How Ordinary

The top of the British Musuem in London 2011. First thing that caught my eyes when I walked in.

Old maps hung up at the Ancient Library of Alexandria in Egypt February 2012.

How Ordinary

Magnum photographer Elliott Erwitt best known for his black and white candid shots of abusrdism in everyday life once said," To me, photography is an art of observation. It's about finding something interesting in an ordinary place... I've found it has little to do with things you see and everything to do with the way you see them."

In the same spirit, I thought I'll create the realm of the ordinary with my own snaps accumulated over years of travel and my powers of observation. Enjoy.

Just the ordinary side of a park bench in Paris (taken X'mas 2011). I bet there's not a bench with the exact same side and rust all in one.

Broken champagne fragments post New Year celebrations along the canal in Paris 2012. 

 Skating in the heart of the city of London - January 2012

Bookstores and the smell of books - January 2012, Southbank, London.

The Kodak Disposable

Found this Kodak disposable camera while in the Grasmere (a village in the central Lake District in Cumbria, England) a week ago and had to have it. Best part is when you wind up the camera before snapping for a picture.

How to get to Abyei

You might have heard of a place straddling North and South Sudan called Abyei. Tricky contested area. Part of the project I work for covers this area and I had the luck to spend some time there a few weeks back. But to get there is no easy feat. From Cairo via Nairobi to Juba and then Juba to Rumbek and then a chopper ride to Abyei. Returning, early morning chopper ride from Abyei to Rumbek, then to Juba and waited 5 hours for a flight to Addis Ababa and then back into Khartoum. It took me just about 18 hours (each way) via two countries to get back into the same area.

Community dialogues in Diffra

What I do at work, you asked? This. Talking and collecting stories of some very interesting people under a shady tree.

Dinka and Misseriya neighbours

My very capable colleague and right wing man, Adil Hussein

Yes, my "personal" military escort. He was quite shy.

Driving around Abyei Town on the way to the market