Happy Haloween from Bogota

Also in Colombia the "Haloween" event is celebrated. This past few weeks the offices of SENA have been colourfully decorated to get everybody in the mood.

As anywhere else, some departments had put more effort and creativity in the decorations than others. But it is always nice to see when people bring some lightheartedness to the serious work we do.

The 6th floor of the HQ of SENA is where I spent most of my time. The teams here include the "International Relations" group with whom I coordinate our EFE program.

Happy Haloween to everybody! Stay away from those candies though......

Bieber mania in Bogota

"Bieber fever" here today, because Canadian pop singer Justin Bieber gives a life concert in Bogota tonight. Hundreds of young Colombian fans gathered outside the hotel where he stays, which happens to be the Marriott just a few blocks from my apartment (next to a Juan Valdez where I go most days to get a good cuppa coffee).

Fans look up to the hotel rooms throughout the day to see if they get to see the young Canadian singer. Even a good rain & thunder storm did not get them from this task....

This young fan had made a painting of her sitting on Justin's lap....; well.....
And also here marriage proposals for the 19 year old singer....

The love for Canada was all over the place here today. And even some fans from Venezuela were present (or maybe they were Venezuelan students at a university in Bogota....).

RBM workshop in Lima

From October 21 to 26 representatives from the EFE (Education for Employment) projects in Peru, Bolivia and Colombia came together in Lima, Peru, for a week long work on RBM = Results Based Management. The Canadian government co-sponsored projects around the world have to strictly follow the RBM principles, and three Canadian experts assisted all of us to once again walk through the entire process of Logic Model, Performance Management Format and Risk Management.

All the work-tables were constantly mixes of colleagues from the three countries and Canada.

These photos were taken with my iPhone during the first day only. A professional photographer made some photos the following days, so I hope to make another blog post later with more photos.

One of the Peruvian colleagues ended our first day of work with a few nice songs and most of us ended on the improvised dancing floor. Monday evening we had a few "pisco sours" together and on Thursday evening we went out for dinner followed by a flamengo music & dance show.

We ended the week with lots of "home work"  for our three country teams. On and on we go!

Presenting in Monterrey, Mexico

This week I was two days in Monterrey (plus two full days of travel up & down from Bogota via Mexico City). The purpose was to give two presentations at a conference on higher education in the Americas. The invitation to speak came from colleagues of DFATD, the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade & Development (in which the former CIDA - Canadian International Development Agency - has been merged as of this year).

The conference is in its third year and was spearheaded by Canada who hosted the first conference in Calgary in 2010. The second conference was hosted in Brazil in early 2012. About 600 participants from all countries of North, Central and South America & the Caribbean were present.

Canada is very active in promoting academic exchanges and joint research activities between all countries and the "Imagine Canada" booth had a good showing at the conference.

The first presentation was on scholarship programs available in Canada. Our DFATD Trade Commissioner colleague gave an overview of the programs available and afterwards two examples were presented for use at Canadian universities and Canadian colleges.

My colleague from a university in Quebec City gave an overview of the many exchange students and researchers they have at their campuses thanks to a variety of Canadian scholarship programs for both Canadian and international students. Afterwards I gave an overview of what Niagara College has done in this field during the past 10 years (promoting our "Be World Ready" campaign).

The second presentation was on development projects in the educational & training sector sponsored by the Canadian government. After overviews by two DFATD colleagues I explained what we are doing in Colombia with our EFE - Education for Employment - program.

After all the serious work - and being in Mexico - the hosts treated us on some excellent Mexican music and folklore. So the remaining photos just to give you an impression of one of the evenings in Monterrey, Mexico. Too short a visit really, but that is how it goes....

 

 

Another Sunday in Bogota

After flying back on Tuesday last week from Cartagena to Bogota, the week here has been uneventful with work and meetings. This weekend is a long weekend, so I am enjoying a couple of long walks in the city in which I have now lived already again more than 9 months.

This morning I started with a coffee and the newspaper, which had a full section on the fact that the Colombian men's soccer team has qualified for the World Cup tournament in Brazil in June 2014. They missed the last 3 tournaments (which takes place once every four years). In that section there was an announcement of the Colombian team going to play two friendly games in Belgium (Nov 15) and Holland (Nov 19). That will be the first time ever the Colombian and Dutch teams play a game against each other. I will be in Ottawa that week, so little chance to see the game, but still...

I met with a colleague of the Colombian Ministry of Tourism for lunch today (I made a few blog posts in July of a visit I made with her to Huila, one of the southern provinces in Colombia). We decided to meet in Usaquen (see some of my blog posts of that place from January). On the way there (a walk of a good hour) one passes the Canadian Embassy. It is housed here in Bogota in a large office building called the Scotia Bank building....

Across the street is a nice place for lunch, and next to it is the entrance of the Usaquen market area (of which I made in January already a post). We talked for almost 4 hours about ideas on how to promote tourism in Colombia, a country so incredibly rich in tourism potential but of course badly tainted in its reputation over the past 40-50 years. But now that a lasting peace seems to be possible in this country, maybe the potential can be developed during the coming decades.

Colombia has the largest diversity of flora and fauna in one country in the entire world. It has truly magical sceneries, wonderful people, a rich variety of local cultures and good food. What more do you want? Yes, a solid peace and safe country side to travel, and an improved reputation world wide. I will for always be an "Ambassador" for this country, that is for sure...

The coming week I will be at an international education conference in Monterrey, Mexico (presenting on successful exchange programs developed at Niagara College, and also presenting on our "Education for Employment" program in the Andes (Colombia, Peru and Bolivia)). The week following I will be in Lima, Peru for regional meetings on our EFE program. Then one more week work in Bogota and back in Canada for coordination meetings in Ottawa together with the SENA colleague who will take over most of my tasks on the EFE program as of January 2014.

Action packed weeks ahead, so maybe a few less blog posts....

Another day in Cartagena

Today we met with the provincial ministry of education of Bolivar to see how we can streamline our EFE training activities with their programs for adult literacy in our project pilot communities (where an estimated 30 % of adults have had no formal education at all - today's coverage for the youth is much better although still not 100 %).

Afterwards I participated in a long Skype meeting with colleagues in Ottawa about a "results based management" workshop we will attend in Lima during the week of Oct 21 - 25...

Then it was time to one more time enjoy the beautiful sunset scenery here in Cartagena....

A cuppa Juan Valdez coffee while seeing the sun go down under the Atlantic Ocean. Many others were enjoying the same view...

In the background you can see the tourist hotel area where the beaches of Cartagena are. This is turning a bit to the left from the first photo. Turning a bit further to the left, overlooking part of the historic city of Cartagena, the sunset gave a beautiful glow over the clouds there...

You can never get enough of the scenery when walking through the streets of historic Cartagena. Above a photo of one of the nicely renovated streets whereby trees are planted who slowly grow up against the houses. Beautiful especially in the evening with the lights...

Near one of the squares of the historic city there is a bar where they play great coastal music and many Colombians dance. This older couple showed their skills outside of the café...

The reward today was a nice dinner with soup and a delicious "lemonade de coco"..... mmmhhhh

Signing off from Cartagena. Tomorrow back to Bogota.