During our spring break, our director, two parents and two students went for a bike trip around a lake and into the DR. The school truck brought them about an hour from the DR border. The lake is a salt water lake which once upon a time was connected to the sea. The lake is 40% saltier than sea water and is also about 40 metres below sea level. Ad de Blaeij was the co-ordinator of this trip and this was his second time for the three day journey.

During our PD Days this past Thursday and Friday, Steve led us in songs of praise and worship. Here he is accompaniedv byRod Meadth, our teacher from Australia. We have great musical talent among the staff and we call upon their talents many a time. It is just great that we can start our PD Days with a time of worship, setting the tone for the two days. Approximately 25 staff members were present for these inservice days. I had the responsibility of leading the staff on the Thursday morning, focussing on the characteristics of a Christian school teacher and how that is also shown in concrete ways in the job description.

Our key note speaker on Friday was Gloria Stronks, who is known by many via her books, her teaching days at Dordt and Calvin and/or the various schools. She is presently involved with World Wide Christian Schools. WWCS is partnered with CRECH: Consortium for Christian Curriculum for the schools in Haiti. She spoke to more than 2oo Haitian educators on Thursday via a translator. These people were neatly dressed for the ocassion, skipping meals so that they could buy the proper clothes to come and hear Gloria. Pictured here with Gloria is Denny Day, a staff member, having a question or two about her presentation.

Aren't I photogenic? This picture was taken during a meal last Sunday at Jenny LeMahieu's house where she was serving supper to the Sous Espwa partners and three Americans who had come on a work project for the Sous Espwa Ministry Centre. They came to help build the second floor of the ministry centre of the CRC in Haiti. This work team came from Howard Van Dam's brother's church in the US. Their skills were appreciated. Howard is the link with various partner organizations such as CRECH, MDK(Ministry for Christian Development) and the CRCH (Christian Reformed Church in Haiti). He wears many hats since he also serves on the board of Quisqueya Christian School.