It's Fall?

Anyway, as the subject suggests, it is now fall, and yet I'm having a hard time believing so. No, I'm not trying to rub it in that I'm still enjoying warm, tropical temperatures. It is just that life goes on and I don't really stop to think much about the fact that here it still feels like summer. So, when I hear from a coworker who said it was 50 degrees where she traveled for business or see pictures of friends in sweatshirts, it suddenly dawns on me that I am in a different part of the world. The ironic thing is that boxes of garbage bags still have designs promoting their use for raking leaves--not that anyone needs that here...

Maybe fall in Puerto Rico isn't colorful leaves, brisk weather, corn mazes, apple cidar and sweatshirts, but it has its own uniqueness.

1. Political caravans: This is an election year for the PR governor and for many of the mayors of smaller municipalities. These caravans are really, really, REALLY long lines of cars that parade through expressways and side streets and usually stop traffic. According to fellow Puerto Ricans, Old San Juan will be impassable in a few weeks. The political caravans' specialties are Puerto Rican music on high volume, megaphones, girls sitting in car windows and waving flags, and car horns. I enjoy watching them and trying to figure out what political party they belong to. (The flags are different colors for different parties.)

2. Hurricane season: No, we haven't had any hurricanes, but we have had a lot of rain and storms. Actually, there was a lot of serious flooding in southern PR. One area received 24 inches of rain in 24 hours. Fortunately, the northern half of the island was spared the brunt of it, but we still had a lot of rain. In PR there are no snow days, but there are rain days. Several schools and universities canceled classes because of road flooding.

3. Club Cristoamigos!: This is the children's club on Friday nights that I'm helping with. About 45 elementary schoolers are coming to the club, and 15 teenagers are going to the teen group. Most of these are from the community. Pray that we would be able to share Christ with them and reach out to their families as well.

OK, I'm doing well. Good news is that I am now eligible for benefits at my job! Praise the Lord!

I am also driving E's car a lot so that I can get used to PR roads, traffic, etc. Probably the most eventful thing that happened to me in the car was running over a 4-foot iguana--mainly its tail, I think. The rest of it went between the wheels.

This week, E and I cracked open a coconut, and I got to eat my first fresh, unsweetened coconut! It is good. The only funny part is that we couldn't find a machete, which is the proper, easiest and fastest way to open a coconut. It took almost an hour to open the coconut with a large screwdriver and a hammer.