We have recently started our third session of English instruction and we have lots of new students. Chris is teaching all of the Intro level classes while I am teaching Level 1 and Level 2 classes. Chris has seventy something students spread over three class times...1:30-2:30, 3-4 and 4:30-5:30. I have level 2 at 1:30 and level 1 at 3. In addition to our brand new students, we had about a dozen students come from different schools in the area and take a placement test to get in.
Chris and I are very happy with the growth of the school. We have not done any advertising, our current students have been bringing in their friends and we are building a reputation as a great place to learn English. We will continue to grow...we will soon feel some of the growing pains. We will soon have to find a way to use more class rooms and find more teachers. With more students, we also need to bring more books into the country.
For the physical growth, we are exploring options such as helping our landlord rebuild some damaged rooms and looking for another location. We are not actively recruiting teachers yet, but we have a few really good guys working for us already that could handle their own classes. For the curriculum, our goal is to develop our own. More than sixty percent of the student's tuition is to pay for the book. That money leaves Haiti. If we could create our own books and audio, the student's tuition could be put to better uses like infrastructure and the money would stay here. We could also sell the curriculum to other English schools in the country.
Tools for Success
If you didn't know already, "Tools for Success" is the name of my trade school...well, it is going to be the name of my trade school. I put the word out to a group from Georgia that was here a week ago that I am looking for some tools for my workshop...planer, table saw, band saw, big sander...big stuff that I can't fit in a suitcase. There is a container being loaded up in Georgia that is headed this way, that is how I can get some of the bigger stuff down here. Sounds like they already have a band saw for me.
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| File cabinets for hanging file folders, all material local except for the casters. |
I am always working on some carpentry project. Right now, I am putting the finishing touches on a pair of two drawer file cabinets. We needed some for our school stuff and they are outrageously priced here...so I decided to build some. I want to build as many "prototypes" of things as I can for my future students to use as a springboard for their own projects. If they want to make something exactly as I have, or change the design a little, these projects that I am building now might help with some ideas.
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| Jan's table saw and Beaver's router helped me create some more frames for the bee hive |
I do miss my garage. Whenever I decide to build something, I have to drag all of the tools that I need out in the yard to work on a project. That is fine if I have all day and we have power all day. When I had my garage, I could go out there and plane a few boards or work on a project for a little bit and pick up where I left off right away. I spent a little time looking for land this week. When I have my own place, I will be able to do that again.
Honey!
I harvested honey a couple of weeks ago. I got almost a gallon of honey from five frames in my honey super. I made some more frames and now I have to wait again for them to do their job. The honey was darker this time than the first time, and wow, it was sweet. I bottled some up in little rum bottles and gave it away to some friends...and we had some of it here at the house.
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| It was a little too hot for the whole "Bee Suit" thing...I did not get stung this time! |
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| A little bottle of wonderful! An old rum bottle. |
Garden
When it comes time to buy some more tropical plants for my garden, I always run into some guy on a bicycle with a couple of baskets full of small plants. Whenever I see a plant vendor pedaling down our street, I have to buy a couple of things. I am also experimenting with starting some stuff from cuttings. I have several hibiscus and some other tropicals started that way. Since the water from our well is a little salty, I have to buy water for some of the plants that are not very salt tolerant, but it is not that big of a deal. I still have not had much luck planting anything in the ground in our yard. Everything that is thriving is growing in pots.
Life
I really enjoyed getting to see friends and family last month. It was great to be able to share with everyone why I love this place. I was a little concerned when I was on my way back down here if I would still feel like I was supposed to be here. The concern vanished quickly when all of my friends wanted to see me as soon as I got back to town. I am so grateful that God has made this possible for me.
I know that I need to keep all of you informed on a more regular basis. Please feel free to harass me into writing again. Send me an email at blueteamleader@gmail.com and remind me to post if it has been a while. Thanks for your prayers. I appreciate knowing that you want to know what is happening with me and this amazing place.
When the power is out for a while, you have to get creative. A machine working on the main road hit a concrete power pole and destroyed it. We were without power for a couple of days and we needed a way to charge up our phones. "I got this" I hooked up a solar panel from Chris Glissman, an inverter from Harbor Freight and a battery from our generator that does not work. There we go, a cell phone charging station in the front yard!
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| MacGuyver would be proud...oops, no duct tape. |
Scott
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