Happy Holiday Greetings.  I am very excited to be joining this group of students on our exploration of how to build stronger relationships with our partners and to live and serve others in another culture.  The planning for this class began while we were with last year’s students in these same projects with these same hosts last January.  We learned that we want to focus more on learning from our hosts Ewadly Estil (Northern Director of Heifer International Haiti),  Gedeon Eugene (President of the Université de Anténor), and Jean-Claude Pierre-louis; (Director of the Centre technique d’entreprenariat agricole et de Développement).  We will learn that getting to know and understand people better is essential to providing meaningful benefit.

We could not be doing this program if it wasn’t for the home-town connections of Branly Eugene and Blucher Menelas and their life-long friend from youth, Allan Alexandre.  Dr. Oliver and I are developing our own network of hotel managers, transportation personnel, and hosts but feel well managed and supported by these three Cap Hatien natives.

We are now ready to meet you all in Indianapolis or Miami and depart on our journey.  My hope for each of us is that we come home knowing more about ourselves and our place in serving others as a result of our experiences.  Know that Dr. Oliver and I take this responsibility for the safety and wellbeing of our students very seriously.  We are truly thankful for you allowing them to join us in this experience.  We will endeavor to have every student posted regularly on this blog, so follow our experiences and feel free to join in the conversation.  Happy Holidays.