Sora School Puerto Rico 2026
July 13, 2026
Hello families! This is Imani and Olivia with the daily blog. So slay.
Today we went landed in San Juan and got to know our crew members very well. We got some munchies at the airport—including spicy buffalo wings, a Puerto Rican taco con pollo, and pizza! Then we all headed to our cabins where we ate dinner and made a policy contract of our rules and regulations. For dinner we had chicken, two of plantain and salad. Then get to know each other marry go round where we split into two circles and roared with a fun question, an introduction and our pronouns. Our favorite question was “if you had a super power, what would it be.” Olivia said she wanted to shape shift into any person. Imani said to bring peace to the world and unite.
Imani’s birthday is also tomorrow on Tuesday, she’ll be 16. We all went over our plans for cake and our walking tour of old San Juan to learn about its culture, people, and history. Today was stressful, fun, long, yet rewarding and we are super excited to see what tomorrow has in store for us!
WE JUST FOUND OUT THERE IS A COMPETITION WITH OTHER GLOBAL WORKS GROUPS AND IF WE WIN WE GET DESSERT!!! SO JUST KNOW THAT WE ARE AMAZING AND YOU ALL TOTALLY KNOW THAT SO YA.
Cant wait for tomorrow!!!!!❤️🎉
✨Signing off, Imani B. and Olivia W.✨
July 14, 2026
Hello fam! It’s Ivan and Samuel with the blog.
So this morning, we woke up to our alarm, it read 1:09 am and it was really dark outside, we figured my watch was broken⏰. So we got ready, and sat in bed dressed, waiting for Heidi to knock on our door. We were exhausted, confused and ended up falling back asleep because the next thing we realized was Heidi knocking on our door and it was bright outside! We finally come to the realization that we actually woke up 1:09 am, briefly, got dressed and fell back asleep😂.
After the “incident” we ate breakfast and started our journey to Old San Juan.
We started our journey next to the castle of Old San Juan. We saw many things, here are the main things: 1. Lots of clucking chickens and other animals 2. Many old relics and remnants of old San Juan like the remains of the wall and many statues 3. There were many Catholic Churches and burial sites.
Some interesting things we learned about are 1. Puerto Rico fended off many powerful countries trying to take the island for them selves 2. Another thing we learned is that it took over 200 years to build the wall of old San Juan.
After our tour we ate at an authentic Puerto Rican restaurant fallowed by souvenir shopping. Then we got ice cream and headed home. On the way back, after tiring hot day, we encountered one too many bumps on the road.
After we got home, we rested and headed to the beach, which was very refreshing. After the beach, we came home showered and played a very intense game of volleyball. After we finished volleyball we had a delicious dinner 🍽️. Then we celebrated Imani’s 16th birthday day! It was a struggle getting the candles lit because of the strong winds but it was worth it because of the delicious cake and the fun time!🎉 Now we here, tired but excited for tomorrow!
SEE YOU NEXT TIME!!!!! 🫡👋🏽
By Ivan R 🤪
And Samuel D🐧
July 15, 2026
Hello birth givers, here lies Vee, Nandi, and Mica.
Today we started our first day at the job site, where we worked with Angel, Willy, and Eggy.
As we drove through the neighborhood Villa del Rio our first impression were there was a tired but kind vibe hanging in the air. We hopped out the car and met our peeps, immediately getting a rundown of what we’re doing and how we’re doing it. At first, we thought we were going to work with concrete but we were actually working with rebar! We did that for about one or two hours until we got a lunch break where we met Angel’s kids who were super sweet as we ate, we all laughed, joked, and reflected.
We found that we all really enjoyed being able to have a physical impact on the people around us. With the rebar cutting we learned really early on that asking for help would be a necessity in some cases. Working together was something that really helped us work but so did figuring out our strengths.
We then headed up to Angel’s house and met his wife Maria, she made us an incredibly delicious lunch. As we sat around the table, we had a very awesome sauce water bottle flipping competition. Where when it landed, we aye’d and when it didn’t… we oh’d 🥺
After we filled our stomachs, we got back to work and started on actually putting the stuff together! We tied wires around the rebar to stabilize it to later put concrete over it and we broke up rock to build the perimeter! It was going so well until… we had to stop early because of the raging sun :((
Three of us had our little Minecraft time where Imani learned that pickaxes do, in fact exist outside of the game. We got to hit compact pile of wild clay and rocks into little bits to shovel into the area surrounding the foundation.
When we got back in the van to head to the big yellow house a few people fell asleep, which meant we got to have our own little music session. Speaking of music, we had a Puerto Rican salsa class to close out the day! We learned a 4 step dance from our instructor Yara. We danced into the evening sweating and smiling as we trampled on each other’s toes. It was so fun but we can’t really talk more about it without going on a whole rant about the history of salsa lollz! We are extremely excited to see what tomorrow will bring and looking forward to learning new things!
