Hi, I’m Brenda. I grew up with immigrant parents and four siblings in beautiful rural Canada. Perhaps it was the tree forts and zipline in our back yard that stirred my sense of adventure. It could have been the trips to the airport in the Big City to meet relatives from Holland. Or maybe it was simply a decade of daydreams about escaping from farm labour. Whatever it was, I have always enjoyed seeing new places.

In 1996, after finishing college and working in social work for a few years, I decided to try this ‘teaching English overseas’ thing to help me pay off my student loans.  I went to Seoul, South Korea, and fell in love with Asia and with teaching English. Since then it’s been a non-stop journey of teaching, teacher training and managing – I’ve spent a couple years each in Japan, Australia, Turkey and Malaysia.

Along the way I picked up a very special partner. My husband Mehmet and I met in his uncle’s ceramics shop in Istanbul, Turkey in the summer of 2004. He seller, me shopper.

Mehmet is Kurdish, and was born in East Turkey, right near Mount Ararat (of Noah’s Ark fame). It looks like this around there:

Like me, Mehmet has four sweet siblings. After the age of seven, he grew up without parents, and has an incredible life story that I’ll write about sometime. From age nine he was on his own, living on the streets of Istanbul. Our pasts are vastly different, so the fact that we were led to be together is rather miraculous.

We moved to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia just two days after getting married in September, 2006. We love the tropics, and really enjoyed ‘KL’. I saw this time as an extended Asian honeymoon.

After waiting forever with eagerness and trepidation, we finally made it to Canada! We arrived in December 2008, and are making the transition from tropical life to this northern hemisphere thing. There are tons of adjustments for me – so many things have changed since I last lived here years and years ago. And of course for Mehmet – new family, new country, new culture, it’s ALL new. I hope to record our lessons, adventures, and daily blessings here on the blog.

Mehmet’s passion is football (soccer). Me, I do like outdoor recreation, but I’m not a sports fan so much; my ideal way to spend an evening is to document the things I see and do – through photography, writing, etc.

We both love God and have a heart for the poor and hurting. One of my favourite things about Mehmet is his sensitivity and generosity.  We both have a dream of working with orphans in Africa one day. (I know it sounds cliche…) Other interests we share: nature (can’t wait to take him camping in Canada), puzzles and boardgames,  animals,  and (shhhh) I’m getting him hooked on travel, too!

Thanks for stopping by. Please leave comments if you read! Comments make me so happyyyyy…