Amankora Thimphu

... is reflective of the larger development philosophy within Bhutan. While the government's basic goal, as with other developing countries, is to improve the living standards of its people, development in Bhutan is not judged merely by material prosperity and income growth. The Royal Government of Bhutan has repeatedly affirmed the importance of less quantifiable but more meaningful goals such as the happiness, contentment, and the spiritual ...

... Four of our group, including Anne Osborn, made it inside. The rest of us climbed a hill and looked down at those inside the walls. We all agreed that we had a very up close and personal (and a bit scary) experience with the Bhutanese people.

Some of you probably know that Bhutan measures the happiness of its people. We find the people very nice. We feel very comfortable here. All- in- all we are enjoying this tiny kingdom of less than a million people.

... ran wild with the exotic nature and behavior of ordinary
passengers. They probably looked at me
with the same curiosity.



By the time the departure lounge for the flight to Erbil, Iraq
was found, things seemed more normalized.
I noticed a loud and out-going group of six women and two men. As I approached, I understood they were
Americans and all ...

... Heifer, Ukraine on "The cooperative lifeline to subsistence farmers" and also fulfilled a volunteering mission/goal of teaching English to women who are refugees from Afghanistan.

I have learned many things and made many, many Ukrainian friends that I will cherish for life as I carry their memories with me.

My one regret will always be the US Peace Corps. With all the on-the-ground ...

... and nursed back to health in the rural countryside. What was great was seeing examples of rural life and costume - things that I had just seen earlier that day in the National museum! The film also showed a lot of imagery of what the country looks like in the spring and fall - extremely lush and lightly foggy - like a place from another world. I was a bit bummed seeing this, as I thought that would have been a better time to visit, but I consoled myself ...

... The country is also surprisingly advanced - quite European in certain ways. It's amazing to think, as they were isolated from the world until the 1960s. Modernization is clearly underway, but there isn't a very greedy capitalistic attitude about wanting more and more. The country only has about 6 or 700,000 people in it and 100,000 of them are monks. Similarly to India, many girls and boys go into the monkhood because their parents can't afford to pay for ...

... the gates to the stadium swung open, and the crowds surged forward uncontrollably. In this mad crush, women and kids were crushed (one literally, as we found out later), and it was impossible to do anything but allow yourself to get pushed forward with the current. Pretty crazy stuff, I had never experienced this before - something like you'd see at a soccer game or something, but it is very unnerving. Eventually, I was ...

So kids, how can you travel the world and see absolutely nothing at the same time? Easy: Join the United States Marine Corps! We can give you that sense of adventure, minus that whole adventure part! I honestly have not seen a single thing this whole deployment, other than Americans and the occasional third county national skipping around. I'm planning some good stuff to come though... can't wait!

We went up to Kirkuk to do an assessment of the highway patrol station there. The station was run by LTC *****, a Kurd with experience in the Kurdish militia (Peshmerga). He was very welcoming. I was surprised how Western European he looked. His station, although a little dirty, was run like a police station in the U.S. - the weapons were neatly organized in the arms room, the vehicles were ...

Since I had to wait for my flight ticket to be processed, I decided I would spend a couple nights in the small mountain town of Amadiya/Amedy which a number of the university students indicated was a very beautiful place. Taking a shared taxi the 70 kilometres to the town of about 6,000 inhabitants showed a changing landscape highlighted by the traverse through a range of snow-dusted mountains. On the other side ...