The Updates Continue

Gosh, I barely even know where to start. 

I flew back from the Balkans at the end of June 2022 in time to head down to Minnesota with Attiya and Hayley to attend Kim and Mike's wonderful (KG themed!) cottage wedding, and then to fly back from there in time to take part and Laura and Mo's lovely wedding here. It was there that I got a call from Mariya asking if I wanted to join an OSUN project working in the education sector in refugee camps. 

Despite knowing that I was burnt out and really should give myself a break, I felt like I really couldn't give up a chance to work on something that united all of my knowledge and expertise (anthropology, international relations, disaster management, ESL teaching, and education development) in such a useful and fundamentally good way so I ended up agreeing to take on not one, but two projects (after first dashing off for a quick Manitoulin camping trip with Robb). The first, my main project, involved developing the initial sections of a new (primarily online) bridging curriculum for refugee students in Kenya, Jordan and Bangladesh who were looking to apply to English-language universities, whether online from their camps or abroad as part of their resettlement, and needed to upgrade their English language, writing, general academic and study skills in order to do so. The second project had me working as a teacher trainer in the Cox's Bazar camps in Bangladesh, helping to build the mentoring skills of local and refugee senior teachers and administrators responsible for the ultimate rollout of and teacher training on the new curriculum for the Rohingya refugees (who had at that point been without schooling beyond the grade 3 level for almost 5 years). This built of work I had been doing at AUCA helping to mentor our trainee teachers from our Master's of Teaching program, and later to help mentor and advise other mentors working with the program. The work itself was interesting, but the practical, administrative and (most of all) bureaucratic hurdles just made everything so challenging. This was especially devastating and frustrating when I was working directly with our refugee students or trainees in camp whether to gather data in order to improve the programs or to conduct sessions, because the limitations on their lives and what exactly it was actually possible for us to accomplish in trying to help were just so, so unavoidably glaringly obvious. And there is nothing worse than seeing people suffer and being quite literally powerless to offer anything more than a bandaid solution when you know that the only thing prolonging their suffering is quite simply politics and the lack of will to actually implement a solution on the part of other people because of optics, and yes, more politics. It's gut wrenching and awful even just as an observer and it really should not be that way. 

Needless to say, last year was not really a break of any kind. I learned a lot, made some good friends, got to enjoy many a lovely Cox's Bazar sunset and cheap seafood dinner (in the few hours I wasn't working) while in Bangladesh for most of the fall and some of January, and got to visit the giraffes on a brief fall trip to Kenya. I was also extremely fortunate that I was able to organize some stopovers in London in order to visit Lisa (and Jo! and other Jo!) in Cambridge, as well as attend the Arch & Anth dinner at Ox while Lisa was still with us. Sadly, we lost Lisa on Nov 3rd. Cancer is awful. I am still so devastated (though I guess marginally less angry) that we lost her at such a young age. She really was the best of us and I was always so grateful that I got to follow along on her journey from the sidelines as she became the badass archaeologist and academic she was always meant to be, championing equality and open access the entire way <3. She was just such an incredible person and her determination - even when she was younger and doubted herself - was always incredible to watch. I loved watching her grow into herself and was so, so proud of her and all she had accomplished. I told her years ago that I used her as an example of what could be accomplished through determination when I was encouraging my students to follow their dreams and she kind of scoffed at me then, but she just went on accomplishing more and more as the years went on and I still can't really believe she is gone. We got way too short a time after she was told the cancer had returned, but I will forever be grateful that the universe conspired to organize things so that I got any time at all <3. And I am so, so glad you had (your) Jo with you throughout. Love you Lisa. And I will now forever mispronounce the word dahlia in your honour ;).

So fall was busy times. I was home for a grand total of 6 days, during which I moved from Zia J's where I had been staying for the second half of the summer (I had been staying with Emily B in between Nonno's and my time back in KG, but she very sensibly acquired a new roommate while I was gone) to my condo. Thankfully, the majority of my stuff had been in my storage locker in the basement here for the last 10 years, so I didn't have to move it too far. I also lucked out and was able to source most of my furniture from castoffs from friends and fam as well as from previous tenants. So that made coming home for x-mas much more pleasant! That said, I am still sleeping on a mattress on the floor nearly 10 months later (it's perfectly comfy! and I am much too lazy to source another bed), so... shrug. Ma and John ended up deciding to sell their place up here in Jan, so they are now also in the condo (sleeping on my actual bed) when they are not down in Costa Rica, which means I now have far too many plates or cutlery for one place, having also inherited theirs, but at least don't have to carry all of the costs of living here :P.

