Honduran Time

I've been here for almost two weeks now and I've learned something very important: Honduran estimates of time and quantity are quite different from U.S. estimates.  For example, "You will have your books on Monday," turned into, "The books should be in by Tuesday or maybe Wednesday," turned into, "We'll have the books on Friday for sure, probably," turned into, "I'm going to Tegus to pick your books up today, so you should have them by Monday."  My class, by the way, was scheduled to start Monday.  Fortunately(?), though, only two students have signed up for my class so far, forcing the school to push back the date to "hopefully Thursday or Friday."  I'm going out with the principal on Tuesday to try to recruit more students from a local town.  My proposed class of about 15 students from 2nd-6th grade has become a class of 2 students ages 13 and 15.  Estimates, it has become evident, are more like a picture of the best-case senario.

I sort of feel like life has been dragging me ass-first through these past couple of weeks... which looks a bit like this:

I wouldn't exactly say that I'm overwhelmed; this just isn't what I'm accustomed to.  In the U.S., things are just very controlled.  You know what will happen, when it will happen, who will be there, and where all of the exits are.  The classroom, of course, is unpredictable.  Things that M. Night Shyamalan couldn't dream up happen on a daily basis.  Everything that I learned in school, though, told me that I need to be organized in order to be prepared for these kinds of things.  I don't know how to do that right now, though.  I don't know how many students I'm going to have, how old they'll be, what the curriculum materials look like, when class will start, what my daily schedule will be, or where I'll be teaching.  The one thing I do have is flexibility.  In a duel, I'd put Gumby to shame.

Basically, I have no clue what's going on, but I'm becoming more ok with that.  I don't believe I'd be put in this situation if it's something I can't handle.  Rather, I know that my strength comes from an unlimited, unfallible source.  Plus, the coffee is damn good.