Project Josephine - An Expedition in North Central Africa

An exciting time this past 5-years researching and directly involving for an upcoming expedition titled Project Josephine. I will be the Assistant Expedition Team Leader in this Documentary set in North Central Africa. 

What is Project Josephine?

Project Josephine is an action packed expedition and documentary, to be filmed over three years, re-creating the real life story of the little known but hugely significant ‘Takoradi Run' – a 3600 mile supply route flying Spitfires and other aircraft across Africa to Cairo in WW2.

Entwined within this historical context is the personal story of Thomas Roberts - an aircraft gunner who was the sole survivor of a Bristol Blenheim Bomber which crashed in the African tropics.

Included in the documentary is an ambitious attempt to recover the missing Blenheim and the body of the pilot, using old archives, grass roots investigative work and forensic evidence - an extremely challenging expedition full of risks and unknowns.

It is a celebration of life, adventure and freedom in the name of peace.

Details featured in the  below Website:

My Role 

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An Ethiopian Tragedy - When Blood Brothers Turned against Each other

Written on: 15 September 2019

I drive early morning yesterday far to the South of Ethiopia in search for a very great friend known by the name Doctor. I last saw him some 13 years ago. He lived in a small town called Kossie. Passing Welkita and Gubera, after Atat junction I drive some 60km on highly corrugated, very rough gravel road just to visit Doctor. Located at the rim of the river Omo valley, Kossie was once the ‘Vegas’ when we constructed the Gilgel Gibe II Hydroelectric Power Project.

Doctor used to run a rural-clinic in his house in Kossie. During market days, farmers and traders coming from all over the region as far as Hossana to visit his clinic for his curing hands, instantly they get tablets or injections. A savior under God, he was a gracious and loved man in his late 40s, who was very much respected by his community.

He likes to paint, who often quote his paints from his own home made poems. Two paints I remember: a portrait of himself with his hand in his chin - showing him as a thinker. A second landscape paint of the Gibe massifs showing the zigzag and switchbacks that we constructed, he wrote something about safe driving and risks of small mistakes. It was true that road later costs us the precious life of our dear friends and colleagues.

Doctor made a large feast during holidays specially Mesqel where we indulge all the delicious cuisine that the South offers.I arrived Kossie at about 10:00 am. Kossie hasn’t changed. Muddy and earthen roads; few buses at the center of the town, ‘chat’ vendors, women selling sugar canes. I looked up to the only restaurant in search for the owner whom I have known him as a friend to Doctor. They were very close friends, which often seem to me related. The moment I parked the car he came out, instantly recognized me, shouted my name, my position and his first assumption that I am now a Contractor who came for some business in this region. We hugged and he offered me a sit at the verandah of his restaurant. We started to ask how all of us had been doing for the past over ten years. He still got his 30s look and hasn’t changed like Kossie. I start to tell him how I tried to call him yesterday before I decided to drive all along. I got his number at Atat Junction from Isuzu truck drivers. I wanted to be sure himself and Doctor are alive - you never know after all those years. But he didn’t pick my phone even if I tried him several times. He explained that he hasn’t seen my call, but moments later I saw that he was having multiple calls but he doesn’t pick. It seems he has issues! I felt suspicious! Slowly I start to tell him that I just come to say hello to you guys and to my good Doctor. I asked him how Doctor is doing? He tunes less energetic when he explained about the status of Doctor. He told me Doctor has lost everything he had, his house and in-house clinic burnt down during the riots, his family luckily survived the mobs and had fled to Hossana. He added that, Doctor involved in some illegal activism to annex Kossie township to Hadiya ‘Region’, it wasn’t fair for Kossie people who has accommodated Doctor with dignity for all those years he had run his clinic. He added, he should have been quite, now he is a poor guy in Hossana, living in a rented home. I was shocked to hear what he has just said, first for such a tragedy that happened on the most respected Doctor, second to hear such remarks from his own best friend – whom I have known him as a real brother to Doctor. I noticed the hate and anger this guy has hold on Doctor, at the same time a kind of regret. I refrain from asking more when I saw heavily loaded soldiers came on an army pickup to the restaurant that seemed to get their breakfast, as they jump, they have taken a serious look on my motor and on me which I guessed I happened to look an unexpected visitor at such a quiet time. Later I heard the region is under some sort of military patrol that came from the Southern Region Government.

I took Doctor’s number from the guy, he hold back in the beginning but only after I insisted and when he realized how serious I was to hear about Doctor that he finally gave me the true number. At first he gave me a wrong number, I can tell he didn’t like the fact that I was keen to hear from Doctor.

I didn’t want to call while I was in Kossie, I wasn’t comfortable about the soldiers nor I didn’t want this guy to hear me speaking to Doctor. Unlike to him, Doctor to me is still the man that I respected, he is the reason I drove all this far. In those days Doctor has let me to stay few nights in his home when we arrived to Kossie very late and we had issue with our car to dive down to Omo Valley. With Doctor, you can talk everything, he loves science and not much politics back then.

I said good bye to the guy and agreed to keep in touch. Few minutes I left Kossie township, I parked by the forest and decided to call Doctor.

Phone rung, Doctor picked up. He couldn't believe. Jo Jo Keyo Keyo he kept asking, Doctor Doctor I kept chanting.  He could have pat my back multiple times if we meet in person. Doctor is that friendly person who would laugh laud for whatever silly joke you could make, who would lift you up physically and mentally to cheer and celebrate you. I told Doctor I came to Kossie to look for him, telling him sadly I heard what happened to him, but asked him if his family are oky? He said, he lost everything, his own blood brother turned against him, ''for what I didn't involve, he led angry mob to my house burned down everything, my family narrowly escaped.''  I felt sad, he seems crying, I never knew him crying or sad. I tried to comfort him with words, telling him, as long as he is alive and his family are oky, he can get  back materials property, this is bad time, it shall pass. He just told me, his children are gone abroad to study and work. He invited me to visit him in Hosana for Mesqel Celebration which was a week away when I spoke to him. I told him I will try. But I was sure I will visit him anyway.

Until now, 30 May 2020, I couldn't manage to visit him, my wife was pregnant and I couldn't leave her for too far, and as baby Brueh was born in December 2019, she kept me busy until now. Definitely this year I will have to get a time to visit Doctor and see how he is doing. Doctor is from Hadiya tribe, the other guy is from Guraghe tribe. Before they turn against each other, they were like blood brothers. When Doctor lived in Kossie which is mainly a Guraghe township, Doctor celebrated Mesqel holiday like no one (which is mainly of a Guraghe tradition). What just happened after the riots and the mob attacks, is an Ethiopian Tragedy.

Australia - The Quiet Continent

It has been a busy week for me since I returned from my trip to Australia. I have been to Togo for a quick assignment and then back to Ghana, where I am based for now. I wanted to leave a narrative of the amazing time I had in Australia during the last three weeks of June 2017. 

Happy reading:

Australia has always been the furthest continent to me. I had never imagined I would ever visit it. East or West Africa, Europe or Asia, wherever I go Australia remains the furthest. It was in the Olympics that I got the idea of it, Melbourne, Sydney, Opera House, and the Kangaroo that was almost all I know about Australia. 

