Easter Weekend

This past weekend I had the opportunity to visit Les Cayes.  We stayed at Cadeau's cousin's house and I was able to experience life outside of Port-au-Prince for a few days.  It was restful and relaxing and we were able to visit both Gelee Beach and Port Salut Beach.   

Cadeau and his cousin at Gelee Beach

The house we stayed at



My special shower:)




Cadeau's cousin and his family




On the road back from Les Cayes



Port Salut Beach



2nd Controle

Friday we offically closed the door on the 2nd controle (semester) here at Adoration Christian School.  Exams have been written and marked, report cards written and received, tears and high-fives shared, awards presented, and parent/teacher meetings completed.  Overall a job well done, thanks to our amazing teachers with a tiny little bit of direction from Alix and myself. 
Friday morning we had a meeting with all the parents.  In an attempt to begin to build closer relations with our parents, Randy and I met with each parent as they were leaving, getting some basic information from them.  We hope to have more communication with parents in the future, and not only in regards to report cards and student success.

'Bon Travay' Awards

Alix organized and facilitated the entire meeting with the parents for the first time!

Some of the teachers

First Place Awards

We are thankful for a pretty good turn out of parents

Making a few announcements

Connecting with parents

Interviews

In the past week we have interviewed for three different positions at the school/centre.  I have to admit that I have always loved interviews, even when I am the one being interviewed.  I don't know exactly why I find interviews so interesting. I guess it's because they are such a quick study of human character.  In a space of 20 - 45 minutes an important decision needs to be made, do we want this individual to work with us, to become part of our staff, to become someone we trust, care about and share our lives with?  This isn't a lot of time to make a decision that will affect us and others.  Once you've hired someone it's not very easy to 'let them go', so it's important to make the right choice. There are very few job opportunties in Haiti.  Everyone we interviewed is currently unemployed, many of them have not had a job for several years, others have never had a formal job in their life.
I find it very interesting, watching a person's mind work as they try to formulate answers to our questions, to try and say what we want to hear, when they aren't all that sure what it is that we want to hear.  Of course a big part of interviews is not what the candidate says, it is often more important what they don't say and what their body language says about them.  Sometimes they don't make eye contact during the entire interview, sometimes they give the shortest answers you have every heard, oftentimes they have no questions about the job or even our organization, sometimes they are super bubbly, other times they appear to be in pain, most are confident that they are perfect for the job.  After each interview we reconvene and discuss how it went, most times we are unanimous but sometimes it's interesting to hear how another person had a completely different take on the same interview. 
All this being said, I am happy to announce that we have two new staff members starting on Monday and another hopefully starting shortly after that.  I'm excited about working with them and seeing how they fit into our community.    We are truly blessed to find such great people and hope that we will be a blessing to them and they will be a blessing to our community.

Emotional Exhaustion

My blog silence is not due to a lack of excitement around here, as always we rarely have a dull moment.  However, not all excitement is blog material.  Some things are too personal or too private to share.  We've been through a few difficult weeks.  Whenever a group of sinful human being try to work together there is bound to be some interpersonal conflict from time to time.  Well, the last few weeks we've had more than our share.  This can be very discouraging to deal with.  Some people handle conflict with grace and humility, others handle it with anger and hostility.  As directors of the organization, we've been busy mediating and encouraging resolution.  As always, there are many lessons to learn, about ourselves and about human nature.  These experiences, although unavoidable, are also painful and exhausting.  I'm also learning that stress often manifests itself in physical ways.  I have absolutely no energy these days.  None.  I get home, sit on the couch, and can't convince msyelf to do anything, not even things I usually enjoy like cleaning and organizing:) (I'm not joking) Even thinking of doing anything besides sitting in one spot with my feet up makes me feel tired.
It's times like these when I cling to scripture.  One passage has been very encouraging to me lately.
Psalm 27
1 The LORD is my light and my salvation— whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life— of whom shall I be afraid?
2 When the wicked advance against me to devour me,
it is my enemies and my foes who will stumble and fall.
3 Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear;
though war break out against me,  even then I will be confident.
4 One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.
5 For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling;
he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock.

Please pray that I may truly be able to live out these words.  That my heart will not fear, that I will be confident, that I will seek a dwelling in the house of the Lord, that I will gaze on His beauty and seek Him in His temple.

Good News!!

In the previous post I mentioned my decision to return to Canada.  What I didn't mention was one of the major reasons that helped influence my decision.  I had previously applied to a Master's program at the Univeristy of Toronto, but as of Friday I still hadn't heard if I was accepted or not.  Saturday morning I went to pick up my mail, when I received it I simply shoved it into my bag and went back home.  When I arrived at my house I noticed that I had received a fairly large envelope from UofT!  I figured the size of the envelope was a good sign but quickly ripped it open anyways.  Sure enough, I was ACCEPTED!!!  I must admit I'm pretty excited!  While I was waiting for their response, I kept trying really hard not to get my hopes up but one day I caved and went on-line to check out the courses offered, just reading the course descriptions got me all excited (I'm such a geek like that I know!!)
Starting in September I will be a part-time student in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning Program, specializing in Comparative, International and Development Education.  I'll still be working full time teaching so I will plenty busy, but I'm looking forward to it.