The Cost of Success

December 3, 2006 by Steve Peifer

Another headline you might not see in America:

I know it may be hard to read, but there are rewards in this article besides the headlines. (Note especially the last paragraph of the first column.)
This is my crazy time of year, where I am writing recommendations and sending out college applications. Because we are a boarding school and because many of our families do not have access to the internet or secure mailings, I am working day and night trying to...

Continue Reading

The Shelf Life of Skipping

November 2, 2006 by Steve Peifer

It was probably because we had boys before, but I don’t remember much skipping with the older kids. Then again, I was gone before they woke up and they were driven to school.

Nancy has a 7:45 class, so I get to take the twins to school which begins at 8. It isn’t five minutes away, but it is my favorite part of the day. Part of it is how much they love school, but most of it is the skipping....

Continue Reading

Between a Nun and a Nigerian; Adventures in America

October 14, 2006 by Steve Peifer

An exciting opportunity and a daunting task; go to the US for 10 days to attend an educational conference on admissions and have the chance to tell 450 colleges about RVA kids. The daunting part was to not get jetlagged so I could be lucid.
My flight left at midnight on October 2. I arrived in London at 6:20 am and left London at 9:30am to fly to Chicago. I had a four hour layover, and my brother drove all the...

Continue Reading

Crazy prayers

September 30, 2006 by Steve Peifer

God is so good! An overused statement, but only because it is so true. And one proof of His goodness to me is the trip I got to take to Paris this summer with JT.
When I was first asked to teach French I was a bit overwhelmed. After all, I last used French over 30 years ago (ouch, yes, I’m that old!). But I was excited nonetheless. Then the opportunity came for me to go to Paris for...

Continue Reading

I Never Had a Dream So Big

September 23, 2006 by Steve Peifer

Not everyone will start the day with an email like this, but we did on Monday:
Due to the increasingly aggressive nature of some of the baboons in the forest in our area, the Kenya Wildlife Service will be exterminating a limited number of baboons from the forest around RVA on Monday. We ask that all students and...

Continue Reading

The Beginning and the End

August 30, 2006 by Steve Peifer

There have been lots of changes in our lives, but sometimes you sort of get used to them until they all jump out at you. Last year, when we were in the states, I would get really annoyed at advertisements on the radio. I found that if I did not understand what they were saying, it didn’t annoy me as much; that is why I started listening to Latino music.
I fell in love with a group called La oreja de...

Continue Reading

21 Years and Four Months: All Things Become New

August 12, 2006 by Steve Peifer

It was almost like the story of the drunk who takes off his clothes and jumps on the cactus; when they ask him why, he says `It seemed like a good idea at the time.’ When Nancy and JT left to go to a missionary school for languages in France, we felt like we needed to make a statement.
I’m not sure why shaving our head was an important statement, and I don’t know why Katie didn’t want to be involved,...

Continue Reading

And These Are the Days of the Harvest

July 15, 2006 by Steve Peifer

I don’t know how it happened to us.
Whenever that is the case, you can usually turn to the usual suspects: the twins. Ben is a very warm hearted kid, and there has been this cat hanging around our home for months. Her owners, our good friends Don and Thelma Steeves, had given her to another family when they retired several years ago.
Always having been a dog person, I’m not actually sure I understand cats. The best we can...

Continue Reading