Tyrone is a native of Puerto Rico. He currently lives in Luquillo and is a high school ESL teacher. This will be Tyrone’s sixth year with Global Works. He believes in the enlightenment of young minds by helping his own community while also helping GW participants understand his culture. 
Emily has been living in Vieques, Puerto Rico for four and a half years and has fallen in love with Puerto Rico. She loves to explore the Rainforests and snorkel and scuba dive in the coral reefs and ride her horse on the beach. 
A native to the northwest hills of Connecticut, Dan spends his time outside whenever possible. He spent a semester with the National Outdoor Leadership School(NOLS) in 2003, and ever since has experienced long-term side effects of doing various outdoorsy things. Rock climbing and alpine skiing are among his favorites. Welcome Global Works travelers, parents and friends. We are excited to share with you trip updates from around the world. As our main office receives updates from the trips we will update the page as we receive news from the field.
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Update #1: http://www.notesfromtheglobe.com/wp-admin/page.php?action=edit&post=4083&message=1
Day 1: Yesterday everyone arrived in San Juan with good spirits and in great anticipation of the trip. We made our way to our home on the beach of Cerro Gordo west of San Juan about 45 minutes and everybody was happy to be greeted with home cooked meal of Lasagna thanks to our lovely chefs Tony and Carmen. Before hitting the bunk beds in our comfy rooms we had one of our many meetings to gain some cohesion and group unity. Good night all and sleep well for an awesome day ahead!
Day 2: Today we woke up early and made our way into the central mountains of Orocovis, PR. We wound our way through the hills to the top of a mountain where were strapped into our harnesses and got ready to zip line over the valleys below! From platform to platform we zipped through the trees over the rivers looking out at the ocean of the north coast. What a first day and what a way to see Puerto Rico! After our adventure we visited Villa Del Rio, the community we will be working in for the next few days. We were able to meet some of the community members that we will be working along side with as well as some of the homes we will be working on. We then made our way home to another wonderful dinner and we finished up the night with reflections on the meaning of community and the importance of community service. As we face the hard week ahead there is an air of excitement and as one student put it….“I feel like these next few weeks are going to be filled with amazing memories.”
We will send another update soon…
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Update #2:
Day 3 Sunday: Our first day of work was started at our friend Angel’s house. Angel has worked along side Global Works for years and has helped build many other people’s homes. So we were all excited to finally get a chance to help Angel and his family with their home. Our day was a mix of hauling sand and rock, mixing cement by hand, and passing buckets full of cement that eventually finished all the walls in the house. We were able to work and talk to Angel’s children and is wife as they helped with the work and cooked us a great lunch. We worked into the late afternoon ending with a great feeling of satisfaction and left feeling connected to Angel’s family. Our evening consisted of a great dinner and a meeting about our reactions to our first day of work. The group shared thoughts about how different life is here in Puerto Rico and how interesting it is to interact with people who don’t speak the same language. We all look forward to our next day in the community to get to know our friend’s more.
Day 4 Monday: Today we made our way back to Angel and Maria’s house to pour them a new floor for their house. Although we were working hard we were also hanging out with Angel’s children as they helped shovel and pass buckets. It is safe to say that even the ones that don’t speak Spanish left knowing a few more words and with some confidence in their ability to try to speak a new language. At times we were challenged by the rain and wind, but everybody pushed themselves all day to get the job done. At the end of the day we snapped pics and marveled at our finished product.We also had a birthday today and we celebrated with cake and ice cream and a trip to the movie theater.
Day 5 Tuesday: Today we worked at a different worksite up the street putting up walls for a new home. We once again worked along side community members who helped guide us in the ways of construction. This project was started by another group before us and we started where they left off. Amongst the tropical rain bouncing off the palm trees around us we were greeted by the hot summer sun as we finished the walls on three sides of the house. The home is being built for a man named Ramone who was there to meet us and say his thanks. We had lunch at Angel’s house again thanks to Maria and then we left for the beach while we had the sun! We spent the afternoon on the beautiful beach of Cerro Gordo relaxing in the water and enjoying the Caribbean breeze.