I met friends. They invited us dinner so we get to know each other. It was funny how the moment we meet up the conversation was about kangaroos. I was laughing deep inside. In “normal" conversations I would expect a strong greeting asking everyone how they are doing in their life, the place and work. In Nigeria it will take at least half an hour asking how they are doing. But what I realized that moment was just talk about something with the person to keep them busy and make them laugh if possible; but talk anything. However, unchronologically everything will be addressed at the end, I mean how they are doing, work their life and place will be asked somewhere in the conversation anytime. I observed the same trend when I overheard people talking at sauna; when I ever hear their English. 

I never thought I would be this deaf to the English language, I was really struggling to understand Australian English.  How come the language I thought I have mastered it for 2/3 of my life would betray me? I was called the ferenji/white man in Africa for my capacity; I used to get compliments for my awesome accent. Even in Denmark, a waitress told me she thought I am an Englishman. Hahah.  So what happened to me then in Australia? I give away my hat at a club in Gold Coast, saying Yes Yes without understanding the deal I was affirming. Haha and then when the lady kept my hat, I vividly catch the word swap, and regretfully I said, "Oh sorry the hat is a gift". Oh Australian English. I never understood whenever I install software programs the language option that comes as Australian/American is something that really matters. Yes it indeed it matters now!!!! 

My post is rolling unchronologically like the typical conversation I observed in Australia. 

I have learned the fun in trying something extreme; like trying drugs, heavy alcohol. I am talking about the rollercoaster ride in Gold Coast theme park. I would definitely do it with much excitement if I get the chance to do it again.  I have refrained so much every time before we tried it. It took all the stability away from me; taking me closer to anything possibly scary. 

This is even beyond the kind of scary dreams I have experienced.  I once had fallen from a 50 story building in uni while rushing late to exam. I was taken by a rapid and fed to hungry crocodiles. I saw the sun fallen in midday and every one of us melted like ice. I was in the middle of World War Third, a ball of atomic weapon had fallen on me that tuned me to smoke. The entire milk way has once fallen on me and I was soiled. But none of these were as scary as the rollercoaster ride I had experienced in Gold Coast at Sea World and Movie World. 

Will I even be surprised with death? This is something I will look forward to tell in future. 

I liked how the country is organized, not only in cities where people are living; it's everywhere, even in the forest. The pattern the trees are planted, the location of different types of trees planted following the type of terrain, the way wild animals are protected. Everything wild or domesticated is under a proper control. That's how I know the kangaroos are the dumbest animal even more than the donkeys. I told the story to a friend in Ethiopia and he said next time I met a stupid person I won't say "donkey" but "kangaroo".  Haha. The roads, the traffic and safety management. Australia showed to me how people can achieve great things together and get proper control over nature, how sensitively detailed plans can be applied over a larger scale. It is like the whole country is in control of a professional interior designer.  

However, I was frustrated for the fact that the machines took the jobs and people are no more talking. IT/AI is in full control; from petrol stations to supermarket, from airport checkin to immigration, there are no people. Smart programs are doing the job better than humans. There is no stamp in my passport, entry or exit. 

For me, whenever I get the chance to see people, I see them head to toe and left to right, but Australians didn't see me, no one gave me a conscious sign that I even existed or passing by them. This is so strange about Australians. Australians made me feel that I can be a ghost, which is scary.  

But again if you can break the ghost masking and ask them for help, they are alive; Australians are the most helpful people I encounter. All of a sudden all the frozen consciousness that walk around melt away and I turned from invisible to valuable. Everyone becomes the Good Samaritan. Sometimes I thought I am in some kind of social experiment or taking a part in the Matrix movie. 

Everywhere we travelled we used our phone Google map; the woman will keep taking for days without getting hungry or any coffee. 

I will never forget the trip we made to Philip Island. We drove south bound from Melbourne, passing the mixed old, mixed renovated contemporary typical Melbourne architecture. Avoiding toll ways, we drove over bridges. We had a snack at the farmer’s yard, cow’s picture in the wall and old people watching the cows’ video on television. It looks like the cows take control of the human world. As every time, music from our car, dancing usually with the music and singling along sometimes. And then we head along the coast before finally reached at Philip Island. Very quite like everywhere in Australia, I felt the sea breath. Searching for penguins  I was caught in to a new sightseeing my mind has never experienced. Usually the sea appears after rolling down hills. But this one was on the hill; felt a highland atmosphere mixed with a sea breath. A calm sea splendid over the horizon. Short bush in far left and right hiding baby kangaroos, we drove over a meadow that looks like I saw it in Microsoft Windows desktop background. So refreshing and uplifting, nature at its purest. I was caught in between keeping the memory in my iPhone or in my mind. Every time I focus on my recording I felt like I am missing a heaven-sight-seeing. 

Opening the window, I smell grass and herbs and wet air over my face that gave me a natural face massage with herbs. Parallel to the hill we saw the calm Ocean, my first encounter to Pacific Ocean. It was Ferdinand Magellan who first gave this mighty its name after its  "Peaceful" nature. That was the same experience I had that day at Philip Island, Peaceful Ocean indeed. We drove over irregular routes, and we managed to see kangaroos at their niche. The moment made me to forget what I was looking after all at the island? The penguins. They won't be out before 5:00 pm and we had to return back to Melbourne. However the experience at Philip was worth to anything, I didn't regret missing to see the 'swagger' penguins. 

Not only the oceans and nature, Australia shown me an adventure with food. Did I ever enjoy foods like this? Everything we tasted in the restaurant, the starters, the main dish and the sweets. It took me closer to heaven. Pure Satisfactions!! It was a new adventure in my life. We have tried almost all the world cuisine; Greece, Arabian, Italian, Indian, Chinese, Thai, Japanese ...And I loved everything we chose. Taught me the beautiful taste of nature. 

We had amazing return road trip Melbourne Sydney; an adventure at its best. TCS was my driver and my personal retainer.

I will never forget the route we took on the Melbourne- Sydney trip. After we left Canberra the next morning we drove by the Budawang national park. Taking the quite route through Nerringa, Norwa and to Wollongong before we reach Sydney late evening.  We passed along the typical small towns occupied by scattered farmers that display a milking tank suspended by their gates. We saw horses wearing gowns on their back to keep them warm from the winter. Sparsely grown eucalyptus bush that gets dense at the park, leaving the gas pipeline by the left, dead kangaroos by the road shoulder, typical winter scenery had left a grey looking memory in my mind. Music in the background and with the smile of TCS that was a ride by the Eden. I enjoyed it! What a road trip!!! 

I remember the lunch we had at Tarcutta, truckers stop, a VERY quiet town that looks like just invaded by town robbers and everybody afraid to go out. Some houses from 1960s, only to find an Indian guy at the kibeb restaurant. Then I saw TCS talking with old couples that the man has a diaper on his pants, but strong enough to drive with his crippling wife all the way to see his brother before he passed away. We had our kibeb at the median of the town near the couples. Like stature we were the only ones. I was telling TCS the place looks like a city abandoned after a nuclear radiation threat; frozen in time, the houses and utilities are intact but there are no people. Nice place for a scary movie and a great memory for me. 

In the return trip we arrived late to Wollongong from Sydney. The next morning taking the Hume highway drove for a continuous 900km nonstop to reach Melbourne midnight. On this long way we stopped only to get fuel at truckers-stop; leaving the "Get Rest", "Take Nap" ... traffic safety adds that I think has saved so many lives. Leaving exits that take to Macdonalds, KFC, Hungry Jacks, we refused to stop. TCS doesn’t like their food she prefers drive hungry. It was a very long adventure at its best. We left several New South Wales cities; Canberra to the left, driving through Albury, Wangaratta, and lately to reach Victoria via Seymour and finally to Melbourne to our house.

