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The Final Chapter: Wisdom or Despair

Under repair: Over a year ago I wrote what would be the final chapter of my memoir. Th Covid Pandemic was heading for the peak of its first wave in this country. I had been planning the final chapter since I started the memoir. Little stories about the emergence of my interest in Erickson’s theory, university exploratory years, and my educational philosophy seemed important to include. A Presidential election was looming. I felt the need to comment on that. I posted the chapter here the end of May 2020. I was done. The year long exercise in writing 200 words a day was over, or so I hoped. I have had three main critics through the memoir. None of them liked the final chapter. One critic suggested I write what I see as my life accomplishments. This could be a very short chapter.
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Chapter 11: Final Retirement

CHAPTER 11: FINAL RETIREMENT When we returned from New Zealand and sold our shell of a home in New Orleans, we started half-heartedly looking for another overseas job. There were age restrictions for visas. We didn’t fancy going into the US test-driven madness; so, in June of 2012 at the age of fifty-nine we tried retirement. In March of 2020 the Corona virus swept the world. This chapter  is about the last eight years. As I am in the high risk group, who knows if there will be a last chapter.  Six months before Katrina hit I finally hung on the walls of our house in New Orleans  artwork by an Ecuadorian artist I had become friends with over  twenty years earlier. In 1985 I was teaching middle school science at Academia Cotopaxi in Quito. My mother had returned to university for a degree in art history. She had become interested in Haitian primitive art and asked if Ecuador had a primitive art style. They did. The artists could often be seen walking the tourist...
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Chapter 10: Honduras

CHAPTER 10: HONDURAS The last chapter ended with us accepting jobs at the International School of Louisiana (ISL), the job where we were working when Hurricane Katrina hit New Oreleans. This chapter mingles experiences at ISL and our transition back to full time teaching in Honduras.  The first two years at ISL  we seemed to be go from achievement to achievement. We grew by eighty students a year. Carolyn went to France to recruit teachers. I was getting more and more involved with things like lobbying and fundraising. When Katrina changed everything, we were a month away from launching a year long capital campaign to build a middle school on property the school had bought the year before. Mayor Nagin awarded us a grant that allowed us to demolish the existing deserted building on the property. The wrecking equipment was on the lot when Katrina hit. Katrina did no damage to the decades old, asbestos infected, warehouse the school was about to demolish.  For three ye...
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Chapter 9: Managua to Ashgabat

CHAPTER 9: MANAGUA TO ASHGABAT On Sept. 11, 2001, we were with my mother in Henleyfield, Mississippi, while she recovered from hip surgery. We were having breakfast and watching the morning news shows when the first plane went into one of the Twin Towers. An expert was trying to explain how this could happen accidentally when he quickly disappeared to never be heard from again when the next plane hit. We were scheduled to return to London in October for a gifted and talented program Gary had set up for us to run for the borough of Southwark. Carolyn was going to do substitute teaching. It looked like we might be crossing the Atlantic and borders often. It would be easier if we were married. As my mother recovered, we looked for the best option for getting married quickly with little planning.  On September 30th we were married by Elvis in Vegas. A week later we were back in London. Gary and I were running a gifted and talented program for primary science students, and Carolyn e...
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