Beach Bomba

1.11.19

As it turns out, our decision to prepare all of our own breakfasts was brilliant, as we know how to make great breakfasts.  Today we used some of the leftover rice and beans from last night, added some avocado (huge, HUGE avocados) and our leftover cheese, stuffed it into our remaining tortillas, and had a great feast.  We still need to work on those coffee ratios, though.  French presses can be so mysterious.  (And semi-volcanic if you press them down too fast, as we sadly learned this morning.)  

Our morning visitors included our friend Jessica from the University of Puerto Rico and her economist colleague Jose. We keep trying to figure out some of the intricacies of the relationship between the mainland and this island so we were excited to have an expert to ask.  We won’t pretend that we gained a total grasp of the economic realities that Puerto Rico currently faces, but we definitely got more perspective than we have had up to now. 

In particular, we got a sense of how Puerto Rico became enmeshed in a crippling level of debt even before the hurricane(s) and how the storms have complicated the economic situation here even further.  We heard the disappointing information that the panel of seven experts who are supposed to be addressing the economic needs of the island only includes one Puerto Rican member.  

We heard about the flight of young people from the country, and the economic effects of that flight on the island’s economy.  We heard about the shrinking tax base and the domino effects of those changes on the future of the citizens here.  

Additionally, we learned even more about “disaster capitalism,” where certain industries gain huge profits due to the suffering of others.  We had studied this phenomenon in our pre-trip readings, but it is a much different thing to see it unfolding in front of your very eyes.  Sadly, mainland industries are often the beneficiaries of whatever economic windfalls come, leaving the locals wondering where the money is going.   In our reflection session tonight, we confessed that it was difficult not to feel like “we” (as representatives of the mainland) are bullies in this situation. 

We also learned about how difficult it was for anyone at all to get any help from FEMA or any other source of public/government aid.  The average amount awarded to “qualified” Puerto Ricans was $3000, though according to some measures, only about 10% of those who applied were considered eligible for aid. And even for those very rare few (less than 1% of “qualified” applicants) who got the maximum amount of aid, $33,000 was the total.  To replace a lost home would cost, on average, $36,000 for a modest two-bedroom house.  Clearly, there are going to be many, many, many families who will remain in difficult situations for quite awhile.  

We are getting to know three of those families and are happy to be able to bring some resources, energy, and labor into their otherwise complicated contexts.  If all goes well, we expect to get to celebrate move-in day for one of “our” families, though we must acknowledge that it was the work of a lot of other people who got things to this point.  It will be our privilege, however, to celebrate the completion of this particular job, especially because we have all gotten really attached to our worksite neighborhoods.  

At one of the houses where we are working, our group joined the family at lunchtime for something equivalent to a Thanksgiving dinner.  It actually involved a turkey, lots of rice, salad, banana, avocado, and juice.  We offered to help pay for the costs of the extravagant lunch, acknowledging that our big group is expensive to feed.  The family refused our offer, saying that the meal was an offering from their hearts.  We could feel the love.  

We are excited about all of the “life skills” that we are absorbing just by being here and living our lives together.  Some of us are learning how to hang wet towels on a clothesline so that they will actually dry in a reasonable amount of time (including how to wring them out by hand).  Some of us are learning to trust ourselves, including our abilities to make meaningful contributions to communities.  Some of us are learning how to paint interior walls without tape or any other masking device to make it easier to keep the lines in place. Some of us are learning that women leaders are inspiring and are now aspiring to be woman leaders that inspire others (men too, no doubt).  Some of us have learned how to fit ceiling tiles into an irregular space and how to hold them over our heads while installing them from below. Some of us have learned to use our rudimentary language skills to communicate across the language barrier.  Some of us have learned to use hand tools in ways that we never realized they could be used. All of us have learned to “embrace the chaos,” as our world here is never very predictable; it turns out that we kind of like things this way.

A majority of us have picked up one of the most important life skills of all: how to properly fold a bandana if you want to wear it on your head.  We each have at least one bandana, while some have several.  But a few of us had never mastered how to keep those weird corners from sticking out in strange directions that we don’t favor. Now we know.  

We also got our first use of our raingear today, when, near the end of the workday, a little cloudburst hit.  We kept thinking it would quickly pass, but most of us relented and pulled out our jackets or ponchos.  

