Back at SENA for a few days

Last Friday some planning meetings at SENA (where I worked the full year of 2013) and this week a series of workshops delivered by one of my colleagues of Seneca (specific training on comparison of standards used in water treatment technician programs).

This weekend a bit of time to enjoy my favorite Colombian coffee again!

As well as admiring the Sunday morning cycling, running, skateboarding, rollerblading and walking on the otherwise busy roads of Bogota....

Lots of football (soccer) games on TV this weekend between the Euro 2016 and the finals of the  Copa Americana. It is nice to be a few days in this city again....

From Kyrgyzstan to Colombia

The past five days I was in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia. I assisted in the admission committee for the very first intake of students for the 5 year Bachelor programs of the University of Central Asia (UCA) which will start program delivery in September at one of its three campuses in the mountainous regions of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan. Seneca has worked with the UCA academic team to develop the curriculum for the first (preparatory) year.

Tonight I arrived in Bogota for work with our colleagues of SENA. It is nice to be back in the city where I lived and worked during 2013. The government of Colombia signed today the peace accord with the FARC which could be a historic moment to finally bring an end to 50 years of internal armed conflict in the country. The national football (soccer) team of Colombia lost last night in the semi-finals of the "Copa Americana" from Chile. You can't win them all. But it would have been fun to watch the Colombian team play on a TV in a local sports bar in the finals on Sunday....

MSF Canada 25 years

This weekend MSF Canada (Doctors without Borders) had its 25th general assembly. I can hardly believe that it is already 25 years ago (Hilary and Mark were not born yet) that I assisted the group of Canadians to start up the Canadian branch of this medical relief movement.

The presentations on the work of the MSF Canada teams during the past year filled me with awe and pride to see how far this organization has come. I spent 7 years full time with this movement between 1988 and 1995 in the field (Mozambique), Canada and Holland (Operational Center Amsterdam).

The President of the International Council, a Canadian physician at this moment who recently addressed the UN Security Council about the bombings of MSF supported hospitals in Afghanistan, Syria and Yemen, was present. She was explained the story of the "office Elvis" who has been a bit of a story of MSF Canada from the start in 1991.

Two of the starters of MSF Canada, Jim Lane and Richard Heinzl, explained the story of "Elvis" to the MSF members attending this weekend. It was purchased as a farewell present to the first Canadian MSF field worker, but of course it "never left the building"....

The current MSF Canada Board members gave an update of their activities this past year, and six candidates for Board positions gave presentations for elections.

For the rest of the weekend debates about security topics and technical aspects were held and two festive evenings celebrated the incredible work these people do around the world.