The last of our field research sites is also one of the remotest. It took us five days just to get to the site from the capital Tana (Antananarivo for those not familiar). The hilly region is full of fast flowing streams and rivers, and the landscape beautiful. But life of the people there is extremely hard, with few options than hill-rice farming. Extreme poverty was clear to see everywhere. As you arrive at a village outskirts, you know the village is nearby from the strong stench you experience from the open defecation. People have few good clothes to wear, the dwellings are very basic - built from bamboo and twigs, and banana leaves or palm fronds for the roof. Despite the hardship and extreme poverty, people were welcoming and treated us well, even letting us stay in one of the better huts.

On my last field visit to a village called Sahakana, the village headman, whose compound we were staying in, offered me some oil palm fruit. It was the day before our departure date and he asked one of his sons to cut one large bunch of the palm fruit and asked me to photograph it - for he seemed fascinated by digital images that you could see instantly after capture. Once the bunch was lowered down to the ground, he started removing some fruits, which I thought was just to show me, only to realise later that he was preparing to offer me some. He said I could easily extract oil from them. I asked if it was possible to just eat the fruit. He said he would get them roasted, that'’s how they eat the fruit. In all the hurriedness to leave, I never got to taste the roasted oil palm fruit unfortunately.

I took this photo one early morning in northern Uganda in May 2008. I was there on a field visit and we were staying in a village with few facilities. The place was hot and I couldn'’t sleep much. As soon as the dawn broke, I got out to see this beautifully-coloured sky. The building where I was staying appears as silhouette.