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Update #3:
Day 6: Our last day working in Villa Del Rio was spent finishing most of the walls for Ramone’s house. It is amazing to step back and see all the work that we have done and to see the house coming together. We made walls for rooms and we made windows and doors overlooking the hills of the neighborhood. After work we headed over to William’s house for a farewell cookout where we mingled with our new friends and watched Tyrone grill up burgers and dogs like a champ. One student said that “You could notice the difference in the first day we met the families to now and how comfortable we were with each other and everyone in the community.” We also learned that some of the people we have been working with for the past few days are some of the founders of this community that started nineteen years ago. They built their homes with their bare hands for their families and have been developing and strengthening the community ever since. Global Works has been a part of this community development for seven years and is considered as an integral part of getting people together more and more every year. We were reminded of this today as the members of the community expressed their gratitude for what the members of Global Works have accomplished in the past few days. It was an emotional good bye and it was hard to leave. “It was really upsetting for all of us to say good bye to the new friends we have made, but I know I will never forget any of the people we have met.”
Day 7: We left our home in Cerro Gordo this morning and left for the city of Old San Juan. We spent the day touring the historic streets looking at amazing monuments, fountains, forts and churches. “The colorful houses and buildings made it look like something out of a movie.” We walked through the Fort El Morro imagining how the Spanish fought off the approaching battle ships of the British and the Dutch. We had a great traditional lunch at Restaurant El Jibarito and tried things such as Mofongo, pasteles, tostones and sweet plantains. We also got to cruise the shopping scene of the old city for souvenirs before we loaded up and headed south for our new stop in Patillas. After a sleepy van ride we reached the Patillas Eco Resort greeted by the sounds of owls, crickets and coqui frogs. The view of the south side of the island is amazing from the top of our mountain and the cool breeze can’t be beat. Tomorrow we shall wake up to a whole new experience!
Day 8: Today a huge storm rolled in over the mountains bringing with it tropical rain and winds. As we climbed into the mountains to Las Casas de la Selva we watched the fog crawl all over the tree tops. We met Andres and Norman who gave us a great introduction to Las Casas and an overview of the work that we will be doing. The research that is conducted here at Las Casas sets an example for the world on how to use the forests without depleting existing species of trees, plants and animals. By use we mean thinning the forests to extract trees that can be made into products and sold. The main tree that they cut down here is Blue Mahoe and the wood is beautiful. Blue Mahoe is not native to Puerto Rico but is not threatening to native species and actually provides essential shade for those species to grow. We departed the mountain top research center and returned to our home for the rest of the day as a huge storm kept us in. We entertained ourselves for the rest of the night in our mountain home with music playing, ping pong, pool, movies and more.
Day 9: Today was excursion day to Ponce, the second largest city in Puerto Rico. First we visited an art museum that held some amazing famous art from as far back as the 1400′s. We then went to the center of Ponce where we explored the shops around the plaza. The historic streets of Ponce are lined with colorful homes and buildings some old and crumbling with bricks from the centuries before. After we finished our shopping and ate our homemade ice cream we went to Tibes, ceremonial grounds of the indigenous peoples of Puerto Rico. There we were able to see artifacts from people that inhabited the island thousands of years ago. We then got a tour of the ceremonial grounds from quite an interesting man named Salvador who explained what the grounds were used for. As we walked on the sacred grounds it was amazing to think of the people that were walking the same paths so long ago. We saw petroglyphs on stones and playing fields where they played games to awaken the gods. We then headed back East to Patillas for the evening and relaxed in our tropical home on the mountain.
Day 10: Today we had an early start and got right to work at Las Casas de la Selva. One group worked on ditch digging, trail leveling, painting and planting while another group dug steps, holes for hand railing, and drainage ditches as well. All of this work was done on the Ethnobotanical Trail which has many different species of plants and trees used for educational purposes. The trail is also access to the forest for all the scientists that do their research here so our work is helping to make that easier and safer. So we all worked hard and got a little muddy but we liked it and our progress was substantial. Tomorrow we shall come back and put in the railings as well as some more steps.
