Sanse!

1.20.19

We slept in again today, which is starting to make us feel lazy.  But today was our day to go to the Festival of San Sebastian in Old San Juan. So, in the morning, Jesse and Shawny made a run to get supplies for our “workshops” with the kids of San Isidro this week.  The rest of us stayed home to get breakfast ready, but soon discovered that the power was out throughout our community.  

We experienced in a very small dose what it is like to reach for the switch and not have it respond. And we realized that we had to manage opening the refrigerator door more carefully than ever, as we didn’t know when the power would return and we wanted to avoid losing food if we could. One of our bathrooms is pretty dark when the lights aren’t on, even in the daytime.  Of course, we are aware that many Puerto Ricans, including those in our surrounding community, went without power for many months, so we knew we had no grounds for complaint.

Eventually, one of the neighbors fired up a generator and then stretched a cord over to our place so we could keep on going as if things were normal until the public power came back online.  We were gone most of the day so we aren’t sure how long it was out.  

We left after lunch (mmmm! tilapia!) and began our long journey to Old San Juan.  Our journey was made longer than it might have been due to the massive traffic related to the festival.  We took the bus we rode all last week to a huge bus stop in the city, then got into a line that stretched around a building, down a sidewalk, across a parking lot, and then through a switchback maze until we could finally pay for tickets for another bus that would take us to the festival itself.  Even though a lot of steps were involved in getting ourselves on that bus, the whole thing moved surprisingly quickly and we managed to stick together all the way into town. 

Once we got to Old San Juan, we were impressed to see some of the buildings that we had read about in our historical overviews of Puerto Rico, including the capitol, the fort, and city hall. We walked along the waterfront and found ourselves in a huge crowd of people filling the city’s streets.  We all walked to the place that would become our rally spot (near city hall), so that we could arrange to return there periodically to check our status (Are we having fun? Are we getting tired? Is everyone okay? Does anyone need translation help?).  The streets were filled with music and art (and, as we mentioned above, people). Some of the music was organized on a series of stages like a music festival but some of it was only semi-formal as roving performing groups gathered in the streets, sometimes marching, sometimes dancing, always having a total blast.  

We organized ourselves into clusters so that we could all do what we wanted to do while also keeping an eye on each other.  We were surprised at how totally safe and non-threatening the whole festival felt, as there were people EVERYWHERE but they were all just minding their business and having fun.  

Some of us shopped for souvenirs (maybe for you?).  Some of us sampled Puerto Rican cuisine.  Some of us opted for more mainland fare (like Burger King and Wendy’s).  Some of us checked out the art. And by the end, almost all of us danced.  The music was so captivating that it would have been hard not to dance and most of us felt the call.  

We found ourselves all the way in the front of the crowd at one of the stages, and as time went by, more and more of us (even Shawny and Jesse) found our way there eventually. There were broadcast quality cameras on the stage and they frequently focused on us, shooting our image onto big screens that towered over the audience.  We danced together and with lots of different locals, sometimes getting pulled into the middle of a circle to do a featured dance.  Lindsay (a dance major) was particularly adept at this assignment, and was a popular partner for many of the people in the crowd.  She would always graciously take her turn, but then pull in another person (probably a Puerto Rican rather than one of us).

We turned into quite a force at the front of the crowd, jumping up and down and chanting “DIRT, DIRT, DIRT!” Lots of people joined in with us, which only increased our fun. Our final rally time sadly arrived, and we gathered at the appropriate spot. Once there, we decided to bestow not one but TWO purple bikes: to Grayson and Lindsay.  

Grayson was technically the winner of the purple bike on Friday, especially because of the clear depth of his relationship with the project leaders at his SBP house.  They came with him and his work group to our house that day and their affection for Grayson was quite obvious.  Besides his affection for the project leaders on his site, Grayson also shares a lot of love with us, his classmates.  Different ones of us spoke up to gush about how wonderful an addition he has been to our lives.  And he’s a hard worker too!

Lindsay got the second purple bike, particularly for her achievements in the dance circles tonight. She made what might have been a popularity contest into an elegant display of inclusion.  And in doing so, she brought great love and happiness to a range of dancers: young and old, skilled and mediocre, Puerto Rican and otherwise.  This way of being is typical for Lindsay, whom we always say “leads with love.” She finds something great about everyone she meets, latches onto that positive attribute, and builds a friendship that feels utterly special with everyone she meets.  Many of us publicly expressed our appreciation for Lindsay and many members of the crowd joined us in celebrating her.  

