VTF is back!

Most of you know that Nancy and I were team leaders for ELIC's Vietnam Teaching Fellowship (VTF) from July 2007 till we had to go back to the USA for Nancy's cancer treatment. Last year there was no VTF team but the program is back in business for the 2010-2011 school year. This year's team of 3 teachers is led by a China Teaching Fellowship alum and the four of them will be teaching a few km west of here at Lomonoxop High School where our VTF team was supposed to be placed back in 2007.

VTF is a great program for those who have recently graduated college and are thinking about serving overseas. It gives them a chance to get their feet wet and see whether it's a long-term calling. In the three short years of the VTF program, sixteen teachers have participated. Of those, four are back teaching with ELIC in Vietnam, one has left ELIC but is beginning her fifth year in Vietnam, and one has been teaching in Laos since she left VTF. Six out of sixteen is a pretty good ratio!

We're pretty happy that the program is back. Our role this year is to be "on call" for the new leader as she breaks into her first year as a team leader. I guess we're still in the mentoring business and that's a good thing.