It was back to Bangladesh for me in Jan to (I thought) wrap up the teacher training project (turns out we are running another round of training and I have somehow agreed to head back this fall?), and then over to Kenya in Feb to meet with our students in Kakuma and Dadaab and run some in person classes as well as do data collection in order to assess and re-work some bits of the curriculum. From Kenya, I popped on down to Zimbabwe to visit Shahnaz, Avi and Azhar in Harare and to travel around and explore (and dip back across the SA border to finally see Mapungubwe!). I got to meet and become friends with the awesome Mzi while I was there and had an absolutely lovely time travelling around the country. Definitely one of my favourite places in Africa. Despite the horrendous economic and political situation, everyone is well educated, curious, independent and interested in the world around them. It was a really great place to just go and hang out with the people. It also doesn't hurt that the landscape is gorgeous and the history/archaeology phenomenal.  

From Zim, it was back to Toronto to implement the findings from my data collection and to wrap up the curriculum design process. As well as to continue my other job editing academic and policy papers for the Bishkek branch of the OSCE and the OSCE Academy (which I had been continuing to do throughout as well) and to drop back into my other, other job substitute teaching circus here in Toronto at Artists' Play. Finishing the OSUN project was such a relief. Guys. Three jobs (not even counting the sub-teaching) is too many - especially when you are already burnt out! 

Wrapping up the major projects also gave me some time to finish working on addressing some major health issues that I had been trying to fix for years but hadn't had the energy/time to adequately dedicate to (not to mention had been constrained by the slow, sloowww process of getting in to see specialists in Ontario and the limited access to medical care caused by covid prior to that). Turns out a lot of the more physical issues were down to my having (had) a twisted coccyx (for the last 20 + years!) that had gotten worse in the last few years due to my compensating for an ankle I had sprained (again) playing soccer (in 2017!) and in which the ligaments and tendons were now so overstretched that the bones have a (continued) tendency to shift and dislocate (thanks hypermobility disorder)... and which I had been dancing, circus-ing, hiking and back country skiing on (I knew it wasn't right, I just didn't know how not right...). Whoops. Anyway... the coccyx was essentially squishing my colon as well as causing a whole bunch of structural and musculoskeletal knock-on effects in my pelvis and core and spine and legs and... yeah. The impacts on my digestion (from having my colon squished, which, for the record, is not fun) were also exacerbated by the fungal infection I had had in my intestines back in 2019 AND the helicobacter infection I got sometime around late 2020/early 2021, as well as the decision by my digestive sphincters (but especially my gal bladder and duodenal sphincters) to dysfunction (since, you know, they are also connective tissue and therefore... felt left out? by not having previously been implicated by my hypermobility disorder?). Anyway... all of that is cleared up now - minus the ankle, which doesn't like it when I drive and thus gets grumpy and agitates the coccyx, but those are relatively easy fixes now that we know what is going on - and the fact that apparently my exhaustion was not just a result of general burnout and my body dealing with constant pain and the inability to digest a bunch of foods while everything was dysfunctional, but also a lovely side effect of the 2019 fungal infection having essentially thrown my adrenal system off kilter (causing adrenal insufficiency - it was BAD) and, now, the lingering effects of that. Fun. But, happily, that is also getting better and I am now starting to feel a (bit) more and more like my old self.  

