Difficulty in Ecuador

Things are beginning to get difficult. I’m still muddling through the book rewrite, due 1 November. I’ll get it done but it has been a unique struggle. I’ve also been working on giving English Classes that I was supposed to be working with another person, a lady who has been teaching English here in Guayaquil. I thought teaching one or two English classes to Ecuadorians here might be a nice change of pace.

So I’ve worked on getting things set up. My schedule is tough right now, so the general idea was that she would teach the first class we got off the ground, and I would substitute in when needed. I’d pick up any later classes we had when my schedule eased a bit.

So we have a class with some teenagers I worked on getting started. These are some bright young kids who are going to the US or Canada next year on an exchange program and need some conversational English to get them ready for living 6-12 months there. It starts Monday.

Except now the other lady doesn’t want to do it. She has decided she doesn’t want to do a conversational class. She wants a class where she has a book, and a white board and teach grammar and give tests…

So now I have to teach the course. And while I’m excited to be able to spend some time teaching Ecuadorians some English, I’m appalled. I’m appalled because my writing schedule is still heavy. I’m also appalled that someone would so flippantly change their mind after I’d done so much work to get things set up.