Last week of school

This past week was our last week of school. I was hoping for pictures of our field day with games and such. However, it is also our rainy season, so no field day and no games. We had rain off and on pretty much every day last week.

I spent the first part of the week working with the principal on some end of year paper work. The teachers handed out report cards before the end of year staff social.

Our last assembly of the school year
So – school is out – what do I plan for my first week of break?

I’ll be at school working with the 6th grade teacher and the incoming 6th grade class. The students will need a writing portfolio that includes a book report and several essays to graduate. So this coming week we will be helping the students work on the book report they have already started.

I’m also going to pack up the library. Putting books, learning aids, and games in plastic bags to protect against storm damage. I wanted to do that last week, but I didn’t have plastic bags (as other teachers needed to pack up as well and I knew I would be coming this week anyway). I got some bags with my trip to Grenville Saturday – so I’m set.

Hurricane season

Dominica is in the middle of the blue band and Grenada is the last small island in the chain before South America


We are in another hurricane season. Grenada is well south of the typical path for hurricanes that form off Africa. The center of the path, the hurricane magnet, seems to be Dominica.

I spent close to a decade as a Red Cross local disaster team lead and I started paying attention to the National Hurricane Center website after Katrina. Of course now that I’m in the Caribbean rather than Missouri the visits to the NOAA site are a little more personal. I noticed Beryl when it was just forming. Now I’m checking after every planned updated and hoping that the people of Dominica will be spared this season, at least this time.

Hurricane/tropical storm Beryl is forecast to pass over/near Dominica and Guadeloupe late today or early Monday. It is expected to pass by the northern part of Dominica. My site was in the south.

The island has made good recovery since Maria. The roads in some places remain challenging, but the road between Tete Morne and Roseau has been fine since it reopened after Maria. People are still working on house repairs and getting utilities reconnected around the island of course – but many have been fully restored. I hope this is not a setback.

The western Atlantic is a little cooler at the moment so Beryl hasn’t had a much energy as Maria got. It has stayed a rather small storm, but that does make it a little harder to forecast the path. And I see that Chris has popped up on the Eastern seaboard. Hurricanes….



Love always,
John

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