Galloway Goes to Puerto Rico: The “Beach Trip” with Impact

Lin-Manuel Miranda waving the Puerto Rican flag during curtain call.

Originally, I wasn’t even in the Puerto Rico excursion. I was in ATLWood, and--not to rag on ATLWood--but switching excursions was one of the greatest decisions of my life.

I got into the Puerto Rico trip a week before everyone was supposed to leave. I had no idea what the purpose of the trip was or what we would be doing. I legitimately asked Ms. McCrary, “so, we’re learning about Puerto Rico?” She looked at me dumbfounded and said, “Yes….that’s the whole point.” Little did I know this expedition would end up being the greatest trip of my life.

Contrary to popular belief, it wasn’t just a vacation or a beach trip. In Puerto Rico, our group was exposed to the hardships that the country was going through along with the beautiful scenery of the island. The territory is still rebuilding itself after the devastation that Hurricane Maria caused, so tourists like us coming to visit helps to boost the economy. Visitors donating to local businesses like restaurants, tourism companies, and souvenir shops is what makes up the tourism industry, which is one of the largest and most important contributors to the economy in Puerto Rico.

And then there is the elephant in the room: the hurricane. We not only helped through a means of giving money by being there; we also had the opportunity to renovate a building apart of a nonprofit organization and give meals to a close-knit neighborhood that was severely affected by the natural disaster. We don’t have many pictures of us helping Puerto Ricans who were affected by the hurricane, as we felt that being on our phones and photographing the destruction would be disrespectful to those around us.

The nonprofit organization we worked with, Fundación El Plato Caliente, is a place of refuge for Puerto Ricans who lost their homes and need food, shelter, or just a place to meaningfully volunteer their time. The president of the foundation Rafael Rodríguez Torres told us that during his tenure with the organization, they have fed thousands of people locally. Considering the fact that he and four other helping hands are making two meals each day for thousands of people, it is incredibly impressive.

The organization is located in an abandoned building that Torres and his friends found after the hurricane. They knew they wanted to help people and thought this was the perfect place to start. The building is four stories high and inside there is a fully functioning kitchen, a rec room, offices, community meeting rooms, an art studio, a dancing studio. There are rooms designated for struggling locals, such as AA rooms and rooms where drug abusers can get help. There is also a rooftop where a restaurant will eventually be, as well as several other unused rooms that are filled with potential.

Starting at 7:00am and going to 11:00am, our help was focused in the kitchen and the rec room. We split our group in half; one group was cooking in the kitchen the whole time, and my group was renovating and cleaning up the rec room. Over the course of 3 hours, the cooks made enough food for all twenty-five of us and for an entire neighborhood to have two meals for their home. In total, they made about 75 meals that consisted of chicken, rice, beans, roasted peppers, mashed potatoes, and some type of sauce.

In the rec room, one of Rafael’s associates explained that every aspect of the room was recycled and donated material: all of the furniture, the cases of books, the heaps of decorations, the buckets of paint, everything. Our main goal for the room was to help clean up and organize the books and tools that were scattered everywhere. The more daunting task was assigned to my group, as we had to move a bookshelf that was nailed into the ceiling and floor to the otherside of the room. Our leader expected it to take us ten minutes and after twenty, he came back and we still hadn’t gotten it unscrewed. Believe it or not, after about an hour of encountering several obstacles, we managed to get it done. At the end of it all, Rafael told us that all the work we did, though it may not have felt significant, would have taken him two weeks to do on his own, and he was immeasurably grateful.

If you would like to donate to Fundación El Plato Caliente to help them make more of a difference, click here.

After lunch, our group went a couple of streets over to a neighborhood that Rafael frequents to check in on everyone. We met three kind women, including the head of their group, Laura. Laura told us about how devastated this neighborhood was by the hurricane. The neighborhood was left without power, houses were destroyed, a creek flooded the land and homes around it, and so many other tragedies. She told us that our mission for the day was to take the food we made at El Plato Caliente to the different families in the neighborhood. Following the three ladies, we walked to house after house, knocking on doors and handing out food.

Along the way we met lots of people and cute and friendly neighborhood dogs too. One of the people we met was particularly grateful. He was so amazed with what we were doing that he insisted on taking all of us to the corner store to pay for everyone to get a drink. We declined, but he was rather persistent. In a matter of minutes, we were all sipping down Yoo-hoos, apple juices, Cokes, and Sprites. Outside the corner store, our new friend went on a tangent saying how valuable our help was to the people of the neighborhood and how if everyone was like our group, Puerto Rico would be back on its feet in no time. It was a great way to end our day of service.

Another aspect of Hurricane Relief efforts in Puerto Rico was Lin-Manuel Miranda coming down to perform Hamilton the Musical. A Puerto Rico native, Lin-Manuel Miranda wanted to give back to the country that raised him. It was his first time performing as Hamilton in two-and-a-half years, his last performance being in July 2016. Usually, Hamilton tickets are extremely expensive, but for this performance the tickets ranged from $10-$5,000, so that anyone could attend if they wanted. The show brought thousands of people to Puerto Rico, raising what was projected to be tens of thousands of dollars for hurricane relief.

The citizens of Puerto Rico make it known to you how helpful your contributions are to the territory. They show their appreciation through their amazing personalities and their desire to get to know you and help you learn about their home.

Throughout our stay in Puerto Rico, we made more and more local friends including: our taxi driver, Reuben, our many tour bus drivers, José, Ramón, O’neil, Billy, and our dearly beloved hotel hostess Norca. All of these people helped to make our Puerto Rico trip what it was. Without them, we wouldn’t have felt the loving culture that is present in this welcoming country, wouldn’t have learned nearly as much, and wouldn’t have made such incredible of memories.

When speaking about the atmosphere in Puerto Rico to give us a better feel for the country as a whole, our favorite tour guide José Morales said, “We’re always celebrating something in Puerto Rico. We are party people. Life is too short and you only live once so you have to celebrate something.”

On one of our tours, we asked José how he feels the current relationship between Puerto Rico and America. He spoke about how he thinks Puerto Rico either needs to become a state in the U.S. or become its own country because “this in between state is hurting Puerto Rico more than it’s helping.” We asked which solution he would prefer he responded, “All together. One family. America.” He added to this by telling us how Puerto Ricans love being Americans and don’t want to lose that part of themselves, so if there’s a way we can all become one, he believes that’s what the majority of Puerto Rico would want.

There’s not a really good way to sum this up. Our experience was eye-opening and meant so much to me. We were all so sad to leave. The people we met were inspiring and kind and everyone is working towards making Puerto Rico a better place. It’s something we all should aspire to.