The trip to Australia wouldn't be perfect without the trip we had to Queensland. Taking the flight from Sydney we arrive early at Brisbane. Little did we know Gold Coast is another far city from Brisbane we would have taken the flight going direct? However, I really enjoyed the train trip from Brisbane to Gold Coast. Sitting by the window I was filming the scenery in my mind. Though the train took hours and was interrupted with buses, it was another way of adventure that I really enjoyed. Brisbane wasn't glowing like Sydney or Melbourne. I enjoyed looking at the life along the one story buildings that made the whole Queensland. TCS said it is because of the flooding risk that the houses were built that way. The exterior isn't that attractive but it seems the people has a fancy life on the top terrace, there is an outdoor chair that people would sit to bask the precious sunshine that's nowhere to be found in winter all over Australia. I understand the settlement is too large; we passed such houses for hours until we finally reached at Surfers Pradise in Gold Coast where I think we had the best time in our vacation. 

Oh Gold Coast what is that I haven't tried? Your cocktails, superb cuisine, the theme parks at Sea World, Movie World, clubs and fun. Above all the weather. Still windy and cold in comparison to Africa, but relatively it is the best to the rest of places we had been in Australia. What a trip!!! Full of memories to remember and smile at!!! This is the kind of night I will tell my grandchildren to spend, this is what I mean by quality time, "one sweet night". Really a paradise at Surfer's Paradise. 

The only disappointment about Australia was for fact that I couldn't see wild animals as I thought I could find. I was told Australia is so wild, venomous snakes, scorpions and other dangerous animals swarm wild, chase you and jump over your car. But nothing like that, we didn't see a single snake. However, we saw several dead kangaroos that has jumped in to vehicles, hurt themselves and died. They mark the body X with red spray paint. Was that a count? In the first few days I saw more dead kangaroos than live ones. I wasn't surprised to see them dying, they are the dumbest wild animals I have ever seen. They run towards danger. Like suicide attackers they crush themselves with vehicles, is that they thought vehicles will die with them? Is this their way of protection of their habitat? 

The dolphins at Sea World in Gold Coast came as a surprise, how could a fish which is the first in the evolutionary succession becomes so intelligent? How come they memorize such complicated trainings and perform it with accuracy? How do they inherit such relationships with humans? We need to research here! These kayak size, adorable, smart sea creatures had entertained me the most. They completed the show with a water splash on everyone around. Wow!! 

The penguins are another disappointment. Why did they look so huge in the tele? They are the size of a small chicken, unintelligent, sluggish and swaggish. The only show they can perform is feeding them. They sound vulnerable and that makes them adorable. 

We had a great time in Sydney too. We take a quick tour around the Opera House, taking pictures and searching for restaurants by the shore. Better than Melbourne still Sydney was cold and windy. We sat at the restaurant near the heater. TCS told me the architecture was inspired by nature, bird wings and clouds. 

Talking about birds, seagulls are all over Australia, they are like the crow of Africa. Their shape and color look lovely like doves but they are nasty and crazy. They fight with each other for left over foods. They have slight color variety that I think determines their sex or age. Usually the different one is the winner; it can chase everyone and take everything for itself. They don't share their food, they keep fighting and make noises that the waitresses think disturb the customers and keep chasing them away. Seagulls are one of the best things I enjoyed to see where ever we go.  

When we drive with our car on the bridge the first day, I didn't feel the full magnitude of the Harbor Bridge. What an engineering marvel when seen closely. 

We take west walking away from the opera house towards the harbor bridge. From the bottom of the abutment on the side of the opera house, leaving CBD behind, we reached the botanic garden. Taking pictures of me with the bridge fully on top of me aligned N-S. We keep climbing and walking on the foot path.

Once we reached top of the bridge, wow! What a view! A chain of heavy steel structure that got Eiffel Tower complexity, is stretched in arch over the full span of the Parramatta river making the bridge.  The Parramatta that made the harbor looks like at its delta, stretched from west to east towards the opera house. The footpath is done on the eastern side so it is easy to see the opera house with its full grace, bunch of wings indeed. The CBD and its giant commercial buildings, hotels and apartments in the south are fully visible in panorama. While we keep walking, the north part of the city appears and we were totally on top of the harbor. We kept snapping. Just before we reached the North side abutment I left an indentation on one of the girders, "YoSi, 21/2017". Forgot the month 06. 

TCS took me to so many places that I might forget to mention here. However a visit to RMIT will always be one of those pockets of memory that will keep floating in my head. Over the longest and furthest LDR we struggled as a team to keep her fit through the challenges RMIT has for her since she started IDD. Can't believe she is now in the last semester and I am going to see her graduated. What a relief for me!! Haha 

Visiting RMIT has caused me all the nostalgia of everything she passed through alone. Visiting her class rooms, the labs/spaces, the gardens. Wandering in the new library that defies gravity, position, color and form. Taking pictures, walking through the future. What an experience!!! 

RMIT doesn't have gates; actually it's like most buildings in Australia. Classrooms are not in one compound. They are scattered in the city. You might need to walk over the street and cross trams to get to the next class. How unique is that! I am happy that TCS is passing through this experience and she will soon graduate. That's why I was saying studying IDD is the best decision she has made in her life, next to choosing me.  Haha

I will keep taking about the adventure I had in this organized and developed country, Australia. A country that has hosted TCS safe for those years she was far from home. A country that has made for me a woman. A modern woman who has taste for herbs, spices and color. A woman who would say if something is not at right angle, that's the wrong angle. I am glad I take a glimpse of this country in the last three weeks of June 2017. We splashd with love and laughter. We travelled and we learn more. Above all, we woke up together. That's our dream that came really true. Still we are dreaming the same dream to not be far apart again. Soon and very soon. For one meal and one bed. And two cups of Ethiopian coffee by our side. 

ASIFA Ethiopia and FIFA 2008 Soundtrack - I believe

A heart bursting feeling, for finding out a music title that took me nearly 7 yrs, a Eureka moment that seems silly.

I believe you could be
What I need to believe
I believe you could be
What I need to believe

There is this short animation I made back in 2009, that I used a music clip in the background, I don't really remember where I cropped out that piece of music. Luckily this short animation had been uploaded in my YouTube channel since 2012.

In 2009 I was contacted by someone from Addis who was organizing graphic designers and animators. I was just a crazy hobbyist and I had some of my works like posters on HIV awareness and short animation clips online. So I was asked to prepare an animation wok to celebrate ASIFA for the first time in Ethiopia (The International Animated Film Association). So I made this 40 sec animation using the ASIFA logo. Since the 2009 was the first celebration in Ethiopia it was done with funding and collaboration of ASIFA Egypt. Unfortunately I left Addis to my Jimma-Bonga site before 28 Oct, but I heard that my clip has been presented together with several others. My profession took me totally out of this connection and I lost track of everyone, except one man called Alemu Demena (who was known for his animated monkeys singing and dancing in Ethiopian traditional song). Years later I met him for a coffee in Addis and told me the association was getting strong and some of the guys had been awarded and got scholarships to pursue animation. SUPER!Here is the piece of my amateur animation: Look at the necklace (an Ethiopian cross)

Here is the eureka moment, in the evening of 22 August 2016 I found out the original song that I used for this animation clip. Thanks to Shazam app. Smart phones has just proved me that they are really SMART!!! It takes a fraction of a second to identify and explain to me a music that took me nearly 7-yrs to find out.

