Never a boring moment...

Sleeping is not on the list of suggested activities, but student life is exhausting as we all know.
A day in the life of the corridors of the Seneca campus buildings.

Recently we hosted visitors who got to see the flight simulators for one of the aviation programs at Seneca. Brought back memories from my six years of work at Fokker Aircraft in Amsterdam and the travels for that company in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Spain (1983-1988).

The simulated landing was at the island airport in downtown of Toronto. You can see the CN Tower on the simulated screen. Our visitor landed well (with some help) but then stopped paying attention and drove off the runway. Some good laughs resulted. Fun thing to do with visitors.

I had lunch with James Orbinski at Massey College (University of Toronto) where he is a Senior Fellow and teaches on international health & politics. Was great to see him again. And despite the fact that he hangs out every now and then with highly ranked folks (see this photo of 2006), he told me that he makes every morning breakfast for his wife and three kids. Next meeting at his house!

Off to Australia and China the coming two weeks...

Tanzania, Kyrgyzstan and St Lucia

Today we met with Tanzanian colleagues about a potential project. Yesterday I was hosting a Chilean representative of the Ministry of Education, and Tuesday I was busy with two visitors from Denmark. And a few days before that we were "stuck" for a day during a snow-storm in Istanbul.....

That was on the way back from a week of work in Kyrgyzstan with the University of Central Asia, an initiative of the world wide Aga Khan Foundation which is very active in educational development projects. In the Central Asian region they undertake a wide variety of projects and programs.

 We met with the senior management team of UCA in the company of the Canadian Ambassador who is based in Kazakhstan while overseeing Canadian funded initiatives in the region. We visited a number of high schools in the region to assess what the needs would be for a new Foundation Year at the UCA for students from rural areas who will need an upgrade in English, Math and Science. We might get the contract to develop the curriculum for such a Foundation Program.

In between meetings we did get a chance to see some of the sites of Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, and we took this team photo in front of Lenin...

The week before I was in St Lucia in the Caribbean for project coordination. Seneca's Early Childhood Education program team is delivering a project there with a local college.

Presentations and meeting and project planning filled the week quickly...

We gave an update to the national Minister of Education about our work together (for context: St Lucia has a population of about 170,000). But still....

The team worked hard during the day and during the evenings had fun together.

We enjoyed the many types of fruits the island offers as well as a few hours on the beach here and there. And we almost boarded one of the many cruise ships stopping every day at the island....

Holland (Opa Nolle) and Sweden (Rotary Peace Center)

 I had the good fortune to briefly visit my Dad last weekend. He is on his way to his 95th birthday...

You can probably see that I am his son. One of my sisters (Ger) and her husband (Bert) live close by and visit my Dad regularly. My other sister (Han) and her husband (Lex) live a bit further away but also come by often. I had only 22 hours in Holland, but it is always nice to be "home"...

 I made the visit to Holland on my way back from a short visit to Uppsala in Sweden, where I was on an evaluation mission for the Rotary International Foundation. Uppsala is city full of history...

The University of Uppsala has a history going back more than 500 years. At their 400th birthday the Swedish government donated a special events building to the university which is in itself now older than most of the colleges and universities in a country like Canada...

Two of my hosts, Magnus and Liana showed me around. They both work in the Rotary Peace Center at the University. The Rotary International Foundation finances six of such centers around the world (USA, England, Sweden, Japan, Thailand and Australia). I am asked to evaluate a few of these PC operations by meeting with the staff and with the by the Rotary Foundation sponsored "fellows" (10 each year for a two year Master program at each of the six centers).

One of the famous Swedes who received a Nobel Peace Prize in 1961 has started the interest of the Swedes to research peace and conflict resolution around the world.

The PC staff and fellows are supported by local Rotary Clubs. During my short stay I had the pleasure to attend one of the Rotary Club's weekly meeting. The guest speaker was a local business person who grew up in Syria and came to Sweden as teenager. He presented in fluent Swedish and he also spoke good French (from living in Beirut for many years); no English.....

On the right hand Rotarian Suzanne who was another superb host for me in Uppsala. She retired after a successful career as opera singer and now dedicates all her time to Rotary activities.

Back in Toronto, I have decided to join a breakfast Rotary Club in Markham. Good bunch!

Brazilian exchange students

A few new Brazilian exchange students arrived in Toronto from Fortaleza: from 25 degrees Celcius to -25 degrees. Welcome in Canada during the winter!
They were waved out in Fortaleza by my good friend Gutenberg and his college President.

Good start of the new year

Hilary made me a nice sign for the new office at Seneca College. It now complements other memory pieces of my career so far.

The new year 2015 has started well. Busy at work. Back in the gym (after three months way too little exercise). And a new place to hang my hat during the work weeks in Toronto: