wild weather

So, hurricane season is in full effect here in the DR! Gustav has passed us (though I hear it's roughing up the Southern US pretty bad) but Tropical Storms Hanna and Ike are on their way.

Right now everything is pretty calm in my site. Yesterday was pretty rainy, but nothing like the rivers-in-the-streets rainy like Gustav last week. They closed school today because of the (potential) rain, but today has been hot and dry, to the severe annoyance of the nun (aka my school principal).

I also heard from the PC emergency coordinator that we might get consolidated tomorrow! Consolidation is the second level of PC-preparedness; the first one (which we're currently on) is standfast, meaning stay where you are. Consolidation involves pulling everyone out of their sites to a hotel in a safe city. PCVs kind of hope for this to happen--I mean, if we're going to get rained on, it might as well be in a hotel on PC's dollar/peso! (The third level of emergency preparedness, which has never happened in the DR, is complete evacuation of the country.)

Anyway, I guess the powers that be will decide by 4pm tomorrow if we're consolidating or not. With hurricanes, they decide well before they're actually supposed to hit, so that we can get our travelling out of the way before it gets bad. I'll keep you guys posted, but what I'm trying to say is: don't worry about me! The PC takes way better care of people in hurricanes than, say, FEMA.