The original music turned out to be a cover for FIFA 2008:I Believe by Simian Mobile Disco. Listening the whole music now: a heart bursting feeling.

The Life of My Choice

This post is under constant editing and addition while celebrating 10th year anniversary of my blog this August. Time goes by way too fast, can't believe we are now in 2016!

I started this blog in 2006, when I was working in the construction of Gilgel Gibe II Hydroelectric project, Ethiopia, I was 23 when I started. My position was mainly in the construction of the 26-km head race tunnel bored by a 6.3 m diameter Tunnel Boring Machine, TBM. I was fascinated by the TBM. It remained one of the most challenging time of my professional experience. I was mostly in the night shift and my job was to control the excavation of the material mucked out of the tunnel, controlling caulking of concrete precast segments and grouting works between tunnel liner and the excavated face. It was an advanced work where civil, geology, materials and geotechnics meet, the cooking pot of my passion that made me who I am right now. Though later I advanced in highways, but that moment in tunnel has remained the peakest of my learning curve in my whole career.

I was a member of 4 friends at early twenties who called ourselves "changes", we had printed a slogan of 'our own' on a shirt, that says "we believe in change and difference", and it was before Barack Obama's first speech that made him the president, so literally we 'own' that phrase. Each of us had a nickname, I was called Terzaghi, the others were Shackleton(Ernest), Freedy (Mercury), and  Antonio. Antonio is not with us in this world now, his real name is Yetmante. A true son of Ethiopia,  who was taken on his late twenties, a vibrant Hydraulics Engineer, he died in a car accident in 2008 while he was on his next project in Tekeza Hydroelectric Project. May his soul rest in peace, he will always be remembered for his kind heart, passion and dreams, and his effort to bring change to the poor. We all came from a highly impoverished  background, we passed through extreme childhood challenges. One more thing common to us was we all needed changes into ourselves and our community desperately. We loved to read and share ideas. From the times of ancient Greeks  to the medieval and contemporary, we discuss everything of art, war, philosophy, medicine, space science, religion (we challenged our other friends so much). Modern nerds who spent much time on NatGeo than Premier League.

I am the one not married for now, August 2016. Freddy has got a beautiful son, Shacky just got married this January, got a baby this June (6-months gestation period? lol my Shacy can do miracles!), I was his best man, I was very proud to see Shacky with all his glory. Shacky is a Mechanical Engineer, he was responsible for the quality of electromechanical works in the penstock, powerhouse and switch yard, he stayed in Gibe until commissioning. He had gained much experience, that made him now to be a Resident Engineer in one major hydroelectric project in one of the islands near Singapore. During that time in Gibe he added a Bsc degree in Computer science in extension program from AAU. He traveled more than 200kms every weekends to attend classes, though he missed classes Monday to Friday, but I still don't know how he managed to graduate, with 'great extinction from class'

Freddy who is now an Environmental Expert on a hydrothermal project in Ethiopia was the fun loving and furious one, married a beautiful nurse who approached him to treat his Malaria. Malaria was common, we literally got it every month. Thanks to Chloroquine medicine that has saved our life; but later Chloroquine became the reason for me to leave Gibe. I took it before eating  well, the medicine is a real poison, it has eroded my stomach and I got excoriating ulcer, I was taken with an ambulance to Addis and admitted for a week. The malaria has gone but I had  to treat my ulcer for coming 5 years of my life. That has changed everything in me.

So I had to find a job that will not take me to a malaria endemic areas any more, I was very lucky to get the chance to work with Gondwana Engineering Consult, a strong design office in Addis, working on highway pavements design, and foundations for bridge and buildings. But soon I had to be sent to a field work to several regions in Ethiopia, and I loved it. I went to investigate road pavement materials for new and rehabilitation works, mostly for new roads in Oromia and the Southern Ethiopia. First a surveyor is sent to come with proposed road alignments, then I took the coordinates and with my Garmin GPS I had to trek wherever the points took me and study that ground condition of the road. I had to dig a hole every 1-km, do in situ testing and also bring samples back to Addis for detailed laboratory analysis to be used for the final structural calculation of the design of the road pavement. A survey in new roads had never been easy, it was not always that I managed to find earth roads to drive my pickup. In most cases I had to trace those coordinates on foot, like catching a Pokemon. I speak to local administrators telling them the importance of my mission, they always wholeheartedly give me support to protect and assist me (though I had a budget with me and at the end I should give them something to say thank you). The people are so nice, so everyone in Ethiopia, when I couldnt find a restaurant to eat my favorite tibs, they invite me into their house to get me anything they have, including a drink, usually a tela. Whenever I end up my daily survey in the most remote places and couldn't find a place to spend the night, they were kind enough to provide me a shelter, usually a carpet by the side of the goats barn. I enjoyed it, the barn is a perforated wall with few poles and sticks holding it laterally, so fresh air blows freely bringing the night aroma of the wildflowers and grasses, I loved it! while the goats breath and body warmth me. I understood that goats are too calm at night, they don't snore nor cry, they sleep happily. Most villages I stayed didn't have electricity so I am always with a torch light and that is the only best thing I will leave to them at the end of my mission.

My love for adventure and research had been most met when my Garmin took me to a river that doesn't have any crossing. As it's part of my mission to study both sides of the river and provide geotechnical data for the proposed bridge design. I employ local divers to measure the depth and width of the river. We tie a stone with a long rope, and the diver should go down with the stone until he reaches the river bed; usually we get a depth of 10 to 15 m. Including their thick marshy banks rivers usually have a width of 30 to 50 meter; the widest I record was on Gojeb river.

My experience in highways materials design has grown now, I kept applying for better paying jobs. Soon a South Korean contractor took me as Materials Engineer for the construction of Jimma Bonga,  107 Km highway project. I have designed by my own Asphalt for the wearing course, concrete for major and minor drainage structures. It was a blast!!! But I was still suffering with the ulcer that I thaught the antimalaria has caused me once, I was eating less and less, my immunity gets low, every week I was treated either for some tropical infection or a flu. And I reached a point that I couldn't take any medicine properly, I can't take anything stronger than water (acidic or basic). I suffered in a vicious cycle of complex tropical diseases. We eat together in a camp cantin. We choose three people every month to run the purchasing and management of the cantin. I run it once, I took the list from the cook and should go to local market and buy all sorts of  food items, including live sheeps or goats. Usually the cook prepare Ethiopian food injera with vegetables, or tibis and key-wot (hot meat stew), but only twice in a week as the cost of eating meat all week will destabilize the cantin budget. I didn't enjoy the food, it was usually too hot for my stomach, like I didn't grow up with mitmita and berbera?!?.

The koreans were too arrogant and I saw a lot of abuse on the local people; they had this rule called Stand by! Whenever the local staff made a technical mistake that actually reasoned out for their own bad management, they put the offender on standby, whereby the offender should stand a full day in front of the manager's office without doing anything, that could stay for months, and if the offender is absent or delayed for a single day, that will be total termination without getting any advantages in his contract. Usually the offender fades up and leave the job by his own. I don't remember anyone trying to question the managers against such evil labour abuse, nor the Ethiopian labour union knows or concerned about its people dignity. There was a time that we revolt for a salary adjustment, and we stopped working, but until we were raided by the merciless Federal police. We were called anti-development.

