University of Delaware SABIC Puerto Rico 2023

Reflections

“Meeting the people here and working with them has been an incredible privilege for me. I’ve had the opportunity to gain invaluable insights and wisdom from their life experiences, even if just in small doses. These few days have truly changed me in many ways, and I can feel these transformations taking place within me.” — Shahad

“Through the experience organized by Global Works, although it was only about three days, I learned things that I would not have learned in three years. Moreover, I was able to help one of the families who were struggling to find housing so that they could live in it safely by contributing to complete part of the construction process. It was hard work, but seeing the joy and gratitude on the faces of the families made it all worth it.” – Jana

“Collaboration with Alex’s family and Angel and María to fix their houses for various reasons taught me to appreciate what I own. The smiles of Alex’s family members and María that don’t leave their faces even though everything they pass through planted a seed of a smiling tree in my mind; I hope it would grow and blossom into a smile like their smiles.”

“The past three days at the community service were full of lessons, energy, and enjoyment! I learned from the community how to be efficient, collaborative, and cheerful while working. The community demonstrated the best example of how people always work for the betterment of all people. My pleasure when I saw the smile on their faces after the work paid off! Our experience at the community service brought out attributes within me that I have never relized existed, challenging me to become more patient and caring, and encouraging me to strive towards being a better person.”

“I imagined that the work in Puerto Rico will be very hard, but when I worked it was good because we worked with happy people. They are smiling always and they thought very well, so I am happy about what I did. I hope to come back to this work in the near future.”