Imagine a giraffe with a sore throat.

It’s almost as if this blog is becoming a journal to document my various ailments here in Honduras. This time it’s a simple sore throat that plagues me. Today makes a week since it reared its despicable head, and it hasn’t gotten progressively better since its inception. I mean, is there any ailment that is more just plain annoying than a sore throat? It is a fortunate thing that I received 2 bags of lozenges just before Christmas, because they have helped. Today I made a tea of lemon juice, honey and hot sauce, which worked well as I was drinking it (despite the obvious choking fits I had to endure), but soon after finishing it, swallowing once again became quite the chore. Anyway, I’ll give it a couple more days and if there’s no improvement, I shall seek out some antibiotics.

So, we’re back in school after close to 2 and a half weeks off for Christmas break. Fortunately, most of the kids don’t seem to have forgotten everything we were working on, which was a fear of mine. I assigned them all a bunch of work to do over the holidays, and even made a schedule for them to follow so that there would be a consistent flow of learning the entire vacation.  Of course, it turns out they all made it their mission to finish it all in the first 2 days of vacation. The very same kids that have trouble remembering to do homework or copying 3 sentences off the board.

Let me also mention that the school scheduled exams for the week after returning from Christmas break. Where’s the logic in that, you ask? Do me a favor and email me if you can find it, because I can’t. My moaning and whining aside, the kids did relatively well on the exams; though I have no doubt they would have done better with another week or 2 to prepare in class. My class size has also dropped by at least one. One of the kids was taken out of school the last week before break, evidently because they are having financial problems. It stinks that it came down to that, but hopefully they have found a cheaper alternative and placed him there. He was one of the slower kids, so he really can’t afford a long break in his education now.

As for the Christmas break itself, it was rather uneventful. I didn’t go anywhere, I didn’t do anything (other than complete a 750 pc puzzle), and oddly enough, it didn’t snow. I was invited for Christmas Eve dinner at the home of one of my kids, and I spent Christmas day watching Christmas themed movies, so that was entertaining enough for me. The only really hard part about coming off vacation was getting used to waking up before 6am again. It’s not so much the waking up as it is getting enough sleep the night before.

Right now I am in the process of deciding if I wish to stay for another year. A big part of me wants to, but a big part of me is unsure. I still have to find a way to pay for my TEFL certification so that I can get a job teaching English when I’m done here, whether that is this year or next. If nothing else I would like to leave for a couple of weeks at least to get a break and see family, but it’s hard to imagine how that would happen. There is opportunity for a teaching job over the summer right here, teaching adults, and it pays well (for Honduras, anyway), and I could support myself here on that, but it doesn’t solve any long-term problems.

Anyway, I have faith that things will work out as they are meant to. Faith has gotten me this far and I see no reason to despair or worry over things at this point. I just wanted to say that everyone’s encouraging words and support are well appreciated, and I’m happy that everyone understands what it is I am trying to do here. That’s about it for now…take care.