A year ago almost to the day I posted this to the blog. In it I describe some of the rewards of working with young people in a challenging intercultural context. Tomorrow I’m off to Beijing to rejoin the YingHua Summer Language and Leadership Institute for another go-round.

What’s new this year is that my wife and daughters have already been there for the first three weeks of the program. Colette has been co-directing the program. Mariette, our 8-year-old, is a participant, and Francesca, our 6-year-old, has been “tagging along.”

After a week wrapping up the program, we’re off to the small Tibetan town of Xiahe, high in the hills of Gansu Province. Colette and I have been there three times, and it is one of our absolutely favorite places in the world. But we haven’t been there since 2001, when, in late May, we went there to scope out possible locations for a semester program. It was on that trip that we met a young Dutch woman named Christine Mariette, and suddenly we had a name for our first daughter, who wasn’t yet born. Since then we have dreamed of bringing her and any sisters or brothers to Xiahe. Unfortunately we didn’t have a digital camera back then. Some nice photos here.

Depending on connectivity I may post from the road. Otherwise I’ll be back in early August.