Puerto Rico: Hurricane Relief Session 1, 2026
June 26, 2026
As the sun rose, the rooster crowed at six in the morning. The clock was set. In just thirty minutes, we had to get dressed and meet in the dining area to eat breakfast. With bright eyes and chirpy attitudes, we indulged in a nice breakfast consisting of french toast, eggs, sausage, and the refreshing fruits of the island. We had our rundown for the morning, explaining the agenda for the day. Then, we piled into the vans. The hour-long ride to Old San Juan was filled with music, lively chatter, and large expectations. When we deboarded, we were met with the blazing sun, and our tour guide, Alvin. Our journey began, and we learned about Old San Juan, its history and its rich cultural diversity. Our tour began with the heritages: a series of statues dedicated to the island’s core values. We explored forts crucial to Puerto Rico’s affairs as well. On this tour Alvin explained to us how Puerto Rico earned its name, its meaning being “rich port” which was given because of its abundance of resources. The tour concluded, leaving us all exhausted but with a lot to ponder. We used this momentum to head towards our lunch spot. Here, we indulged in a traditional lunch of rice, beans, an assortment of meats, and platanos. With full bellies, we walked to calle La Fortaleza, where we shopped for souvenirs. After this, we rehydrated with paletas of many flavors. This concluded our time in Old San Juan, and we piled into the vans again to complete the journey home.
After a fourty-five minute break, we headed to the beach for some downtime. We played volleyball, sunbathed, and chatted with locals. To finish off our day, we returned to the Big Yellow House. Right before dinner, we continued exploring connections in our large group. For dinner, we indulged in grilled chicken, salad, yellow rice, a nice dinner roll, and a complementary cookie. After dinner, we participated in a few icebreakers that helped strengthen our bond as a team. To end the day, we sat at our dining table, and had our evening meeting. We discussed Puerto Rican culture and history, observations we made throughout the day, and our reflections on these topics, they enriched our knowledge of the island. We ended the meeting with our itinerary for tomorrow’s agenda, and were left to enjoy the hour left of downtime to hang out with newfound friends and relax.
By: Yeiris, Halima, Rachel, Emmanuel
June 27, 2026
This morning, we woke up to a delicious breakfast prepared by our food caterer Ricky; the fluffy, warm pancakes were practically begging us to eat them. We then got into the vans and made a 20 minute drive to Villa del Rio to begin our construction project! We met Angel y Willy, who met us with kind and welcoming smiles. They gave us a safety briefing and an introduction to our project, which was to build a new home for Ashley and her family. We began the project by placing wood panels on the perimeter of the house. Unfortunately, we had to take a short break due to rainfall, which was a bummer because we were so eager to help. Ultimately, we gathered under a tent and ate snacks while we enjoyed the nice view of the rain over the beautiful scenery. We then enjoyed lunch cooked by Maria at her house, and met her cute kittens and dogs. Our lunch included chicken nuggets, salad, and rice, with a multitude of condiments on the side. Then, we returned to the construction site and finished placing the wood panels, so that we could be ready to pour the cement tomorrow. Unfortunately, the rain wasn’t letting up and we all agreed to prioritize safety, so our work day ended up getting cut short. We returned to the van in soaked clothes and muddy shoes, but with high hopes for tomorrow. We then returned to the Big Yellow House and had some downtime and time to get ready before we headed to the beach. At the beach, some played volleyball and some swam in the water. After the beach, we had more downtime before dinner, which was chicken tostones, and amarillos once again catered by Ricky. After dinner, we enjoyed a fun game of Mafia in the field before going over our plan for the next day. Before lights out, we finished the night with an exciting viewing of the Colombia vs. Portugal World Cup game. Overall, today was a great introduction to the project we will be working on for a few more days, followed by some relaxing beach time and fun activities.
By Clara, Adriana, Jaiden
June 28, 2026
We started off the day with a 7:30 wake-up, and after getting ready for our day of fulfilling labor at the worksite, we were given a delightful breakfast, consisting of delicious huevos and waffles, courtesy of our wonderful chef Ricky. We talked at the table with our newfound friends, and then headed on the cheese bus to the worksite. At the worksite we persevered in a painstaking effort to help build Ashley and Alfredo a new home that can withstand the sometimes brutal weather conditions in Puerto Rico. We took on many tasks: scooping stones and rocks, shoveling sand and forming an assembly line to transport cement. We switched around duties making sure everyone was engaged, then taking a break with the beautiful lunch made by Maria. We enjoyed rice, beans, fried chicken and salad. After lunch, we headed back to the worksite and finished the day successfully by finishing the wall, leaving Alfredo and Ashley one step closer to their new home. We persevered through the relentless heat and sun, and though we were exhausted, we left the worksite feeling lighter after having helped a family. After this work, we headed back to the big yellow house and enjoyed short conversations with our parents to recap the fun we’ve been having on the trip. We took showers and came down for a pasta dinner, including dinner rolls, salad and amarillos made by our chef Ricky. After meal time, we enjoyed a short break and free time, then ended the day playing a game of Global Works olympics. This featured four events: The water cup relay, wizard-giant-elf, pictionary, and Puerto Rican trivia, with the Rican team taking the victory.
