God, Open Water was only yesterday? I swear I've lost all sense of space and time, I could've sworn that was days ago...

Another busy day today, but we took a break from the IDC. Today was all about EFR Instructor certification.

Started out the day too early, as per usual (my schedule is all off. I've been super tired by 8 or 9, and wake up at 3 or 4 am. Dismal) and I biked to Mango Inn.

VICTORY #1. I live off of Old Airport (dirt) road, and there's a bridge to go over in order to get to the main street. It's really steep going into town, less so on the way out. Today was the first day I've actually made it all the way up without having to walk my bike the last couple of feet. There was a guy hanging out on the bridge (there often are people just hanging out hither, thither, etc) who all but applauded.

Got to Mango around 7:40, and had time for a couple cups of coffee. They have coffee there for us, and it's free with our own mugs and everything, but it's also pretty sludgey. One of these days I'm gonna go to the really good coffee shop and get a decent cup, but today was not that day.

Took my refresher tests for Equipment and General Skills & Environment, got a 95% and a 100% respectively, so I'm feeling good about my theory base.

We went through Knowledge Reviews (I did better than I had expected, though they aren't graded) then launched into the EFR scenarios. For instructor level, there's an assumption that we already know the participant level information, so it wasn't a hard day. We each had to demo 3 skills. Mine were:

1 - Barrier Use
2 - Injury Assessment
3 - CPR on an infant

We aim for a role model level demo. We were in two groups, and by the time we'd all done our skills, it was lunchtime.

We were all feeling pretty lazy, so everybody ate at the Mango Inn restaurant, which is literally across a walkway from the classroom. I had the egg salad sandwich again. Solid sandwich. Only thing on the menu that is vegetarian. They can make a pasta vegetarian, too, but who wants pasta at noon in 84 degree heat?

I'm not used to how everybody smokes here. In fact, I think it's bothering me more every day. They aren't considerate smokers. Smoke on the break, smoke at lunch, smoke right after getting out of the water. Etc.

Back to the classroom for an afternoon of presentations on how to teach and structure EFR courses.

After an hour and a half or so of that, we took our exam. 60 questions, open book test. Broken up into three sections, the first one was more participant level, so a little less straightforward to find. I missed 4 questions, and they were all from the first section. Sections two and three are pretty much straight out of the instructor manuals, so with the electronic versions, it was really easy to find the answers quickly. 56 out of 60, so I got 93%. Pass rate was 75%.

VICTORY #2. I am now an Emergency First Response Instructor!

Some of my fellow candidates are ESL, and some party too much, so not everybody passed. A shame, but tomorrow late afternoon is remedial work, so hopefully everyone will continue to progress.

I grabbed one of the Course Director candidate assistants, Eric, and he helped me go through my presentation for tomorrow, which was all the homework I had, so I'm good to go.

It wasn't even 3:30, so I headed out to Utila Teacup, which is owned and run by my neighbor, Carolyn. She's a sweet older lady, a Wisconsin expat. Lovely little shop. On the bottom floor there's a little store that sells curios, jewelry, and other stuff, all honduran. I'll be getting my presents for people from there. Upstairs to the little cafe. It's mostly tea, with sweet and savory items as well.

I had a celebratory piece of sweet cream pie, as well as a jasmine lime iced tea. Delightful. She's only open til 5 every day, but I'll be back. Good prices too, 80 lempiras total.

Biked home, and on the main street, a bird pooped on my head! Gross. Wiped it off. Had to swing by the mini-market to buy a bag of chips for my presentation tomorrow (I'll explain more tomorrow) then promptly back home to wash my face!

Hung out on the porch with Kim and Carolyn for a good couple hours. So many stars here, beautiful out. Had a good conversation with Kim in particular about UDC, the program in general, etc. Super glad I'm not doing the MSDT.

Everyone is really gay friendly here, even the older folks. Love it.

I keep forgetting to mention it, but the day I arrived here, my screen door spring was broken and stabbed my main door every time I opened or close one or the other. I asked the landlady if she could fix it. The next day, I came home to the screen door with the spring part completely torn off. "There, I fixed it!"

Showered, and made myself a peanut butter sandwich that I didn't really want to eat. I continue having trouble with my appetite. I'm just not hungry and not eating as much as I should. It's like the opposite of normal!

I miss Diane. I'm having a good time here, and I'm learning a lot, but I miss my girl and my pets and my stuff and even work a little bit.