I didn't like the place! The koreans were not good construction managers, the project has been delayed for more than 3-yrs when I arrived. They put the excuse that the rainfall in the region is allyear and everything gets soaked and slippery, can't move machinery nor lay and compact new materials. Such weather condition are indicated in the contract, it is just their weak management. In such high rainfall regions of course there are ample sunny dry days to lay asphalt, and there are techniques to keep materials dry for wet periods.  Recently I heard that the 2-year project nearly took 8-yrs to complete. I remember the company supported nib (bee) a sign the regime used for the election they won 100% landslide back in 2009? It is common in Africa, as long as the contractor support and fund an election, they stay in the country, get more jobs no matter how long they complete projects nor how they treated local people. This is tragedy all over Africa! But Ethiopia is the worst!!! The abuse is no different than what colonial master did.  I kept applying for international jobs.

Surprisingly I didn't have any internet line in to my PC, and no one had it. So I brought with me a technique to connect the phone internet to a PC. I had a Nokia N70 and a small bluetooth port. The mobile network was too weak I had to suspend the phone on top of a window from the outside frame, so every time I  am interrupted by a call I have to go out from the door to answer and to reconnect the Internet. That internet was too weak. I remember the Korean project manager and planning engineers were coming to my office (a laboratory ) to use internet, it was too weak but they manage to read their emails after a process that took me 10 to 20 minutes to connect it fully. I was very lucky to keep my old habit of Googling and reading literatures related with my professional interest. My old hobby of graphics designing is forgotten by now. I keep reading asphalt technology and I stumble upon SUPERPAVE. SUPERPAVE is an acronym for Superior Performing Asphalt Pavement. A new American asphalt mix design technology supposedly to prevent premature failure of roads in cracking, potholes and rutting due to heavy traffic volume and erratic climate. I read it, I loved it, I didn't have the lab equipment to exercise it. Later in one of my online application I added my knowledge in it, and soon one major European contractor was looking for a SUPERPAVE mix designer, they called and asked me if I know about it, I said a loud Yes! They send me a contract and an air ticket to Tanzania. Young and a dreamer I succeed to design an asphalt mix to one of the the major highway project that connects Tanzania with Mombasa Kenya. We did amazing job, I soon establish similar labs for the company branch in Uganda. I have also helped a Chinese contractor who made a new superpave road as the first phase to our project; they didn't implement the technology properly, and a total 120 km highway had to crack and rut before it was officially inaugurated. I helped them with a new design for the maintenance works.

I loved what I was doing, Tanzania is a beautiful county, I enjoyed the foods, the sea and the wildlife in the national parks. However my health issue has become a concern again. I knew from the beginning that I chose a tough carer that the environment is too chaotic and responsibility is stressful. And I realised that life is too fragile; sometimes I wanted to eat a lot didn't mind getting out of shape, in which I learned gaining weight itself didn't help. Later I found that I Google more about my health concerns than my usual reads. Out of this progress and challenges I had to tell myself to balance work and personal life, and little by little I have learned to reclaim my health. However, this was after I visited a doctor in Dar es salaam, an energetic Germany woman. After she examined and couldnt find anything in me, she told me I have anxiety and warned me to look after myself. To my surprise I didn't really have gastric ulcer as I claimed had it since the antimalaria. I regret that I didn't understand the major cause was just very common and was avoidable somehow. In an effort to improve my future and to catch along in the fast pacing world, I didn't know my body  and mind had been in sheer over work since I graduated from uni in 2005.

From that time on I got to learn to love running, eat healthy and enjoy my break and have fun. My life started to give sense. I am convinced that I had to properly relax, rest and reflect. I was getting healthier, and started to seriously focus on my-own-self, doing things one at a time, giving attention to nature and the things that surrounded me including the melody of  the morning birds, the tirrrrrr of a jumping beetle hiding at corners in my office, and the bzzzzzz of  honey bees hiving by the roof of my lab. Listening to nature calling was all about listening to everything resonating in it - a new connection that I loved.

Talking of the honey bees, they were so friendly with everybody, our Maasai security guards steal their honey periodically. However sometimes, some violent bees attack us when they see us put on our reflective safety jacket - may be because of its yellowish reddish color, may be it looked like a nectar, or a honey they have lost the previous nights?

My time in Gibe has always been in my mind. Young and vibrant we discussed like real leaders, the ideas we raised the solutions we proposed to alleviate extreme poverty, and to improve life in general should have been documented for reference. For Shacky ill management and corruption  by the leaders were the root cause of our country's problem. Freedy worried that business monopoly and dictatorship by a minority government is leaving hopelessness and hatred in to the the minds of younger generation, he was worried a potential revolution will cause civil war. Yetman believed in the power of young people, but he was disappointed by the absence of proper education and guidance for different reasons in the system, ''the youth is not creative and doesn't know what to do with his life; it's very hard to see what's good for your future if you don't know what opportunities are there''; he is concerned that the system itself did this deliberately, ''see how the government encourages all mass medias to talk only about European soccer''.

I have always agreed with Yetman's concerns. In my recent trip to Addis I was surprised to hear in all the new and old FMs that the whole country is worried about Arsenal over Manchester. How about entrepreneurship to help the youth decide for his own future that I hope will help give the final solution to our misery, provided that liberty and opportunities are improved?!?. Famine has now officially become our identity, the double digit economy that we boosted for over a decade doesn't stop the famine; 10s of millions would die if aid couldn't be reached on time. Recently a Ghanaian friend send me a message that says, '' hey, your people are dying you should help them!!'' She saw it on BBC. There is no shame than dying with famine in this century.

My current project is in Western Ghana. We are building a 100 km highway connecting the most economically important mining cities. It's a 65m Euro project funded by European Union.The region is rich in Gold, Aluminum, Manganese. We cut age old trees to make roads, it is a deep jungle. The locals mainly grow yam, cassava and plantain in their farms located under the deep forest. Food is abundant. The coastal fisheries cover the fish needed to indulge their fufu. The western sell their yams and plantains to the coastal and central. The Ashanti region has slowly flowing rivers surrounded by greenish wild long fields that produce vegetables. The northern graze cattle, sheep  and goats. I can say this democratic nation has democratic farming too that covers a balanced distribution of food, equally for the whole Ghanaian nutritional requirement.

My Ghanaian lab team eat their breakfast around 8:00 to 9:00 am. There is a kind old woman running a small restaurant behind my lab. She sells Banku, Fufu, Porridge, Absea, a heavily nutritious collection of food that immediately pumps muscle, thicken bone and give you energy, literally few minutes after meal. Ghanaian men are strong, well carved statue figure with 8 packs on their belly.
From local gold miners, fishermen, a farmer or a fufu pounding woman, what they eat and do made them thick and fit.

Ghanaian police are not so much different from other African country policemen looking for 'kitu kidogo' by the road side. However one policeman I met few months ago has surprised me the most. He stopped me for taking a picture at a police barrier 'illegally'. He asked me, "would you snap like this in your country?" I said, it's Okay! we are free. And he said, "we know you are oppressed people, you don't even have opposition party, you throw everyone to prison, so don't tell me you are free, but Ghana is free." I said I am sorry! Then he allowed me to go. One week after I heard that HMD has visited Ghana, the policeman must had an update from the local media.

