Hauser Teacher's Career Move Inspired by Church Missions

THAT was the headline for my article this past Monday as it appeared on the "Classrooms" page in the local newspaper!  I think it's the best headline they've given me yet.  (I've complained about their headline choices in the past - they tend to be ... uninspired.) 

In all the last minute to-do lists before leaving home to drive to Florida, I almost forgot to post the article - so I include it below.  Yesterday I drove 800 miles to Newberry, Florida to catch up with an old friend, Lance, and to meet his family.  I met Lance years ago in Saudi Arabia, of all places, and his parents hosted me the first night I arrived in Saudi.  How good it is to see him now "all grown up" and enjoying his own family.  He and his wife have a very smiley little girl who was just delightful AND I even had the chance to say Hi to Lance's mom, who is living close by. 

Lance, Leslie and Lydia.  What a happy baby!

This morning I am enjoying a cup of coffee and some internet time because I only have a couple of hours to finish my drive to the airport in Fort Pierce to unload my freight in anticipation of tomorrow's flight. 

I have to point out that yesterday I drove 800 miles in about 12 hours and 15 minutes.  I stopped for THREE bathroom breaks - at JUST THREE MINUTES APIECE - plus TWO gas stops for about ten minutes each.  The short duration of those stops was the only time I was not already missing my family!  ;-)

Here's the article:

On a quiet Saturday afternoon a month ago, I carried the last of my boxes from my classroom, left my keys on the office counter and slipped out the front door.  I felt gratitude, fear, joy, sadness, and then fear again.

It is scary to drop a perfectly good job in this economy. 

I did not quit out of dissatisfaction with my school.  I had five meaningful and happy years at Hauser and I will always be thankful for the staff, administration and students, and my time as part of the Hope community.

And I did not get offered a higher paying job.  Quite the opposite.  For nearly two years now, motivated by a couple of short term church mission trips, my wife and I have been working toward relocating our family to Haiti where we will be once again teaching, but in very different circumstances. 

More than once this past school year, I had students question my plan to work in Haiti.  More than one perplexed teen asked, “Do they pay teachers more in Haiti?” 

Not so much.  According to Laurence Wolff, an education consultant working with the Inter-American Development Bank, in 2004 the average Haitian public school teacher made $900 annually while their private school counterparts made even less at $300 to $450. Keep in mind, those figures are yearly sums. 

My wife will teach kindergarten and I will teach high school English at a mission school in Vaudreil, Haiti just outside of the second largest city, Cap Haitien.  And, in a sense, we will be making even less than the average Haitian teacher: we actually must raise our own salaries to enable our move there.  (In fact, raising the funds to get us to Haiti is my current full time job.)

And even though my salary is not complete yet and we can’t hope to have the family settled in Haiti until after Christmas, my first day as a teacher at Cowman International School will begin in one week, God willing.  You see, Cowman has need of an English teacher this semester and nobody to fill the role.  So I will be flying solo to be on site for the first two weeks of school, to meet students and assess reading and writing skills, and then teach English on-line from here in Columbus the remainder of the semester.  It should be a grand experiment.

With the cost of flying freight to the island at $1.50 per pound, those boxes cleared from my Hauser classroom will be left behind in the garage.  My classroom, for now, will be largely “virtual” anyway.