Our night ended VERY late, when we finally called it quits on the total lunar eclipse after 1am our time. It changed very little during the last 40 minutes or so, but a few of us waited it out if only to say that we had. We read that it was a “red super wolf” moon, which we cannot explain.  We saw the redness once the shadow was complete but the other parts remain a mystery.  Still, it felt like a perfect magical ending to our day of love, joy, and celebration. 

We get back to work in the community of San Isidro tomorrow.  We’ll let you know more about it as soon as we can!

As we were walking down to the festival venue we saw the governor’s building

San Sebastian (or as they call it SanSe) was a filled with a sea of people. If you look at the center of the picture you can see Paul standing at ease within the crowd

Another beautiful view that we got to see while attending the San Sebastian Festival

Molly, Sophia and Angel watched the beautiful sunset as music was blasting in the background. 

Opposite the governor’s building was the beach. It was hard to ignore the beautiful deep blue and turquoise colors of the sea. 

Hope and Madi on the bus heading to the festival!

The schedule for the San Sebastian Festival!

Madi, Hope, and Kresha with Victor the Project Leader at the festival!

Madi, Josh, and Grayson hanging out at the festival.

The Arts District Downtown

1.19.19

We slept in today!!!! Until at least 9:00am for most of us.  No one got up before dawn, which has been our norm since we arrived.  It felt very weird to just wake up, rather than getting jarred out of deep sleep with the message that sleep must end.  

The day was sunny and clear, which helped us too.  We had the unfortunate realization that our nighttime foray to the beach brought a zillion new insect bites into our lives, so we are hitting the anti-itch potions a little harder than usual today.  

We had a late brunch that included a couple of huge frittatas, avocados, and raisin toast. We are out of lighteners for coffee so we all drank it black on this particular occasion.  

Our plan was to go to the museums downtown today, but we were a little slow on the turnaround and we also wanted to hit the beach quickly before leaving, so we decided to take an afternoon bus to get to where we wanted to go.  Little did we know what we were getting into.  

We decided to walk to the bus stop, which is a couple of kilometers away.  That short-ish distance stretches a bit farther, though, when it is really hot out and you have a group of 23 people straggling along.  We missed the first bus we planned (though as far as we know it never arrived anyway).  We all got to the stop in time for the bus that should have arrived 45 minutes later than the one we missed, but it didn’t come either.  We called our local friends to see if things were different because it was Saturday or because this is a festival weekend and they all just kept telling us to wait and it would come.  

We finally went all California on the situation and called Uber rides.  There was a bit of a delay but we got all of the cars we needed and everyone made it where they belonged.  As soon as we were all in cars, we saw the bus that we had expected to ride.  Oh well. 

We got dropped off right at the Museum of Contemporary Art, which was a wonderful old building that had a few galleries of different kinds of contemporary art.  Some were paintings, some installation pieces, some posters, some graffiti, and some interactive pieces.  There was a video in one gallery that was all in Spanish; it traced the experience of Maria for a range of different people.  Not many of us caught all of the details of the video, but we saw some images of Maria that we hadn’t seen before and got a sense of what life in those first days after the storm must have been like.  

From the museum, we realized that we were actually pretty hungry, especially because it turned out that a few of us didn’t realize that the word “brunch” meant that we wouldn’t then eat lunch an hour or so later.  So we headed to one of the options that our SBP friend Katia had told us about: a food court of sorts that was a bit like a collection of food trucks on a courtyard.  

We didn’t realize that our chosen place was almost directly across from the theater that is currently running the most popular and famous show on the island: Hamilton.  In case you are not aware, the creator and original Broadway star of Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda, is Puerto Rican-American and is reprising his starring role for a limited three-week engagement in San Juan, RIGHT DOWN THE STREET from the art museum and our dinner destination. There was crazy traffic and lots of VERY dressed up people were eating in our little food court.  

There was an Airstream serving up pork sandwiches, a place called The Hen House that had some amazing chicken fingers, poke bowls, a vegan place, a French fry place, a pizza place, a croquette place, and a pseudo-McDonalds hamburger place, among many others.  A surprising number of us went for the apparently familiar hamburgers and pizza, while others picked things whose Spanish names we didn’t recognize and welcomed the surprise of what we ended up eating.  

