One evening we had some friends over for dinner. Geraldo showed up VERY late so I told him that it was an American tradition that who ever shows up last to a dinner party has to wear the party hat. He wore it all night long, and continued even after we fessed up that there is no such tradition. Also, Saviel and Romeris pose with Mckinley.
The first day of school across the country has horrible attendance, and our schools are no exception. My brother got married and as wedding favors my folks made personalized frisbees but the company printed the wrong date so they sent us all the misprints. I distributed them to the students that attended the first day of school as a way to show our appreciation of their extra efforts. Below you see the fifth grade class with their frisbees.
To mark the beginning of school in La Hoya we had a sort of parade in which the classes were separated out and each classed carried a sign. The kids sang all the way through town, and many families came out to clap and cheer for their students.
Above, the Reception and 1st grade classes carry a sign that says "we are the future in miniature!"
The fifth graders carried a very colorful sign.
Leonardo, or Pepe as he is more commonly called, leads the first morning prayer time.
Manuela, daughter of our maintenance man Manuel and new addition to our staff prays with the children.
The winds of Isaac were pretty gusty!
The bamboo tree in COPA La Hoya under the pressure of the wind. You can see that the planter is jut starting to crack.
After the storm we discovered the tree had been blown down due to the fact the the tree was planted on top of concrete and could not establish a deep root system.
In COPA Bombita there was a lot of standing water, but no other damage was sustained.
In the village is Bombita there was more damage:roofs blown off, flooding in homes, and copious amounts of mud.
Habanero, the town just up the road from La Hoya was hit very hard by the Isaac. The river swelled up and took out entire homes, whole crop fields, and severely damaged many buildings. This is a very poor community to begin with and the affects were wide spread.
The river brought a lot of debris into town.
Where once stood a home, now there is not even the foundation remaining.
Inside an Habanero home, filled with mud.
A bible found amongst the debris.
An example of how the heavy rains tore the plantain bushels from the trees.
This man's latrine lost its walls!
Plantain fields destroyed by the winds and rains. Farmers across the region lost their entire crop to the storm.
Peace restored to the COPA La Hoya compound.
A resident of Bombita.
Yazmin, a member of COPA Bombita staff, does her laundry in a large tub.
The "gym" in Habanero (before the storm)
Emma carried the larges, most wonderfully decorated cake to the school in Hato Viejo.
A work group works to put concrete floors in Bombita.
Patrick and some friends...
Stephanie learns to lay concrete
Patrick was so tired after a beach day that he fell asleep on the way home, in the bed of the truck, and stayed sleeping long enough after we parked for me to take the picture.
Amanda (me) leads the brand new preschool class in a classroom parade to learn to use musical instruments.
Amanda, Katie, and Catarina squeeze onto a motor to drive through Bombita.
The scouts after we put in new floors and tore down the palm leaf roof in order to replace it with corrugated tin.
