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 …
Category Archives: Mind
“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 …
Continue reading ““One of Our Students Was Shot Last Night””
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. …
Crossing Paths with Angels
The medication to relieve my BPH (benign prostatic hyperplasia [enlarged prostate]) has not been effective. Passing urine and bowel movements have been erratic and hardly successful. I made a good decision late last week when I followed the advice of my friend and Mrs. tVM and scheduled an appointment with my VA medical team for …
Check Engine Soon
Juggling multiple balls and faced with several challenges, another situation surfaced early Wednesday morning as I headed east to water the farm. I hadn’t driven a mile when the “service engine soon light” glowed brightly on the dashboard. I took a deep breath, said a prayer, and continued east. With zero rain in the last …
Let Me Give You a Definition of Ethics
“Let me give you a definition of ethics: it is good to maintain life and further life; it is bad to destroy and damage life.” So writes Dr. Albert Schweitzer in his 1933 autobiography “Out of My Life and Thought.” The recipient of the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. Schweitzer offers other thoughts that came …
Things Are Just Fine
I usually reserve my “WTF” template for things I find oddly – and sometimes, sadly – funny that I pass on to a select group of people who I know can handle – and who appreciate – the “WTF” concept. I am making an exception today and sharing it with those who read The Vitruvian …
Courage and Commitment
Our school year in Haiti concludes this week with final exams. We are planning a small party for teachers and students. But as the week commences, we must adapt to the forces in play around us. I awoke this morning to this headline in Le Nouvelliste, the Haitian newspaper I read daily… “Cité Soleil: At …
I Am Not Ashamed
I am not ashamed. I recently read and listened to a talk Russell Moore presented in October 2021 at the Rabbit Room’s annual arts conference. The talk is featured on the Plough website, June 24, 2022. Dr. Moore is Public Theologian at Christianity Today and Director of Christianity Today’s Public Theology Project. Titled “Faith, Fiction, …
The Education Triangle Revisited
This post is updated from a post we published four years ago in May 2018. The ‘Education Triangle’ is a universal truth. What was true in 2018 remains true today, and it is the same truth that existed at Plato’s Academy in 387 B.C., and it will be true as we colonize Mars in the …