Prospect Hill Academy Puerto Rico 2025
June 9, 2025
Today we landed in Puerto Rico, where we met our amazing leaders, Nahely and Talia. They took us to lunch were we were given a multitude of options to eat from. People got the choice of beef, pork or chicken with rice and red beans (which was new for a lot of us) while others got the choice of a delicious chicken alfredo. There was even someone who got to enjoy a fish option!
Reviews:
Customer 1: “Lunch was amazing, it was great!”
Customer 2: “It was good, it was so good!”
Customer 3: “I thought it was really good!”
After Lunch we went over to San Juan where we met our fun, cunning, jokester tour guide, Alvin. He took us on a tour of the Island showing us the amazing statues, old buildings and teaching us about San Juan, Puerto Rico’s amazing rigorous history. Stories about women winning fights, and navigation as well as the fails and successes of the island.
Student Fact: “Fact, the docking ports of Old San Juan were considered special because they are what allowed the outside world to connect to the ‘New World’ meaning the Spanish held something very important in their grasp.”
Student Fact 2: “Fact, when the Spanish were building forts in San Juan, they built it in a horrible location at first. The place they had built it, blocked their view from enemies, so in the end they had to build a new one in a new location.”
After our historical tour, we moved on to street tours and got to see the beautiful streets of San Juan Puerto Rico. We went souvenir shopping and lots of us got to collect and buy amazing items!
Buyer 1: “I got a shirt!”
Buyer 2: “I got a crocheted cute avocado from my gf”
Buyer 3: “I got a gorgeous glass blue stingray!”
After we shopped, we got ice cream, had a fun and restful ride over to the Big Yellow House, and had a night full of logistics, dinner, circles, heat, and showers!
By Emma, Rebecca D, Andre, Odlitha, Elijah, Terrence
June 10, 2025
We all woke up at varying times. Some at 6 am… but most later. All of us were all up by 7 am in the morning though. Today we had pancakes, fruits, ham, juice, and pastries. We needed to be ready before breakfast so we could go straight to the community of Villa Del Rio. A 20 minute drive took us to the house of a couple and their 3 kids. Our project was to add an addition on to their house so they can have more living space.
The community members were really nice and made sure to keep us safe, even with a language barrier for most of us. It was a new experience, at some times tiring, but ultimately, we got the job done, which was to create the base floor of rooms for 2 of the kids in the family we are helping.
Working alongside community members of Villa Del Rio, we got to know them and their solution and what our purpose was. Working alongside the community members, we saw how they contributed to their efforts for so long, and how challenging it can be. We learned to appreciate each individual’s hard work both within the community of Villa Del Rio and our groups.
After working for 6 hours under the hot Puerto Rico sun, we left for the big yellow house. There we got ready to have free time. We chose to go to the beach. The beach was a 5 minute walk away. There, we played in the water, playing soccer and volleyball, and taking photos by the shore. After a few hours we left and went the the house to freshen up and get ready for dinner. Tonight we had rice and chicken. After dinner we cleaned up and got ready for the salsa lesson. We learned salsa for an hour, then wrapped up and got ready for the night. we got an hour of phone time before we had to give it back. Then we went to bed. We can’t wait for what tomorrow will bring!
By Haddi, Natalia, Coral
June 11, 2025
Today, we started by waking up with our groups and began packing up to leave the house at 8:00am. All of us came together to eat breakfast and had amazing delicious foods like toast, pancakes, eggs and more. The food is really good and fulfills us very well which is much appreciate by from Global Works. After we finish eating, we left the house to begin our service at the house that we started working on yesterday. Today, we thought that the work was going to be easier, but we found great amount of challenges. The work was solely based on cement and making sure we completed the filling the floor today after we finished flattening down the dirt yesterday for the foundation.
At first, the different groups we were put in were working extremely slow because of how tired we were- which caused the work to move slowly. The community was disappointed and Angel had conversation with us. We realized that there weren’t a lot of people to work in the group of shoveling the sand which made everything tiring. This also affected how fast the sand and rocks got passed down which affected how quickly cement was being made. After a refreshing break for lunch and encouraging words from others this soon lead us to quickly pick up the pace, communicate with each other and find a routine that worked for everyone. While it was extremely tiring for us we managed to keep a great attitude and complete the concrete base for the extended part of the house.
At the end of the day we were able got reflect on our the good doing we did and in our minds we feel that the pain and sweat that we endured was all worth it just to make sure that these people are able to live in more comfort than before which is the main goal for us & the community. After experiencing & enduring hard work we learn to be more appreciative of our environments and the little things that others may not be as fortunate to have. We learned how much hard work goes into construction, as well as the ways hurricanes can make peoples home unlivable in an instant. We are grateful for this experience.
By Ebony, Aleacha, Ervenson, Kerold, and Jamesley
June 12, 2025
Today we helped the turtles by cleaning up the washed up debris on the beach. The purpose of the work was to clear the beach so that turtles could nest safely. To get the work done faster we each took separate parts of the beach to work on, a couple of us stayed back to help place the debris near the sidewalk, some of us helped rake the wood, and some made piles to make the clean up run smoothly. A lot of us struggled when cleaning up because the heat and the beaming sun. A couple of us lost motivation because of exhaustion but with group motivation we were able to move forward.
Next in the afternoon we had different sandwiches some having Cubanos, turkey sandwich and a gyro and got to ask Ramon some questions about the ecosystems in Puerto Rico. After eating we went straight back to work and finished right on time to swim in the river. During that time some of us were tanning and sun bathing, while others were playing in the sand or having a good time playing Marco Polo. After that we separated into to two groups and went paddle boarding for the first time. In the first group a few people fell into the river but laughed off the fall. In the second group a few us had a hard time adjusting to the paddle boarding environment, but in the end it all turned out well. During that time both groups were able to learn more about the mangrove trees, and how they protect the ecosystem.
To end the day we all came together and had a fun pizza night as our last dinner. After that we all got together and walked down the block to get popsicles. As we were eating our popsicles we saw a group salsa class. As new formed salsa dancers, of course, we had join in and show our new moves. We had a lot of fun and goofed off as it was our last night together. When we came back we reflected over our week here and talked about our new memories, lessons we’ve learned and how we grew as people and closer together.
Lastly we all wanted to thank Talia, and Nahely for taking us in and teaching us new life lessons. We’re very thankful that they took us in and we were able to get out of our comfort zone and still have fun.
-Aregash, Aliza, Sara, Maliyah, Briana, Ben. C
