Cathedral School Puerto Rico 2019
April 13, 2019
After a long travel day, we finally arrived to Puerto Rico! We went directly to the Big Yellow House to get some rest.
April 14, 2019
Our first full day started with a great breakfast of fresh fruit, waffles, yogurt and juice. Then we drove to old San Juan for a tour to learn about the vibrant history of Puerto Rico. During the tour our teacher, Mr. Corrigan, ran into Governor Ricky. Check us out at the Instagram-able umbrella street, narrow house, old entrance to Puerto Rico and on a tour of El Morro. A traditional lunch of mofongo and fish tacos was delicious. We returned to Cerro Gordo to enjoy a beautiful swim and sunset before a pasta dinner. After we ate we reflected on the past 24 hours and discussed our upcoming service work.
April 15, 2019
We woke up at 7:30 to prepare for the first day of service work to help the people of Villa Del Rio continue rebuilding houses that will be hurricane proof. The community leader William told us about the town and the work that we would be doing this week. First we learned all of the ingredients that go into making concrete. Traditional wooden structures are being replaced by cement homes that can still stand after another hurricane. Maria cooked us an awesome traditional Puerto Rican lunch before we returned to the job site to finish mixing concrete that was poured for new columns. After a long day of work, we packed it to the vans and drove back to our house in Cerro Gordo. When we came back from the beach after watching the sunset, we sat down to a great dinner before having a group discussion about our first day of service.
April 16, 2019
Today we woke up and ate French toast and fresh fruit before Drinking lots of water and applying more sunscreen because it is very hot in Puerto Rico. We return to Villa del Rio to continue our service projects with Angel and William. Today felt hotter than yesterday but we worked more efficiently because we knew what we were doing. Maria made another delicious lunch and we went back to finish the project we started this morning. We got back to the house around 4 PM which meant we had two hours of beach time! We had a chance to clean up while Scott went out and picked up pizza. As much as we love pizza, we actually missed the Puerto Rican food. After dinner, a salsa instructor came to teach us the basic steps. Even though most of us were hesitant, by the end we were so glad we tried it.
