I only saw your post because I was testing my new phone, and I used as my test web page. (I got a Blackberry 7130c. It works pretty well. I needed an electronic planner of some sort that was easy to carry with me, and it does the job well.)
Anyway:
I am wondering about your community's education for the children. Are books readily accessible, are classes taught? And in general what is the education like there. I believe public education is a benefit for society.
Well, I believe public education is a benefit for society, too, but it's not doing real well at the moment. Judging from the few children that have been in public school then come to a class I was teaching, they're not doing real well. Admittedly, that sample isn't big enough to draw conclusions from, but with what the public schools report about themselves, they don't seem too hard to improve on.
We use home school curriculum mostly, though we do sometimes use Hought-Mifflin (sp?) and other typical public school books, especially for science and history, where home school books are often scared to admit the earth is old and thus aren't accurate.
My opinion of our education is that it took a few years to get it up to snuff, but now it's awesome and it has been for several years.
We are reviewed by the local school superintendent that we are on good terms with. He's a regular customer at our cafe, and he comes out and checks on classes on a random basis.
What are the shelters like now in the village? Cabins? Mobil homes? What exactly?
Almost exclusively mobile homes, late model and in good condition. There are a couple small cabins and two renovated double-wides that are no longer mobile homes, but sturdy, large, well-built houses.