Saturday, we took it easy. When Martha and I went out for dinner, we saw these Prayers for Tourists.
We met up with several other Fuller team members for a delightful dinner at Ladi's restaurant. We walked to and from the restaurant and with other errands still managed to walk eight miles.
Sunday morning, I walked east and explored more of the beach in Condado.
Martha and I took a taxi to the airport, met up with the rest of the Fuller team, boarded the bus and headed for Maunabo and Calzada. We stopped at Punta Tuna in Maunabo and explored the light house and adjacent beaches.
From Punta Tuna, it was only four miles in ten minutes to get to Calzada. After we unloaded our gear and moved into the three houses shared by the team, I checked out the three houses our team worked on in November. Here is the home with the new roof - subsequent teams added the connection to the brother's house on the left.
Then I stopped by Ben's house - subsequent teams had finished the carport on the left and built a handicapped accessible ramp in front, in anticipation of Ben's aging needs.
And the third house now has the finished new roof, veranda and carport.
As always, my before breakfast walks yielded beautiful sunrises.
Monday morning, we had our first of several team meetings to figure out who would be working on which house - this was done just outside the veranda where we had all of our meals.
I spent the week working on the house that had the damaged roof removed the prior week. Our tasks for the week included removing olds walls, windows and doors, and making new holes in the walls for new doors, windows, the circuit breaker panel and electrical wiring.
I was surprised to see four horses in the neighborhood - this one was across the street from Ben's house.
Besides getting my online classes done in the early morning, I got to see many beautiful sunrises on my before breakfast walks. It is good to get up at 5:00 in the morning.
We had a change Thursday - we were joined by about 45 middle school students from a Montessori school, their teachers and some Mercy Corps volunteers. Our task was to clean up debris from the yard around the community center building which included space for the now closed Head Start Program. Here is a short video of the start of our work.
After a couple hours of work, we had a lunch of pizza and salad, and then the kids lined up to receive gift bags of school supplies donated by Fuller Center.
At the end of each workday, many of the team would gather on the veranda of the house across the street from our dining area and relax with cold beer, cold wine, cold Coke and Coke Zero - each day, after picking up at the house where I was working, I would make a trip to La Pachenga and get drinks and snacks as requested.
On one of my walks, I saw that the Calzada school is still closed and there are these new signs on tee shirts and pants.
While the adjoining basketball court is destroyed, the school buildings seem to be in good shape - but they are just sitting unused because there are no longer enough kids or teachers in Calzada.
Thursday and Friday, there was a wake and funeral for the son of the pastor who is the head of Fuller Center in Puerto Rico - the son was killed in an accident while changing a tire on the side of the road.
Not only were there beautiful sunrises, there were also moonrises - here is the worm moon - the last full moon of winter.
Friday, we finished work before lunch. After lunch, all of the team went to Playa Maunabo (a short ten minute ride) where half of us went in the warm water - a beautiful beach. Afterwards, several of us enjoyed cold drinks in the bar that overlooked the beach.
We then went into downtown Maunabo, had time to shop for hats and other tourist souvenirs, and then had an excellent dinner at El Callejon Restaurant.
Friday evening, we said goodbye to three team members who were leaving early. Saturday, we were up early, had breakfast and then rode the bus back to the airport in San Juan for our long flights home. And so ends another week with the Fuller Center in Puerto Rico.
We met up with several other Fuller team members for a delightful dinner at Ladi's restaurant. We walked to and from the restaurant and with other errands still managed to walk eight miles.
Sunday morning, I walked east and explored more of the beach in Condado.
Martha and I took a taxi to the airport, met up with the rest of the Fuller team, boarded the bus and headed for Maunabo and Calzada. We stopped at Punta Tuna in Maunabo and explored the light house and adjacent beaches.
From Punta Tuna, it was only four miles in ten minutes to get to Calzada. After we unloaded our gear and moved into the three houses shared by the team, I checked out the three houses our team worked on in November. Here is the home with the new roof - subsequent teams added the connection to the brother's house on the left.
Then I stopped by Ben's house - subsequent teams had finished the carport on the left and built a handicapped accessible ramp in front, in anticipation of Ben's aging needs.
And the third house now has the finished new roof, veranda and carport.
As always, my before breakfast walks yielded beautiful sunrises.
Monday morning, we had our first of several team meetings to figure out who would be working on which house - this was done just outside the veranda where we had all of our meals.
I was surprised to see four horses in the neighborhood - this one was across the street from Ben's house.
Besides getting my online classes done in the early morning, I got to see many beautiful sunrises on my before breakfast walks. It is good to get up at 5:00 in the morning.
After a couple hours of work, we had a lunch of pizza and salad, and then the kids lined up to receive gift bags of school supplies donated by Fuller Center.
At the end of each workday, many of the team would gather on the veranda of the house across the street from our dining area and relax with cold beer, cold wine, cold Coke and Coke Zero - each day, after picking up at the house where I was working, I would make a trip to La Pachenga and get drinks and snacks as requested.
On one of my walks, I saw that the Calzada school is still closed and there are these new signs on tee shirts and pants.
While the adjoining basketball court is destroyed, the school buildings seem to be in good shape - but they are just sitting unused because there are no longer enough kids or teachers in Calzada.
Thursday and Friday, there was a wake and funeral for the son of the pastor who is the head of Fuller Center in Puerto Rico - the son was killed in an accident while changing a tire on the side of the road.
Not only were there beautiful sunrises, there were also moonrises - here is the worm moon - the last full moon of winter.
Friday, we finished work before lunch. After lunch, all of the team went to Playa Maunabo (a short ten minute ride) where half of us went in the warm water - a beautiful beach. Afterwards, several of us enjoyed cold drinks in the bar that overlooked the beach.
We then went into downtown Maunabo, had time to shop for hats and other tourist souvenirs, and then had an excellent dinner at El Callejon Restaurant.
Friday evening, we said goodbye to three team members who were leaving early. Saturday, we were up early, had breakfast and then rode the bus back to the airport in San Juan for our long flights home. And so ends another week with the Fuller Center in Puerto Rico.
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