My work here is almost done...

For all of you reading this blog, please continue to think about the possibility of making a donation to my work, project and community here in Santiago. I will be accepting donations through the end of this week (Friday December 5th). I am finishing analyzing and typing up the results of my investigation, organizing my project (the sales of my artisans works together in my programs office and in a local church), and I have my final presentation to my community, organization, and program that sums up all my work, my results, and suggestions/ recommendations to my organization and community of artisans.

We had a meeting last weekend to elect the assembly (president, secretary, treasurer, vocals...) and the association is beginning! Now we have to go to register our name with the State to officially become a working non-profit! Very exciting!

La Competencia Internacional de NACO

This past weekend was wonderful. The Pan-American Championships of swimming were held here in the DR this year and we traveled to Santo Domingo to compete with our team, the Bettas of PUCMM and it was a very tiring, inspiring, and worth-while experience. There were 17 teams there from all over from southamerica. There were mulitple swimmers that we met that competed in the past olimplic games in Bejing. We met people from all over the world and talking in Spanish and being able to understand others' Spanish from all over was really cool. I placed top 16 in 3 of my 5 events and we placed 6th in the final relay yesterday. I stayed in a room with 7 other guys from the team and the coach. We went to Acropolis the large mall downtown and ate out, went to an arcade, and played lazer tag together Sat. night. We laughed and ate lots of food for energy and I am really going to miss all the guys on the team, being that that was the last meet of the season. We will still be hanging out at the pool when possible, but the next season won't start until January.