The last few months of 2011 were a flurry of exciting stories! Overall, November and December were a couple of busy months, with a lot of time spent on the road. It’s always great to get out in the field, where the real stories are, and I hope to do much more of that in 2012.
Now, a couple of highlights from November and December 2011:
In mid-November, I traveled to South Africa to participate in the International Forum on Water and Food. It was a great conference, which focused on some of the most pressing water and food challenges that the world is facing.
Before the conference, I had worked closely with six different scientists, from three different continents, and coached them on telling science stories about their work. One was Sabine Douxchamp, who told a story about why Burkina Faso is still a very poor country, even though there are an abundance of NGOs trying to lift it out of poverty.
Back in Asia, I helped organize the Mekong Forum on Water, Food and Energy in early December. The day before the forum began, we took a group of reporters out on the Tonle Sap river in Cambodia. We visited some of the fishermen whose livelihoods may or may not be threatened by the many dams scheduled to be built in the Mekong River basin.
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Finally, later in December, I went on a trip to Xieng Khuang in northwestern Laos to learn more about the country’s problems with UXO (unexploded ordnance).
I met kids like these,
who are in danger every day because of unexploded bombs like these:
More stories from my trip to Xieng Khuang will be publicly available in the next month or so.
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Finally, of course, Happy New Year to all! I hope we stay in touch — here on the blog or on Twitter (for more frequent updates).