Cycles in Vallarta.

As I look out the window at the sky, the slate gray clouds hang low and the humidity is palpable. You can almost hear the cry for rain and although we've had some "chispas" of late, only a serious downpour will wash the coat of dust off the town and clear the air. It's a much needed phase of the tropical cycle as even the rivers are mere rivlets.
Those of us who teach here are also completing a cycle of sorts. Classes have ended, exams are in session and the countdown to summer holidays is on. It's interesting to hear the wide variety of plans afoot. Some teachers are pulling out immediately to visit family and friends north of the border, others are headed to more exotic locations such as Thailand or India to teach or to become students themselves. One of the best parts about working in an International school is the collective experience of professionals coming from or heading to distant lands because the stories they tell offer insight into different cultures and what may have seemed foreign and forbidding in the past becomes more familiar in the telling. Honduras, Egypt, Peru and Spain have all been subjects of recent conversations in the staffroom and it makes for more than mere casual conversation. One teacher left our school last year for a position in Mayanmar and sent us pictures of herself swimming with elephants, another sent us a picture from Egypt as she toured the pyramids atop a camel and still another found the love of her life while on a trip through eastern Europe. These are just a few of the people who have passed our way and next year more will come in the ever revolving cycle of International educators.