Puerto Rico Hurricane Relief Session 2

July 24, 2021

This morning for breakfast, we ate french toast sticks, egg casserole, and sausage. Afterwards, we went to Mar Chiquita beach to swim and play an ice breaker game. Next, we drove to Old San Juan and ate lunch at Raíces where we tried traditional Puerto Rican cuisine. After lunch, we explored Old San Juan with our tour guide. We learned a lot about the history of the city, despite the unexpected downpours that got our group drenched! We had self-exploration time at El Morro fort and local gift shops before heading on the bus back to the Big Yellow House where we had dinner and enjoyed some more ice breaking activities and competitions.

– Nate, Ella, Richard, Carson, Emma

July 25, 2021

Today we took an hour and a half bus ride to our first service site. It was deeeep in the rain forest, with lots of windy roads. We meet Thrity and Andreas. Half of the group cleared the back of the garden, and the other half worked with cement. After about two hours, we had an amazing meal  made by Marga. Rice, beans, yams, fried plantains, tuna, salad, and a yummy coconut dessert. The dogs kept trying to steal the food, very energetic creatures. We headed back to work for a half an hour, then said our goodbyes and made our way to a beautiful swimming hole. We got all muddy but we had a fun time jumping into the water. We headed back to the bus and took a long drive back to the Big Yellow House, and ate dinner shortly after we arrived. It was pasta, meat, salad, soda, pretty good! We played volleyball, and knockoff cup pong (tap water only). We popped some popcorn and watched an Anthony Bourdain documentary about Puerto Rico. It was very interesting! We had a small discussion, and now we’re off to bed after a long but fun day!
By Andrew, Drew, Abby, Gabby, Cecilia

July 26, 2021

The Bucket (Hannah, Lucy, Aaron, Maddie, Oscar) is back and better than ever to tell y’all about our fantabulous day. We started off having a sick brekki of some radical French toast and glamorous glizzies. We hopped on the bus and had some grueling work building some cement columns (that was pretty dope). By the end, we were all mucky and stanky-but we stanked as a squad! As a refreshment, we walked to the beach, got them steps, and hung out with our new friend from the worksite. Once we were all cleaned and shiny, we gobbled down some food and learned how to salsa for hours. At least we tried to learn…Anyways, to sum it all up, today was pretty swag and we hype for tomorrow.
XOXO,
The Bucket (Hannah, Lucy, Aaron, Maddie, Oscar)

July 27, 2021

Wassup from the GlobalTwerks,

We woke up this morning smelling musty from the night of salsa before to a bountiful breakfast of mini pancakes, ham and waffle fries. After a scrumdiddlyumptious meal we popped on our botas and headed to the site. We had a phenomenal day of work. We toiled together shoveling dirt as we bonded to the song ‘Pepas’ as we sweat in the heat of the midday sun. For the work we laid dirt in a foundation and laid rebar to prepare for tomorrow’s day of laying concrete. The food was the best we have had yet and then we listened to a inspiring story about how thankful Maria, Angel and William were for our help. After that we went on a scenic hike amazing views. At the top of the trail, everybody sat in a circle and shared who they were thankful for. We hiked back down from the cliffs and swam at the beach for a few hours. After everyone made it back to the house we set up for dinner, which was a massive PIZZA PARTY!!! As soon as the pizza was done, we began our iron chef competition between the boys and girls. The boys started off their dessert of banana bread by screaming at Wyatt as he made the batter. Meanwhile, the girls were upstairs peacefully making banana foster. As the boys dessert was cooking they had a massive, hour long mosh pit of screaming and singing. At the same time the girls were putting together their dishes in peace and quiet. The judges then ate the dessert and after their deliberations the boys won with a unanimous 4-0 vote. We all ended the night enjoying the banana bread and went to bed.

Thank you for reading,

GlobalTwerks

July 28, 2021

We woke up at 7:30 for breakfast and we all packed for a long day of work. We left around 8:30 and got to our work site around 9:00. Yesterday we prepared the rebar and today we made a lot of cement to fill it in. We all worked extra hard for our last day of work and we finished much earlier than expected. After we finished, we ate burgers for lunch and went back to the Big Yellow House. Once we arrived we went straight to the beach to have a fun time. We returned home and had some free time before people from the job site came over. We all had a great time over dinner and we shared some kind words. It was also Cameron’s birthday so we ate some cake, hung up a sign and sung happy birthday. After the celebration we had a karaoke night where many members of the Global Works team sang their favorite songs. It was already very late once we finished and we had some free time before we went to sleep.

-Bugs Out

July 29, 2021

Hey besties,
We are here today to tell y’all about our wonderful last full day in the glorious place which is called Puerto Rico. We started the day being able to sleep in, but we were all so excited that we woke up at the same time to try and get the most out of our precious time together. We had baller French toast sticks again, which really set the mood for the whole day. Even though we had a long bus ride to get to the souvenir shops, we talked the entire way there (much to the disappointment of our tired peers). We spent all of the money that our parents threw at us before we left before we went to go to the beach. After swimming made us work up an appetite, we ate at a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious restaurant; the mofongo went crazy.

The second half of the day was filled with winding roads as we made our way to swimming holes in one of Puerto Rico’s national forests. We saw some popping waterfalls which made us hungry to eat more food! After chomping down on more food for dinner, we started the drive to where we were going to go kayaking in bioluminescent water. Since it was the last day (and our guides are awesome) they let us have a party bus; we were raving for a straight twenty minutes to the best music we have heard throughout the trip. Once we actually got in the kayaks, we were all trying to race each other to get to the front of the line, leaving most of us soaked. Finally, we end the night with the long bus ride back. Although we are all tired, none of us are trying to sleep because we know that this time together is valuable. We have all grown so much as a group during this trip and we are all so thankful for this experience (and the guides) because otherwise we would never have been able to help such a wonderful community and make a community of our own!
Last time signing out,
A lot of happy kids