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...

Welcome to summer

Our little home looks always nice when the summer starts with the green around it. We bought this place in 1995 and have enjoyed it ever since. It suits us...

The beauty of your twenties....

A good friend of Mark is going a year to New Zealand. Jared played soccer with our son Mark for many years in Niagara and then they lived in the same house for the five years while they both studied engineering at University. Jared is spreading his wings and is going to try out the life down under in the land of the Kiwis. He is already on the ice-hockey team of Queenstown, a sport I am sure not too many folks in New Zealand play (the land of the mighty "All Blacks" rugby team)...

Tonight it was nice to have Jared over for dinner and wish him safe travels and good luck. It brought my thoughts back to when I was 25 and left Holland for a year trotting the world. And our daughter Hilary wants to go badly again after just having been in Australia for a year with months of travel on the way there and back in Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines....

Office renovations

Our offices are a "no go" zone for the next four months while they break out and rebuild....

And during these few months we are one big happy family in a packed temporary space....

Visit to BCIT

Today I enjoyed a visit to BCIT, the British Columbia Institute of Technology. They have an excellent "catch phrase" nowadays: "Education for a complex world". My tour guide was their VP Academic, Tom Roemer with whom I have been done educational consultancy work in Mozambique (Tom speaks Portuguese from living and working in Portugall for two years early in his career). Tom took me to a variety of excellent applied technology training areas of the institution.

From a training home for energy efficiency to a training installation for high work stations such as for example oil rigs. And from a training hall for large building heating and cooling systems to a simulation laboratory for chemical production plants. Some pearls of our applied technology training in Canada and part of what is one of the strongest institutions in this field in Canada.

The simulation lab has specialized training modules all developed by BCIT staff in cooperation with industry experts. The simulation programs run on special servers and offer the students and trainees the opportunity to learn how to work with industrial control panels.

Jim (on the photo at the right) has worked at BCIt for more than 40 years and still loves his work as if he had started last week. Lucky students to have instructors like Jim!

Tsawassen and Burnaby

After the days in Tofino on Vancouver Island we took the ferry from Victoria to Tsawassen to visit our friends Val and Steve. They have a lovely home on the ocean and this was the view from their house towards the island group in front of Vancouver Island + also towards Vancouver with in the background the Rocky Mountains and Whistler.

After a nice weekend with Val, Steve and friends I moved to Burnaby to visit colleagues at BCIT, British Columbia Institute of Technology.