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  <atom:title type="html">Weblog</atom:title>
  <atom:subtitle></atom:subtitle>

  <atom:updated>2008-10-29T20:33:22+00:00</atom:updated>

  <atom:link href="http://www.dotrust.org/our-people/emarks/weblog"
             rel="alternate" type="text/html"/>

  

  <atom:id>ac3957c9184db02ae3fb6638aac93d56</atom:id>

  <atom:generator uri="http://plone.org/products/fatsyndication/" version="0.1">fatsyndication</atom:generator>

  

    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>Springing into Action</atom:title>

      <atom:link rel="alternate" type="text/html"
                 href="http://www.dotrust.org/our-people/emarks/weblog/archive/2008/10/29/springing-into-action">
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      <atom:id>b7440d1e750a10279905bbba803f25d6</atom:id>
      <atom:summary>DOT welcomes new country initiatives</atom:summary>

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          <![CDATA[
          
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
Every year I look forward to the turning of the leaves in the fall.&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;It is
one of the most spectacular natural occurrences that I have ever seen. Rich
yellows, oranges and reds which fall from the sky and the fresh aroma of the
turned leaves.&amp;nbsp;
&lt;p align="center"&gt;&lt;img class="image-inline" src="../photo-gallery/camping-in-haliburton/Wigamog%20Road.jpg/image_mini" alt="Wigamog Road" /&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;img class="image-inline" src="../photo-gallery/camping-in-haliburton/Automatic%20setting%20-%20early%20evening%20-%20resized.jpg/image_mini" alt="Jay Lake" /&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;img class="image-inline" src="../photo-gallery/camping-in-haliburton/Jay%20Lake%20at%20dusk.jpg/image_mini" alt="Jay Lake at Dusk" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Over the Canadian Thanksgiving earlier this month, my family
and I went camping in Central Ontario to
experience the most colourful time of the year.&amp;nbsp; Our campsite crackled as we walked along the
fallen leaves.&amp;nbsp; The air was cool and
crisp, perfect for campfires and bundling up in warm clothing.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But upon seeing my purchase of s’more ingredients (graham crackers,
chocolate and marshmallows) to be toasted over the campfire, the local grocery
cashier thought I was crazy for spending a weekend in a tent in cold weather.&amp;nbsp; For me, crazy would have been to have missed being
a part of this most incredible time of the year.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="center"&gt;&lt;img class="image-inline" src="../photo-gallery/camping-in-haliburton/Leaves.jpg/image_mini" alt="Leaves" /&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;img class="image-inline" src="../photo-gallery/camping-in-haliburton/Campsite.jpg/image_mini" alt="Campsite" /&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;img class="image-inline" src="../photo-gallery/camping-in-haliburton/Campfire.jpg/image_mini" alt="Campfire" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;With the turning of these leaves however comes the promise
of new buds in the spring.&amp;nbsp; New hope, new
opportunity and a chance to change lives for the better.&amp;nbsp; DOT is seeing these new buds emerge this fall
with the launch of our China
program and re-launch of our Lebanon
program.&amp;nbsp; With the dedication and hard
work of the country teams and Interns, our new country initiatives are sure to bloom and flourish into
extraordinary colour!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Camping in Haliburton" class="internal-link" href="../../../../../photo-gallery/camping-in-haliburton"&gt;&lt;em&gt;See more colour from Haliburton, Canada...&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Emily Marks</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2008-10-29T20:27:52+00:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2008-10-29T20:33:22+00:00</atom:updated>


    </atom:entry>

  
  

    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>Close Encounters</atom:title>

      <atom:link rel="alternate" type="text/html"
                 href="http://www.dotrust.org/our-people/emarks/weblog/archive/2008/08/12/monkeying-around">
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      <atom:id>2b2839172a4b197b92c6f23002c8c23f</atom:id>
      <atom:summary>Enjoying a local park of not-so-local wildlife</atom:summary>

