Jonnae Tillman is in her 17th year as a trainer, researcher, and consultant in Motivational Interviewing (M.I.). and is a member of MINT (Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers), an international organization committed to research, training, and practice.
Jonnae is the former Clinical Director of University of Washington's Innovative Projects Research Group (IPRG), where she provided M.I. training, supervision and fidelity adherence for research with military personnel/adult/adolescent marijuana dependence and alcohol abuse. Jonnae has also written online CE courses for M.I. and Type 2 Diabetes Primary Care.
Jonnae has degrees in psychology and addiction medicine from Seattle University. She has since trained and coached emergency department practitioners at NYU/Bellevue Hospital, Miami's Jackson Memorial, and Massachusetts General in Boston. She also teaches M.I. as Adjunct Faculty for Seattle University's graduate nurse practitioner program. She now designs trainings for Nurse Family Partnership, Washington State Department of Corrections, Migrant Head Start, and domestic violence prevention agencies.
Jonnae regularly presents at national and international conferences, presenting on topics like "M.I. in 'e-Health' Interventions at the ICME research conference in Venice, Italy; and "M.I. in Healthcare: Brief Interventions" at the MINT conference in Sheffield, England.
Jonnae is currently a psychiatric nurse practitioner doctoral student (DNP) at Seattle University.
Jonnae Tillman lives in the beautiful little beach town of Edmonds, Washington, loves watching her two teenage sons play football and basketball, is a voracious reader and travels as much as possible. On her travel wish list is a visit to Lithuania and Poland.


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HomeKyrgyzstanCities & Towns & PlacesCentral Kyrgyzstan
Central Kyrgyzstan
The mountainous heart of Kyrgyzstan offers travellers unrivalled opportunities to explore jailoos on foot, horseback or by 4WD. At every turn you will find a family offering to put you up for the night or a group of herdsmen who will eagerly invite you into their yurt for a cup of tea and a bowl of fresh yoghurt. Add this to some of the world's most glorious alpine lakes and it is easy to see why central Kyrgyzstan now rivals Lake Issyk-Kul in the hearts and minds of travellers.
The broad Suusamyr valley lies in the heart of Central Kyrgyzstan, this is one of the highest inhabited but least travelled regions in Kyrgyzstan. Plunging from the dramatic 3,586 metre Tor Ashuu pass in the west to the friendly and relaxed town of Kochkor, more than 200 kilometres to the east, this is the area definitely worth a visit.
It is a land built on a scale for giants; a high steppe plateau averaging 2,200 metres above sea level, bordered to the north and south by the magical ice and snow kingdoms of the Kyrgyz Alatau and Suusamyr Tau mountain ranges respectively, and with mighty rivers cutting a deep slash through its heart.
Always dramatic, the valleys ever changing landscape varies from vast open plains laid out on broad, descending shelves to narrow, jagged limestone gorges piled with massive rock falls and scree slopes. Its lush mountain pastures, jailoos in Kyrgyz, are filled with herbs and wild flowers in summer. Marmots build networks of burrows deep below the grass while the majestic eagle and the even rarer lammergeier, with its three-metre wing span, soar high among the peaks. There are also foxes, mountain goats, curly-horned Marco Polo sheep and wolves, but you'd be extraordinarily lucky to see any of them.
The main routes into the valley are from the Bishkek to Osh road in the west, but takes you through the spectacular Tor Ashuu Pass, and from the Balikchy to Naryn road at Kochkor. There are several other smaller roads into the area around Lake Song Kul but they are impassable in winter, when deep snow blankets the high regions, and after heavy rain, which turns dirt tracks into dangerous mudslides. The best places to trek from are Kyzil Oi or, for Song Kul, Kyzart.
