After 40 years...

Almost 40 years ago I started at the University of Technology in Delft, Holland and became friends with 16 fellow students. Last night 12 of us got together in Amsterdam for dinner. Good times...

Holland

After about a year and half since my last visit to Holland, I will be able to meet up with my Dad, sisters & families and old friends in the Netherlands again next week. I will be in Amsterdam, Utrecht, Bilthoven, Zeist, Doetinchem, Den Haag en Delft between January 28 and February 4. Holland is such a great small country with distances between people that are so different than in Canada....

I will probably not be back in Colombia in Februari (maybe later in the year) and by the time I come back in Canada, we'll know what project work will come down the pipeline with Niagara College.

It is super cold these weeks in this part of Canada (Niagara Region in south-west Ontario) after a polar vortex and now a polar wind storm. For thos of you in warmer climates, we are jealous!!

Best wishes for 2014

Another new calendar year has started. I wish everybody happiness and health throughout the year and as somebody recently said: "enough".... enough of everything to get by....

Yesterday I finished my final report on my year in Colombia with main observations and my personal recommendations for the continuation of the EFE (Education for Employment) program, and send it off to my colleagues of ACCC (Association of Canadian Community Colleges) in Ottawa. Feels good to have that completed and send off....

We will see what 2014 brings. I might end up a good amount of my time in Saudi Arabia with a new contract of Niagara College to start up a hospitality training institute there, and/or I might be back in Colombia and Peru several times for the EFE program.. I will not know before February, so until then probably no blog entries.

All the best. Be good!

Back home after the year in Colombia

Last night our daughter Hilary and I landed in the evening in snowy Toronto and we were welcomed by my wife Mary. It was a happy moment. I am glad to be home because a bit more than 11 months living on your own is longer than you realize when you start. Of course I made new friends in Colombia during the year both at the partner organization SENA as well through other contacts and activities in the beautiful and fascinating - yet complex - country, but - as I mentioned before - there is only one place you call home and that is where your family is.

For me the above is already a forever conflict because I grew up in Holland and lived, studied and worked there the first 35 years of my life. My Dad will hopefully soon celebrate his 94th birthday and he and both my sisters and their families continue to live in Holland. Canada is my home because of Mary, Hilary, Mark, the Vandenboom family and so many people who became friends and colleagues during the past 23 years here. But.... my roots are in places such as Bilthoven, Delft and Amsterdam...

So... back home in Niagara. The snow seems to be melting today. It must be the warmth of the Colombian sun that Hilary and I brought with us last night....

It has been an interesting year. I will need some time to further reflect and maybe I will continue to make a blog entry on this site every now & then (I might be back in Colombia during the coming years; you never know). Thanks for showing an interest to read my updates during the year. At this moment I have almost 11,000 visits to the sites since early December 2012 when I started....

Enjoy the vacation period coming up and have a healthy & happy 2014!

Weekend in Salento (again)

Hilary and I flew on Saturday morning to Pereira and from there we drove to the small mountain village called Salento. I had been there in March and decided it would be a nice place to bring Hilary to see something else than the "big city" of Bogota during her short week in Colombia.

Salento is located in one of the coffee zones of Colombia and it is a popular place for people from nearby Pereira and Armenia to go during the weekend. And many foreign backpackers visit...

We stayed in a backpacker's place called "The Plantation House"; always recommended for travellers if you go this way. The view from our small room:

Hilary loves dogs and she found many new friends in the streets of Salento...

Including these young puppies....she almost bought one to bring home.....

We visited a small coffee farm owned and operated by the owners of "The Plantation House"...
(see also my blog in March of a visit there with photos of this small operation)

Hilary enjoying some super fresh pineapple and some very freshly roasted and grinded coffee

Another delicious coffee in one of the old little restaurants in town...

A weekend of relax and nice meals. In one of the places they have the tourists/visitors write their comments on the walls. Lots of fun and Hilary added a good one to the collection!

Fun evening in Andres de Res DC

Friday evening we celebrated with a couple of friends the visit of Hilary and my birthday. On the left Derek hailing from Welland, Ontario (and Niagara College graduate!), his girlfriend Jenny from Ibague, and on the right Hilary. My colleagues Sandra from SENA and her boyfriend Edgar joined the party...

 

 

 

And Lina from the ACCC Ottawa team joined as well. Lina grew up  in Bogota and moved to Canada about ten years ago. She was "back home" for a family festivity.

Andres DC is a very popular place and in December many companies have their year en party here. The place was packed.

The place has three levels: infierno (hell), tierra (earth) and cielo (heaven)....

And the view down from "heaven"..... :-)

On the way back after a fun evening, Hilary and I could not resist to make the next two photos..

Birthday in Colombia

What a lucky Dad I am today to have our daughter Hilary here to celebrate my birthday with me while I am still in Colombia! This morning we had a wonderful breakfast with Nicolas Salcedo of the Canadian Embassy with whom I have worked all year on our EFE program start-up. Thanks Nicolas!

Sandra of SENA joined us and she will take over the coordination with Nicolas now. Both wonderful Colombian professionals and it has been an honour for me to be able to work with them!

The place where Nicolas brought us to has a lot of history and wonderful food. The store still carries products they sold over a 100 years ago. All their food is organic.

After breakfast I took Hilary for a few hours walk. One of the things we saw were the "dog walkers" and this time I did take a photo....

More later...