In this somehow longer blog post I have tried to recall the memories of my life this last decade, I couldn't end the story of Gibe without mentioning the amazing friend and sister I met, Judy (aka JAM). She worked for the German company Voith Siemens who was incharge of installation and commissioning of the turbines, she managed their large office. Only under 20 when she joined us, she puts everyone in wowww, an energetic brilliant, adorable and friendly JAM had been a spice in our friendship that was built in hardships, in the Omo valley under the Sheba mountains. She once drafted an onsite magazine naming it Beneath The Hills and discussed it to the Project manager of Salini. She also talked to me about it and I have agreed to help with the graphics design part; we all knew that her writing was like no other, she was just wonderful! Salini wasn't so much interested to go for publication, fearing that it will give so much VOICE to the local people, like our leaders, a RIGHT, any foreign company doesn't tolerate local people exercising it. JAM later moved to Germany, Italy, Spain.., and pursue so much education in International Relations. JAM remained my best friend to this day. She is the only active contact from the old Gibe crew that I would call and share and discuss everything. She travels so much for work and fun between Europe and Singapore, she is doing so well!!!

And I couldn't write all down the life that I chose for myself in this post. I will keep adding to The Life of My Choice offline. While I improve in life, in writing and experience, will see what comes out of it one day for a much larger audience? Life has been so much generous to me this past few years, someone so special and dear to me from my early-youth has become the person I talk to when I woke up and before I sleep, right now in my early 30s. The reunion with my campus sweetheart is like a water gushing out of a rejuvenated spring, washing away the worries and troubles in the silts of my past life channel. Gives a purpose to celebrate my success and journey, a bliss, a hope to look so much excited for tomorrow.

I was in high school when I learn about the word bliss. I never know the word, never read it anywhere nor they taught me or heard it anyone speaking it. I saw a dream struggling to pronounce bliss. I woke up and checked my dictionary. It defines as perfect happiness, great joy. After nearly 20 years since I learned the word I have finally got to feel it - my Campus Sweetheart.

Post closed on 29-August-2016
Bogoso, Western Region
Ghana

Brainwashed About Africa?

Narrated by Yodit [JAM]

Having just had a mini-conversation with a fellow British about African politics, a subject I've yet to learn so much about, i realized that, in my encounters, most foreigners, who by far are poorly aware and not directly or actively involved in issues concerning the motherland ( a continent of immense diversity in culture and socio-economic-political climate. Thus, neither qualified nor in the position to have such a strong say), feel so justified to pass their un-well-thought-through claims with so much conviction, which to me, appears as a failed and might I add, laughable attempt to come across as “INFORMED". Of course, he went on to tell me that Africans (mind you, over a billion of us) haven't made any major contribution to the betterment of the world since we've embraced independence from foreign occupation ( a trauma most countries in Africa are still recovering from), as we are pretty much busy killing each other and rejoicing poverty as a major past time fun. Imagine the sheer ignorance in that claim, sugar-coated with the fancy posh accent and so many big words.

A simple Google search with "Africa's contribution to the world civilization”, or something similar to that, will give one, (who, unlike the vast majority, has the privilege to educate himself and go beyond borders with the wonderful invention that is, the internet), the basics of that insight. I mean, there is immense research material out there to indulge in and form a relatively balanced view on any subject, for a person with an inquisitive mind and hunger to learn. But hey, who has time for that, right? When we can all just be half-evolved fuck-wits and know-it-all's by believing in the unexamined shits we heavily consume and present them as facts. And then, he added how he finds it ridiculous that, in 2015, Africa is still very much incapacitated to eradicate poverty and its cousins, basing the fancy statistics and so called facts he read here and there from biased media garbages, strategically put out there to serve the ill agendas of the imperialistic powers. Besides his lack of understanding as to the many reasons behind the complexities of the problems faced by countries in Africa, he made "eradicating poverty” sound like a 7th grade math equation which can be solved over night. I mean, even that shit needs time, unless you’re crazy about math. I’m not. OK. I'm in no way stating that problems of such sorts do not exist in Africa. We've plenty of those and more. And we've a long way to go.

But then, is there a single country or even a person for that matter, on this planet with zero issues to deal with? Nop. Yeah, we're all fighting battles. They're just simply different. But to boldly claim that, Africans have done nothing worthy of global recognition, is not only hilarious, but reveals the person's limited ability to comprehend a holistic view on any matter. And at the risk of, I guess, passing judgment, for a person, who in a way so subtle, was declaring to be in a better position than the Africans he was criticizing, his "thinking faculty” is like the wheel that keeps moving when clearly the hamster is dead ( Excuse the graphics).

Of course, I kept it light and breezy and didn't even bother about engaging in what would have turned out to be a fruitless mission of narrating just how much Africans ( or fellow Ethiopians I personally know ) have contributed a great deal in so many arenas, not just within their country and continent but also on a global scale. Clearly, if one chooses to see others as having zero potential and competence to do anything (because he/she has been conditioned to believe so and hence, not open-minded enough to entertain new views to challenge those dearly held beliefs), how could my sharing the opposite of that flawed thinking will ever sink in the mind of the brainwashed? And especially, when the brainwashed loves to romanticize what he/she has been force-fed to accept as the general and only truth and is not really into diving in the bigger picture.

While I don’t personally blame people for being brainwashed, as I know that media plays a huge role in how we form opinions and views, it just has become so natural to me not to ever bother about making any attempt to show such people the other side , as I know for a fact that the absence of their validation and willingness to acknowledge the other side of the coin , do not at all make the other facts, (which I certainly know to be true because I have experienced and lived them as an African and most importantly, as an Ethiopian), in existent or invalid. Positive stories of historically marginalized people have always existed and are abundant, in spite of how those stories were and are still being buried from the mass. So what if this fellow believes that Africa is a continent full of only catastrophes and incapable people waiting for the rescue of mighty champions of the developed world? Does that automatically make the other half of the truth unknown to the mass to seriously poof and disappear? Not at all. Now that I think of it, I still don't understand why there is a huge need for validation from others about ourselves, our stories or anything. Are we deprived of self-acceptance that we believe that our experiences are ONLY official and valid when we have managed to convince others and have them validate everything about us for us?

Although I sincerely hope that one day such people will phase out of their brainwashed state of mind (by some evolutionary magic) so that they get to experience the other stories. Not for anyone's sake, but for their very own, so they can learn to grow out of such a limiting way of thinking and transcend to a better human existence. But until then, I won't be here to facilitate the evolution of the willfully and happily ignorant and brainwashed. There is no stake in that. I will always be open to share and welcome stories of different kinds with those willing and open enough to engage on a humane level. Stories matter and yes, there is no doubt that they've to be told. That is what makes us unique as a species. However, I don't quite see the point of consistently pushing down our stories onto others for their understanding, acceptance and acknowledgement, especially when they're so happily married to the stereotypes they have of us, when we should instead just own, validate, unapologetically celebrate our experiences in their totality, irrespective of their views on that. Beyond the other philosophical questions the saying below begs, it actually sums it all up for me: " If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, did it make a sound?” Yeah, we humans have always lived struggling, prospering and what not, regardless of an audience acknowledging those experiences equally. So who cares if half of the story has never been told? If you have heard it, experienced it and lived it, yes, that counts too.

GERD - the new Nile Lake

Leave the politics?!?
Ethiopia is building GERD, where the reservoir of the dam will be twice as large as Lake Tana itself.
A bigger mystery than the Pyramids? Yes!
''For Life is a river flowing with endless dreams''. So, New Ethiopia is getting Life.
Oh poets of the Nile! Will you be writing about the new Nile Lake?
Oh the Lord of the Nile! Will the sound of the Nile remain in utter noise while GERD is raising?
At Nile Outlet:

Digital Slaves

I was thinking how we would look to our ancestors. Web enthusiasts or digital slaves?

After a fierce debate with myself, I have found something better – myself. Then I woke up.