By Nathan, Lilah, Avaos
June 29, 2026
This morning, we woke up to our head chef Ricky bringing in hot breakfast and delivering fresh fruit. After our delicious meal, we loaded onto the vans to head towards the rainforest to help a non-profit organization restore and protect the forest from hurricanes and natural disasters. Sadly, on the way to the rainforest our amazing driver Fernando’s engine broke down due to overheating, then our other amazing driver Alex had to make multiple trips to transport everyone safely and securely to our volunteer work. Our trip leaders told us “change is part of the plan” which gave us positive mindsets as we got ready to preserve forests. Our main task was to clear a certain type of invasive grass that became very apparent in the forests after hurricane Maria. It is called Razor grass and it takes away from the functionality and beauty of the forests in all sorts of ways. It was very hard work and we had to clip, tug, and pull razor grass off the trees and ferns for hours. However, after collective work and shared motivation, our group managed to clear large amounts of space for the trees.
At 2 in the afternoon, we ate homemade pasta and meatballs and discussed the purpose of our efforts. We later made our way to a swimming hole in Patillas and cooled off for roughly 30 minutes. The group then headed back to the vans and we drove back to the Big Yellow House. We then rushed to get changed for dinner where Ricky delivered the best food ever. We had fried chicken and fries with a side of salad. We then waited for the best moment ever, which was karaoke. We all sang great songs. We then finished by watching the world cup and talking with our friends getting ready for the next day.
By: Alex, Derek, Anthony, Jax
June 30, 2026
Once upon a time on our last day of work we woke up quite early and headed down for a yummy breakfast by our dearest chef, Ricky that consisted of pancakes, sausages, and fruits. We then got ready for our last day at work with Eggy and the fam. We finished up the wall and did some cleaning to make it easier for the next group and their journey.
After finishing up the wall, we took our last lunch at Maria’s house, who served us delightful chicken with rice and beans, and of course a refreshing salad. After lunch, we said our goodbye to the kittens and dogs, and then we headed back to the worksite and removed the molding of our cement wall.
We finished our work day quite early, and then headed to our home away from home, the BYH (Big yellow house), where we got ready for our last day at the beach. We had our last eccentric beach time, where some people tanned and others played in the water.
We walked back home and prepared ourselves for a good-bye party that felt more like a “see you later” party with the families we have been working hard with for the past 3 days. Tears were shed as many said their farewells and wished to come back, but we had a fun time playing with the children of the community.
We ended the night with a group clean-up as this is our last night at the BYH. We’ll go to sleep with bittersweet feelings of leaving this place, our second home. We did say goodbye to the friends we have made here, but we are excited to go back to our families, and our last day ahead of us, where we will have a whimsical adventure of salsa.
Goodnight 😉
By: DJ, Viviane, Luisa
July 1, 2026
Today we woke up bright and early in order to get our stuff together to check out of the BYH. This included cleaning up our rooms completely, which meant taking the sheets and blankets off of our beds as well as sweeping and mopping the floors. After that we had our final breakfast prepared by our dear Chef Ricky. The spread included eggs, potatoes and a myriad of fruits. After, we headed off to El Yunque for a refreshing swim in the swimming hole. At lunch, people enjoyed a scattered array of mains and sides. The mains included grouper filet, roasted chicken, and a vegetable mofongo. The choice of sides were french fries, rice and beans, amarillos or tostones. Following that incredible last lunch in Puerto Rico, we walked around the kiosks for souvenir shopping and the chance for people to purchase anything they may need before leaving. After a quick 5 minute drive to Casa Coral, a hostel and our final place to stay, the group was split in two for paddle boarding or beach time. The paddle boarding was led by Ramon, who taught us about the mangrove trees and their importance to the ecosystem. Reminding us to stay low, we entered a nice cove covered by mangroves, where Ramon taught us about our part in protecting the environment. After coming back to the hostel, we had some downtime before an amazing pizza dinner, with cheese, pepperoni and margherita options. Following dinner, we experienced a salsa class, followed by watching the World Cup (USA vs BIH). We then had some bonding activities to wrap up this wonderful session. The first of the two activities was Rock/Stick/Leaf, which had us talk about what we rocked or did well during the trip, what was going to stick with us after leaving and what we were going to leave behind. The second was one where everyone turned around and closed their eyes, and people were chosen for the inner circle and given a prompt to tap anyone they thought the prompt applied to. This brought out many tears but overall brought the group together. After a long wait, everyone got their phones back and we were able to share contacts with our newfound friends.
Andrew in the house. The one thing that wasn’t mentioned was the overall trip and the work we did as a group. Angel has taught us a lot of things like working together and sticking together. The people we met along the way is what mattered. And tears rolled down all our eyes as this trip was closing. Now THIS concludes the Hurricane Relief in Puerto Rico Session 1.
By: David, Max and Andrew