Even when it was raining, the sky was particularly beautiful today. The morning started out with delicate puffy clouds catching the first rays of light in beautiful warm colors. Most of the day was graced with a deep blue sky and even when the big dark cloud that eventually rained on us arrived, it was floating across that stunning blue sky and looking awesome in its own way.  For those of us who went to the beach after returning from work, we lucked into a sunset that caught the last rays of light in the fronds of the palms and in the new batch of fluffy clouds that emerged to kiss the day goodbye.  

We’re not surprised to find that the Caribbean is beautiful but we are somewhat surprised by how taken we are by its beauty every day.  There are these fat lizards that run around our worksites that catch our attention whenever they move around.  There are some little frogs whose names we must soon learn that only exist on this island. They are tiny and triangular and LOUD, so at some point, every visitor here surely becomes aware of them.  Of course there are beautiful flowers and plants everywhere.  One of the teams has seen at least three different horses on the street where they work, with one of those horses being led by a man riding a bicycle.  All of these things completely fascinate us every time we see them.  

There was some kind of ceremony on the beach today (a wedding? A quinceañera? A Kings’ Day celebration?) that involved drumming and dancing and beautiful dresses.  We wanted to understand everything about what was going on but we also wanted to keep a respectful distance and let it unfold without intrusion from us. We are going to a Kings’ Day celebration tomorrow in San Isidro so we will see if we notice any parallels between what goes on there and what we saw on our beach today.  

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Late update: we went back to the beach after dinner and the dancers were still there.  We kept our distance and figured out that it was a bomba group (a Puerto Rican folk dance).  They were shooting a video on the beach at night, having brought a generator, string lights, huge palm fronds, and a lot of technical equipment (including three or four video cameras shooting from different angles) to set up a really stunning professional shoot.  

As the planned dance for the shoot ended, we stayed around to watch them take group photos.  AND THEN the drummers started back up and one by one, each of the dancers came out and grabbed us as partners and taught us their dance.  Then we all formed a huge circle on the beach and each of us went into the center with our newfound partner to imitate their moves and dance exuberantly to the pounding drums.  We have two dance majors in our group (Lindsay and Molly) but all of us were ecstatic to join in this happy moment with our new neighbors.  Surely some of this experience will show up in today’s video. We hope it gives you as much joy as we experienced.

Jesse pointed out that bomba on the beach was a perfect bookend to our day, which began with our visiting economist.  As Jesse noted, we are getting a feel for the history, politics, economics, and culture of Puerto Rico, and we are noting the high points and low points in each of these areas (and the role of the mainland U.S. in the amplification of many of the extreme shifts).  But throughout all of the ups and downs, one constant is bomba.  For us to face some harsh facts in the morning and then dance bomba on the beach in the night might be one of the best ways to understand life in Puerto Rico today.  

And now for today’s Purple Biker: DIRT vet Maddie Heitkemper.  When Maddie first joined DIRT for the Mt. Kilimanjaro trip last year, she seemed very quiet and reserved.  But this year, she is a primary leader of our group.  And today, she proved it in a perfect way: she detected that there was a need and she met it for all of us.  And it was a big need: our refrigerator was a mess.  As everyone else headed off to frolic on the beach, she quietly stayed behind and took on this ugly job all on her own. And as we returned and glanced into the fridge, we each noticed how different things had become.  Of course, this is only one example of Maddie’s impressive approach to leadership. As we announced her induction into the Order of the Purple Bike, several people piped up to talk about how she has inspired them, comforted them, and helped them to find their way.  We couldn’t be happier to have her among us and we are thrilled to celebrate her today.  

Sophia and Maddie taking a siesta!

This is the view from the roof of Ana’s house! We saw an Iguana walk on the street as we were painting on the roof. 

This is Grayson happily painting a part of the house yellow! Ana chose grey and yellow for the exterior colors of her home. 

Scott, hard at work paneling the ceiling.

During the lunch break, a few of us got to play basketball with the PL’s. 

This is an image of the outside of our camp right after the sunset. This is where we all gather together and discuss our days while doing laundry.

The Tortuga Team sends good vibes to those at home and assures you that we ARE washing our clothes. 

Angel is precisely applying glue to the under side of the joists so the panels stick to the roof. 

A beautiful day! Scott is skillfully painting the side of the house while on a ladder. (Ladder spotter not pictured).

We are standing on the roof of Anna’s house, celebrating the completion of painting the exterior bright yellow.