A full blog is coming soon- original concept by my best friend JAM.

Collaboration in a diversified Ethiopia.

Can't disagree anymore, believe me - Diversity is our strength. Trust and partnerships make us all safer and smarter.
Ethiopia is a multicultural, multi-religious & multi-ethnic society & its diversity is greatest strength.

The idea of this post came into my view from a close friend’s Facebook post - about a beautiful gathering shared with friends who have different ethnic backgrounds. This group of Ethiopians shared a meal and it seems they had positive dialogue and enjoyable time. Here is a part of the FB post, copied after permission:

‘’This is how we r supposed to be! Who cares he or she is from this or that ethnic groups. We all look alike. We were seven and surprising multi ethnic groups, perhaps 5 or 4...there was also live country band and another surprise, what a culture and tradition we have....’Gobez’ [friends], can't we see how beautiful/unique we could be if we celebrate our difference. We could shine bright big if we see beauty in our difference...proud to have such multi traditional culture.’’

This enlightened friend have put it right, study shows that ethnic & cultural diversity contributes to productivity by widening ideas. People who have learned to live in peace despite so many differences in ethnic & religious/cultural backgrounds are known to form strong groups. Through each other's diversity we become more aware of our own. Not only do we become more aware we gain a sense of pride for the diversity of our own culture. This shows us a new perspective on the lives of others around us as well as around the world. Therefore, this should unite and educate us.

But why we sometimes failed to form this group?
Why we couldn't celebrate diversity, which is our strength?

Simple truth, as Nelson Mandela said, ‘’No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite’’. Which means the solution is a positive civic education that teaches tolerance for reasonable forms of diversity and respect for a wide array of freedoms – to the level that we should be able to overcome ignorance and prejudice.

I am quoting a recent statement from president Obama’s visit to India: ‘’India's strength is its multi diversity irrespective of caste and creed and ethnic differences’’

I couldn't really be specific to Ethiopia. Diversity, when applied in a general human context, comprises the inclusion of a wide variety of cultures, ethnicity and groups, races, religious beliefs, socio-economic backgrounds, sexual orientation and gender identity of all society. The diversity of life is made up not only of the wide realm of human cultures and languages, but also of the diverse world of plants and animal species, habitats and ecosystems. Therefore, a more sustainable world is one in which biological, cultural and linguistic diversity thrives through the strength of the system. It is upon the foundation of this diverse array of ecological and human cultures that a sustaining, resilient world is built.

Thank you ‘my close Facebook friend’, with your enlightenment I have got a glimpse in to this very important post - that speaks of the significance of collaboration in a much diversified Ethiopia.

Who else is not surprised?

In my recent trip to Addis I had the opportunity to witness the enormous construction activities happening in and the outskirts of the city. It helps me to realize to what the world is talking about - the Ethiopian economy is growing at Chinese rates.
According to some sources, Ethiopian economy grows 10.3 % during the last Ethiopian year, and expected to grow 11.4% GDP in 2007 EFY [2014/2015].

In my observation, I haven’t seen anything like this anywhere in African cities, Addis has now become the happening place for all kind of engineering projects.  You name it: railways, buildings, high-rises, bridges, deep foundations, reservoirs, factories, expressway, condominium housing, real estates, the list will go on. In which, this is being implemented in large scale.

One Sunday Morning I hike in to one of the hills located in the southern outskirts. Looking down from the hill top I saw massive expansion of the city - the size of  the condominium housing project is something my eyes couldn't get to believe, such beautiful Green Yellow Red painting of the buildings is somehow a signal that the country is addressing in the national level.
I was also surprised to see my dog surprised. And I said who else is not surprised?

The mystery of Luck, Explore! A Conversation with an Owl. A fiction.

One early morning in Tanzania, an owl entered in to my open office & flying crazy tizzy, finally landed on top of my folder cabin.
I asked! Oh! Are you the death omen?
She said, No!

So why you are here in day time and this is a human office?
And she said, oh so sorry I thought you are the bird man!

I said! What is a bird man? And you are sneezing! Why you come in with bird flu? Please go away!
And she said slowdown! It’s not the season for bird flu; I am just hungry and feverish, as I have been flying all over the Serengeti and Kilimanjaro just to see you. And the sun is rising I barely see.

I asked. Are you okay? May I call a vet?
She said, it’s okay, I am the immortal bird & I am on a mission!

Frustrated I asked again, what’s the mission about? Why me? Then she starts telling me about The Exlier of Life, The Philosopher’s Stone, about Creation and Eternity.
And she commanded, Rise & Shine! Seize the day! And it’s Sunday in God’s sake! W** are you doing in this office?
I am working, I am employed to work. If I don’t work I can’t survive. Can you fly without wings? I asked.

Now I know you are not the bird man. Disappointed, weak and weary trying to walk away, the immortal bird said, let me leave you; I should eat before the early birds get the entire worm. Last she said, but please read this paper, the one inside the triangle, see you next year. And fly out of my office.

I opened that paper and it says ‘’Explore as much as you can’’
Mystified over the year – I tried to ‘’explore’’. And I learned that the bird wasn't a death omen, as I thought she could be. Instead, she was speaking the meaning of Life. I had all the lucks since then.

The Ethiopian king demanded the song of the angels when Christ were born (Gloria in excelsis Deo). Monday, 5 November 1520.

The Ethiopian king David II (Lebna Dengel, aka Preston John) asked Francis Alvarez if he had the song of the angels when Christ were born, he answered, Yes; and the Preston asked him if they do it in mass. He said, Yes we did. Then the Preston asked him to say the beginning of it, he then began ''Gloria in excelsis Deo''. The Preston asked him again to say it chanting it; he then sung two verses of it.

Ancient African Nuclear Reactors.

The remnants of nuclear reactors nearly two billion years old were found in the 1970s in Africa. A scientist making a routine test noted a tiny "discrepancy" in the amount of uranium-235 present in some uranium which was undergoing enrichment.  Seeking to explain the discrepancy, scientists began some detective work. These reactors are thought to have occurred naturally. The fission reaction continued - off and on - for hundreds of thousands of years. Eventually, the reactor shut down. No natural reactors exist today, as the relative density of fissile uranium has now decayed below that needed for a sustainable reaction. Pictured above is Fossil Reactor 15, located in Oklo, Gabon. While it was active, the natural reactor generated fission products (wastes) very similar to those produced when fission occurs in modern nuclear reactors at power plants. Uranium oxide remains are visible as the yellowish rock. Oklo by-products are being used today to probe the stability of the fundamental constants over cosmological time and distance scales and to develop more effective means for disposing of human-manufactured nuclear waste.

The Greater Serengeti

Why shouldn't all of us have a Serengeti on our doorstep?

This is the first question I asked myself when I first enter the Serengeti National Park back in 2011. I believe in recent human 'development' we dispossessed a large amount of biodiversity that we rarely see now in the national parks.
I keep on asking myself, how many more have been lost extinct without leaving relics in geological time and space. It’s very hard to know how much new species that we had throughout the life of our planet. So, if we don’t know how much there is to begin with, we don’t know exactly how much we’re losing. Surprisingly, science has a better understanding of how many stars there are in the galaxy than how many species there are/were on Earth. I stopped asking, because I know I am hard-wired to feel at peace when I am in the countryside.

