¿Tormenta Olga?

It's been pretty wet and noticeably cooler here in the DR the past few days, in the mid to low 70's. Shocking all of us, Tropical Storm Olga formed yesterday. This is a very rare occurrence, as Hurricane Season "officially" ends November 30th. Currently, it is completely covering Puerto Rico to our east and beginning to touch Hispaniola. The entire country is on emergency alert, especially the northern coast. From the projected path, that would pretty much be us in Mao, Valverde. I've always loved seeing the grand power of storms, but this type isn't always that sweet when it comes to the devastating after-effects. I can tell that Emerson and his fellow comrades in agriculture are starting to get a bit nervous about their banana crops surviving Round Two.

It's strange that our last big storm was called "Noel," which basically means "Christmas" in French. It ripped through the Caribbean the very week that everyone was putting up Christmas decorations. (I find it hilarious that they start so early here, at the end of October!) I pray that in this Christmas season, Olga won't be as devastating with flooding and mudslides as the last. I have a feeling that it won't be.

I'm sort of stuck working at home today as the roads are too muddy to pass through to rural communities. The plan for today and tomorrow was to go with a team from the DPS office visiting poor communities that often pose public health risks. We had a great time last week on the same operativos. We achieved a lot, and it ended up being a great way for me to further bond with the staff. An added plus was that I got to be on local TV yet again! (I didn't get to see it, but some friends were excited to have seen me passing out mosquito nets, medicines, etc.) I think I've been on TV more in the past couple months than ever in my life. This time around, Carlos from Mao's channel 10 went everywhere with us to video tape our operativos.

You can read more about the storm here.