So What Does Connie Do, Anyway?

Indeed, what HAVE I been up to for the last 20 years? I won't bore you with a detailed list from the whole 20 years, but here is mostly what I do now.
I am Co-Field director, along with Greg Van Schoyck. What does that mean? It means that Greg and I are the only ones left from the old Management Team (MT). The MT responsibilities used to be spread out between about 5 of us. Those responsibilites are, to put it simply, making the day to day decisions about what happens at HAFF other than major policy decisions. The major policy decisions are made by the U. S. board of Directors, based on input from all the staff on the field.
So, what does that look like on a day to day basis? About 4 times a month, Greg and I get the money out of the safe and make up the pay packets for the Haitian employees. The salaried workers are paid on or about the 15th and 30th. The daily workers are paid every other Friday. And once a month we do a complete money count for book keeping purposes. We are also the only ones who can put things into or take things out of the HAFF safe. That includes documents and money. We also sign all the checks written on the field and do most of the ordering for HAFF supplies from the States.
Once a year, Greg and I also need to make the contracts for the teachers and, with the board, negotiate contract changes and salary changes. We make decisions about who borrows what from HAFF and who can use HAFF facilities and equipment. And any other official type decision, that does not need to be referred to the board, gets made by Greg and me. Thankfully, we have very helpfull input from the rest of the HAFF staff as we need it.
As Co-Field directors, Greg and I also serve as the administrators of the school. We will be notified of, and probably participate in, parent/teacher/director meetings regarding student discipline.
I type up all the minutes of all the staff, field director and teacher meetings. And I do all the meal scheduling and menu planning and work with our Haitian cooks to make the market list for all visiting teams.
In addition to my duties as a Co-Field Director, I teach in the school. Over the years I have taught Science, English and Learning Skills. I developed an upper elementary level science class to be taught in 8th, 9th and 10th grade. The students come to us from elementary school with very little science knowledge. They have had no labs or demonstrations or any kind of discovery. My classes strive to explain the basics of Astronomy, Geology, Biology, Physics and Chemistry with as many simple labs and demonstrations as I can have. For the last couple of years, I have only taught the 9th grade Biology class. Former students of mine, who are now teachers for BTI are teaching the 8th grade Astronomy and Geology and the 10th grade Physics and Chemistry. I also developed and still teach a Learning Skills course based on one taught to incoming freshmen at the State Universtiy of New York at Potsdam. I have not taught English for a couple of years now.
One of the joys of working in the school is the opportunity to share my faith in Jesus Christ with the students. Teaching Science provides many wonderful chances to point out the wonders of God's creation. And numerous times during the year, I get called on to share at the school's morning devotions. Tomorrow morning I'll be sharing how our salvation is by faith alone in Christ and was accomplished completely by His work on the cross and in our lives. This culture is a very works based culture. People think they have to do enough good deeds to earn their way to Heaven. It is my privilege to share that Christ did all the work. We only need to receive His gift of salvation.
With Barb Van Schoyck and a Haitian colleague, Mme Gesson, I also coordinate the Godly Woman class described below. We publicise the class, test the applicants and chose the applicants. We establish the schedule, chose the trainers (like Mme Bibine teaching rug braiding below), plan and deliver the devotions and teach several of the sessions. So what is The Godly Woman class? Check out the article following.