¡Profe!

Apologies for not updating for quite a while now...you may well be wondering what I've been up to these past few weeks. Apart from a severe bout of v&d which stopped me in my tracks somewhat I have been really very busy. The building site still needs some supervision: buying materials and communicating with the foreman who is little by little completing bits and pieces as our funds dictate. I have also been doing some English teaching in a Christian school in Santa Teresa, about 20 minutes from Jinotepe to cover for another Latin Link short termer for 3 weeks.

Profe, short for profesora (teacher), is approximately equivalent to Miss in English and it is what I have become accustomed to hearing at every interval. English teaching was perhaps the one thing I did not either want or expect to do at any formal level while in Nicaragua. I have given, and continue to give classes one night a week at church informally but suddenly becoming the person responsible for educating 5 years worth of secondary school pupils is quite a different matter. I agreed to take the classes to get my friend out of a bind but soon discovered that I had signed myself up to a whole load of work. Classes need prepared, homework tasks thought of and subsequently marked, tests set, discipline maintained and most importantly knowledge successfully imparted. For me this takes hours of prep and then al of my concentration and energy in the delivery. Frankly, although I enjoy the teaching, it is way too exhausting to consider doing it full time! Much respect for teachers.

Another piece of notable news is the sad loss of my camera. The main control broke while I was on holiday and on the recommendation of a friend it was taken to be repaired. However, the story goes that while in the repair shop the camera was stolen by two guys who broke in while the assistant wasn't paying attention. The owner of the shop has replaced for me the camera with what might be described as a "thoroughly inadequate piece of semi-technology". Ahem. I think I make my feelings clear.