Hi,

My name is josh markowitz. I am 15 years old and I attend Garfield High School (I just finished 9th grade). I am also the son of Lori Markowitz, one of the bridges employees. I have taken part in the bridges exchange program for 3 years as it has gone from Washington Middle School to Garfield High School. I love all the kids that have come to seattle and i am very excited to see them.

Catherine Parker

Joe Staiano - SA Workshop

For years, I've always enjoyed visiting schools to introduce children to people and places around the world. I've been involved with Bridges for several years including a Mentor Workshop with students from South Africa, and delivering in-school training for teachers and students in digital storytelling. Participating in a Bridges workshop is a profound, life-changing experience. Mentors teach digital storytelling; however, its the students that teach US about spirit, open-mindedness, hope and passion.

Prior to and after the 2008 South Africa workshop, I will be on an 8-month volunteer/ humanitarian journey touching Uganda, South Africa, Namibia, Morocco, Lao, Vietnam, China, Myanmar. My photography and travels encompass 60 countries on all 7 continents! I'm intoxicated by the differences of peoples, places and cultures; yet, it is the similarities (common themes such as laughter, play, family) that prove most interesting.
Check out my photography at http://www.joestaiano.com/.

Welcome from the Bridges to Understanding team

Photo taken by Kristi Mclean at Bridges' 2007 South Africa workshop

Hello all,

We at Bridges to Understanding are so thrilled to be completing a digital storytelling workshop with the amazing students of Hector Peterson Secondary School for the second year in a row. We'll be staying in Stellenbosch and travelling daily to informal settlement of Wallacedene in Kraaifontein to help these incredible students create photo-based stories about their lives to be shared in classrooms around the world.

We have started this blog in order for participants to introduce themselves and share their expectations/excitement/hopes and dreams before the trip. Then, once we're on the ground, we will assign a "blogger" role to a participant who will be responsible for keeping your friends, family, and anyone else interested in these workshops up to speed on what's going on! After the workshop, we hope it will help sustain the community we will build over the workshop and serve as a way to keep everyone connected to each other and Bridges' work. We encourage you to check out the blog from 2007's Guatemala trip to get an idea of how informative and important the blog can be.

We're looking forward to our adventure! To get to know your Bridges instructors Lori Markowitz, Julee Geier and Josh Schachter, please check out Bridges' About Us page and Josh Schachter's photography page. To see stories made last summer as well as during a short April workshop in Seattle with 6 visiting South African students, see the Bridges Gallery page (the April digital stories are at the very top, and the stories from last summer are located at the very bottom). Lastly, please read through the incredible blog from Bridges' Face to Face program in 2008, where 6 Tibetan students joined 6 South African students and 4 Guatemalan students for 3 weeks of cultural exchange in Seattle.

We are looking forward to seeing you all soon and hearing your pre-departure excitement on the blog.

Cheers,
The Bridges team