The End!🎉 Hasta luego! Mica S, Nandi C, Vee LC
July 16, 2026
Hello again! It’s us, Olivia and Imani, and your amazing kids❤️
This morning we woke up at another ungodly time to eat breakfast and discuss today’s activities. Afterwords we headed back to our worksite, were we tied rebar to make beams and columns. It felt like a productive day (usually we don’t do that) and we had fun trying to communicate with teammates who don’t speak English. For example Imani and Eggy had a talk about where they were from, where Imani shared she’s raised in Florida and Eggy too had family there. Then Eggy showed Chris and Imani his families house where we learned they have plantain crops in their backyard! Super cool and informative.
It was fascinating to see the differences and similarities between here and our home towns. Some differences were in community income and how people treat one another. Some people shared that in their community, it’s more selfish when it comes to problems like poverty and natural disasters—unlike Puerto Rico. Some people don’t have hurricane problems like Puerto Ricans, so these issues were new. Some similarities were understanding and having empathy for those who lose their homes to natural disasters—especially people from Florida like Imani and Ivan. We could all understand to a degree of natural disasters and how destructive they are, and the importance of community to fix what’s broken.
One thing we’d want to bring back is the community. Puerto Ricans and are here for one another always, and treat each other like family. It’s something to admire and respect. We in the United States should do the same. Part of the reason why they have such a strong community is because of how unreliable and untrustworthy the government is for them. It puts our privileges into perspective.
Lastly, one of our favorite activities from today was making art and painting! Everyone got to create something special. The art was free style because we couldn’t have our phones for references (SO SAD!!!) after we painted on our canvas some of up did paintings on our arms and legs (don’t worry stressed parents it comes of easy 🫧🧼)
After dinner we had 1 hour to clean up. But we got it all done in 27 minutes yayayayayay!
Personally me, Olivia, is eager to see who falls asleep in the car to our next destination even though it will be early in the morning right after we wake up. Personally, me, Imani, is excited for the one hour car ride. I love to nap in cars. 🚙 also excited to explore the cacao farmmmm!
Can’t wait for tomorrow’s adventure!
You’re lovely chaos makers, Imani B and Oliva W ! Signing off!
July 17, 2026
Hello and welcome to Puerto Rico, it’s Samuel and Ivan with another news update.
The morning of today, we woke at 6 am 🕕 and packed our rooms and had a nutritional breakfast of French toast, waffle fries, sausages and 1 singular strawberry.🤣
At 8 am we started our adventure at Finca Semila Cacao Farm. We watered different types of trees including (coffee beans, plantains, and bread fruit) while working as a team by separating ourselves into 3 groups: the bucket fillers, the bucket carriers, the plant waters. After we watered, we planted and started new life by planting big majestic beautiful trees 🌲 that will give shade and beauty upon the farm.
Then we had a break and had a great lunch of rice, potatoes 🥔, and chicken. After our delicacy, we began our tour and learned how they grew cacao, made chocolate and how the farm works.
After the tour we reflected and tasted their savory and sweet chocolate 🍫. Then we drove for 2 hours to are new house. We are staying in a beautiful inn next to the beach 🏝️ which we are looking forward to rest and recharge/sleep.
Then we walked to dinner 3 blocks away had a scrumptious meal 🍽️ and walked home 🏡 with full stomachs and tired 🥱 bodies.
And finally, we reflected on our service today, how the community worked together, and how it made us feel.
Thank you and good night 💤🌙
Ps we are sleepy.🥱
Written and illustrated by: Ivan R and Samuel DV
July 18, 2027
Helloo, earth walkers!!! Wooo, it’s the last day of our trip and it’s very awesome!
This amazing day started with the BEST BREAKFAST EVERRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. We had a variety between omelets, waffles, and pancakes! Then we began our grueling journey to our first water filled adventure…. It was great, besides the freezing water, we saw SO MANY FISHES. After that, we had some AWESOME lunch! With an option of grouper or grilled chicken, also very yummy yummers yumster just like the breakfast. And guess whatttttt, we had PIÑA COLADASSDD because we were so amazing at our blogs that we won the challenge for it :)!! Then we went on an activity where we paddle boarded through a mangrove cathedral and sea turtle nesting ground, it was BEAUTIFUL! AND THEN WE HAD PIZZZZZAAAA.
On a more serious note, we reflected on our trip using all our senses to describe our highlights and favorite parts of our experience. Some things we mentioned were the tours, facts, water activities, culture, and obviously THE FOOD!!! We went into details with one another about our favorite places and things we learned and it was a bitter- sweet ending to close our trip. Sad we don’t get to wake up to salty air and a loving latino community, but happy we get to take what we experienced everywhere we go.
And with that we close our FINAL Puerto Rico adventure blog!!!
ok goodnight, from Mica, Vee, Nandi
