Monday, December 28, 2009

updates....finally

Our lives have been so crazy lately! I think when you read my updates, you'll understand why...

Since August, I have changed jobs 3 times...
First, I started at one school working as the Bilingual Academic Coordinator. The owner was nutty, she felt that God had sent her to earth to save Satan's children. Yes, her exact words. And, it was a really horrible neighborhood. The first day of school, there was a series of 5 or 6 gunshots right outside the school, and no one even flinched. "Umm, didn't anyone else hear that?" I asked. "Yes, but it happens all the time, we're used to it," they replied. Ok, thanks, but no thanks....
I decided from the first school that I really enjoyed the work, so I went to interview for a position at another bilingual school, in a safer neighborhood. I ended up being hired as a 3rd grade teacher. There were 2 sections that I shared with another teacher, so I only taught language, reading, and health in 3rd grade. I LOVED LOVED LOVED it. And I didn't want to leave, but.... I got an amazing opportunity to go work at one of the private universities. So I will start teaching English full time at the university starting in January.

This whole time, I've still been running my stationery business from my house instead of the store. The storefront is still there, but it's more of a showroom, and it's by appointment only. I've done several weddings and a lot of social stationery. I participated in a couple of local Christmas bazaars where I got so many orders that I was completely booked for 3-4 weeks and couldn't accept any other orders.

Charles is doing okay, but pobrecito, he has suffered from several Honduran ailments the last couple of months. First, he got amoebas, which, according to the vet, he most likely contracted from licking water off of the concrete patio in the backyard. That was a 10 day regimen of pills and a bland diet. Then, he was infested with these teeny tiny ticks. I still haven't figured out where they came from, because we don't have rats/mice (they would be getting into the trash outside and there's no evidence of that) and no other dogs have access to the yard. The only thing that I can think of is the birds....does anyone know if they carry ticks? When I say infested, I mean I was pulling 20-30 ticks off of him everyday. And we were using Frontline regularly, so I don't know what happened with that. A few days later, the house was infested. Yuckkkk. We had to use foggers in the house and spray all of the nooks/crannies with this bug spray. That took care of them in the house, and we treated the yard with these granules that you spread around. So after about 2 weeks, we finally had the tick problem under control. Then, just last week, he got this mysterious skin condition that looks to be like some type of mite (mange?). His ears are all scaly and crusty on the inside and on the tips, and he's got the same thing on his "armpits." I tried taking him to the vet last week, but I guess they were closed since they didn't answer all week. Jose is going to take him this week, since I can't because...

I'm in the US! We spent Christmas eve together in Tegucigalpa with Jose's family, and then on the 25th I flew to KY to surprise my grandparents for their 50th wedding anniversary. I'm staying until the first week in January.

Okay, I'm sure you're dying for more ;) ... so stayed tuned for stories such as...

The Stolen Wallet and Crazy Scam Artist

Our Marero (gang member) Gardener

and

Immigration Problems (aka, almost not being able to leave Honduras)

3 comments:

Live Simply Love Strongly said...

Hope you like your new job. Sorry to hear Charlie has had so many issues lately. Is that the norm for people that have dogs in HN? Sounds like you have some interesting blog posts coming up.

Live Simply Love Strongly said...

Tech question: I just put a live feed widget up on my blog. I noticed though, that everytime I look at a blog off my blog list, and then come back, every come and go was listed there. That's kind of annoying. It's there to see who else is reading my blog, not what I'm doing. I think it's cool to read though yours and see where all people are from. You have people from all over the world reading! Does yours do this? Any ideas?

Jane and Douglas said...

That's great about the University job. Best of luck. Douglas' little puppy in El Salvador developed a skin condition after a day at the beach - something called "Hongos" I think - he applied a cream for about a week and it cleared up. I look forward to reading more - post some pics too!