Pemba, Mozambique

Once again a few days in Mozambique. This time to have our last STEM project activity. The Seneca team worked here during the past four years on capacity building among managers of the national technical colleges/institutes. This time we organized a small training conference around what we have done with our colleagues here (last year we had a 1st such conference in Tete - see under August 2018). The conference is hosted at a new "hotel escola" (hotel school) in Pemba in the north-east.

Our key-note speaker is Tom who a brilliant and pragmatic academic leader at the colleges in Canada and who also speaks Portuguese. Tom and I have been here now four times once a year. It is a true privilege to work with Tom. On the evening of our arrival in Pemba we had dinner with some of the colleagues here.

For fun I took a photo with the local newspaper of Fonthill (Pelham) to send to them to see if they place the photo. We are staying in the hotel school as the very first visitors; a total of 12 visitors filling 24 rooms they have (4 from Canada, 2 from Maputo and 6 from Tete, the other main city of our project and where we hosted our conference last year bringing 6 colleagues there from Pemba). The view from our hotel is over the ocean as well at some distance) and over the school's sports field.

The organizers of the hosting institution set up a special tent for the lunches and dinners for the roughly 50 participants. The first day went well. Two more days to go.

Few days in NL

On my way to work on our Seneca international development projects in Mozambique and Kenya, I was able to stop over in NL (Holland) for a few days. First I caught up with Coen at the beaches of the North Sea (part of the Atlantic Ocean) in Scheveningen where he and his wife recently moved. Coen grew up near there so it was coming back for him. We studied together at the Delft University of Technology and stayed in touch ever afterwards. Coen was best man at our wedding in 1990 (with Gert-Jan, another university friend who came over from Holland in September for that event). Coen recently retired and now heads a Foundation working in several African countries to install durable energy installation in rural areas. It was great to see each other again and have some time to catch up.

The next day I had a tour on rental bicycles of our old University city Delft with two old house mates, Lies and Cathrien. So many good stories to memorize. Cathrien and I both studied Industrial Design Engineering which was then a very young Faculty of the University. Last year it celebrated 50 years.

The 3rd day of my short stay I picked up my sister Hanneke in Soest. In her nice retirement flat she had a new small balcony installed so it was time for a quick "selfie".

The we drove to the east of Holland where my other sister Gerrie lives with her husband Bert. We had our traditional Dutch Chinese meal and then it was time for me to hop on the plane again to visit the projects in south east Africa.....
 

Cottage 2019

A very nice week with beautiful weather all week long. Opa Vandenboom joined us with great energy while he is on his way to his 90th birthday in February 2020. Hilary came a few days with Shayd as well as Mark who brought Carly.

Old car - new starter

Since I always drive our older cars, today was the 3rd time I had to put a new starter in a car.... All done within a day so inconvenient only for s short period.

FC Toronto

Mark got us a few tickets again for a home game of the professional soccer team of Toronto which plays in the MLS (Major League Soccer) of North America. Two years ago FC Toronto became the champions of the MLS. Last year they ended the season near the bottom of the league. This season they are in the middle of the pack. It looked like a gloomy rainy day and still a bit dark just before the game started at 8 PM....

But it cleared up nicely and it was a beautiful evening for a soccer game. FC Toronto played against the number 2 of the league this year (from New York). FC Toronto won the game 3-1. Very nice entertainment for the evening and always great to hang out with Mark...

Rib Fest music

The Saturday at the Rotary Rib Fest was also a busy and sunny day; roughly 20,000 visitors...

Markham Rotary Rib Fest

It is early July and that is when the Mark Rotary Club organizes its main annual fund-raising event called the "Rib Fest". Friday from 6 - 11 PM, Saturday from 11 AM to 11 PM and Sunday 11 AM to 7 PM. Around 30,000 visitors and $60,000 raised with the entrance fee of $2. Most of that going to a "bear" program for children undergoing surgery at the local hospital. Last night I did my volunteering at the entrance and we had about 3,000 people coming through. Seneca is one of the corporate sponsors with the music program:

 A lot of things not allowed at such events in public spaces....