All of the tables were outdoors down the middle of the space and there were these huge fans (with a slightly offensive but very funny brand name that we won’t print here because we know that there are third graders reading this) that helped to make it feel like the temperature was perfect.  The sky was beautiful and mostly clear, with just a few of those puffy clouds we’ve come to love floating by.  

We went from booth to booth, everyone got to pick whatever they wanted most, and we sampled each other’s choices.  Some of us got special items to bring home with us, though we have tons of snacks and leftovers to eat at our house already.

We then walked from the arts district to the beach hotel district to catch some big van size cabs home.  We had missed the chance to get the bus that hadn’t worked out earlier, so we just pivoted and found a different way home.  We got a good sense of the nightlife in San Juan by walking back past the Hamilton theater and through the area around the beachfront.  

We are tired even though we didn’t work today so we are going to rest up for our trip to the festival of San Sebastian tomorrow.  We don’t quite know what to expect, though we think it involves arts, music, and huge crowds. We’re ready.  

We will post videos from these two days but we get home so late that there might be delays.  Please be patient with us . . .

Stephane, Lindsay, and Molly enjoying some coconut water at the Loiza bus stop before heading out to Downtown San Juan. 

The central plaza of the Puerto Rico Contemporary Art Museum.  

Hope and Kresha getting their art knowledge on in the Puerto Rico Contemporary Art Museum. It was a beautiful moment to see different kinds of art forms that were created by famous artists from the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. 

An abandoned colonial building that we saw in the streets of Downtown San Juan. 

A nice view of this amazing food hall that we ate at for dinner. Amazing cocktails and food, truly a fabulous way to end our visit in San Juan. 

The balance of colors and sunlight at the museum was perfect that it was hard not to take a picture! 

A beautiful church that we passed during our walk down to Lote 23.

This was the setting of Lote 23, outdoor seating with many different varieties of food vendors. 

All smiles from a group of DIRTies!

After enjoying an evening at Lote 23, we walked through San Juan and saw beautiful street art!

Art work at the Contemporary Art Museo de Arte.

Maddie looking at some free books on the streets of San Juan.

Hope, Madi, Hannah, Jenny, Molly, Lauren, Sophia, and Sarah at Miramar’s food trucks!

Art work in San Juan!

Thomas being goofy in San Juan!

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!

Rain, Rain, and More Rain

1.17.19

Rain.  So much rain. It started at the very end of the evening last night and took us totally by surprise.  Especially those who had waited until Wednesday to do laundry. They got their stuff on the line and the next thing we knew, the rain was pouring down.  It does that every once in awhile but then it lets up.  Not this time.  The tent people had some surprises waiting for them out there. (Remember the part from yesterday about moving the tents off the grass?  Well, they weren’t staked and pulled tight the way they need to be and things didn’t go well at the edges.)  We are down to 7 people in tents now, with two bringing their soggy mattresses inside to find a place to sleep.  And we had to create indoor laundry lines to help some of our group members come up with some clean clothes soon.  

And we woke up to rain, which didn’t let up all day.  Team Picante made pancakes and fruit for breakfast (and even some fruity pancakes), which makes for a pretty fine start to the day. Our bus driver had a doctor’s appointment today and due to some miscommunication, didn’t pick us up this morning.  We put out distress calls to our project leaders nearby and they came and picked us up to help us get to work.  For some reason, it was kind of fun to do it this way.  

We had plenty of work to do at all of our sites, even if the work wasn’t always what we expected.  One house has not only developed professional level skills at some of the tasks they have undertaken, but they have also fostered a “hive mentality “ of sorts where they find themselves anticipating each other’s moves and working in almost perfect sync.  They can do ceiling work, floor work, and paint the most remote nooks and crannies without batting an eye now.  They may come in handy when they come home for Jan Term break . . .

Another house had tons of interior painting to do so they stayed busy all day now that the proper paint was available to them.  We are all thrilled when we get to paint because it makes such a clear and obvious improvement in the house that we all can see and feel.  Some of us have gotten really good at painting while others have created new methods and techniques that help to reach tight spots or deal with awkward areas.  

The house where we demolished most of another house yesterday had lots of work to do too, all of which was messy and outside.  We were supposed to tile a bathroom there (our spacers arrived!) but once we got the wet saw connected, we learned that the water pump wasn’t working and needed to be replaced.   Once again, the tile job was at a standstill. The exterior plastering job that a subcontractor was supposed to do was stymied by the rain. 

