I want to thank Jack Dangermond for supporting our youth and the program! We are continually overwhelmed by the amount of software, support, and energy ESRI puts into our youth development programs, and for creating the opportunity for the youth to attend the conferences both abroad and in San Diego! Without his support, we would not be able to offer these opportunities!

 I want to thank Esther Worker and Charlie Fitzpatrick for their continuing support, and their belief in the 4-H program! They have provided the best support we could have had. They have been wonderful in promoting youth experiences, and encouraging our youth to explore! They are vital to what we do!

 I want to thank Merrill Lyew and Juan Gomez for the terrific Latin American and Caribbean User’s Conference the 4-H EquipoGIS youth have just attended. This opportunity, both to present, and interact with GIS professionals has made a profound impact on the entire team!

 I want to thank Joseph Kerski for his ongoing support of our criteria and all of the work we do! His input has been essential to improving the skills of our youth!

 I want to thank Ismael Chivite for answering the questions that came from our team! Your direct answer to their question has clearly inspired Clara to peruse a career in GIS, and to believe that she can set her goals high, and achieve it!

 Thanks to all of you for all of your support, enthusiasm, and your belief in youth! You clearly are making a difference!

My deepest appreciation,

 ~Sarah Cofer

They DID not get to practice on stage, nor even hook up the equipment before hand! We went down to the Melia (a very short block and a half from where we are) the day before and met with staff. The ballroom was being used for something else (a different conference or meeting) and would not be set up until after 10 o’clock at night! So we peeked in the room, and left.

We arrived for the plenary sessions at just nine am the next morning! BUT there were issues with power (we have an intermittent power outages), some of the computer equipment (for the conference) had not arrived, the registration system was not set up, and it appeared that the equipment for the translations (each person could have an individual ear piece) had not arrived. The flooding has really disrupted travel! (Don’t worry I am checking on the airport today, as well as time it is going to take to get there.)

I have to interject here that Juan Gomez who is coordinating the conference, was absolutely, utterly, fantastic!

So we waited, and the kids found an empty room and practiced! I was so nervous I couldn’t sit still.

It finally started about 10 am! We heard Juan Gomez speak, and then Dr David Macquire from ESRI talked to us about the ESRI’s products. He spoke for two and a half hours, and we had a break and then he spoke for perhaps another hour.

We then ate lunch which was a buffet style catered lunch….FABULOUS …(in fact we didn’t even know we were going to get the lunch until just before…because we hadn’t registered…we didn’t have a ticket…etc)

They were expecting 400 people and in the audience yesterday there were maybe 150. Travel within the DR is limited because there is a lot of flood damage, and many people couldn’t make it!

During the opening presentation Ishmael Chivette (ESRI) worked through some brief overviews with the software….he spoke in Spanish….and he did a great job! Joked as he worked, and presented in a lively manner. We all decided we would take his classes this am….if we could get up!

In the middle of David Macquire’s presentation part of the ceiling fell in on several attendees! (It was not the vent itself, just the very soggggggy roof tiles….probably felt like getting hit with a bowl of oatmeal thrown at you from 40 feet!) Provided quite the entertainment!

The kids got to stand on the stage for the first time at 3:00! (Remember they were to present at 3:30!) We hadn’t had a chance to check to make sure the equipment would connect, or even project….(can u say I was having cardiac arrest…..) although we had asked about the specs of their system the day before….so we knew it should work!

So after eating lunch, we took our equipment, and prepared to present! I was so proud of the kids! Half an hour before the presentation….not knowing whether the equipment would even work or not….just walked it…walked up on stage..(no one else was in the room, except for the people fixing the large hole in the roof) and set up. Plugged everything in, pulled everything up….no issues. (I was so nervous I thought I was going to puke, but they were great! I don’t remember EVER being that nervous…it may have been better had I actually had to get up on stage! Thomas and I had decided that we were not going to present anything….as we wanted it to be entirely the kids presentation….and boy has that worked…but more about that later…!)

The only thing that I had to help with was how to get the laptops to project on the screen…I just had to show them where the fn f7 (on my computer) but I think it was fn f4 on theirs….was to toggle the projection to the screen and then to turn it off again!!!! Oh, and Luis was checking the battery power and noticed it was not charging despite being plugged in…..(more brownie points) so I had to bend the plug a bit to make it a stronger connection with the 1960s power strip…..THAT is it…they did every thing else!!!

