St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes School 2024 Puerto Rico
April 29, 2024
We woke up at the crack of dawn, before the morning dew was on the lawn. When we arrived on Puerto Rican lands, we got into some hot vans. Old San Juan was a delight. The pour of the rain was a fright. We traveled across the land, and we began to think “do we even have a plan?” The big yellow is very yellow, let’s just say the color wasn’t very mellow. We ate some chicken for supper tonight, our tummies are in quite delight. We look forward to tomorrow’s work, as we watch the stray cats around us lurk.
By William, Blake and Kathryn
April 30, 2024
Cold air. Whoosh! French toast. Sniff. Load onto the vans! Ready to start the day with smiles on our faces. The rain begins to rush. Drip drip, drip splash! Welcome to the worksite. Hola! Bienvenido! Assembly lines pass heavy cinder blocks. Food to fill are hungry bellies🤤. Meow! Tiny little kittens hiding on the porch. Sweat drips down our faces knowing we helped a community today. Crash! Whoosh! The Puerto Rican waves cool us off after lots of work. Back at our big yellow home, salsa music began to roam. Doodoodo! Spinning twirling feet moving in unison. It is a skill well learned. Time to settle and sleep tonight, a new day ahead. Goodnight! Zzzzzz
•By Julia and Claire 💃
May 1, 2024
Fresh air entered the atmosphere at the big yellow house ! Early in the day, we arose from our slumber and began the journey of packing our bags and consuming our first meal of the day. Shortly after discussing the agenda, we jumped in the vans and headed back to the community to finish out the service work. Although the work was tiring at certain moments, we where able to cherish the moments that we had with the residents of Villa del Río. We finished up the work section of our day with a delicious meal prepared by Maria, Angels wife. The end of the service portion was celebratory and exiting because we finished more than they expected we would accomplish in one day. And before we knew it, we all packed back into the vans and made our way to Casa Coral and Surfing Turtle, our new lodging.
There is a beach right outside of our house, but unfortunately it wasn’t good conditions to swim in it. Instead we swam in an awesome river right outside Casa Coral. There were lots of coconuts floating in the water which some kids used to play catch. We had a pizza dinner and then went to kayak the bioluminicent bay. Some of us got stuck and bumped into a bunch of people, some even accidentally joined another group! BUT our guide PEDRO SAVED US! All in all we had an exciting day and are looking forward to what tomorrow brings. The end!
– Pippa, Eleni, Niyam, Olivia
May 2, 2024
Today we woke up with tears as we knew this was our last day in Puerto Rico the best place in earth. The boys woke up and got packed got our phones from Mr Gerrity and then got coffee from a store named coffee therapy, then we loaded our suitcases into the vans and walked to the casa coral and had our last breakfast then shortly after eating breakfast we hopped in the vans and headed off to a beautiful tropical rain forest one the walk I fell 9 times but it was worth it beacuse we got to swim in a jaw dropping river where the water was crystal clear and then we walked back got in the vans and had our last meal in Puerto Rico before going to the airport while at the airport we were all sad as we were leaving this beautiful place. This trip was amazing and I rate it a 10/10 and we definitely should come back and do this. The end
– Marcus
