"Fake it 'till you make it?"

I am now teaching my host dad English at night a few days a week in exchange for part of the rent.  It is so much fun - he even bought a white board to hang on the wall so it could be like a real classroom.  He is so proud of it. 

(We interrupt this program to dance bachata for a moment... to music played on the cell phone of my host brother. These are the times I love living with a family.)

Anyways, sometimes I wonder if I really know enough to teach people the English language.  When you are working for a language institute, they give you a book and a curriculum to follow.  Right now, I am making things up as I go along... using my notes from the TEFL class as a guide and developing activities along the way.  But, also, up until now I just had random classes.  I have never tried to start from the beginning with a student.  Where do I even start?  I almost bought books when I was in San Jose, but didn't because they were expensive; I didn't know if I wanted to stay in Quepos and try to make my own path here or return to the Central Valley and work for a company. 

At least I know one thing - anything I do teach will be better than what some people are getting now. There are so many errors in the book my host dad is learning from.  I am constantly having to correct words that are the wrong tense or spelled wrong.  There are also random expressions like "a woolf *on sheep's clothing" or "he got fired because he was sloth." 

Still, I get an uneasy feeling in my stomach when I think about leading a continuous class that needs a lot of structure.  I think that I need to go back to San Jose to buy some books if I am going to do this.  I just don't know.  I feel overwhelmed.  Maybe that is why I still haven't hung up those flyers....