They were ready by 3:20…seated on stage…people milling about…and Juan came in to let us know that they were going to wait for a while to start, because the workers hadn’t finished setting up a stand under where the roof had fallen.(During lunch they had shortened the room….by moving the chairs forward, and were placing a display (ESRI) under the spot where the roof had fallen in so that no one would be under it…..the stand was not set up yet)So we waited…the kids on stage, sitting in chairs…some people in the audience….some people milling about! Me fiddling with the camera, and the video cam….

We will be going to the Melia Hotel to attend the plenary sessions of ESRI and to present at 3:30.

We will try to post our presentations, as well as videos of the presentations later today!

My grandma Doris used to look up at the clouds, and see the smallest hint of sunshine, and declare it a sunny day. Well, we are not quite there yet, but there are visible sky breaks through the clouds!

The surf is still pretty choppy and violent, and the wind is blowing, but not strong enough to sweep small children away. (And we have no small children or dogs with us…so we are fine!) It is probably blowing about twenty miles an hour.

We were couped up in the hotel most of yesterday with the shutters pulled across the front doors. They youth did a great job practicing and gernearlly keeping themselves entertained all day long! But by late afternoon, we all were getting twitchy! According to the weather service, the storm had passed, and we were no longer in danger. (The danger in the Dominican Republic now appears to be mudslides in the mountains from the huge amount of rain. We are not close to the mountains!)

Despite warnings, (if we had to go out, it was STRONGLY suggested that we take a taxi) we decided to look for the grocery store on foot! We were looking for general munchies, and a chance to stretch our legs.

After quite the excursion, looking for the back door to the hotel, (it doesn’t exist) we finally just walked out of the parking garage. The grocery store was perhaps three blocks from the hotel, and filled with people.

The air was warm and muggy, and needed latin music and people dancing to make it a perfect tropical evening! We bought supplies for lunches, snack items for working late (like Oreos, Fig Newtons, and Soda) and returned to the hotel with our bounty. We returned to our hotel room, stowed the groceries, and decided we should go out again for dinner.

In the same general area, on of the youth had seen a delicatessen. It was filled with people, and we decided it must be a local hang out! The food was marvelous, and reasonably priced. (Something we do not get at the hotel!!!) Several of our group tried a drink called a batida con leche de lechoza It was delicious! It strongly resembles a smoothy made out of papaya. I think I will have one tonight!

After a long lingering dinner we walked back to the hotel, and Liz made an observation! This was the first night we had returned dry! Despite the hotel being boarded up, and having to enter the hotel throug

We assembled in one of the rooms, and the youth worked on their presentation for nearly four hours.

We practice for the first time in the Melia today!

~Sarah

[um..the laptop is running on battery, just in case you were wondering where i was writing from]

Oh! The lights just came back on…yay! Well this is going to be an interesting night….

I thought Thomas was kidding. He wasn’t….since this morning the storm has turned into a named Tropical Depression. NOEL!

Most of it appears to be expected to pass by us, but we will be watching closely. The warning says hat we may have significant rains and winds in the next 24 hours!

The waves breaking on the beach are monster size, at least five times the size we saw yesterday!

 We will keep you updated!

~Sarah C

Advisory taken from: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCPAT1+shtml/281443.shtml?

000

WTNT31 KNHC 281443

TCPAT1

BULLETIN

TROPICAL DEPRESSION SIXTEEN ADVISORY NUMBER   3

NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL   AL162007

1100 AM EDT SUN OCT 28 2007

…DEPRESSION ON THE VERGE OF BECOMING A TROPICAL STORM…

…SIGNIFICANT RAINFALL AND FLOODING POTENTIAL FOR PORTIONS OF THE

CARIBBEAN…

A TROPICAL STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR THE ENTIRE

SOUTHWESTERN PENINSULA OF HAITI FROM THE HAITI-DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

BORDER TO PORT-AU-PRINCE.  A TROPICAL STORM WARNING MEANS THAT

TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED WITHIN THE WARNING AREA

WITHIN THE NEXT 24 HOURS.

A TROPICAL STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR PORTIONS OF

SOUTHEASTERN CUBA IN THE PROVINCES OF GRANMA…SANTIAGO DE

CUBA…AND GUANTANAMO.  A TROPICAL STORM WATCH IS ALSO IN EFFECT

FOR JAMAICA.  A TROPICAL STORM WATCH MEANS THAT TROPICAL STORM

CONDITIONS ARE POSSIBLE WITHIN THE WATCH AREA…GENERALLY WITHIN 36

HOURS.

