The View From Here

 After an unsettled night of sleep from 11:00pm until 4:00am, I fell into a deep sleep and didn't wake up until 10:55am, just in time to receive a scheduled call from my Deputy Head of School, Tesfaye, regarding a teacher who said they could not arrive from the US until after school started. Needless to say, I needed to draft a rather awkward letter and that we are now looking for another teacher.  With the complications of doing teacher searches around the world, hiring for specific positions and specific skills, along inviting teachers to live and work in a third world country boarding school, I expect that this is not unusual, but quite frustrating none the less. I'm just grateful that there are some pretty amazing teachers out there who will take on these types of assignments! So, after waking up so late and dealing with a school issue, I took another orientation walk around the Kolbe Hotel. As I mentioned, the hotel is located very near the Palatine Hill area and I though...

Well, I didn't say I was going directly to Ethiopia and Debre Birhan! I'm in Rome and the weather is beautiful! I've arrived on the 15th of August which is a holiday called Ferragosto celebrating the Catholics commemoration of the Assumption of Mary, that is to say the day in which the Virgin is thought to have entered heaven. Like many religious holidays, it was a holiday long before it took on religious significance. The name comes from the Roman Feriae Augusti, a series of festivals and celebrations that were likely introduced back in 18BC to celebrate a battle victory by Emperor Augustus. From what I saw, it seemed as if everyone had headed to the beach rather than spending a lot of time in church. The day appeared to have more Roman inspiration to it than Christian. I took an all night flight from Atlanta, landing at 11:00am. And, after calling the hotel and finding my driver, it was a quick 1/2 hour ride to the Kobe Hotel located right next to Palentine Hill and a sho...

  Today, I'm off to Ethiopia for a one year appointment as the Interim Head of School at Haile Manas Academy in Debre Birhan, Ethiopia. So, how did this all come about you may ask.... Well, I was sitting in my office at home late one afternoon, minding my own business and enjoying some reading, when I received a call from Liz Duffy the Executive Director for ISS . I had met Liz when she and I participated in the Klingenstein Center Program at Columbia several years back. At that time, she was the Head of School at Lawrenceville. We had not spoken for several years, but she knew that I had left the headship at Greensboro Days School. She said that an interesting opportunity had just come across her desk and that she immediately thought of me. She wanted to know if I would be interested in taking on an interim headship position in Ethiopia. And... I blurted out, "Sure!" What was I thinking?! Well, she caught me off guard, and I tell folks that I really had nothing better to...