Puerto Rico - Fuerza, Amor y Esperanza

A few months ago, I saw a post on social media from a local Pastor and neighbor, sharing details on the opportunity to volunteer in Puerto Rico. Since my trip to Kenya in 2008, I've been hoping to do another "volunteering vacation" and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. I'm going to share my experience, but my intent is for you to stop and think. Do your best to forget your experience, your foundation of knowledge and life experience and TRY to imagine another reality, the reality of our Puerto Rican neighbors. This may be hard and you may find yourself asking things like, "why didn't they do this? or "why didn't they do that?", when you do, take a step back and realize your life experience is likely very different and acknowledge that you only know parts of their story. Just pause and feel for a moment, feel the fear, the sorrow, the devastating losses but also the incredible, infallable hope that Puerto Rico embodies.

I arrived on Saturday, a day before the rest of the crew, and was able to spend a few hours relaxing by

View from La Concha Resort

the pool and enjoying some local food before the work began. When you think of Puerto Rico, this is probably what pops into your mind. While this is what most of Condado looks like, there are still MAJOR hotels and resorts that are still not open. I met a man on Thursday evening, who has been out of work since Maria. The Conquistador (where he worked and a HUGE resort here in PR) is only open in a very limited fashion, thus most of the employees are still unsure on when they can return to work. He was working part-time at a small bar to make ends meet until maybe 2019 or 2020? He still has no definitive date to return to his job. Maria hit Puerto Rico on September 20th, 2017. Pause and think about that for a moment......

23 week 1 volunteers & our camp hosts

On Sunday, I met the group of 23 volunteers at the airport and we loaded into 4 Kia Sedona minivans and headed to the camp where we'd be staying for the week (some of those volunteers for 2 weeks). Our camp consisted of several bunkhouses, a common room with a kitchen, swimming pool,
basketball (sans rims & nets) court, a large grassy field and a flock of about 8 roosters living next door. Feedback from our hosts is that the camp sustained minimal damage due to Maria, but was still impacted with lack of power, etc. Imagine ELEVEN months without power. Nearly a year of running a generator, cooking over a fire, no hot water or other comforts we take for granted. Can you go a week without  power?

Monday and Tuesday we spent the days working on projects at the camp, so that it would be ready to host the many other volunteers that will come after our group. We emptied a storage shed, sorted through YEARS of items, organized and then returned all the usable goods to the shed.

Contents of the storage shed

We power washed half of their VERY large basketball court. In the weeks after Maria, they used this space to host church services for their neighbors. We sorted clothes that had been donated. We put a new coat of sealant on the roof of the common room. We worked each day until about 3pm and then took some trips to local spots. Wal-Mart was an unexpected cultural experience. It was crowded and lively and had an energy to it, even at 9pm on Sunday and Monday nights. We took a few short trips to local beaches, to recharge and relax and enjoy the tranquility that Puerto Rico is known for. Regardless of where we went, Wal-Mart, a local restaurant, local bar, etc the overwhelming warmth and hospitality of our Puerto Rican neighbors was incredible.

Wednesday through Friday we spent the days working on a local church and house in Toa Baja.

We peeled and scraped paint from walls that were under water. We power washed walls and sidewalks to make them safe for the elderly congregation. We painted and painted and painted some more. We had 23 sets of hands and still there was so much we wanted to accomplish that we couldn't get to. Imagine your family working to fix and restore your own home. How long would it take you to repair the damage? Our Puerto Rican neighbors shared so many stories about community and their culture. They shared how the church was a place for nourishment, both for your spirit and your body. They served hundreds of meals after Maria. As if feeding hundreds of people isn't challenging enough, imagine doing it without power and without a grocery store stocked with the necessary ingredients. On Friday, we arrived at the church around 9am and noticed many peopled lined up on the streets with umbrellas and chairs and music. We weren't sure what was going on, but thought maybe it was a market. It seemed so lively and fun. After chatting with several neighbors we learned that it was a private food pantry. It was supported and funded by a local woman who raised the money for food by visiting local businesses. People had been in line since midnight, and by 3pm they had gotten to number 80. One person sitting there since the night before was number 150. If you've never had to worry where your next meal was coming from, it's hard to imagine the feelings that must come along with sitting outside for 10+ hours to get food for your family.

In the afternoon on Thursday we took a trip to El Yunque, the only rainforest in the US National Forest system. It was absolutely breathtaking. And it was still glaringly obvious the devastation that Maria had caused. Many roads/trails were still closed, the vegetation was still clearly impacted and many of the small shops along the park were still closed. We enjoyed some relaxation with a short hike to a

Security at the closed road & our group

swimming spot and a rope swing. Then we headed to Fajardo and Laguna Grande to kayak at night through the bioluminescent bay. This is an incredible experience and I've now done it on both of my trips to Puerto Rico. You get into your kayaks in a shallow beach, in the dark. You then paddle through a mangrove channel that gets darker and darker, as the mangroves get thicker and thicker. About 30 minutes in, if you're looking at the water  you'll notice the water begins to glow whenever you paddle. The glowing waters are caused by dinoflagellates, which are microscopic organisms that light up due to a chemical reaction, in response to movement in the water. There are only five bioluminescent bays in the world and three of them are in Puerto Rico. Friday we had dinner in Condado and then spent the later hours of the night in Old San Juan enjoying the merengue band and dancing at Latin Roots. You know you've picked the right dance club when you are by far the minority as tourists and the party doesn't really get going until about midnight. It made for an exhausting but perfect final night in Puerto Rico.

Throughout this trip our neighbors in Puerto Rico taught us what true strength was, they shared their stories of survival and hope. Some losing everything; homes, pets, family members, others with their four walls and family intact but still dealing with the trauma of surviving a category 4 hurricane on an island that is less than a third the size of Maryland. What most people don't realize is that it takes YEARS to rebuild from a storm like Maria. Immediately after the storm there are the impacts we see on the news, finding loved ones, cleaning water damage, logistics of distributing supplies and aid and in the case of Puerto Rico, getting power back to the island. What happens now, 12 months later to an island that was devastated by a hurricane? Now is when the real challenges begin. Insurance money (if there was any) begins to run out, jobs are still not available, people are beginning to lose their homes because they can't afford their rent/mortgage. Imagine living through the horror of a category 4 storm on the island, not being able to get food due to roads being impassable and 11 months without power. You've survived what you thought was the worst, only to realize that you're now faced with losing your home because the economy is just as slow to recover.

I think many of us came on this trip hoping to help our neighbors, to provide strength from our hands and our hearts to help them rebuild. What happened was quite the opposite. I think the photo of the uprooted tree tells a perfect story of Puerto Rico. Even when you're completely uprooted and your entire way of being has changed, there is strength, there is beauty, there is pride and there is hope.



More photos from the trip: https://www.facebook.com/elysia.roser/media_set?set=a.10106856403554369&type=3&uploaded=39
For others reflections: https://demdsynod.org/category/building-puentes/
To donate (click on PayPal link at bottom of page): http://www.breathofgodlc.org/welcome/serve