FOR STORM INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOUR AREA…INCLUDING POSSIBLE

INLAND WATCHES AND WARNINGS…PLEASE MONITOR PRODUCTS ISSUED

BY YOUR LOCAL WEATHER OFFICE.

AT 1100 AM EDT…1500Z…THE CENTER OF TROPICAL DEPRESSION SIXTEEN

WAS LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 16.5 NORTH…LONGITUDE 72.5 WEST OR ABOUT

220 MILES…355 KM…SOUTHWEST OF SANTO DOMINGO IN THE DOMINICAN

REPUBLIC AND ABOUT 145 MILES…235 KM…SOUTH OF PORT AU PRINCE

HAITI.

THE DEPRESSION IS MOVING TOWARD THE WEST-NORTHWEST NEAR 6 MPH…AND

THIS GENERAL MOTION IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE DURING THE NEXT 24

HOURS.  EVEN THOUGH THE CENTER OF THE DEPRESSION COULD PASS SOUTH

OF HISPANIOLA…HEAVY RAINS TO THE NORTH AND EAST OF THE CENTER

WILL PASS OVER THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC AND HAITI DURING THE NEXT 24

TO 36 HOURS.

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 35 MPH…55 KM/HR…WITH HIGHER

GUSTS.  SOME STRENGTHENING IS FORECAST…AND THE DEPRESSION COULD

BECOME A TROPICAL STORM LATER TODAY.  AN AIR FORCE HURRICANE HUNTER

AIRCRAFT IS SCHEDULED TO INVESTIGATE THIS SYSTEM THIS AFTERNOON.

ESTIMATED MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE IS 1003 MB…29.62 INCHES.

ABOVE NORMAL TIDES ARE LIKELY WITHIN THE WARNING AREA.

THE DEPRESSION IS EXPECTED TO PRODUCE TOTAL RAINFALL ACCUMULATIONS

OF 8 TO 12 INCHES OVER HISPANIOLA…SOUTHEASTERN CUBA…AND

JAMAICA…WITH POSSIBLE ISOLATED MAXIMUM TOTALS OF 20 INCHES.

ADDITIONAL RAINFALL ACCUMULATIONS OF 3 TO 5 INCHES ARE EXPECTED

OVER PUERTO RICO DURING THE NEXT 24 HOURS.  THESE RAINS COULD CAUSE

LIFE-THREATENING FLASH FLOODS AND MUDSLIDES.

REPEATING THE 1100 AM EDT POSITION…16.5 N…72.5 W.  MOVEMENT

TOWARD…WEST-NORTHWEST NEAR 6 MPH.  MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS…35

MPH.  MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE…1003 MB.

AN INTERMEDIATE ADVISORY WILL BE ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL HURRICANE

CENTER AT 200 PM EDT FOLLOWED BY THE NEXT COMPLETE ADVISORY AT 500

PM EDT.

$$

FORECASTER KNABB

JFK was a wonderful experience with weather delays (rain) and air traffic issues. We left New York exactly two hours late! Luis like the NY to Santo Domingo leg of the journey!

Descending through the clouds into the Santo Domingo area we flew through a thunder storm complete with cloud bursts over the ocean and lightening! Our first view of Santo Domingo was extraordinary! Heavy, dark clouds to the south, and green city to descend into to!

We cleared customs with minor confusion, and giggling. The sleeplessness was starting to hit us all! We found a taxi to the airport without any trouble, however, the driving skills of our driver appear to be questionable. He took his half out of the middle, cutting of another driver at one point, to which the other driver proceeded to pull up along side of the taxi, and welcome us into the country!

We arrived at the V Centenario in Santo Domingo without actually crashing, only running one vehicle off the road, only ignoring one red light, and without running out of gas…..note: the gas light was on the entire trip!

It is warm and raining hard. Buckets and buckets of rain! We walked (because Luis wouldn’t let us nap!) and found the conference hotel, and walked along the sea front.

We are currently waiting for Liz, Thomas, Gabriel, and Christian to arrive. We have dined on Salmon, capers, and onions….and chicken fingers that had a distinct fish flavor…..

After the rest of our group arrives, we plan to go explore the Zona Colonial.