After wrapping up the projects at the end of May, I took off to Europe to visit friends and fam and get some travel in. First stop was England to visit Jo, and Charlotte(ish), and Jo and Lisa in her lovely wildflower meadow, and Alex and Erika for Alex's bday. Then it was across the channel to Dieppe to visit the cousins in Caen, see Tante Jeanine's final resting place on the beaches of Normandy, and visit Mont St Michel (thanks to Suzelle for hosting me!). Next it was down to Paris to visit Iselin and to catch up with Jawad and Gahzal, and then on to Lyon to finally visit Caroline down there (guys, Lyon is LOVELY!). From Lyon, I headed over to Zurich (via a wonderful stopover in Bern!) to collect Vanessa who was joining me for the next whirlwind leg of the trip trough Lucerne, Liechtenstein, Feldkirch, Innsbruck, Bolzano (where we met up with Pablo!), Cortina d'Ampezzo and the Dolomites, Trento, Venice (where we met up with Stephen!), Bologna, Rimini and Milan. While we were moving really quickly overall, we took 5 days to fully enjoy the Dolomites, renting a car and camping out in Cortina so that we could have enough time to get in some amazing hikes and even take Vanessa on her first ever via ferrata :D. After Vanessa flew out to Milan, I headed down to Genoa to visit the palazzos and hike Cinque Terre, then over to Savona to visit the Gareri side of the fam :), and then across to Nice, Monaco and Marseilles before flying home myself.

Since then I have just been here, trying to catch up on all my posts and updates, seeing/hanging with friends and fam, enjoying having access to a rooftop pool, working on editing projects, and teaching summer camp at the circus school :). 

Not sure what I will get up to next. It seems like I am headed back to Bangladesh in September (and possibly again in October/November), and then... who knows? For now I am just trying to take a little break enjoying life as it comes :).

Whoops?

Wow... so... uh... it's been a while...

I did, in fact, end up staying in Kyrgyzstan for that second year I mentioned when we last parted ways... and then also decided to stay for another 5 more ;). Needless to say, I really liked it there (understatement of the century :P) and it very much became home.

So many people have asked me over the years what I love so much about Kyrgyzstan. And really, there is just so much. It's nearly impossible to put into words. It's magic. The people are amazing. I have so many colleagues and ex-students and friends who have become like family. There are complex cultural and historical interplays. Linguistically, I had two languages to learn. It sits in a fascinating location economically and geopolitically. And, of course, the country itself is absolutely wonderful. There are just so many stunning landscapes to explore and phenomenal mountains (I had 5000ers (that's meters!) a 45 min drive from my apartment!) to climb (and ski!). It really is a nature lover's ultimate playground. It was also amazing to be there at a time when the country was developing in so many ways - in terms of tourism and outdoor pursuits and education and true community oriented entrepreneurship - and to get to be a part of that in some very real ways, from teaching business and environmental risk management at the university (alongside English and communication), to leading students on excursions and introducing them to the outdoors as a place of adventure, to essentially setting up a circus school and working on route finding projects and improving risk management in the tourism industry. 

There is an amazing energy to the country, so much potential and room for growth, as though everything is new and possible. I'm not sure if it's because the country itself is still so young, only really coming into its own with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1992, or if it is because over half of the country is under 25, with over a third between the ages of 14-25, lending the whole nation an un-jaded air of possibility. The feeling comes across in all the new enterprises people are eager to try and create, the scrapy nature of the economy, and even the fact that the country has implemented elections almost immediately after each of its three political revolutions. It's an air of hope. One that perseveres despite the barely sufficient domestic economy, continued social inequality and corruption, failing pension system and precarious financial state of much of the population. I felt it among the youth that I worked with at the university, but also among those who were middle aged and older working in the tourism industries. This spirit has been somewhat tamped down by the unfortunate dual economic effects of the pandemic and Russia's war on Ukraine in the last few years, but it is still there, under it all. And really, that is impossible not to love. 

Deciding to stay in Kyrgyzstan was continuously one of the easiest decisions of my life. I loved my work, I loved the people and I loved the place. I am so glad I got to spend nearly 7 magical years there, and was absolutely devastated when it was time to leave (but more on that later), even though I knew that time would come sooner or later.

Working in KG also meant I got in plenty of time for adventures - both within the country and without. There's a running joke among many of my local and non-local friends, particularly those in the tourism industry, that I have explored more of Kyrgyzstan than anyone else they know. I doubt it's true. I have so much more left to explore. But it might not be entirely inaccurate either ;). 

Packing in loads of extra work (and hikes!) during the school year also meant that I had much of my summers off, Christmas holidays, and occasionally fall and spring breaks to explore further afield. And explore I did.

