writing myself back into Burundi

after 20 months of blog silence perhaps it is time to start writing again. if only to celebrate the absolute gift of cool weather in Bujumbura (three days in a row now). perhaps i will catch you up on the last almost two years of living that has happened in between the last post and this one, perhaps not. for now i am savouring the reality that i wanted to celebrate something and i turned to this blog. finally! i am not sure what had to be unplugged to get me here but i am grateful. i needed these cool days in this city at this time. a gift only He knew i would need and only He could produce in this (dry) season.

that is enough for now.

writing in.

“Indeed, the very phrase ‘writing-up’ implies that we are somehow able to unproblematically reproduce the simple truth(s) of our research in our writing…writing is not merely a mechanical process that reflects the ‘reality’ of qualitative research findings but rather constitutes in part how and what we know about our research. Writing is thus not so much a process of writing-up as one of writing-in”* 

enjoying the quick internet speed

the dramatically quicker internet speed here in the Global North is fun to experience, and i’ve been catching up on some online video watching that i couldn’t quite do as easily in Burundi last year. below are two TED talks that i’ve found extremely thought provoking on a number of different levels. Enjoy.

sun tickles

I’ve recently moved to Utrecht, the Netherlands, for 10 months to complete my PhD. I’ve been here exactly a month and, as i always forget, transition is hard. Real hard.

Istanbul

Istanbul was
the sight of cats and the sound of seagulls everywhere
hot
cayi (tea) on the side of the street everywhere
filled with famous mosques and unknown mosques
backgammon and secular orthodoxy
roof top terrace Turkish delight
panorama over and over, the view never gets old,
neither do the choices of baklava and other sweet treats
pistachio and pine nut honey
cobblestone roads and bridges between
squeezed inside a tram with hundreds of others
moving through history
soaking it in
expensive beer and cheap olives
celebrating friendship and discovering new things together
streets alive with people, parks and play
nonchalantly decorative in unexpected ways
unforgettable.

third wave coffee

i’m writing a part of my thesis now that tries to peel back the layers of specialty coffee and draw out nuances of what it is, how the term is appropriated and how that has changed the coffee market. part of this understanding is the notion of third wave coffee. like specialty coffee, it’s a tricky concept to unpack, even more so because it is a nascent segment of the industry. it’s one of those things that are very recognisable when you see it, but harder to describe if you don’t. this short film from Great Coffee does a masterful job at explaining it. i suggest you brew yourself a good cup of coffee and enjoy watching it, that’s what i just did.

The Film About GreatCoffee from Søren Markussen on Vimeo.

update from the thesis cave

about 3 months ago i hopped on a plane from Bujumbura and 24 hours later i found myself back in my parents’ home, a world a million miles apart in just about every way from the life i live in Burundi. i need to finish my PhD by the end of the year and i realised some time around last October that living and working in Burundi and trying to do a PhD was just not going to happen.

the past is present

there’s a lot going on in South Africa at the moment that has the potential to really create negative long-term social division. but maybe there’s always been a lot going on in South Africa always with the potential to create further division because it is such an unequal place. at the same time that i have been trying to process the thought streams of different sides of the debate on whether colonial statues must be removed and now trying to process the horror and evil of the xenophobic killings and intimidation in Durban (and now elsewhere) two voices have stood out to me as confirmation of the power of a good leader.