Currently Browsing Uncategorized

Share

Summer Interns Are Here Again!

Posted by on June 13th, 2011

This is the third summer now that I have been fortunate enough to have interns. This year I have two Cornellians and a student from the University of Edinburgh, all architecture students keen to learn about mud buildings.

The interns spent their first night at my house in Dhaka. I immediately put them to work on an arts and crafts project, but jet lag caught up with them and craft time soon turned into nap time.

Jet lag catches up with the interns as craft time turns into nap time...

Read the rest of this entry »

Categories: Interns, Internships, News, Photos, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , | Comments: Be the first to comment..

Share

Surveying Our Villages

Posted by on July 1st, 2010

The past month of work has been an eye-opening experience for me as I explore Panigram’s surrounding towns with my fellow interns.  My project for this summer is to collect baseline demographic data on these villages in order to better understand the community’s current condition—and its most pressing needs.  Since the Bangladeshi government has no demographic information (and not even any maps of the area), it’s up to us to do what in the United States would include census administration, map-making, and social outreach.  What our team is working on right now is the surveying: we visit villagers’ homes and go through a list of basic questions about household size, income, health, work, and education.  By obtaining a snapshot of the community’s current state, we hope to gauge Panigram’s impact in future years by comparing today’s data to subsequent years’.

Some of the villagers in our host community.

Some of the villagers in our host community.

Read the rest of this entry »

Categories: Community Outreach, Construction, Interns, Internships, News, Responsible Hospitality, Social Responsibility, Sustainable Design, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , | Comments: 2

Share

Panigram Resort Ground Breaking

Posted by on June 5th, 2010

Because we are building this resort for the future generations, we had the children break the ground for the resort.

Because we are building this resort for the future generations, we had the children break the ground for the resort.

“The Assistant District Commissioner is really angry and has just left.” My intern’s voice rang in my ears. We were almost an hour and a half late to our ground-breaking ceremony. Initially I had invited everyone at 11:00am thinking that most people would arrive around 11:30am because “Bangladesh time” seems to run thirty to sixty minutes behind “actual time”. Of course, yesterday all of our guests arrived at exactly 11:00am.

Read the rest of this entry »

Categories: Uncategorized | Comments: 9

Share

Kristin Boekhoff Speaks at Cornell University

Posted by on April 17th, 2010

I was fortunate enough to be invited back by my alma mater, Cornell University, to speak at their annual hospitality conference, Hotel Ezra Cornell. The weekend event was packed full of industry leaders.

Read the rest of this entry »

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , | Comments: 6

Share

Fresh, Healthy Food at the Panigram Pavilion

Posted by on August 30th, 2009

My intern Janine spent the summer researching Bangladeshi cooking and creating fusion recipes for the investor meeting at the Panigram Pavilion. All of my guests agreed that the food was amazingly delicious and the perfect blend of east and west. Many of them were surprised, however, to learn that the food was also very healthy!

Mint Cucumber Salad

Mint Cucumber Salad

Read the rest of this entry »

Categories: Food, Interns, Internships, News, Photos, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , | Comments: 2

Share

August 14th – A Day of Trauma and Triumph

Posted by on August 29th, 2009

The Panigram Pavilion on the river at Panigram Resort.

The Panigram Pavilion on the river at Panigram Resort.

Koli and I sped down the road on his motorcycle in a torrential downpour. He had left our motorcycle helmets at the project site, so I held my hand over his eyes like a visor to block out as much of the monsoon rains as I could so that he could see well enough to keep us on the road. The van, holding three of my interns, two large blocks of ice, all of the cooking utensils from my kitchen, two gas stoves, and several pounds of food followed us. We got to the edge of town and saw that the road was completely blocked for repairs. While the motorcycle might have been able to squeak around the barricade, the van would never make it; fortunately Koli knew an alternate route out of the city. We were already an hour late: the van was delayed, our landlord had padlocked us in the building (it took us 20 minutes to find him and have him come open the door), and we had to stop at the bazaar to get ice. Read the rest of this entry »

Categories: Construction, Interns, Internships, News, Photos, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Comments: 15