After hitting up South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland the Christmas of my first year, and then heading to eastern and northern Kazakhstan to explore more there during spring break, I decided to spend that summer in the mountains, travelling Tajikistan for a month after a brief trip home before looping back up to Bishkek via the Pamir highway and Osh and being joined by Emily B so that we could head south the long way via Naryn, Tash Rabat and Kazarman to the Alay Valley and the Irkeshtam Pass. After crossing the pass into China, we got to thoroughly explore Xinjiang province, getting to see it in 2016 before the situation began to seriously deteriorate the following year, before making our way up to Qinghai, and from there, to Tibet, making our way all the way to Everest Base Camp before heading back to Lhasa and catching a flight to Kathmandu (the road across the boarder was still washed out from the earthquake the previous year). After exploring the Kathmandu region and taking a brief 4-5 day trip over to Bhutan, it was time for us to part ways. Em heading home, and me heading over to Pokhara to hike the Anapurna Circuit + extensions Trek before heading back (via a brief stop in Delhi) for the start of the semester and the second ever World Nomad Games, held in Cholpon Ata, Kyrgyzstan. 

 That fall, I continued the explorations, visiting Gwanju and Seoul in South Korea to get in some dance classes and see Minjung, So Jung & the fam, as well as past friends and colleagues. For the x-mas/new year holiday, I was off to Myanmar on an excellent trip, even getting to explore Rakhine state in the brief period it was open prior to the escalation of the Rohingya crisis (Not to make light of the awful situation that has and continues to displace a million refugees, but why do I feel like I am giving the impression that my presence is a catalyst of doom. It's not. I swear! ... at least I don't think it is? Yikes. That would be dark... I think the world is just (sadly) in a very rough place.). The 2017 spring break saw me exploring more of Kazakhstan, visiting the mountainous southeast and Turkestan in the south this time. Summer 2017 continued this trend, with me exploring Central Asia and the Caucasus. Ma joined me in Bishkek, and we headed off through Kyrgyzstan to Uzbekistan (where we visited all of the major sites, including the Aral Sea in Karakalpakistan) via the Fergana Valley border, and then into Turkmenistan where I spent an amazing evening/night staring at the Gates of Hell (an ever-burning gas crater) and we wandered through the ruins of Nissa, Merv and Gonur (as well as the modern day city of Ashgabat). From there, it was home for Ma and onwards for me. I crossed the border into Iran on an epic 35 day overland journey with a mission to see as many archaeological sites and become as familiar with the culture as I could (thankfully armed with some Persian taught to me by my amazing Afghan students back in Bishkek). I also got in some amazing hiking in Rasht and the Alamut valley, and summited Damavand, at 5670m asl. From Iran I crossed into Armenia, and then into Georgia (and Abkhazia), getting in loads of wonderful hiking, food and exploration there before I had to head back for the start of term.

Fall 2017 saw me exploring ever farther reaches of Kyrgyzstan with a trip to Kel Suu (now a popular tourism destination for locals and foreigners alike!) before I headed over to Bangladesh to visit Bethany and explore the country during fall break. Since I hadn't been home in over 18 months by that point, it was Toronto for Christmas that year, while spring break saw me heading to western Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, the two bits of Central Asia and the Caucasus I had missed the summer before. Summer 2018 saw me revisiting some old haunts and exploring them more thoroughly as I headed to England for Mark & Jess' wedding and turning that into a country-wide trip, visiting uni friends and exploring all the bits of England I had somehow failed to visit while I lived there. From there, it was back to Bishkek and onward to China. But not before 10 days spent up at Ratsek Hut at 3,350m asl in Ala Archa National Park learning how to trad climb and perform glacier rescues from Yaroslav (and summitting Peak Uchitel!). While I passed through Xinjiang on my way into China, the ongoing issues made it impossible (and me unwilling) to stay, and instead I visited a number of locations in my month long journey there that I had missed on previous trips. From China, I made my way to Indonesia, for what was probably one of my favourite trips of all time. I had so many crazy adventures, met up with and made so many excellent friends, hiked so many mountains, saw so many things, ate so much good food and had so many new experiences. almost two months was not nearly long enough and I definitely need to get back to Indonesia one day! 

