Why do I have to be such a land lubber?

There is a street meat market between the immigration office and ferry terminal in Puerto Cortes. Half the booths strung and carved animal carcasses from the ceiling, the other half were restaurants and grocers. My friends' passports had expired the day before we got there, so the fat, sweaty, immigration officer refused to stamp their VISAS until an acceptable bribe was offered. The bribe was the captain's idea, who surely got a cut considering how steep it was. My friends had already purchased their ferry tickets, which was leaving shortly, so time was unfortunately against us.
On the pontoon-speedboat ferry to Belize were about 18 people including the captain and "first mate". The first mate's jobs were to hand out vom bags and steer while the captain scarfed down his rice and tortillas. I happen to know the captain ate rice and tortillas because I went to the stern for some fresh air and to vom over board. I figured if I'm going to vom why not feed the fish at the same time? Besides, what am I going to do with a bag of vom on a boat? The reason I vomed was because my friend Stephanie vomed first, and I apparently inherited from my mom the gag reflex when seeing someone else vom. The reason my friend vomed was because one of the ferry's motors died, which made us way slower and way more susceptible to sideways rocking. uhhhhhhhggggggggguuuuuuuuBBBBBBLLLLUUUUEEEHHHHH
The wind and salty splashes on my face finally cleared my head enough to go back under the tarp roof and curl up in a ball on the wooden floor. Flotation devices double as a great emergency cushion. After puttering along at half speed for 5 hours, a ferry with all its motors in tact met us and loaded the prisoners....err passengers. Because the ferry drivers booked as many passengers as they possibly could, there was not enough room for all of us to sit on the bench, which meant I was stuck with all our luggage sitting on a 6" wide, hard plaster support beam. I received a fierce spanking. Even with my flotation device cushioning my seat, I thought to myself, I think I'd rather be pulled behind the boat by a cord tied around my wrist. At least there are occasional dolphin and whale shark sightings in these parts.
Exhausted and pleased to be on firm ground, we turned down 4 or 5 different offers for "the very best bud" and ate a greasy dinner in a hole in the wall with an outdoor staircase leading to nowhere. Then we relaxed on a breezy rooftop balcony and went to bed.

Vonnegut and Ronmel

Everything is pointing me toward reading all of Kurt Vonnegut's novels. He seems deranged and senile enough for a delve into his mind to be well worth the effort. I've only read one so far (Slaughter House Five) and 50 pages of a second (Galápagos) and already I know for sure he is obsessed with time travel. He's from Indianapolis plus he compared his writing style to a band saw cutting sheet metal at a construction site. He's written at least 15 books, so if I complete the Kurt challenge I will double my existing record for most books read by a single author--currently tied at 7 between JK Rowling and Raymond Feist.
He makes me laugh. He makes me laugh while home alone enjoying a cup of wine and a peanut butter banana, admittedly a terrible mix of food & beverage, but I assure you, as long as whoever is consuming them is also reading Vonnegut, the experience will be delightful. I am trying to incorporate more laughter into my classroom. I remember reading an article my friend sent me which echoed the undisputed fact of therapeutic laughter. I think I'll show them some Wallace & Gromit from the hard drive and give them a taste of proper English speech.

In this Vonnegut book I'm reading (which is set 1 million years in the future but the author is telling a story which took place in 1986) he asks two GREAT QUESTIONS:
i) Can it be doubted that three-kilogram brains were once nearly fatal defects in the evolution of the human race?
ii) What source was there save for our overelaborate nervous circuitry, for the evils about simply everywhere?

Talk about an author putting words to my thoughts!! We just do not see evil brought about by creatures besides humans, and we have the biggest brains! In addition to this evolutionary, ethical question, he has brought up the power of expectations in the development of children and the operations of the world financial market. I am imagining parents who have no faith in their child and expect him or her to fail. How much more likely is he to fail due to this upbringing? So much of what we interpret (in language or vision) is based on what we expect to understand & see. It's along the same lines. Additionally, people exchange $1.00 for roughly 19 Limpiras (or €0.69 or £0.61) because lenders have an expectation to these currencies.

Today and yesterday we've been rehearsing our mother's day acts in the gym across the street. The kids go wild in there, it's something about the improved acoustics, dusty floors making knee-slides more effective, tiered benches making aerial ambushes possible. Ronmel, a second grader with the best bull hair cut you've ever seen, was apparently picking up tips from all the older girls dancing. In the last act, the fifth graders, who had already played a great song on their recorders, were dancing without much gusto at all. Ronmel happened to notice how unconvincing they were compared to the 4th and 6th grade girls so he stood up and started rolling his little body and spinning his arms to the music. Legs spread in a stance you'd see from a serious athlete, he literally stole the show from the back of the crowd when one by one, the entire audience abandoned the poor performing girls and starting chanting his name. While the music was still playing, the girls trickled back into their spots on the floor with the rest and Professor Aleydi put on one of five pop songs currently circulating Honduras right now and called for an oncore. Pleased with himself and confident in his few but sultry dance moves, Ronmel obliged for the entire song, after which five older fourth and fifth grade boys lifted him from the ground in adoration. He got as high as their knees and was almost dropped on his head, but he is now famous school-wide and will probably have a girlfriend tomorrow.