Teaching in Yangon (part 2)

Here are a few more random pictures from my Yangon trip.

Treats (above and below) available at the Starbucks in the Bangkok airport. I tried toe Green Tea waffle - pretty good!

Treats in the staff room at our host seminary.

One of my students (on right) is practicing his interview skills with MEGST's academic dean.

Yangon was a British protectorate for many decades until the country's independence in the mid-1900s. There are numerous British government buildings from those days scattered around the downtown area.

 A break: Traditional Burmese tea at the Rangoon Tea House.

View of Yangon from the 20th floor of the tallest building in the city. Shwedagon Pagoda in the left distance. John's apartment and the seminary are not far from the Pagoda.
 

John Buchanan is a New Zealander who works at the seminary. Colin and I stayed with him for the week. We had a great time together. Here we are riding the bus for a day of sightseeing downtown Yangon.

Co-teacher Colin on the left with two students in the program.

Teaching in Yangon, Myanmar (part 1)

I just returned from teaching Research Methods with one of our groups of students in Yangon, the capital of Myanmar (formerly Burma). It was a great week with the students and fun to experience another part of the world.

My colleague, Colin Rye, who is a Brit and also a full-time DAI staff person, taught Mentoring and Coaching, this semester's accompanying course. He is wearing traditional Burmese menswear.

Exploring the Shwedagon Pagoda, which also appears in the pictures above and below.

Our partner, Myanmar Evangelical Graduate School of Theology, rents several floors of this apartment building. Colin and a student are standing in the entrance.

A week in Uganda

I just finished teaching Leadership to a new cohort in our MA in Organizational Leadership program located in Kampala, Uganda. They will now return to home/life/work/ministry and we'll continue together in the course via distance. This cohort joins two others in their 2nd and 3rd years respectively, so we had 3 classes, each taking two courses taught by 6 faculty - quite a party. It was a great week but I am ready for home - I begin the trek tomorrow.

I've included pictures of some of the students, sites around town, and pic of me with a birthday cake with my name on it - accompanied by the Happy Birthday song from 60+! It was lovely surprise on the 26th. 

My cohort of students. The residency week is for introductions to the semester's two courses (in this case Leadership and Teaching and Learning, taught by Joel Gray in the back) and for building relationships. From here students go home with their assignments, readings, etc. We will continue together for the remainder of the semester via distance. Then they return for a week of introduction to the next semester's courses, etc. and hopefully finish in three years.

Me and my surprise birthday cake!

Ugandan donuts for our morning tea break.

Read the sign carefully...

Do these belong to the gas station owner??

Africa & Europe #2

Here is part 2 of my recent trip to Africa and Europe. This second post is about my visit to Black Forest Academy in Germany en route home from Africa. See my previous post for details about why I was visiting. 

Below are some pictures of this beautiful corner of Germany, as well as our good friends who are currently serving there, the Greathouses, Cagwins, and Adams.

I arrived on Saturday morning after an all-night flight from Ethiopia. To help me stay awake, Chris and I went for a walk around Holzen, the small village in which they live and not far from Kandern, where BFA is located. Here we are admiring someone's well-ordered wood.

Good friends from Wheaton College days, Joel and Kristen Cagwin, and their four children. I stayed with them, which afforded us many hours of conversation each evening. It was wonderful to catch up on each others' lives. They live in the same neighborhood we lived in when we were at BFA 10 years ago!

Chris and Jenny Greathouse with their four children. We met the Greathouses at BFA's new staff orientation in 2002, and have remained good friends ever since.

Jay and Nancy have been at BFA for many years. They played an important role in welcoming us into the BFA family when we arrived. It was so much fun to see them again! We enjoyed a meal together at a  German restaurant (what other kind might we choose!?) in Sitzenkirch, a village not far from Kandern.

Herring with cream sauce and spaetzle.

Wienerschnitzel and fried potatoes.

Great German beer with a great German meal!

Downtown Kandern.

Vineyards on the edge of Holzen, just outside Kandern.

A cool old barn in Holzen.

The lovely little church in Sitzenkirch.

Chris is the assistant principal of BFA's middle school.

The fountain and church in the center of Kandern.

Africa & Europe #1

In April I had the privilege of spending 4 days with Christine Mutua, the director of our MA program in East Africa, and her wonderful family: husband Daniel, and children Hope, Shalom, and Fadile. It was a restful, fun time during which I enjoyed their hospitality as well as the beauty of northern Tanzania. 

Specifically, they took me to see Ngorongoro Crater, an incredible natural phenomenon and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is the world's largest caldera (Merriam-Webster says: "a volcanic crater that has a diameter many times that of the vent and is formed by collapse of the central part of a volcano or by explosions of extraordinary violence"). During rainy season, it is filled with an amazing array of animals. Enjoy the pictures below!

From Tanzania, Christine and I flew to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to meet with the leaders of a theological college there to discuss potentially partnering with them to offer our program to leaders in Ethiopia. I spent the summer after high school (1997!) in Addis, so it was really fun to return and see how the city has changed, which it indeed has. Far more tall buildings and far fewer herds of goats and cows trekking through the traffic-jammed roads than 18 yrs ago.

From Ethiopia, Christine returned home and I flew northwards to another place I haven't visited in a long time: Black Forest Academy. Julianna and I were missionary teachers there in 2002-2004. It was wonderful to be back in the bucolic Black Forest region and to see the school. Even though most of our friends have moved on, some have remained, such as good friends Chris and Jenny Greathouse, plus the arrival two years ago of Wheaton friends Joel and Kristen Cagwin. Chris is starting a Leadership Center at the school designed for both students and staff. Since part of what we (DAI) do is consulting, I stopped through to see if we could assist in some way (our mission is leadership development, after all). 

Enjoy the pictures of these excursions in this and the following posts.

First up, a visit with Christine Mutua, a member of our MA Admin Team, and a day at Ngorongoro Crater. Then, a few pictures of our visit to Ethiopia (mainly food with one pic of our hosts).

I'll post pictures of my visit to Black Forest Academy in post #2 to follow.

My colleague Christine with her family at their home in Arusha, Tanzania. I had a wonderful few days with them!

A day in exploring the wildlife of the Ngorongoro Crater.

Next stop: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Our lunch: injera be wot together with our hosts.

Let the fun begin!

After we've finished. Yum!

With our hosts, Semeon and Frew, both administrators and leaders of a theological college in Addis, Ababa. Christine and I were visiting to discuss the possibility of partnering with the college to offer our MA in Organizational Leadership in Ethiopia.

Enjoying an after lunch macchiato.