Once again made it back to Bishkek in time for the start of term - and in time to get in a quick multi-day trek up to Ala Kul lake with Emma before the start of the 3rd Nomad Games. Such epic times. I remain devastated that they got handed off to Turkey and will now rotate hosts. I feel like there was so much epic tourism potential that the Kyrgyz government could have built off of.  I also managed to get in a summitting of Peak Boks, the second of my Ak Sai summits. For fall break, I was off to Norway (to visit Jawad), Sweden (to serendipitously see Em & Alex! I hilariously only learned they had landed there the day after I booked my flights!) and Finland (to see Sarah). It was a great trip in many ways, but I somehow always seemed to be in the wrong place to ever see the northern lights (despite the fact that I spent most of my trip in the far north)! Kept up the visiting trend over x-mas/new year's break, heading to New Zealand to see Ching for an epic North Island camping trip with her and Anne before I hitched and bussed my way down south to Wellington and ferried over to the South Island where I picked up my rental car and camped my way around. On the way home, I managed to stop off in Vietnam for just under a week, visiting Chris & Annie and the fam in Dalat! 

For the 2019 spring break, Emma, Emma Claire and I were headed to Oman, having brough a trusty tent and rented a 4x4. All in all it was a pretty amazing trip. We got in sun, sand, sea, desert (okay so that's sand), mountain, and loads of archaeology and history. I also managed a stopover in Dubai to see Janae and her growing family as well as Mafiz and family. Three months later, I was back in Dubai for another visit, this time on route to Africa :). First stop was Ethiopia, where I got spend a month exploring the country and got to visit Shahnaz and Avi, and later Stuart as well (including on a detour to Somaliland), from Ethiopia I crossed south into Kenya, exploring the north before meeting up with Ma (and Jonathan for a brief reunion!) in Nairobi and headed off to explore Mombasa and the coast before heading westward to the Masai Mara to stay with the Masai and onward to Uganda. Uganda was incredible. So many amazing people, many met through Ma's rotary connections. And getting up close and personal with the chimps in Kibale and gorillas in Bwindi is something I will never forget. From there, it was south to Rwanda, with a brief detour into the DRC to hike the Nyiragongo Volcano (the lava lake of which I almost didn't get to see due to the weather!) for me. From Rwanda, we headed into Tanzania for an amazing safari through the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater, with a stop to visit Olduvai Gorge in there as well! We also passed through Arusha on our way to Zanzibar and, rather predictably, the glance I got of Kili saw me trying to figure out a way to hike it without breaking my ethics or my budget. After some lovely relaxing days spent on Zanz (complete with a blue bottle jellyfish sting for me while learning how to kite surf) and Ma's return home. I headed back to Arusha, this time with the intent to hike. Summitting Kili was very cool, but it was the hike up that was truly beautiful. All in all, it's a fairly easy walk. Especially for those who, unlike me, do not stubbornly insist on carrying their own pack the whole way ;). From Kili, I headed straight south and into northern Zambia, this time to stay with Adam and Liane who were rurally based as Peace Corps volunteers. I got to spend a lovely relaxing week in the village with them disconnected from modern life before it was time to hitch my way back up to Dar (stopping at archaeological sites on the way of course) and my flight out. Managed to sneak in a few weeks back home in Toronto to see friends and fam and attend Joseph's wedding before it was time to head back for the start of term. 

For fall 2019, I got in a quick trip to Lithuania, Kaliningrad, Latvia and Estonia, visiting Jordan while I was there. While Christmas/new year's break saw Hilary and I seek the sun in Sri Lanka! We also got in loads of hiking and archaeology on the bits that we saw together, before I continued north to Jaffna. Early 2020 saw me getting this strange cold-flu illness that completely wiped my energy levels (gee, hmm, I wonder what that was :P). And that combined with the residual effects of a 2019 fungal infection and general exhaustion from having worked multiple jobs and travelling non-stop (not to mention circus-ing and hiking everything within sight) for the 5 years prior had me contemplating doing nothing but sleeping for my entire spring break. 

