Tag Archive | hiking

Teaching and learning in Kyrgyzstan

Have you ever heard of Kyrgyzstan? Two years ago I had no idea where exactly this country was. And this year it was already the second time I traveled to this amazing country in Central Asia.

Everything started when Gerrit Beine asked me to join him giving a workshop about agile software development in Bischkek (here some impressions from 2012).

This year I was offered the possibility to teach, inspire and learn again in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. This time Michel Löhr joined in as the main coach for the agile workshop at KSUCTA University. And it was amazing this time I was already used to the not so good things like infrastructure or air pollution (which has improved in a good way over the last two years) and then on the other side I saw all this beauty!

The nature is stunning and looking to those massive mountains just outside of Bishkek is amazing. Hiking in those mountains was even more rewarding and then you had the people of Kyrgyzstan: Awesome! So friendly, hospitable, open minded and curious people it was a wonderful experience. Every day at least two students took care of us by doing activities to explore nature, culture, people or food. Thank you all for making this possible.

The 5 days agile software development workshop was a lot of fun where we taught the basics of Scrum. With a lot of games and interactive exercises so that the students could experience the agile culture first hand and learn to work and improve as a team and excel with each iteration.

I’m already looking forward to inspire, teach and learn more in this wonderful country called Kyrgyzstan in the next years.

Pura Vida

What a great tiny town is Montezuma on the Peninsula of Nicoya, Costa Rica. Here I spent 5 weeks to enjoy the “Pura Vida” (Pure life, slogan used from Costa Rician people to express their laid back lifestyle).

With so many things to enjoy and do this was a great treat for body and soul: Surfing, learning spanish, beaches, waterfall hike, Poi show on Thursday night, Cinema at 7:30pm, delicious food in the restaurants, Saturday market in the central park, zip lining, running on the beach, great conversations with fellow travelers, relaxing with the sounds of waves. Here some more impressions from the paradise like town: