I believe God guided me to the home I reside in, the men who built it, and the small, rural, desert community it is a part of. The house is less than a mile off the extended runway of the local airport, which is home to SkyDive Arizona, arguably the number one skydiving facility in …
Author Archives: tVM
The Children Need Your Help
After a brutal summer characterized by unparalleled gang violence and delays mandated by the Haitian Ministry of Education, we opened the doors to the Barefoot School in Cité Soleil, Haiti last week. This will be our second scholastic year. Our relationship with the Guepard Boxing Club of Cité Soleil [GBCCS] which operates the school goes …
The Closing Window
Earlier this week, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) issued its 13th edition of the Emissions Gap Report which provides a science-based assessment of the gap between commitments made by governments to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and those levels needed to achieve global temperature targets under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change …
The Veil of Heaven
One of the most beautiful books I have read is Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace by Kent Nerburn (1999). In his introduction, Mr. Nerburn writes, “There is a story told by some of the Native American people about the stars in the midnight sky. Each star, they say, is a hole pierced in …
Season Change
We faced many challenges on many fronts this summer that affected our work on our Haiti agriculture project in Arizona. The reasons are unimportant. The fact is, after planting 2,400 linear feet by the end of May with Armenian cucumbers to okra to squash to melons, and everything in between, we realized zero harvest excluding …
Doing the Right Thing
Over a month ago, we posted that the Haitian Ministry of Education had delayed the September 3 school opening to October 3. October 3rd has come and gone. Schools remain closed. Speaking to the United Nations Security Council yesterday, October 17, the Haitian Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean Victor Généus opened his remarks by stating, …
Dealing with Challenge
My favorite month is September. As a child of the Berkshires growing up in New England, how could I not revere this special time of the year when the air is crisp and clean… when the trees display their finery in preparation for the winter. As September wanes, I reflect on a challenging 2022. As …
New School Year to Begin in Haiti
The Haitian Ministry of Education has delayed the start of the next school year for one month, until October 3. I have the budget for our Barefoot School in Haiti for the upcoming school year, now October 3, 2022, through July 2023. The total budget to operate the school for 10 months is $37,972.25. Our …
“One of Our Students Was Shot Last Night”
Yesterday evening, Justin informed me that we successfully concluded our summer camp. “Today we are surrounded by happiness,” he writes. “During the camp, the children play with each other, eat together, tell jokes, learn about their culture, and history, and learn things that can be useful to make a little money in the future, like …
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Promises to Keep
As July’s horrific violence in Citè Soleil subsided, we delayed our summer camp until the second week in August, and we completed the first of three weeks without incident last week. As many as 276 children came to the camp each day. Sadly, we could only accommodate 150; we had to turn 126 children away. …