Some great pictures for you to see

For some reason, the computers here at the internet cafe won´t recognize anyone´s flash drive, so I can´t show you the pictures I took, but I can send you to the site of the National Geography photographer who has been with us. The site is www.toyota4education.com and if you go to it and look for a person laying on their stomach to take a picture of an iguana, that will prove I´m really here! Today is our last day in the islands and we fly out to Quito tomorrow morning, have our hike to the orchid and hummingbird refuge the next day and then we all head for home. The internet is poor in Quito, so this will probably be the last you hear from me until I get home. I can´t wait to see you all!

Boobies and Iguanas and Seal Lions--oh my!

Hello from the Galapagos Islands!!! It´s been really hard to get a connection and I´m not going to try to tell you everything that I´ve been doing because it would take to long, but I want to tell you about some highlights: I HAVE seen Blue-Footed Boobies and they were every bit as wonderful as I thought they would be! The Marine Iguanas are fabulous and they are everywhere. I got some really good footage of the big males challenging each other--¨This is MY patch and you´re too close to it¨ they seem to say. The animals have been fabulous, but the best part for me has been meeting the wonderful people, especially the children. I took some Shut the Box games with me and they have been a huge hit---the kids here like them just as much as the kids at Bountiful El. We have all been working incredibly hard, usually up before six and on the go all day long. Today we had a class (yes, a class--we have lots of them!) at the Darwin Centre and then off to the highlands to learn about organic farming. We hiked into the interior to get trees and then plant them as part of a reforestation project. They best part was that we saw wild giant tortoises! They are HUGE!!!!!! You can see where they´ve come through the foliage because it looks like a tank has been through there. I want you all to know that the poorest school you´ve ever seen in the U.S. has more than the best school here. The students have to bring their own markers to school for the small whiteboard they have and teachers are expected to buy ALL their own supplies on their salary of less than $1000 a month. (no DEA here...) I have learned more than I ever thought possible and worked SO hard! Being here has been one of the great privileges of my life and I will never forget anything I´ve seen.