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&lt;p&gt;A few weeks ago I headed out to the African Lion Safari, located in Southwestern Ontario, Canada.  It is a beautiful animal park filled with wonderful and exotic animals from all parts of the globe, in particular Africa.  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
You can decide if you would like to go on the tour bus to explore the safari trail or take your chances driving your own car.  It's not the lions nor the cheetahs nor is it the rhinoceros roaming around that you have to worry about - it's the baboons.  The hungry baboons to be exact.  It wasn't long until I began to understand why people were placing pieces of fruit onto the windshields of their cars.  They were trying to entice the baboons to come over and sit on their rear view mirrors and munch on the food.  What a photo opportunity!  If you can image the view of what you would see close up, you can appreciate how funny the photos would turn out.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To my relief, I did not have such a close encounter/photo opportunity with the baboons and could breathe a sigh of relief with not having to worry about purchasing touch-up paint or that long black piece of material that was just pulled somewhere off of my car  - I will leave that for the gentleman whose vehicle I saw being slowly pulled apart.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now choosing to head out to the park on a sunny summer Sunday afternoon was probably not the best idea as the traffic was worse in the park then it was on the highway.  And again, it was all because of the baboons.  They held up traffic as they enjoyed jumping from one car to the next, stepping out in front of traffic without a worry, and pleasing the visitors with terrific photo shots.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;After we passed the baboon section, we then began to enjoy a less congested journey through the park and watched the giraffes walk with such style, the ferocious lions lazily lying around, catching glimpses of the cheetahs and pointing out some North American animals including deer.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;After the safari trail we went inside the park to enjoy the birds of prey and parrot shows.  One parrot could even sing the Canadian national anthem.  Impressive.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It's a great place for young kids to run around and explore.  There were lots of families enjoying picnics under the trees and splashing around in the mini water park.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Not bad for just a couple hours drive.  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;p&gt;    &lt;img class="image-left" src="resolveuid/bbf533da6dd26bec464435c3222cecaf/image_mini" alt="Lions" /&gt;&lt;img class="image-left" src="resolveuid/5661f943b62c55235f471b2e0680f5f1/image_mini" alt="Cheetahs" /&gt; &lt;img class="image-left" src="resolveuid/79dcec728d9b8eca1caf112978db6b47/image_mini" alt="Baboon on top of a vehicle" /&gt;&lt;img class="image-left" src="resolveuid/d75f4102c3dc7c3f4f66e071c5220811/image_mini" alt="Rhinoceros" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;    &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;p align="center"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;img class="image-left" src="resolveuid/15ea25777b97d4e4dbba0f6061e78775/image_mini" alt="Giraffes" /&gt; &lt;img class="image-left" src="resolveuid/09ea45be81034937c4f6c18e01364536/image_mini" alt="Deer" /&gt; &lt;img class="image-left" src="resolveuid/01443fca4fda0cb60ed90fcab79b2a91/image_mini" alt="Flamingos" /&gt; &lt;img class="image-left" src="resolveuid/ad54ee6e2069aaf65e3b4b25ee1807b1/image_mini" alt="Emily and a Snowy Owl" /&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Emily Marks</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2008-08-12T18:02:32+00:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2008-08-13T19:34:52+00:00</atom:updated>


    </atom:entry>

  
  

    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>Knowledge Park Competition</atom:title>

      <atom:link rel="alternate" type="text/html"
                 href="http://www.dotrust.org/our-people/emarks/weblog/archive/2008/04/02/knowledge-park-competition">
        http://plone.org/
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      <atom:id>e7cf32716ba4f3acf2b6cd133f581c96</atom:id>
      <atom:summary>DOT Kenyan Intern Robina Guchu helped facilitate a competition amongst Qatari students to develop an ideal Knowledge Park - a mechanism to encourage entrepreneurial advancements in an array of sectors through the use of technology, typically working in conjuction with local universities.</atom:summary>

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&lt;p&gt;                                              &lt;img class="image-left" src="resolveuid/d07de0ce823552fb403dac57d2a1ec03" alt="Robina and Contest participants" height="175" width="439" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Twenty students from local tertiary schools in Qatar participated in a contest to create an ideal Knowledge Park at the ‘UNESCO Information and Exhibition on Knowledge Parks’ held in Doha, Qatar from March 29&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; -31&lt;sup&gt;st&lt;/sup&gt;, 2008.  The students were put into teams and each team worked with a young facilitator to help create their vision.  DOT Kenyan Intern Robina Guchu (far right) was appointed as one of these facilitators.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The winning team of all female students – 2 students from the College of the North Atlantic and 2 students from the Qatar University – presented their winning entry entitled ‘Edgy Technology Park’.  The purpose of this park is to take all of the problems of Qatar and try to find solutions, creating a “technology-based country making technology the mother language for the thumb generation.” &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The contest and a group photo were featured in the ‘Gulf Times’ on Monday, March 31, 2008 &lt;/p&gt;

