Catherine Nakalembe

Like I have to explain black holes.

I have to do all of this, like things that I wouldn't normally do if I didn't have them.

But the other thing is, so I just did my TED talk yesterday and I practiced on them.

What I practiced on them was the fact that

you know, we can predict drought, but crops fail and people don't have food.

And they were like, oh, but can they like have an irrigation system and pump water?

And I was like, very good point.

That's what everybody says.

And they say it, but like in reality, doing it is very different.

And so like being able to like have these experiences with them, it gives me a lot of hope and I can't wait for them to be my

Field buddies, for sure.

But what worries me, I think, right now is there are huge challenges for earth science, per se, which is being able to do my work the way I think it should be done through connections like ground-based innovation that then links to the most sophisticated workflows is harder and harder.

Funding to do the probes in the ground, I call it root census, like we sense what's at the root to figure out what will happen in the weeks to come.

It's something that for me, in my perspective, is like amazing.

It should just happen.

But unfortunately, it's so complicated to do it.

And so trying to figure out how to continue to do my work in the current context is very hard.

The pathways I used to be able to do capacity building have basically shut down.

One of the things I do, I call them crop monitor champions.

I do these learning exchanges, have people from different ministries.