. I had just gotten up from laying against it while taking a short nap when I took this picture. Go here for another look at plant pressing in northern Myanmar.