Update #4:
Day 11: Today we went back to Las Casas and got right back to our jobs that we started yesterday. We put another coat of paint on one of the cabins, put more steps in and finished the railing on the lower part of the trail. What a sense of accomplishment! After work we said our goodbyes to the rainforest and our new friends and headed back to the eco-resort for our 4th of July cookout. We got back and lounged by the pool and enjoyed our BBQ. Later on we were surprised to have our Las Casas friends come to visit and go on our night hike with us. Norman told us ghost stories in the forest and it was really creepy to be out surrounded by all those night sounds! We heard owls and crickets and frogs and our imaginations went wild! We made our way safely out of the forest and packed for our departure tomorrow.
Day 12: We left our beautiful Eco-Resort and headed for Luquillo Beach in Northern Puerto Rico. We drove around the Eastern coast and the views were spectacular. We could see the islands of St. Croix and Vieques in the distance. We drove right to the National Forest of El Yunque which is the only national forest in the US that is a tropical rainforest. We went to the visitor center where we learned the history of the forest and read about the species that exist there. We then made our way of the windy road through the magnificent trees to a waterfall where we took a cool dip. It is amazing how much cooler it is here and how fresh the air is. After our rainforest visit we went down to the beach for a lunch at a Puerto Rican restaurant and then we hit the beach before sunset. The colors of the sky met the blue of the Atlantic as we rode the waves to shore. After swimming we checked into our hotel called Yunque Mar right on the beach and what a view! Later on we went out for a nice dinner in Luquillo at the Brass Cactus. What a cool place Luquillo is! We can’t wait to see more of it.
Day 13: This morning was very special as we explored part of a very important place. We went on an excursion into the NorthEast Corridor which is a 3200 acre piece of land that was a reserve and holds hundreds of species as well as some that are endangered. It is also one of the most important leatherback turtle nesting sites in the Caribbean. It is an amazing place and the beaches are unmatched. We were led by a Sierra Club volunteer who taught us about the different ecosystems along the way. We hiked up a hill that went out over the ocean where we had a beautiful view of the corridor and Luqiullo. We learned that the present government in PR retracted the title of reserve so they can fragment the land to build two resorts, gulf courses, and apartment buildings. We hope that this does not happen as it will greatly affect the turtles as well as the overall functioning of the corridor as large ecosystem. It is a coastal forest that is directly below El Yunque rainforest therefore playing a part in that ecosystem as well. How could they destroy such an important environment? We also wonder why they can’t develop this place sustainably like other places around the world. We spent some time swimming at a deserted beach taking in the beauty and the peace around us. After our excursion we went for a dip in a rainforest river to cool down. Later on we went on a kayak adventure into the Bio Bay where we learned why the water glows blue! We kayaked through a mangrove tunnel into this awesome bay that glows when we move the water. This may be one of the coolest things in the world and we will never forget it.
Day 14: Today is our last day and we started it with surf lessons on Luquillo Beach. A morning storm passed over and left some great waves for us to ride! We had lunch on the beach after we finished up our surfing and looked out over the crashing waves of Luquillo Beach one last time. Later on in the afternoon we made our way to the marina where we hopped on a sailboat for a sunset cruise. We sailed out to a small island where we snorkeled over a coral reef and got to just relax in the white sand. On our way back we looked out at the Atlantic and at the tall mountains of El Yunque towering about of covered in passing clouds. The rainforest is such a magnificent sight to see from the ocean. After our sail we went out to dinner and enjoyed each others company as our time is drawing to a close. The sentiments are similar amongst the group. People are excited to get home and see family, but sad to say good bye to new friends. When we got back to our hotel we had our final meeting and discussed our favorite times of the trip and what we will remember most. It has been an intense trip and we all have a sense of accomplishment and the feeling that we now have family here in PR. It is hard to believe that tomorrow we will all be sleeping in our beds and this trip will be a memory. It will be a memory that we will never forget!
