A.C.E.

The school here at Canaan will be occupying most of my time over the next few months so I suppose I should give a quick rundown on how it operates. As I mentioned in my last post, we had a week-long training session here last week, so I have a decent grasp on how things work........I think.

The Canaan Christian School uses a program called Accelerated Christian Education, or A.C.E.. This program uses small segments of curriculum called Paces which allows students to work at their own......well, pace. The students come into the classroom and report to their own "office" where they work on their Paces for the rest of the day. When they have questions or want to check their work they raise a little flag and the supervisor or assistant goes and helps them. Given the environment that we're working in here in Haiti I think this program works fairly well. I'll report back after working in the classroom for awhile.

During the week of training I got to work with some of the older guys here at Canaan while we served as supervisors. I was glad to finally get a chance to bond with them a little bit. One thing I have found in my few weeks here is that my mood is strongly affected by my interactions with the kids on a day to day basis. I can have a craptacular day and have it salvaged by a brief bonding moment with one of the kids. On the other hand, I can have a great day by most standards, but if I feel like one of the kids is upset with me I can get really down. Hopefully I will learn to handle those sorts of things better as I am here longer.

This weekend marked the first time I had been somewhat homesick. Obviously I have missed family and friends throughout the past few weeks, but this was the first time I had an urge to be home and live a typical American day. I suspect those days will pop up from time to time and that's ok. Overall it has been a good month here in Haiti and I feel good about where things are headed.

I promised a special Hot Seat appearance and it is forthcoming. For a preview of the participant you are welcome to follow the link to Bobi's blog which is directly to your right.