Haiti Highlights: Day 7&8 – Wynn Farm and School Painting

I’m just writing up some of the highlights from our trip to Haiti as we continue our work for the Mona Foundation.

Day 7, September 18, 2009

I stayed home again as Ruhi went to film a CAFT teacher training seminar.  I spent the time organizing my photos from the trip and writing up some more blogs and notes.  In the afternoon when she got back, she worked with Christophe to translate and review footage while I did some work with my computer organizing files.

Day 8, Septe...Read more

Haiti Highlights: Day 5&6 – George Marcellus

I’m just writing up some of the highlights from our trip to Haiti as we continue our work for the Mona Foundation.

Day 5, September 16, 2009

My ankle was acting up this day so I stayed home to rest it.  Ruhi went to visit Bernard Martinod’s school in Titanyin, just outside Port Au Prince.  I spent the day organizing and preparing some of the Haiti photos I’ve taken so far.

Day 6, September 17, 2009

Today was the road trip up north to the George Marcellus school in Guerot, a ...Read more

Haiti Highlights: Day 4 – Anis Zunuzi

Continuation of highlights from our trip to Haiti as we continue our work for the Mona Foundation.

Day 4, September 15, 2009

We left Petion-Ville, around 6:30 AM so that we could make it to Anis Zunuzi by the time classes started at 7:30.  A bumpy road as usual, but we made it in time so that Ruhi could film their morning song and flag ceremony.  Then we went through every classroom, filming their studies as well as interviewing a few specific students.  Of course, Ruhi did all the camera work, but I wa...Read more

Haiti Highlights: Day 3 – CAFT & Anis Zunuzi

I’m just writing up some of the highlights from our trip to Haiti as we continue our work for the Mona Foundation.  I already blogged about the first 2 days which were settling in and getting ready for our work.  So we’ll start with …

Day 3: Monday, September 14, 2009

First, we visited CAFT, a teacher-training program in Haiti that helps develop teachers’ capacities and techniques as educators.  Ruhi did a bunch of int...Read more

From Idaho to Haiti

Yes, I’m married now.  I’ll post up photos and stuff about that later.  But first I wanted to share a bit about what I’ve been up to since the wedding.

As some of you know, Ruhi is a film maker.  She has been working since January on a documentary project for the Mona Foundation ( monafoundation.org), visiting some of the grassroots education initiatives they support in Cambodia, India, Tanzania, Brazil and Panama.  Haiti is the last leg of her journey so we were able to ...Read more

Overworked and Under The Gun

It is getting down the wire with some of my projects.  The amount of work I have to do between now and when I leave on Tuesday night is pretty much ridiculous.  The only saving grace is that Ruhi is around to keep me company, although she is also super busy cataloging film for her project.

So, the wedding stuff is actually the least stressful of everything.  We are having a pretty simple ceremony and there isn’t that much complicated stuff to do, so we are doing well on that front.  Sure, there are things we have yet to f...Read more

The Final Wushu Recap (8/29)

Now that I have left the Bay Area, my wushu training is, at least for the next month, on the back burner.  In the meantime I will focus more on other things and activities.  Once I’m in China I’ll get back on the bandwagon.

But since this is a temporary break from wushu, I wanted to go out the right way and write up my final Wushu Recap.  Enjoy!

Tuesday and Thursday

Tuesday’s class was the last time I would be teaching before Hao Zhi Hua returned from China. To be honest, I don’t re...Read more

Jennifer in China

As some of you know, about 10 days ago or so I put a call out for folks to help out my friend Jennifer who was going to Beijing University for a year to study.  The response was overwhelming and I can’t say enough to express my appreciation.

So I won’t.

Instead, I’m going to post up a message from Jennifer letting us know what is going on with her and sharing some of her experiences to date.  Enjoy!

I never know where to start with these kinds of things... but I guess I should start with the most important thing:  TH...Read more

Send Jennifer to China!

I would like to tell you a bit about my friend, Jennifer.

I have two best friends in the world (not including Ruhi, who gets a special status higher than best friend).  Two people that I have a very special bond with and can literally talk to about anything.  One of them is Jennifer Wang.

jennifer in  Shandong Province, China, 2006

The Weekly Wushu Recap (8/16)

Another week of wushu has passed!  I didn’t get quite as much training in this week as I would have liked, but thats okay.  I will take what I can get.

The Recap

Tuesday evening I was feeling a bit worn down physically, so after basics got started I took it relatively easy for most of the class, focusing instead on teaching.  I did work a bit on my 3rd section of nanquan though, which was good.  I continued to help Jonny and Pierre with some more of their new nanquan form and everyone else with w...Read more