Kyrgyzstan 2015, Day 1: Take Two
Ten days in, our second country of the trip, and we are finally getting to meet our Beginner students! This is going to be a big class, with the usual mix of rural and urban kids, boys, girls and...
Kyrgyzstan 2015: Getting Ready
You may have noticed, from the now famous Group Picture with Donkey, that Mike is getting scruffy. Seriously, his patchy (and recently peppery) beard is getting out of control. What you may not have known is that Thursday was...
Kyrgyzstan 2015: A Day Off
I’m gonna make this short…because we are exhausted. A 14-hour drive, a rural border crossing with a couple of minor hitches, and 30 minutes in the Tunnel of Death (seriously, Google it). Not bad for a “day off.” We...
Tajikistan 2015, Day 4: Graduation
If you’re reading this in our email, click here to see photos from today’s post. The day started as usual, with a critique of the students work before we headed off to photograph on location. Today’s assignment was to...
Tajikistan 2015, Day 3: Just A Teahouse
In 2009, construction began on a teahouse across the boulevard from the newly opened Ismaili Centre. According to a tour guide from the teahouse, over the course of the 5 years of construction, more than 4,000 traditional Tajik craftsmen,...
Tajikistan 2015, Day 2: Rudaki Park
This morning began, as did our last ADV workshop, with a warm reunion. Our students from the October seminar in Khorog had arrived in Dushanbe in the evening yesterday and this morning we were all smiles. At 9 o’clock...
Tajikistan 2015, Day 1: We Have Arrived!
At 3:45am on June 13, 2015 we put wheels down in Dushanbe, Tajikistan…and the new airport is fantastic! We are back in Dushanbe for a short week to host an advanced class for the students of last October’s beginner...
Graduation Day: Bhutan Beginner’s Workshop
This morning we had our graduation ceremony, and it went tremendously! First off, the four advanced students ran the technical aspects of the show completely on their own… I was there to supervise (a role I took quite a...
The Big Dig: Bhutan Beginner’s Workshop, Day 6
Today was an interesting day for the instructors. (The last day before the ceremony always is!) This morning we all went over to the classroom for our last critique. The images from the medicine story yesterday were amazing, and...
The Importance of Sensitivity: Bhutan Beginner’s Class, Day 5
This morning we started nice and early. At 8:30, we met in the classroom and got into things right away! We had a local doctor come in during our morning class and talk about both traditional medicine and modern...