Although facilitating trainings can be a great experience, there are inherent downsides to doing this on a regular basis. For one, its strenuous to the throat, as one had to always be in 'voice projection' mode. granted this isn't shouting, but its one level below, since you have to really make sure everyone in the room can her you. Microphones may come in handy, but for some reason, one loses some of the rapport, or connection with the team.

Sometimes its not that bad - specially when one has a co-facilitator to help share the lecturing load... but sometimes, like what happened to me yesterday, you have to take the load all by yourself. This becomes doubly hard, if said training being handled, happens to be talk-heavy (also my situation yesterday).

I find that during said type of day, I would be struggling to keep my voice from failing - making sure I don't stretch it too much for fear of losing said voice, specially when not near the end of one's training conduct yet. I took it upon myself to have a warm glass of water always nearby. But faltering it was, and after that day's work ended, I felt that my throat was parched. I would have wanted some lozenges or a soothing drink - anything to help comfort my throat... and yes, limited talking time after said training.

Barbie comments, at times, that I'm awfully quiet around others - specially her family, but the truth of the mater is, if I don't have much to say, I'd rather keep quiet - maybe because I'd rather preserve my talking voice for lectures? Partly, I guess... other than that, I may have more reasons why I'm not the talkative type... thought they are not to be confused with fear of speaking - as I've outgrown said fear of speaking - thanks to Toastmasters.

I am still experiencing said throat irritation, but I discovered that using a combination of apple cider (2 tbsp), honey (2 tbsp) and water (1 glass), and drinking this concoction helps my throat. Unfortunately, I did not think of bringing such a mixture today, hence my 'pesteng ahem' bouts.

Oh well... at least I'm not lecturing today... and the week-end promises to be rather long and uneventful... with exception to my drive to Cuenca to bring an exercise machine to my mom. This should give me lots of opportunities to rest my throat... until next time.