A 2-0 win away at Leyton Orient has today seen the mighty Saints (Southampton Football Team) move into second place in League 1 and on the brink of being promoted to the Championship. Not much of the season left, so I hope we can hang on to our position…
Apr 082011
First day back in front of class and I had 3 of them (that’s 6 hours in total) today, which makes for a very long day. The first was great. The second was a little insipid and the last, our night school group, were positively disinterested, but that is understandable to some extent since they unfortunately get the pure theory course (since they’ll leave soon and there was no time to teach them in any other way) – even I’d be bored if I had to do that.
Apr 062011
We have soooooo many pictures of all the various viewpoints at Iguazu, of which there are numerous. Feast your eyes on this beauty!
Apr 062011
Finished my chatting things over with Manuel. He has agreed to my suggested timetable for leaving the work here and is, I think, sad at that prospect, but he agrees with me that they haven’t made the best use of me while I’ve been here and he can understand why I might want to move on to something else.
The plan is that I’ll hang around until mid-July at least, to cover for the period that he’ll be out of the country. After that, if I don’t yet have a job to go to, then I’ll continue on a more part-time basis while I job search or until we decide to leave for the UK.
The fact that my leaving has now been agreed, allowed me to announce it at the staff meeting in the afternoon. We’re going to be having a vision and strategy planning meeting in May and my decision to leave means that I can now facilitate that from a more neutral standpoint. Not much was said verbally when I made my announcement, but there were a few glum faces around.
Apr 052011
These photos are of our trip to Iguazu Falls situated on the borders of Argentina, Brazil, and very loosely, Paraguay. You can visit the falls from Argentina and Brazil and the views are amazing on both sides, though Argentina does win hands down.
This is me obviously! Iguazu Falls (or part of them) is behind me. I think this is from the Argentinian side.
You get to visit various parts at various heights and some areas take you very close to the spray – really good in hot weather as you get to cool down periodically! This is the Argentinian side.
This is at yet a different viewpoint on the Brazilian side.
And another viewpoint from the Argentinian side.
Rainbows are not in short supply!
Apr 042011
Been down to the Training Centre to catch up on where my business related courses are up to. Seems like David, the Director of Education, has done a good job in my absence and he’s been very complementary about the materials (even suggesting that they have changed the whole ethos of the Training Centre and given the students a hope for the future) – it was a job to convince him to let me take them on now that I’m back!!
Tomorrow, I’ll be meeting Manuel, my boss, and chatting about my future here, hopefully coming to some arrangement that is mutually suitable.
Apr 012011
With the right asking nicely letter in hand, we returned to the Ministry of Justice and got our required stamp and then went back to the Department of Migrations and I was very pleased to receive the new sticker on the back of my identity card to show that I don’t have to go through this whole process for another year. Hurrah!
Actually, we’re hoping that we never have to go through it again. We decided whilst out the country that we would be looking to move on when our promised two years with the Peru Children’s Trust expires in July. Of course, I’ll need to have something to move on to, so if I can’t find a job there is still the chance of having to renew again next year but, if only to avoid all the rigmarole, I sincerely hope not!!
The bus journey up into the mountains was fairly uneventful, but I can confirm that Huancayo is still in the rainy season. It was nice to get home though!
Up bright and early to visit the Ministry of Justice (handily only 5 blocks from where we are staying) and got our precious stamp on our precious letter (despite the fact that we didn’t provide the required letter soliciting it!). Hot footed it to the Department of Migrations again and we managed to get the first stage done and the second stage done, which is a relief as today was the last day to do it before getting fined!!
However, it wasn’t all plain sailing. We also found out that that we don’t have all the necessary paperwork for the third and final stage. Fortunately we have 9 more days to complete that one before getting fined, but the sad truth is that there is now a new stage in the process and we need a new signature from, you guessed it, the same lady back at the Ministry of Justice. If only someone had told us that earlier….
Mar 292011
We picked up the documents we’d been waiting for yesterday and then discovered that the papers we’d put in last week for the first stage of the renewal process have been rejected. We ran around like headless chickens trying to dot the “i”s and cross the “t”s on every single document we could think of, only to find out that a new process means we need to get a letter counter stamped by a different government department. So, we paid our first visit to the Ministry of Justice and, what do you know…. the one person in the country who can sign our letter is away from the office until Thursday. Nothing can be done apart from spend a couple of days kicking our heels and enjoying a Starbucks or two (only available in Lima, so you’ve got to make the most of it!!)
Mar 272011
We’ve spent a couple of days with our friends in Chincha and it’s been a worthwhile time. Our input hasn’t solved everything (and we were never expecting it to), but there is now a glimpse of light at the end of the tunnel and a new willingness to try and (re)build a marriage. Thank you God!