Rotary Convention 2018

This weekend the Rotary International Foundation is hosting its annual conference in Toronto with around 35,000 participants (I attended this conference in Chicago about ten years ago - its 100th anniversary as an organization - with close to 50,000 participants). Before the convention there are always a few pre-conference events such as this year a "Peace Summit" and a training session for the Rotarians who act as volunteer project evaluators, a group called the "Cadre".

Today the convention starts with an opening session in the Air Canada center followed by three days of presentations, workshops and fellowship with like-minded people from around the world.

Peace Building by Rotarians

Attending these few days the annual Rotary International convention this year hosted in Toronto. The first day is a "Peace Summit". Tomorrow (Saturday) will be a training day for the few hundred project evaluators within the Rotary movement. Sunday to Wednesday are the regular convention days. On Monday evening we host ten convention participants in our Markham Rotary club. The last time I attended was in Montreal during one of the previous FIFA world cup events (2010). A few years before that I attended the 100th convention of Rotary in its "birth" city of Chicago. That event hosted almost 50,000 participants and was an incredible experience. The convention here in Toronto has close to 30,000 participants....

North East Normal University

A short walk away from our hotel is one of the the two campuses of NENU. An institution with a focus on training teachers for all the levels of education in China (from ECE to PhD). NENU is the partner institution of Seneca with our Confucius Institute and on this visit we brought colleagues from our Early Childhood Education program and our Faculty of Communication, Arts & Design to explore further cooperation opportunities.

I gave a few presentations on leadership to students in the programs of politics & law and the school for language training: what to expect from our new generation of learners and the impact of AI.

Michael and Heather gave presentations at the faculty of Education (on ECE) and the School of Fine Arts. And both of them got hosted to several work lunches and dinners...

The city of Changchun has a population of about 7 million; not nearly as much influenced yet by the western world interactions as places where I visited more frequently such as Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou and Guangzhou in the south-east provinces.

On Saturday our hosts showed us around in the city and again took us for elaborate lunches and dinners. The decisions on what ends up on the round table is always a team-effort...

Always lots of things to observe and to learn with each trip to each part of the world; it never stops amazing me. And this time I could feel - just before we left again - for a moment the "Last Emperor" in a chair like that....

Fast trains in China

On Wednesday last week we took a high speed train from Beijing to the city of Changchun in the north-eastern province of Jilin. The train station in Beijing is already an experience in itself...

The train ride of six hours was comfortable and remarkably smooth considering that the train reaches as times a speed of around 250 km/hour. And only a few people not on their cell phones...

Our in-house artist Michael made me a nice drawing of one of his fellow travelers...

On the road....

Driving today on a beautiful Sunday morning from the UCA campus in Naryn to the capital city of Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek. A four hour drive that flies by because of the spectacular views all the time. The first time I was on this road was during the winter month of February 2015. The sights were also great but the road not so much. In June 2016 and June 2017 the road was much better and the sights were breathtaking. And today again, I enjoyed the ride so much. Took some photos but they really not do the sights justice. Along the road still many "yurts", the houses the nomadic people from this part of the world have used for hundreds of years...

The nomadic population groups were mostly cattle herders. They feel very comfortable using the modern roads to continue their long traditions. Here a few pics of the mountains who you see all the time with the permanent snow (altitudes of the peaks around 4,000 meters) and also a beautiful peaceful lake along the road.

And then upon arrival in Bishkek signs of "modern progress": a traffic jam... (even on Sunday).

Few days Kyrgyzstan

The team of Seneca has worked with the UCA - University of Central Asia since April 2015 and this is my 5th visit to this amazing partner institution. Their campus sign in the city of Naryn is in three languages: English (all programs are delivered 100% in English), the Kyrgyzstan language and in Russian. Before the soviet era the people in Kyrgyzstan had mostly a spoken language (most of them lived nomadic lives as cattle herders). That is why their language "adopted" the Russian alphabet; a new thing I learned during this trip. The setting of the UCA is spectacular...

Photos do not fully do justice to the beauty of the backdrop of the mountains, but it gives you an impression. Diana, the Academic Dean of the UCA, took me today for a walk along the river and here are a few photos I took during our walk:

Afterwards we took a car and went to an outlook point over two directions of the valley. Again, my photos do not do justice to the spectacular views. Thousands of years ago the traders traveled through this valley between China and Europe (it was later called the "silk route").

We also visited the daily local market where - as in so many other places around the world - the local colors, smells and smiles welcome you. Tomorrow I will travel on to China...