The Haitian school year was originally scheduled to begin Sept. 5, but with the problems currently plaguing the country the Minister of Education pushed the start date back one month.

As you likely know, life in Haiti is made more difficult recently by unrest and upheaval. Our village is largely unaffected by the chaos, as living at the top of a mountain provides a certain level of geographic protection. But to say there is no effect on our operations or mission would be disingenuous. To be honest, it's a little worrisome getting money to Samuel these days. I worry about his safety and I worry about my options to send money becoming more and more limited. Rioters just this week damaged the Haitian bank Samuel and I use to transfer money for our projects and programs. For now, he can't utilize that bank and we are using our constant fall back, Western Union. I've consciously tried to use the bank for years because I felt the security was perhaps better than at a WU location. (I won't even get started on the various bank transfer fees.) Western Union is extremely important to Haitians because that's the main vehicle for how the diaspora sends money to their families and friends.

However, we'll do what we need to make it work.  We push forward and despite the chaos covering the country, our operations continue.

The new school year starts next week! This post isn't a fundraising post so I won't focus on numbers here. Below are the areas that need cover.

- tuition support: Not all the students can afford the tuition but the school permits their attendance anyway because it's the right thing to do. ATI hasn't been great about a true sponsorship program because of the intensive paperwork that would be involved. (By "ATI" I mean me!). But I feel like that should be our next step. I struggle with it because I don't want to "highlight" some students and not others but the truth is, support for one student is support for the school.

- lunch program: we provide a hot meal of rice & beans every day with supplemental chicken for added protein. This is the only hot meal most of these kids will receive each day; it's impossible to press how important this program is. The yearly numbers will be posted here.

- nurse salary: we pay Nurse Legina a stipend and transportation costs to travel to Piton weekly to be available for the students as well as the wider community.

- teacher salaries: The Haitian government theoretically provides teachers with pay. The teachers in Piton are at a disadvantage in two ways: 1) they work on top of a mountain with no easily-passable road in a village that most consider to be unimportant; and 2) google Haiti news. :-( It's only right to provide them with a steady income which also allows them the resources to travel for teacher training.

My thinking right now is to launch the end-of-year campaign early and run throughout the 4th quarter of the year rather than wait for Giving Tuesday. For now, enjoy these pics from the summer.