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....