I cannot make this stuff up.

So, this next-to-last week of school turned out not at all as expected. Not in a bad way. In a where-did-that-come-from way.

It was Tuesday, I think, when we (my roommates - the Kinder/Prepa/1st English teachers - and I) got word of our passports. (Mine actually travels more in Honduras than I do, for which I am quite jealous.) It was not a good word.

How travel permissions work here is that one has 90 days in Honduras once entering the country; past that point, it is necessary to either head for home, or go at least two countries over (try Belize), spend a little time, get a nice passport stamp, and come back. 

Sometimes, I'm not precisely sure how, the government grants visa extensions, which are good for 30 days. Having arrived the 15th of August, we applied (that is, we gave our ministry our passports and a fistful of cash and they went to a lawyer) for an extension to get us from November 15th to December 15th and got it. We were to do this again to cover the 4 days separating that extension limit from our actual departure date of December 19th, the Saturday after the last day of school.  

But it was not granted; we were told no one is getting them.

This news sat heavily upon me, despite reassurances that we could pay a fine (estimated at $80) and leave a little late, no problem. I felt uncomfortable willfully ignoring the law. On Thursday morning we were informed by our pastor's wife that the current fee was more like $140, or L2750). 

I forget in whose brain it was that the wheels first began turning toward leaving. But, we theorized, if the fee to change a plane ticket is only $10 more than the fine, AND we could stay legal in the process of leaving early (a good track record will only help should we enter other foreign countries in the future)... why not? 

We checked: there were flights still. A ride to a hotel close to the airport smoothly materialized. Our passports (which, nerve-wracklingly, were still in Teguc - 2 hours away - on Friday) were speedily returned to us.

And so we're leaving. Despite the arrangement ease, it's been a hard process. Though there is little real teaching happening at the school next week because of holiday festivities, we leave the school in a short-staffed position, as was made abundantly clear to us (in both Spanish and English). Overall though, the staff has been kindly supportive of our desire to avoid the illegal status. They are ever a pleasure to work with.