Adventureland

Hola mis amigos!

Well there comes a time every so often in my life where I decide to take my world and turn it like a kaleidoscope until I have a new picture. Today I have found out how to pry open the end of the kaleidoscope and change the pieces inside!

Well here goes... the words that I never thought I'd hear from my lips... I have decided to put my kids in school... actually... boarding school.

Whew that wasn't so hard. But before everyone starts getting their fingers poised to send a response I better complete the picture, because that is only one small gem in the heart of my living kaleidoscope...

The school is a little south of here, and they will go, because I will go too. I will be teaching. English class. Hmmm, getting suspicious about how far south? Yes you should be. It is more than 2000 miles by air. I will be teaching english in Honduras in a little bilingual school in a small city called Comayagua.

Comayagua has a population of about 70,000 people. It is situated in central Honduras in a valley surrounded by mountains. It was established in the 1500's by the Spanish. If you think of the most picture perfect place with old Spanish architecture, it is what you will see when you type in Comayagua and hit the images button in google!

I am going to try to post once in a while about our adventure. This is the first post.

*****

Well it all began on February 24th, when I decided to send an e-mail out and see if there was a possibility of me going somewhere in the world to teach english. I knew I needed to take a "Teaching English as a Foreign Language" course, and perhaps even take those final few courses to complete my BA, as those are the requirements. But, I thought that I would start looking into it, so that next year I might have a lead on some opportunities abroad.

The first reply I received on February 25th was as follows:

"I saw your desire to teach english classes and I have a need for you to do so in a bilingual school in Comayagua. ... they need you badly."

So I cheerfully e-mailed back,

"I would be interested. Please send me more information."

The reply on March 2nd, 2008 almost floored me.

hello we are happy you are interested we want you to come if you can on this week here is the school number if you want to talk with us and tell us which is your fligth and at what time do you arrive Honduras 504 772 13 45 you can call tomorrow if you want.

Here I am sitting in the lobby of Great Wolf Lodge in Niagara falls with my kids running screaming with 4000 other kids in the water park and I suddenly cannot breathe. Next week? Next week? I can't do this, March break fares are twice sometimes three times the price. So I search... I don't have the proper education for this... they know that... My english is perfect and my college education in Medical Technology is great. The walls in Wolf Lodge begin to blur, the giant fireplace swims before my eyes, the wolves on the mantle begin to howl and a moose starts talking somewhere in the distance... my world has become a surreal painting, clocks are melting, time is melting,

I let my raft be swept into the lazy river. I went with the flow, I closed my eyes.

My plane is leaving on Wednesday morning.

Elaine Neely
Ciaran Neely 10
Aodhan Neely 8

Comments

Les said…
This is so exciting!
Good for you Elaine!
I will be following with much interest.....
Chaz said…
I don't think that it counts as a boarding school unless you send the kids without going yourself...I'm so excited for you, have a great time.
Anza said…
Wednesday? How sudden! And how exciting! How long are you planning to stay in Honduras?

By any chance could I come up to Toronto again before you go?

- Anath
Valerie Sippel said…
Did you tell them Greg was coming along? Where did you find a suitcase big enough?