Ok, so it's been some time... thanks for the email reminders I still had this thing! When I get more time (sigh...), I'll try to add some more details and pictures. Here is the brief overview of my last month...So after I got back from Mexico, I found out that the TESOL course I was scheduled to do in Chicago did not have enough participants. This was the first time in five years they had not had more than 6 participants (the work is so intensive that it is a 1 trainer to 6 participant rule). So, I stayed in Colorado for some time.
Then, I went to the Midwest. First I went to see a friend in Milwaukee.
Then, I served about 3 weeks at Dhamma Pakasa, the Vipassana center in Rockford, Illinois. The Canada geese were very vicsous here! (even though they looked sweet)
Then I led a one month training at DePaul University in Chicago... first time doing this course with no support!
Then I went to Los Angeles and saw family.
Then I went back to Colorado and spent time with my adopted Nepali's family's extended family visiting for the first time from Kathmandu.
Then I went to Santa Fe to work with the legendary John Konsgvik doing an SIT TESOL course there.
Then I went to Oaxaca, Mexico to train solo again, this time with a group of five participants. Here is a Oaxacan street scene outside of the chuch Santo Domingo.
Here I am setting a good example for them.
Then we made a Bollywood video in the mountains surrounding Oaxaca.
Then, in the last week of the course, I was hosting both the Oaxacan site director (visiting from Toronto) as well as the course assessor, who came from the coast to formally assess this course and report the results back to SIT in Vermont, as is usual. Months ago I had expressed my interest in the SIT office concerning my being in Burma some day. This was casually said. This led to an email from someone the next office down who just happened to head a program in Rangoon and was waiting on overdue news concerning when an agency would get back to them on their proposal. Well, they picked the last week of this course. So as I'm doing closure (which is an involved process with lots of responsibilities) I find out that not onl does it look like the grant is approved and that they might want me to go, they want me to go immediately. A fever came over me and went away and suddenly I have plane tickets bought for me from Mexico City to the US to Japan to Bangkok. I bought the Oaxaca-MX City leg and made all my hotel reservations, to be reumbursed later on. My mission, if I choose to accept it, has still not been quite explained. I'm leaving tomorrow, I don't know what to bring, what clothes I need, who I'm meeting, how long I'm staying in Bangkok (where I need to buy my BKK-Rangoon leg and get my visa), what my schedule is in either place, etc. I'm hoping to get another email by tomorrow morning when I need to ship out of here. Until then, my bags aren't even packed! I get back next week, a day before the next Oaxaca course starts (Oaxaca-Rangoon plane flights aren't exactly easy to come by). We have 9-10 participants and I'll have a co-trainer. The next day is Mexican Indepedance day, and there are ALREADY Mexican flags everywhere. That's the news.