This difficult combination-the mountains' inflexible embrace and the long harsh winters-makes the Suusamyr valley one of Kyrgyzstan's most isolated and poorest regions. The backbone of its economy is farming, mainly animal husbandry. For centuries the valley has been used to fatten sheep for the winter months; its lush grass was so coveted that clan wars used to break out over particular pastures. In Soviet times the area was almost exclusively given over to herds from the collective farms and up to four million sheep were herded here each summer from the foothill villages of the Kyrgyz Alatau to the north. But the collapse of the collective farm system and Soviet export channels has had a dramatic impact on local agriculture and the herds are now only about a fifth of their original size.
Nevertheless, the Suusamyr valley remains a magical place for the Kyrgyz in summer. The Russian traveller Victor Vitkovich's account of a trip he made there about 70 years ago could just as easily apply to life on the jailoo today:
It is night. Pressing closely around a yurt, sheep are deep in slumber, breathing evenly, their heads buried in the wool of their fellows. The lightest of sounds is heard in the stillness of the mountains ... The moon glides across the sky stumbling over clouds, and the peaks of the mountains, resembling enormous blocks of blue marble, are illumined by a mysterious inner light. Slowly the darkness is pushed back as, growing brighter, dazzling beams of morning light rise from behind the rim of the mountains ... The sun peeps out from between two boulders on a mountain top. A sudden gust of wind causes the grass to sway and gives the tulips a brighter hue. A shaggy sheepdog licks its master's hand with its hot tongue. This is the morning of the shepherds, morning in the jailoo, in Suusamyr, in the preserves of the Kyrgyz people.
Due to the valley's isolation tourism is fairly new here. The initial reserve of the people soon thaws to offer a typically warm and generous Kyrgyz welcome. There is an excellent network of homestay accommodation at the valley's eastern end, around Kochkor. Homestay offers a great way for visitors to meet local Kyrgyz families and learn about their lives. There are compromises to be made, however: in Suusamyr beds are usually a pile of traditional mattresses, thickly padded with cotton or wool, laid on shyrdaks on the floor (bring a sleeping bag), and privacy may be difficult to achieve.
Kojumkol
Kyzyl Oi
Kochkor
Around Kochkor
Lake Song-Kol
Around Naryn
Koshoy Korgon
At-Bashy
Tash Rabat
Torugart Pass
Sailmaluu Tash

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Christian minorities in Iraq
no security in the south, little hope for progress (Press Release)
As Iraq prepares for the upcoming parliamentary elections on Oct. 10, 2021, many of the remaining Christian believers are considering relocating to Kurdish parts of the country – or to go abroad. "Even if church bells still ring in the southern Iraqi metropolis of Basra, the few services take place in virtually deserted prayer rooms," stated Dr. Kamal Sido, Middle East Consultant of the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP). While there were 2,000 to 5,000 Christian believers living in Basra in 2003, there are still around 500 today. Most of them left southern Iraq for fear of being killed or kidnapped.
"Immediately after the fall of dictator Saddam Hussein, radical Shiite militias dominated entire neighborhoods in Basra. There were daily attacks, including on Christian churches," Sido added.
"Many think that normal life is not yet possible again in Basra." There used to be church services in 14 to 18 churches in Basra every Sunday. Now, this is only the case in four remaining churches: in the Syrian-Catholic Church, the Chaldean Church, the Syrian-Orthodox, and the Protestant Church. Today, some of the church buildings are destroyed.
The Christian communities in Iraq – such as the Yazidis, Mandaeans, and other religious minorities – had high hopes for the Pope's visit in March of this year. But even the pontiff was unable to convince the Iraqi central government and the Iraqi parties to pay more attention to religious freedom and the situation of minorities in the country. Also, according to Sido, the political parties do not pay much attention to these problems in the course of their election campaigns. "The country's largest challenges – to settle the conflict between the central government in Bagdad and the regional government in Kurdistan, as well as widespread corruption, the weak infrastructure and Iraq's dependence on oil revenues. However, the biggest problem is still the interference from the neighboring countries Iran and Turkey. While Shiite Iran supports radical Shiite militias, Sunni Islamist groups receives help from NATO member Turkey.
Contact: Dr. Kamal Sido, Middle East Consultant
E-Mail: presse@gfbv.de, k.sido@gfbv.de