Farewell(?) to SBP

1.18.19

SBP farewells were the order of the day, even though we learned that we might not be saying farewell after all to all of our job sites.  Our agreement so far has been to work until today with SBP, then move over to San Isidro to ramp up some projects there.  There are some complications with the logistics in San Isidro that we are working to iron out, so we won’t start there until Monday at the earliest.  

Today, though, we were surprised by how affected we were when we needed to walk away from our worksites and the families that are attached to those sites.  Perhaps even more striking was how sad we were to leave the project leaders to whom we have grown very attached in these two weeks. All of our PLs came to our place tonight with us and they gushed about how hard working (but fun!) our groups are and how much they enjoyed working with us.  

But before we left our sites and worried about saying goodbye to anyone, we cranked out one more super duper workday for the homeowners.  One house is virtually ready for move-in, one is in need of some subcontractors to do skilled work and one is going to get ready very quickly once a plaster contractor completes some finish work around the top of the house. The demolition site behind one of the houses is now just a clean slab, with very little evidence of the structure of the house that once stood there.  

We have gained great confidence in our skills as painters, in our facility with power tools, and with our collective ability to find a solution to a problem.  Some of us have learned that we have more power with a sledgehammer in our hands than we ever might have imagined.  We have had a great time in our sub-divided job world, but we look forward to working all together again next week.

We had a little closing ceremony with Christopher, the guy who initially assigned us out to our sites. He reminded us to think of how important it is for families to recover after disasters and to be able to get back into their homes.  And he emphasized how important our work was to helping families in their state of recovery. 

The great news is that we might be able to do a bit more work at our SBP sites next week; we sure hope that this possibility works out.  Each of our PLs asked if there was any way for us come back to keep up the momentum. We love that they want us, we would love to do it, and we will be excited when things work out.  

In our reflection tonight we expressed surprise about the attachments we have created and gratitude for the privilege of doing so.  We talked about what we saw when we first entered our SBP houses and what has changed because we have come. We always keep in mind that we are but a small part of a much larger undertaking that is bringing hope and joy to these families, but we take pride in our commitment to excellence in the small contributions we make. 

Our visiting vet Jenny joined into our reflection tonight and teared up while acknowledging the beauty of our unity, commitment, and overall DIRT spirit.  We are pleased to learn that Jenny and Sticky have decided to extend their stay for a few more days, leaving Monday instead of Saturday.

Because we are not going to San Isidro on Saturday, we are going to try to do some cultural work, including visiting some museums that we have heard will give us good perspective on Puerto Rico apart from the storm.  Our focus has been so much on post-Maria PR that we might be missing out on some of the important facets of Puerto Rico itself.  So Saturday will be an atypically tourist-y day for us.  We welcome it.  

Paintbrushes used to prime and paint all the windows and window bars of one of the houses we were working on.

Alex takes a selfie in front of the house we have been working on since arriving in Puerto Rico. Sad we weren't able to finish it, but proud of all the progress we made.

Molly and Ropniel, one of the cousins of the family whose house we worked in, take a moment to journal together.

Alex and Ropniel take a quick pic as we say goodbye (or until next week) to our Puerto Rican family.

Ropniel and Paul, affectionately renamed to Pablo, pose for a pic together.

Lindsay trying to smile even though we are all so broken hearted about leaving our work with SBP and our worksites. However, this goodbye is only a “see ya later.”

This is an image of the completion of Luz’s house.

Megan and Hannah enjoying their last day at Francisca’s work site.

This is a group photo of the team who worked with P.L. (Project Leader) Alex. This hand gesture is from Bad Bunny, a Puerto Rican artist who produces well-known Reggaeton music that we listened to on the worksites. 

A pic of the bros after fixing the bathroom door, which had rotted off the wall!

If you look closely, you can see that Thomas’s mullet is growing in superbly!!!!!!

Alex sledgehammering a wall!!

Sticky held a toad at the work site!

Jenny, Sticky, Lauren, Alex, Madi, Sarah, Molly, and Paul with Robniel and Viviana.

One of the work sites on the last day with SBP!

Alex, Sticky, and Paul playing with Robniel!