Puerto Rico: Hurricane Relief, Session 2 2025
June 26, 2025
We awoke as the sun crawled over the eastern horizon, rejuvenated and ready for the day. We indulged in a breakfast fit for kings that consisted of fluffy eggs, sweet French toast, and juicy sausage. After the delicious meal, we packed all 25 of us in two vans and headed in to old San Juan. After the hour long drive, we stepped out into the blazing sun with tired eyes and motivation in our hearts. We then met up with Sara, our tour guide. She greeted us warmly and we started our tour. During the tour, we encountered brightly colored buildings, crazy sculptures, fascinating culture, bright historical facts, and interesting wildlife. Some of the most interesting historical facts we learned were that each building’s color in the city has to be approved before the owners paint it. Additionally, we saw many statues, each with their own distinct meaning. During our visit to one of Puerto Rico’s three forts we also learned that each of the main forts took over 100 years to build. Throughout time, the forts all had different purposes on why they were built. The first forts were primarily built to defend against the natives that lived on the island, then the last of the forts purposes switched from defending against the natives to then defending against other European countries that seemed to take over the Puerto Rico island. Finally, we discovered that under the church we visited, a crypt was buried, holding many bodies from the past.
After the tour had ended, we all headed to lunch— a great place to replenish our bodies to continue our adventure. We had a selection of meats to choose from as well as tostones, amarillas, and rice and beans. After lunch, we hit the town and started helping the economy by shopping! During our shopping spree, we visited a variety of local businesses. On the way back to the vans, we stopped for paletas and heard a talented street player playing sax, wrapping up our San Juan journey. Once our pockets were empty and our bags were full, we piled into the vans once again and headed home to the Big Yellow House. After a quick nap in the van, we stopped by the house to grab our swim suits and towels, heading to the beach to wrap up the day. Once we returned we had a dinner that consisted of juicy chicken, mouth watering rice, and refreshing salad. We finished off the night by writing a blog for our adoring fans and sleeping with the wonderful AC.
By John, Abigaelle, Julie, and Thora
June 27, 2025
In today’s episode, we woke up with a melody that all of us will remember when we leave Borinquen; a rooster singing it’s typical song. As the 25 of us gathered around the tables, we were awoken by the delicious pancakes and eggs. Our Luxurious chauffeur’s took us to the entrance of Villa Del Rio. When we got there, we were introduced to William, Angel, and Eggy. With the help of our translator Letty, we were tasked with taking down the wooden planks/molds that kept the cement walls in place. Although our work was safe and efficient, the Puerto Rican sun rained down on the skin of many, causing us to grow in hunger. We found ourselves in the dining room of Angel;s house eating his wife’s beautiful rice and chicken. As the group lounged between patio and living room, many of us found ourselves in a food coma—which has it’s negatives and positives. We headed back to the worksite and strapped up our helmets to continue our first day of hurricane relief service. We ended up reaching our goal of taking out all the wood planks and starting on the roof. We also played with their 3 grandchildren, Camille, Abram, and Brian, taking polaroid pictures of them and interacting with them. While Fernando approached us, we made our goodbyes to Angel, William, and their 3 joyful grandchildren. After arriving back to the Big Yellow House, some of us prepared to depart for the beach, but the others stayed behind to relax and sleep. The beach was fun with cool waves and fun and we managed to get ice cream to escape from the heat just a bit. When we returned to the Big Yellow House, we were met with a delicious dinner, pasta and meat sauce. All 25 of us played two games, one to learn more about one another, and one just for fun, Manhunt. After the game was over, we indulged in some free time conversing with one another, playing board games and simply enjoying the company of others. We will end our day in beautiful silence along with the sounds of nature as we drift to sleep.
By Kiki, Melody, Nhon, Letti, Noel
June 28, 2025
The third day of the trip started off with a great agenda! We were given an extra hour of sleep. Some people used that to get ready for our work day and some took their sweet time with a nice nap. We were fed French toast this morning by Ricky, with a variety of fruit and some nice eggs with bell peppers. At about 8:30 we all got ready to load into Fernando’s vans, to go to the construction site. Fernando is the happiest person we’ve ever met. This was our second day of community service in Villa Del Rio. Today, once we got to the worksite the community members had finished preparing part of the roof. A lot of us were digging the dirt to loosen it, and moving it to a different location. We shoveled the dirt into buckets to transport it. We then broke for lunch at 12:00, and went to Angel and Maria’s house to eat chicken, rice, and salad. Then we got back to the workplace and continued our work. We got done around 2 pm. We returned to the big yellow house, to go to the beach, but before we were off, we made time to call home. Parents were excited to hear from everyone on the trip. We enjoyed talking to our parents, and then finally were off to the beach. After that we had dinner at 6 pm. Ricky brought us chicken, salad, and potatoes. Everyone ate a bunch, and then had to get ready for our next activity. After everyone finished getting dressed in their nice shirts, and nice dresses we began our favorite activity of the day, salsa dancing! Most of us got it down the first try, and some of us struggled, but we ended up doing well towards the end. After salsa dancing, we had our last meeting of the day, to talk about the plan for tomorrow. Eventually we all headed to bed.
By Eddie, Ben, Carla & Monet
June 29th, 2025
Our day began earlier than usual, at 630 am, as we awoke ready to conquer the challenges that lay ahead with a positive attitude. We fueled our bodies with fluffy pancakes and protein dense eggs for breakfast. After enjoying our breakfast of champions, we geared up in long sleeves and work pants to protect us from the succulent insects and harsh environment we would face on the farm. We filled our water bottles then loaded into the vans and headed over to Hacienda Bosque farm. The 1 hour long drive was full of music and laughter as our excitement was building for the farm work. After a quick stop at the Burger King restroom, we finally arrived at the farm. We met the owners of the farm, Keenan and Luis, who gave us a run down of how the farm was made to preserve the land and help out the community of Ciales. The farm was started specifically in the part of the community called “El agujero”, which translates to “the hole” in English. It is called this because the people who live above look down upon the people in this area because they are not as wealthy. We got to work straight away, working to speed up the process of helping the breadfruit trees get established, and making shade for the cacao beans to grow properly. We took a break and Adriana gave us a presentation on the history of agro-forestry in Puerto Rico. She also told us how the products the farm makes have been grown over the years, and help support the community. Then, they fried plantains in front of us, making delicious fresh tostones and amarillos. After that we ate lunch, which consisted of delicious sandwiches from a local Puerto Rican bakery. Right after lunch we took a group picture with a beautiful backdrop of the rock faces and luscious green trees surrounding the farm. After we captured the breathtaking and scenic view, we hopped back into the vans and drove to the big yellow house. The ride back was much quieter than the ride there, filled with snores after hard work at the farm. Back at the house, we refueled with gatorade and snacks and planned to head to the beach. We packed a football, soccer ball, and volleyball, and loaded up on sunscreen and made our way over to the local beach. The beach was very crowded, but we still found space to swim, throw the football and play soccer. We walked back to the big yellow house, and reflected on our community service, how it made us feel, and the purpose and many benefits for us and others of what we were doing. After, we enjoyed an delicious dinner of pork, chicken, waffle fries, and salad. We had a quick round of football and basketball, and now we are off to karaoke!
-Lucas A. River S. Milo M. Kahlil N.