          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Emily Marks</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2008-04-02T12:06:11+00:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2008-04-02T12:06:11+00:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="Knowledge Sharing"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Knowledge Parks Conference"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="students"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Entrepreneurship"/>
      

    </atom:entry>

  
  

    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>Intern Presentation</atom:title>

      <atom:link rel="alternate" type="text/html"
                 href="http://www.dotrust.org/our-people/emarks/weblog/archive/2008/04/01/intern-presentation">
        http://plone.org/
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      <atom:id>5fe664e91ae6c77ad552121e208ca5e8</atom:id>
      <atom:summary>Five of our Interns presented the DOT 'Youth Leadership: ICT + Communities = Impact' session at the conference</atom:summary>

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&lt;div align="center"&gt;
&lt;img class="image-left" src="resolveuid/81f67ef4b4d9504abb90a510d44b0962" alt="Intern Presentation on Youth Leadership at the Qatar conference " /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
Congratulations Interns on preparing and presenting such an informative and moving presentation about your internship experiences.  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For more photos from the conference, click &lt;a title="Qatar Conference - March 2008" href="resolveuid/6697a2b0ca66c1c8bf37c3164f5cc789"&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Emily Marks</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2008-04-01T12:30:11+00:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2008-04-01T13:33:32+00:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="Interns"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Knowledge Parks Conference"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Qatar"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Entrepreneurship"/>
      

    </atom:entry>

  
  

    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>Second Day of the Conference</atom:title>

      <atom:link rel="alternate" type="text/html"
                 href="http://www.dotrust.org/our-people/emarks/weblog/archive/2008/03/30/second-day-of-the-conference">
        http://plone.org/
      </atom:link>

      <atom:id>85684be2c389884acf0db63d342b8e2f</atom:id>
      <atom:summary>2008-03-30</atom:summary>

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&lt;p&gt;Our five amazing Interns made their PowerPoint internship presentations at the conference earlier today.  They did a remarkable job and really grabbed the attention of the audience.  Paul Akiki started off the presentation with a brief introduction about DOT.  Next, Robina discussed her experience with DOT Kenya and answered questions from the audience regarding her experience.  David, Asma and Mentwab then presented their material and also answered questions from the audience.  Paul then presented his experience and I thanked everyone for their attendance and for the remarkable hardwork and dedication that our Interns have shown.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;Later today, the Interns and I will be discussing the Intern alumni program and we will be conducting individual interviews with each of the Interns that will later be posted to the website.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Emily Marks</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2008-03-30T10:23:59+00:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2008-03-30T10:23:59+00:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="Knowledge Parks Conference"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Qatar"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Doha"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Knowledge Sharing"/>
      

    </atom:entry>

  
  

    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>First day in Qatar</atom:title>

      <atom:link rel="alternate" type="text/html"
                 href="http://www.dotrust.org/our-people/emarks/weblog/archive/2008/03/11/first-day-in-qatar">
        http://plone.org/
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      <atom:id>dd904bc5b787b33e0916954eae15998c</atom:id>
      <atom:summary>2008-03-28</atom:summary>

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          <![CDATA[
          Having a wonderful time in Doha... It is a beautiful city.  Janet, Mentwab, David and I attended UNESCO's reception this evening and we were welcomed by Abdul Khan, UNESCO's Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information.  The DOT team also met up with Paul and Robina who arrived this evening.  Unfortunately there were computer complications at the airport in Jordan so Asma was not able to make it into Qatar this evening as planned.  We hope (fingers crossed!) that she will arrive tomorrow evening.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We have a full day planned for tomorrow - attending seminars, meeting new people and the reception/gala dinner in the evening.  &lt;br /&gt;
          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Emily Marks</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2008-03-11T15:56:20+00:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2008-03-28T21:00:12+00:00</atom:updated>


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