So that left us with that debris field in the back that used to be another full house.  We went after it.  We gathered up the debris that was already in the space from our work yesterday and we created a lot more concrete debris with sledgehammers and wrecking bars. Alex showed amazing strength and skill with the sledgehammer, hitting blocks perfectly in the spot that would make them pop right out of the floor. Shawny and Sarah started singing the Miley Cyrus song “Wrecking Ball” to him, which he clearly did not take as a compliment (even though it WAS).  He forgave them, though, and joined them (and Jenny) in short “bucket lines” to move the debris out into the discard pile.  

All of us worked really hard today and were eager to get home and get some rest.  We hardly managed to do so, as we decided to make our own dinner out of some fresh kale, broccoli, spinach, and other items to supplement the regular offerings of rice, rice, and more rice that we frequently eat here.  Our meal was fabulous.  

We then moved on to our reflection circle, where team Chanclas Fuegas (an attempt to be “Fire Sandals” in Spanish) asked us each to talk about what we learned at our SBP houses and what lessons we would take to future projects here and elsewhere.  We talked about the passion and commitment of both the project leaders and the homeowners, as both groups know how to persevere against incredible odds.  Some of us are certainly considering whether we would be able to make an extended commitment like the ones our project leaders have made; we think maybe a few of us might give it a try after graduation this spring.  

We also talked about some of the life skills we’ve gained, including innumerable examples of how to work “smarter, not harder.”  We have all picked up certain tips about to work with tools so that the tools do the work instead of us using all of our muscles to make things happen. We’ve all also gotten good at passing our knowledge on to each other, meaning it’s particularly lovely to watch someone learn how to use a flat bar or a chopsaw with clear and careful safety instructions from one of us.  

We talked about how much we appreciate each other and our ways of being together.  And we talked about how we want our future lives to feel and how much of what we are doing/being here we hope will come with us into our eventual careers.  

Tomorrow is likely our last day at the houses where we’ve spent the past week and a half.  We are all hoping to get major parts of these projects fully completed before we have to walk away.  If we don’t (and even if we do) we might find ourselves being drawn back into these projects right here in our neighborhood.  

And we have two new Purple Bikers: Hope and Sarah.  Hope had a lock on the PB just because of her work cleaning the house yesterday. Others helped too but Hope was the mastermind who made a big org chart about how to get the whole job done quickly. But her contributions extend far beyond that cleaning job.  She has helped us connect to interesting new breakfast combinations, in part because she is a vegan, so she doesn’t eat eggs or pancakes, two of our main offerings. Many people piped up about how kind and encouraging she has been to all of us and to the people around us.  She has a particular gift with making connections, whether with us, our hosts, or with complex content that we addressed in our pre-course readings and how that content relates to our actual experience here. She has been a blessing to our group. 

And our second Purple Biker is Sarah!  She gained entirely new respect and affection for tough manual labor today, swinging a sledgehammer masterfully with Alex’s careful instruction.  She also used a wrecking bar to remove the edges of the blocks that remained sealed to the floor. Further, she mucked out the floors of the demolished house, as the remaining wall segments meant that they basically had become pools that contained lots of broken concrete.  And she was totally unaffected by the rain, the hard work, the solitary nature of some of her jobs, or even the termites and other pests that infested the worksite.  She just smiled and plugged away until the slab was nearly smooth and empty.  Thanks a million, Sarah!

Rooftop views of fruit trees at Ana’s house. 

Large “platanos” leaves are used to add flavor to cooking rice by covering the pot of rice with the big leaves.

Rainy dayz.

Enjoying some much needed quiet time in the tents. Also, this is Grayson doing some typical campsite shinanigans!

Pre-work massage train.

  Scott petting Chispa while working on Ana’s house.

The sharing of Clif Bars has become a coveted ritual among work sites.

 Tom is forever grateful to Madi for her trim skills and her Clif Bar sharing. 

Paul is a snot bag.

So excited and grateful to eat as many green things as we can when our dinner plans fell through and the kitchen team came to the rescue. 

This is a neighborhood view of the work sites where Luz and Francisca live.

Stephane and Nils covered in paint from the ceiling paint work at Francisca’s house. 

There are chickens always running around our work sites everyday!

It was our first rainy day today with a very wet atmosphere around our house in Loiza.