Rudolf Steiner School Puerto Rico 2023

June 4, 2023

Today was quite an eventful day. We started out at JFK early in the morning and Lance arrived 30 minutes late but still claimed he was on time. Luckily, we still made our flight without a problem and were able to snag a few iced lattes on the way. The 4 hour length of the flight surprised a few people but it ended up flying by quickly and smoothly with the exception of a few mishaps. Ada’s water bottle burst and water spewed everywhere due to the pressure of the plane. Cereese accidentally spilled her ginger ale straight into Suzanne’s seat but luckily Gem had a spare pair of pants in her backpack that she borrowed. Once we arrived in Puerto Rico, donning on our global works shirts and got ready to greet our sweet trip leaders, Claudia and Allie. They greeted us with a boxes of pizza and Declan attempted to snag a slice but Ms. Bartges reminded him that we will eat them together once we arrive. We stepped out of the airport and were greeted by a humid wave of heat, but the gorgeous palms and shining sun only added smiles to our faces. We then hopped in our vans and blasted Bad Bunny while we drove to the big yellow house. Once we arrived, we unloaded our luggage and desperately scrambled to get water and food. The pizza satisfied our hunger but did not remind us of a New York slice but of course, this did not surprise us. As soon as we finished the food, we raced to the beach as fast as we could, deprived of the wonderful, hot sun and desperate to dive in the shimmery blue water. The water was warm and flat and most of us spent almost two hours in the sea, playing chicken, swimming out to the buoys and tossing the football to each other. The locals on the beach were all radiating positivity and blasting music while dancing in the water, so we danced along to the music with them. We then ended the night talking at the dinner table recapping the day and talking about how excited we are for tomorrow.

By Lancelot, Suzanne, Sofia

June 5, 2023

Today was a very hot day! Everyone had to stuff as many bottles of water in their bags as possible. We had an early breakfast, and then Alvin (our tour guide) took us on a tour of Old San Juan. We learned about the history of Puerto Rico and we got to see Juan Ponce de Leon’s family home. The streets of Old San Juan were cheerful and colorful. The cobblestones on the street were blue, as a result of being worn down over some hundred years. We saw chickens in the yard and cats hiding under cars. The highlight of our tour was probably El Morro, a huge fort overlooking the very blue water. There was a strong wind, which was quite a relief to some of us who were dizzy from the heat. We stopped for lunch at Raices which was very yummy. A lot of people got mofongo with chicken which was absolutely delicious, especially since it is just not in NYC. We had a chance to shop around the souvenir shops on the streets. We got to spend the rest of the day on the beach and most of us didn’t get out of water for hours!
We saw a bunch of crabs and freaked out about them trying to pinch our toes, luckily, we can report that no toes have been harmed. We came back and had a very filling dinner at the Big Yellow House. Kitty is still here and people are meowing in the field to try to get it to like them but it is hiding upstairs. 🙂 We ended the night by discussing the next days work projects, and setting our goals for the week. We cannot wait to meet the community.

By Lila, Anna, and Stasya

June 6, 2023

Today was our first day of work in the community! We woke up and had a quick breakfast before we hauled ourselves into the very stuffy vans. Mr Poplin’s van listened to some old fashioned Spanish music as we made our way up the windy roads into the mountains of Vega Alta. Ms Bartges’ car partied to Spanish music streaming on the radio. When we arrived, we had an introduction in Spanish to the community partners that we would be assisting for the next few days. We helped in various areas including picking up trash off the road, building a support wall along the outskirts of the property, cutting metal wire, drilling, shoveling, etc.

Completing these tasks was challenging for many reasons including our lack of muscle and the excessive heat and humidity; however the notion that what we accomplished would positively impact the lives of those who live there provided us with the determination and motivation we needed. We then headed to Maria and Angel’s house and ate the delicious food prepared by Maria. Maria was born and raised in Brooklyn and moved here when she was 19. She is a funny and fiery woman who prepares lunches for the Global Work groups each week. We then headed to the beach to cool off and had so much fun in the water again. We spent hours there; some went to a small cove to explore the rocks and fish. We even saw an eel! Others tanned and basked in the sun, enjoying the beautiful white sand beach. For dinner, we enjoyed a hearty pasta meal with salad and refreshing pineapple juice. Of course we had fruit pops for dessert! Unfortunately, the power went out in a section of our neighborhood but we made the most of it with candles in the dark and took in the beautiful night sky before the backup generator was turned on. We did a group reflection on our day of service and then finished the night with a walk on the beach to look at the stars!

Sofia, Luna, Isabella

June 7, 2023

Today was another great day in Puerto Rico. We started with breakfast, including waffles, ham, quiche, eggs, potatoes, and sausage. After eating, we got in the van and drove up the winding hills back to Willie’s house to the work site. It was another hot day, but we got a lot of work in. We built a whole wall and cleaned up more trash around the area. The amount of people working at once varied more as we obtained more of a flow and feel for events. The work today overall felt more satisfying than the day before. During one of our breaks, we ate coconuts that Mr. Poplin climbed a tree to get.

We stopped working around 1:30, when we went to Maria and Angel’s house to have spaghetti, rice, beans, vegetarian meat and meatballs for lunch. Today we met Maria’s dog, Osito, which means little bear. He was a German Shepherd mix that wasn’t even a year old and he was very sweet and excited to meet everyone.

After that, we got back in the van, back down to the Big Yellow House and went to the beach! The waves were choppier today, but that just made it more exciting. We hung out in the water and on the sand and just had a generally good time.

Then, it was time for dinner and it was pizza night! There was plain, pepperoni, veggie, mediterranean, Margherita, salad with a huge avocado, a hummus platter, and something special for people with dietary restrictions. Some of the boys played basketball and others showered and relaxed before our Salsa Night. A woman named Yara was our instructor and she taught us the basics. She taught us the steps individually, then we partnered up, and did them for real! Ryan and Charlize were definitely the best dancers (it was the Boricua blood coming out). Overall, it was a lot of fun and we kept dancing and playing music even after Yara left!

By Ryan and Charlize

June 8, 2023

Yesterday we had our last day at the worksite. We left after a hearty breakfast, and arrived at Wilfredo’s house to begin working on our wall. Because of the extreme heat and our speediness and efficiency, we were able to end work at noon and headed to an early lunch. We went to Maria’s to eat and talk about our experience working over the past few days. We made friends with Scooby, aka “Twinkie,” the puppy, and a few goats! After lunch, we left Maria and Angel’s house and went to the beach for our last dip in the ocean. When we returned to the Big Yellow House, we got ready to host some of the kind people we had had the opportunity to work with over the course of the trip. We ate dinner and laughed and asked them questions about their lives, and after the meal, our kind bus driver handed out his homemade ice cream; he had local flavors of pineapple, coconut, and tamarind! It was a lovely end to the day.

By Ada & Fiona