It’s hard to believe that our experience in San Juan ended just 4 days ago now. The trip that I had been eagerly anticipating for months (if not for my whole life) has come and gone in a blur of emotions and memories. Alongside my 3 teammates, led by our 2 coordinators (Rick and Mariana), this trip was certainly 1 I will never forget. (See what I did there?) At some points, I felt like I had been there forever, and at others, I felt the time slipping away faster than I could catch it.
Our in-country experience was nothing short of incredible. The sounds of the coquis and roosters created the perfect soundtrack for every single one of our activities. I felt that we experienced the perfect mix of touristy experiences and non-touristy ones, as well as time to simply enjoy being in Puerto Rico. Throughout our trip, I found myself using all of the quiet moments to just take it all in, with my eyes glued to the window during car rides thinking about how lucky I felt. In each of our 8-12-hour days, we were able to do and see more than I could have imagined. No matter how much we did in one day, I felt like my excitement kept me from ever getting too tired. I’m sure there will be things that I forget to include in this blog, but I know that the memories of this trip will stick with me forever. My sidekick for the week was my tiny Canon Powershot that I used to document as much as I could throughout all of our adventures. To me, this was the best way to express my feelings about being on the island of my ancestors for the very first time.
I figured a good way to recap the events of our 7-day trip was to summarize them into categories. Our client, Caras con Causa, divides their work into 3 main areas: comunidad (community), ecología (ecology), y educación (education). I thought it was only fitting to do the same.
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Comunidad
In my eyes, most of the work and sightseeing that we did would fall under the umbrella of community. Whether we were doing a service activity or a tour to learn more about the culture and history of Puerto Rico, I was always able to feel the strength and collectiveness of the community around me. On our first full day, Mariana drove us around Cataño and told us about some of the struggles they have faced with the municipality and how the community has been affected by it. Every morning and afternoon was spent in the community center of Comunidad Puente Blanco, which was made of one single road (Calle Principal) and an extremely tight-knit group of neighbors. At the end of this road was a woman named Nely who was receiving help from Caras to restore the fence around her house, which our group worked on stripping and repainting at the beginning of the week. Her two small dogs, just like every other pet on Calle Principal, would often pop out to walk around, always knowing exactly how to navigate back home. We painted again a few days later on a slightly larger scale, this time a large majority of a house. The woman who lived there was significantly impacted by Hurricane Maria and was still waiting for the municipality to help her in restoring her property. My favorite part of both experiences was getting to talk to both women and hearing not just about the struggles they’ve faces, but about who they are. Their likes and dislikes, their families, all similar and different to each other’s and my own. You can learn a lot about someone’s personality and energy in just a short conversation. The entire time we were in Puerto Rico, I just felt this immense air of love and care for one another that is incredibly special. If we had simply come to Puerto Rico for a tourist visit, I don’t know that we would have seen the community in the same way. For that, I am incredibly grateful.
Ecología
A huge part of Caras’ work is their work in ecology, an area I found I was incredibly fascinated and excited by. Caras has a major focus on not only protecting the environment in the Cataño/Guaynabo area but also restoring the parts of it that have been damaged. I felt very lucky to not only see some of the strenuous work that Caras does daily but actually be a part of it. Our first experience in this area was a water monitoring activity in which we traveled to various collection points and took water samples to test for things like chlorine and conductivity. We were given an amazing explanation of how the monitoring works, what we should expect to see based on which collection point (for example, right along the coast vs. within a neighborhood), and how important the monitoring is to protect the island and its coasts. Next, we were able to assist in planting one of Caras’ many micro-forests throughout the Cataño/Guaynabo area. We had seen tons of them spread through the community when Mariana brought us to Cataño for the first time, so having the opportunity to be a part of one was a privilege. We first cut down weeds and invasive plants, something that the Caras team does in the immense heat and sunlight every single day. Because we were in a wetland, the leaves of these plants could be left right on the soil, which would absorb them and use them as a type of fertilizer. We cleared as much space as we could and then ended the experience by planting mangrove trees of our own. These trees will be monitored and measured for years to come, hopefully leading them to be relocated to reforest the mangroves along the coasts someday.
Educación
One of my favorite experiences on the trip (although I think I have probably said this about everything) was shadowing a 5th-grade class in the community laboratory (LabCom). We went with them to Comunidad Puente Blanco, where they experimented with using binoculars (many of them for the first time!) to learn more about the biodiversity that is right in their backyards. Caras’ focus on education centers around the idea of teaching the younger generations about how beautiful and valuable the ecosystems on the island are, as it is something that has gotten a bit lost over the years. This part was incredibly touching, as it solidified for me that those kids are who we are doing all of this for. At the end of our project, any extra income that Caras can generate will go directly to those children. It’s easy to see that the work educators at Caras do with these kids will make a major impact on them and influence how they see the world.
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Our extensive in-class preparation was certainly an asset to us on this trip. The in-class discussion that stuck out to me the most was the reading “Building an Ethical Partnership.” I think our group did a great job at being respectful, open-minded, and ready to experience new things. Though I’m sure our group would have had this mindset regardless, it was good to discuss it in-class beforehand as a reminder. We heard stories about groups that had a not-so-positive approach and it was clear to see that it had a negative impact on others. We were excited to hear at the end that Mariana felt like she hadn’t even been working all week while spending time with us, and I’d say we felt the same way!
Before leaving for this trip, I thought I had pretty fair expectations about what the journey ahead would be like. I believed that I already knew everything that I would see and hear and taste, as a lot of elements of Puerto Rican culture have always been a part of my life. In reality, there is absolutely nothing that compares to being on the island itself and seeing where everything comes from. Sometimes I felt confident and bold, others I felt insecure and unsure of myself. I had never seen so many people who were like me and my family in one place at the same time, yet I knew that I still didn’t fully belong there. The concept of being between two communities, “too white for the Puerto Rican kids and too Puerto Rican for the white kids,” has been a struggle for me throughout my life and certainly floated to the surface during our trip. As time went on, I realized more and more that I didn’t have to prove myself and who I was or put myself in a box. Opening myself up to learning new things about my culture and the island in no way stripped me of my identity, in fact, it could only enhance it. I’m sure it would have taken me more than a week to become fully secure in myself and my identity, but I felt an immense shift by the end of this experience. I realized that I could love and feel connected to a community without being directly part of it, and that’s okay. I think this trip has shaped my cultural identity and my concept of self in a way that I could have never anticipated (I’ve got to say it makes me quite emotional writing this). Regardless of these “surprises,” I knew for a fact that I would be absolutely in awe of everything and not take a single moment for granted. I think I did a pretty good job at that.
