Coming Home (3-15-14)

Coming Home (3-15-14)

We are completing our work at Hope Africa University, and getting ready to leave.  This final week has been full: we have been part of many important meetings and events.  That is satisfying.  But we are weary, and ready to return home.  (As usual, we “leave it all on the field” when we are here.  If we were long-term faculty, we would have to pace ourselves better.)  Thanks for your prayers on our behalf: they have sustained us.

Among the activities of the week… 

Yesterday Darlene successfully defended the Masters of Nursing program before an external board of evaluators: PTL!  (She began working on this project the day we arrived 7 weeks ago, and it was only fitting that the defense and approval should occur on our last working day here!) 

On Wednesday, Wayne accompanied the Rector and Vice-Rector (President and Provost) in presenting two proposed PhD programs to the highest official in the government Commission on Higher Education.  That same day, he served on the jury for two of his Masters in Theology students, both of whom successfully defended their theses. 

On Thursday, we both made a day-long trip with the Rector to the Kibuye Hope Hospital campus, where Wayne was involved in a high-level Oversight Planning Committee chaired by the Bishop.  We then toured the campus and hospital, where currently we have 11 construction projects underway. 

Our work on behalf of HAU will continue as we return home.  Wayne has several phone calls to make, and a teleconference next week.  Thursday afternoon, while she is in Rochester, we will be meeting with Barbara Rose, VP of the Friends board.  Our next Friends board meeting, which Wayne is preparing, will be in Spring Arbor April 10-11.  So the beat goes on…

One Week Remaining (3-9-14)

One Week Remaining (3-9-14)

Today, our friends Norm and Nancy Wetterau return to the US (Dansville, NY).  They have been here three weeks, teaching a course in Medical Psychology to a large class of 70+ students. 

We continue on for another week.  It promises to be a busy one! 

Two of my Master’s in Theology students are submitting final draft of their theses on Monday, and hope to defend this week before I leave.  As their Thesis Director, it is expected that I will serve on both juries, alongside another faculty or two.  The defense is a public event.  I expect the two will be scheduled back-to-back, on Wednesday evening. 

Darlene will be participating this week in an external accreditation review of the Master’s in Nursing program (several other graduate programs are included in this evaluation review).  That event was scheduled for Tuesday, but now we hear (through the grapevine) that it has been postponed until Friday.

Thursday, both of us are traveling to the Kibuye Hope Hospital campus “up country” in the company of both the Rector and Bishop.  It will be an all-day affair: we will leave campus here early in the morning (probably ca. 7 am, and return after dark, hopefully, by 7 pm).  I will be touring the campus with the Rector, to survey the construction underway (some 11 projects) and discuss those on the drawing board.  At some point in the day, we will be meeting with several persons on-site in an Oversight Planning Committee chaired by Bishop Nzigo.  Darlene will be conducting rounds in the hospital with the medical staff, physicians and nurses.  We look forward to a nice lunch on-site, and the day of travel up-country.

On Wednesday afternoon, I will be involved in a meeting, alongside the Rector and Vice Rector (President and Provost), with the Executive Director of the National Commission on Higher Education.  This is a high-level meeting!  The topic is HAU’s proposal, on which I have served as the “Principal Consultant,” for two Ph.D. programs: one in Educational Leadership and Instruction, and the other in Theological Education and Leadership.  Your prayers are needed and appreciated. 

Elsewise(!), we both will be wrapping up the graduate courses we are presently teaching.  And my students are planning a “class party” Wednesday evening.  A concluding class party is tradition here: typically, a very nice affair.  Per usual, I am paying for the drinks and sweets; I expect the students will be presenting me thank you speeches and gifts.

We also anticipate this week a private farewell lunch with the Rector and First Lady, our friends Gerald and Marlene Bates, at their home.  I think that event is being squeezed in on Tuesday.

Arriving back in Rochester, NY next Monday (March 17) to a cold and empty house is likely to seem quite boring!