Politics are a hot topic these days, and with good reason!! Everyone here (it seems in any case) is pulling for Obama. Edwin gave a nice inspirational pep talk to his students yesterday using Obama as a role model to work hard and aspire for great things for yourself and others (i.e study and do your homework!!).

I myself am glued to the tv-- the lovely mediocre coverage of CNN Español... although it's more or less repeating coverage of the same mini stories...oh news!

Friday was a wash. Once it began raining last night the skies stayed dark and dumped lakes. I got stranded on Friday at a friend´s near the school (as school was cancelled due to rain), we watched the normally dry cañada fill and begin to overflow. The ground opposite us dropped into the river along with all the trash flowing out into the sea. The river expanded by about two meters! I finally bit the bullet and went home in the rain as it didn't look like it was going to let up anytime soon.

I finally did some sight seeing this weekend, going up the teleferico (the only one in the country!) and going to the beach.

Today I went to another school which works with Vermont Institute of the Caribbean and has a Barrios Saludables, Niños Sanos program. The students were headed into the streets to talk with their neighbors about what the community likes and dislikes about their neighborhood and to hand out garbage bags. Both the school and the neighborhood seem to be both better organized and funded/wealthier than the school and neighborhood of Los Dominguez. Perhaps in sync with that, the education at the school seems far more advanced (actual hands on projects, creative thinking, guest speakers, etc.) and the over-all consciousness of the neighborhood in regard to trash and littering is also more advanced.