It’s obvious that there is something erroneous constantly happening in the biodiversity with regard to human development. Study shows that the rapid loss of species we are seeing today is estimated  to be between 1,000 and 10,000 times higher than the natural extinction rate. Unlike the mass extinction events of geological history, the current extinction challenge is one for which a single species - ours - appears to be almost entirely responsible. We have destructed an impulsive sustainable world and replaced it with an indefensible world of concrete, bitumen, metals and alloys. The Serengeti is the last remaining phenomenon place of Creation, Evolution, and the meaning of Life. Here is how I see it:

The Greater Serengeti ecosystem:
The name, Serengeti, comes from the Maasai, meaning "endless plains". The Serengeti National Park itself covers about 15,000km² of mostly flat or gently rolling grasslands, interspersed with the occasional rock outcrops, or kopjes. But this is just the centre of a whole ecosystem which covers more than double that area, and includes Grumeti Reserve, Ikorongo Game Reserve, Loliondo Controlled Area, Maswa Game Reserve, part of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and also Kenya's relatively small Maasai Mara Game Reserve. This combined area is often referred to as the Greater Serengeti area, or the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem.  Serengeti is Tanzania's oldest and most popular national park, also a world heritage site and recently proclaimed a 7th world wide wonder. Because of the volcanic soils on the plains, grass grows incredibly quickly but there are almost no trees.

The Serengeti Migration: 
Also known as the Serengeti wildebeest migration. It is the movement of vast numbers (in millions) of the Serengeti's wildebeest, accompanied by hundred thousands of zebra, and vast numbers of Grant's gazelle, Thompson's gazelle, eland and impala. These move in an annual pattern which is fairly predictable. They migrating throughout the year, constantly seeking fresh grazing and, it's now thought, better quality water. The precise timing of the Serengeti wildebeest migration is entirely dependent upon the rainfall patterns each year.

The Serengeti Domes:
I didn't notice high mountain ranges and hills of significant rock in the Serengeti. I saw Granite outcrops; it seems that the volcanism in the region is plutonic, due to this a significant formation must had crystallized under the surface. When it is exposed by erosion, it forms the gorgeous isolated granitic-domes. Later I found out that they are the late Precambrian outcrops of granitic gneisses and quartzite project from the surface as inselbergs. This Serengeti Granitic Domes are characterized by boulders of polygonal stature, which are grayish in color but turned to white due to weathering by sun and rain. They are locally called kopjes

The Soils:
During my 2-days stay in the Great Serengeti I have studied two types of soil formations which are easily recognizable along the route corridor.
The first ones are the residual soils, which are the minor soil types covering some portion of the Serengeti; they are mostly derived from the in-situ weathering and decomposition of volcanic rocks; these soils are mostly reddish brown gravelly or silty clay soils grading into hard rock; the reddish varieties are called Laterite. They are located along the hill foots of the domes, and also in the top flat mesa.
The second ones are the alluvial soils, which are the transported soils, they are predominant in the Serengeti. They are the underlying soils and materials of the Serengeti plains which comprised of volcanic ash derived from a number of local volcanoes such as the Ngorogoro caldera.These are thick, whitish silty Sandy soils with minor light brown gravelly or sandy variety. They are mostly occurring over low flat lying areas. These soils when located in localized sag areas forms the dark and grey silty clay soils which are known as the Black Cotton soils, they abundantly collect water and irrigate the biodiversity.

The Wild Life:
There are so many different species in the Serengeti that this list could go on forever. It is very interesting to see the wide variety of animals doing their everyday jobs centered on surviving. It is much harder to spot carnivores than herbivores in the Serengeti, and because of the huge number, the animals can be fairly spread out. It seems that the Carnivorous dictate the Serengeti in the night than in the day.

The Lions sleeps after lunch:
Serengeti is not that exciting until when I came upon the grande finale! Near the road was a pride of lions taking nap, after enjoying their freshly killed gazelle. They didn’t pay any mind as I stay close and taking pictures only a mere 10 meter away. I noticed one of the female lion had a radio collar on the neck, this is an important tool used in the Serengeti to monitor the state of the lion population.

Family of Elephants:
I saw the largest herd of elephants yet there were at least 100 in the herd maybe more. They were so majestic walking in single file in the great Seregeti plains, highlighted against the horizon. The huge female elephant was in the lead with the tiny babies tucked into the group protectively. Elephants are my favorite animal in the wild. Sadly, like most animals in the world their numbers are declining. Once numbering in the millions, the African elephant population has dwindled to between 470,000 and 690,000 individuals according to a March 2007 estimate. A source called WWF Global revealed that in the 1980s alone, an average of 100,000 elephants have been poached every year for meat and tusks.

The Leopard:
I couldn't make it to see the Leopard closely. But I know that the leopard has just left recently from a nearby tree, I took several pictures of Gazelle hanged on a lower branch, leftover food for later.

Too many animals in a shallow intermittent river, the swamp party:
I come across near a river just before I left and here I see several elephants out enjoying a drink. To the left I saw Rhinos, buffaloes, elephant Gazelles, all coming to a pool party. The river is a happening place, and I see lots of hippos semi-submerged in the fresh water. On the banks I see the crocodile basking; and the birds cleaning-up any leftover while singing with such a melody above a live audience. Beyond the swamp I passed a large number of Thompon's Gazelle, grazing in huge herds of more than 200 Gazelles in each herd.

Tricks in the Serengeti:
Sadly, the Serengeti doesn't always live up to its potential. It's easy to end up with a herd of vehicles around you, destroying any sense of wilderness. It's tempting to choose to rush around on dusty, corrugated roads with little time to stop. It's also easy to simply miss the migration, which isn't nearly as predictable these days as many will tell you. Because of this, planning a safari here can be complicated; one needs to study and have a guide to choose the right camps at the right time of year.

Proposed bitumen road through the Serengeti: assault to a priceless natural heritage:
I noticed with my Nokia E-71, the existing road generally traversing in a North-Westerly direction along similar plain landscapes that generally vary in elevation from 1200 to 1700 m a.s.l. The majority of the existing road in the Serengeti is a gravel wearing course, and an earth road at few sections. The road has several defects in its entire route such as potholes; ruts, local depressions and surface erosion have washed out the gravels and accumulated on the shoulder. I have learned that the condition of the road is threatening the safety of the tourist; but however many suggest that upgrading of this road will greatly terrorize the wild life much higher. In addition to upgrading of this road to bitumen standard, the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania is proposing a commercial route cutting across the park itself that will connect the Coast of Tanzania and Lake Victoria basin.
However it becomes a threat to The Serengeti-Maasai Mara Ecosystem, many suggest this highway as proposed would be devastating; debate continued with in the activists, the scientific community and the public on social media; terrified to lose, the Serengeti Migration – the last of its kind in the world. There is a Facebook group called ’’STOP THE SERENGETI HIGHWAY’’ which already has about 60,000 Likes.

Zebra:
It's hard to say goodbye to this place. One last check-in before I left Serengeti, I saw a Zebra crossing the gravel wearing course and I slowed down so that the Zebra could cross in peace.

“I asked the Zebra,
are you black with white stripes?
Or white with black stripes?
And the zebra asked me,
Are you good with bad habits?
Or are you bad with good habits?
Are you noisy with quiet times?
Or are you quiet with noisy times?
Are you happy with some sad days?
Or are you sad with some happy days?
Are you neat with some sloppy ways?
Or are you sloppy with some neat ways?
And on and on and on and on and on and on he went.
I’ll never ask a zebra about stripes...again.” Shel Silverstein.

But hey, it was all good-definitely on my list of extraordinary Outer Space.