The Next Trip to Yucatan

It's all set and decided for a departure date of April 28, but my return date is yet to be decided. Week one is in Telchac Puerto, where my friend Jeanne-Marie will be celebrating her birthday with a group of her friends mostly from all over Canada and the States. So far we are filling up 4 houses, and looking for one more... woo hoo!

As much as I am thrilled about this, I feel thorn about my return to Telchac - which was initially meant to be for teaching, and visit Merida to develop some possible paying teaching gigs. It's very important to try hard this time around, because if I can not somehow partially finance my travels there in the future, I will not be able to go and volunteer my teaching in the village either.

So from the start, I was keen on keeping the spring trip at a low cost since I can't afford to go simply for a vacation. Now the plan has developed otherwise with the birthday celebration, and I feel that every single aspect of my trip has changed, and there is definitely a much higher price tag to it all - the flight, the transfer from Cancun to Telchac, the accommodation, and even the food. I will have to make some changes to bring some aspects back to the initial plan. Otherwise, I know that I will feel some resentment - and that's not healthy.

I have a good friend who owns and manages a business similar to mine, her area of teaching is applied arts. We have collaborated over the years, and she has been very interested in the Yucatan project for the last couple of years. She has a good connection with the Alliance Française, and has been considering some volunteer work as well. It would be nice to have someone to share the focus with, and I do need a photographer/videographer to document my work. It would also be a good thing to not be alone in the little house that will be provided to me for the teaching work. I will ask her to pursue her Alliance Française contact to hopefully develop something more in Merida.

Here in Toronto, business is still developing very nicely. I have landed two more daycare contracts in the West, and strong leads are opening-up in the East with the help of my good friend Véronique. I have given her a list of 30 daycares for a telemarketing sweep, and a bunch of them would like me to contact them for more details on our programs. If this keeps going the right way, I have 2 teachers waiting for work in the East end of Toronto. Of course, this would also mean a period of intense training to get them started. I am hoping to have at least one teacher trained and booked by February. I'll do my best!