I managed to get enough energy up to book a trip to Cyprus to visit Electra in March when... well... we all know what happened. Basically I spent the day before my birthday up in the mountains ski touring and learning avalanche safety from Yaroslav, only to come down to an uncertain world. My birthday marked my last day of in person work (yes, it was THAT Friday the 13th) and the cancelation of all travel (and thus my trip to Cyprus the next day). Kyrgyzstan didn't go into a hard lockdown until the week after (by which point nearly all of the expat foreigners bar a select few had left). 

I can't lie. Those first few weeks (months) of lockdown did me a lot of good. I desperately needed the slow down they entailed, and they gave me an excuse to get the rest I so desperately needed. Although Bishkek was slammed hard by both Covid (with July 2020 now referred to as Black July) and economic decline once the economic situation became unsustainable (especially as none of those working abroad were able to work either, effectively eliminating the 30% of the economy supported by remittance payments) and people had to return to work and many of the workers were sent home from other countries, bringing new strains with them, the early Covid era marked a period of much needed rest for me. That is not to say, of course, that I was doing nothing :P. I spent a lot of time working on handstands and, once the borders of the city reopened, summitting new mountains, going on treks, and camping. I even got in a trek up to the Enilchek glacier with Daniyar and Stephen. All in all it was a wonderful summer for me. Although one filled in many ways with uncertainty. I will forever be grateful that the world wide slowdown meant I was forced to spend a whole summer in the beauty of Kyrgyzstan - and that the suspension of OHIP residency requirements in Ontario meant that I could stay in KG for longer than otherwise would have been possible.

Fall 2020 saw me continuing the trend set in the late Spring, running my classes from online, getting in circus training time, and spending loads of time in the mountains - shifting to back country skiing (with the newly arrived Jo!) once the snow got to be too much for hiking. I wound up deciding to move home to Toronto in Jan 2021 to continue my teaching online from Nonno's basement while that was still possible. We ended up losing Nonna to Alzheimer's + Covid just after I landed while I was still in quarantine, but I am so glad that I got to spend time with her while she was still in so many ways her. Nonno, surprising us all after a number of medical misadventures is still alive and well at 95. And when I was staying with him (back when he was a youthful 93), I would frequently even find him up a tree or on the roof working on some project or another. After a spring spent teaching nights online in a basement, I was itching for some nature. Thankfully, I was able to join Hilary on a one-month road trip across the US starting from DC and heading through Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, a tiny corner of Utah, and Colorado (visiting Safia, Niamh, Cristina and Ross along the way), before flying to Calgary (to see Melody and fam!) and heading back this way on a road trip with Robb via Kananaskis, Banff, Jasper, Edmonton, Saskatoon (& Outlook!), Riding Mountain, Winnipeg and the North Shore of Lake Superior (and visiting Kim and CaitlynAnn, as well as the fam in Outlook along the way), making it home just in time for Nico's wedding. Robb, Anne and I also managed to sneak in a quick east coast road trip over Thanksgiving 2021 stopping off in Ottawa to see Reb and her fam and then heading out through Quebec and along the Gaspe, across NB and into NS to visit Natasha and fam and hit up Cape Breton before looping back to Toronto.

Although I had planned to take the next year off and figure out what I wanted to do next, the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan meant that many of our students got stuck there, and I wound up agreeing to teach the incoming cohort online until we could get them out. That turned into me heading back to Kyrgyzstan for the Spring of 2022 (Yay!), but not until after I had gotten in a trip to Costa Rica with Emily to see Ma and John in early 2022. 

Getting back to KG meant a re-settling into my normal life there and me questioning why the heck I had ever been willing to leave. It's amazing how many friends you make when you build a life somewhere - and what a beautiful place that is to build a life.

After sticking around for all of spring break and all of May to get in some more hikes and trips and adventures around the country, it was time for me to say a final farewell and to head off on yet another adventure - this time to the Southern Balkans, hitting up Northern Greece (where I met Veronika!), Albania, Kosovo, and Macedonia by way of Thracian Turkey. Such a blast. Definitely one of my favourite parts of the world. The mountains, the history, the food, the slow laidback culture, they all speak to me on the level of my soul :).

Sigh... and that brings us... not to now... but to... this year? And is also all I can type for the moment. So, lets end this here and I can bring you all up to date in another post. This is already fairly long... though I suppose not tooo long given that it represents near seven years of catching up :P.