Cajas

Mas cajas (boxes)

Edit: I'm told that this original post, titled "Cagas" was in fact spelling the word for boxes incorrectly, and inadvertently saying "pooping" when I meant "boxes." Though I could certainly write a whole post on pooping in Puerto Rico, this is not that post. Thank you Diana S for the edit!!!

My apologies for not having been posting as much as I hoped I would be able to in the last few days. About a week ago I was made a Team Lead, which has translated into a bit of a breakdown on my regular routine. Still keeping up with PT, but not writing or taking pictures at drop sites nearly as much. It has been an amazing experience, and one I wish I would have had a bit more time with, but that is another post for another day.

Bad snack box

There have been a few questions about what exactly ARC distributes when we go on these drops. Most of it is exactly what you think it would be (food and water) but the more nuanced answer is: a bunch of stuff, a lot of it random, and I usually have no idea what we have until we crack the trucks open at our site.

During my time in PR I have delivered:

• MREs
• FEMA 18 piece meals

  

  Good snack box

• FEMA 30 piece meals
• FEMA Snacks
• Water in 12, 24, 30, 32, and 40 bottle cases
• 5 gallon Water Storage
• Flashlights (no battery)
• Maxi pads
• Diapers
• Ensure
• Garbage bags

  

  Hygiene kits

• Hygiene kits
• Towels
• Hand sanitizer
• Milk

What is supposed to happen is the a Point of Contact (POC) fills out a form requesting certain items to be delivered to the community. The warehouse received the form, fills the order and loads the truck. Then we take the truck, contact the POC on our way out, and deliver the requested supplies. This is almost never how it happens though, and I don't think I have had a single delivery here where the truck manifest matched the requested items. 

Thanks, but no thanks to canned
water. 

Additionally, depending on the site and the amount of stuff in the truck, these items have to be "prepped." If you arrive in a barrio and there are 100 people in line, and you have 2 boxes that each contain 200 bags, then you have to undo the garbage bags in order to give each person 4 or 8 bags. That math on that is even a little off because if you start with a line of 100 people, there are going to be more by the time you unload the truck and start distributing. Throw in the randomness of what is supplied (I had a load a few days back where they gave us 8 boxes of pads...individual boxes) and that most of the time you have one or two compromised pallets (really and truly, it is awesome that Anheuser-Busch made special canned water for PR, but the pallets are always overloaded, and so the bottom layer breaks, and then people think we are distributing beer.) 

Our snack and meal boxes are also not consistent. We might have a snack box with protein like tuna, and beans, and spam in it one day, and then a snack box of kit-kats and twix the next day. I'm not a high enough pay grade to know how those decisions get made, but I do wish there was a little bit more consistency about it, and it appears to be a disaster management supply chain issue. 

Normally I would leave off there since it is a nice little topic post, but as I haven't updated in a while, this blog will now take a bit of a personal turn. 

Yesterday was my final work day. Today I will out process and tomorrow I get on a flight back to Minneapolis in the morning. This is such a bitter sweet thing; on the one hand I'm not sure I could keep up with the 10-12days on, 1 day off deal that seems to be the regular at the moment. On the other hand I LOVE THIS WORK and I LOVE PUERTO RICO. There is something about the intensity, and camaraderie that exists in spaces like this, that I haven't really experienced since I was in Peace Corps. If I come back from a horrible drop, I know there is going to be someone who will come out for a beer with me and listen to me complain for a couple of minutes before we all start talking about "better a bad day here, than a bad day in the states." The music, the dancing, the people, the joy, the dark humor have all pulled me in and reminded me that the 9-5 back home isn't the only way to exist.  

There have been times during this deployment where I have wondered if I'm a bit too soft for this type of work and this culture. I'm a bit of an empath, which means I am easily impacted by those around me on an emotional level. A goal of mine with this deployment was to focus on being honest with myself about feelings and reactions, and when appropriate sharing that with others. This is in particular a difficult task when the emotions are "negative" and when I'm confronting the person(s) creating them for me. I'm very much wired to please others, it is why I find service such an important aspect of my being, but it has created some incredibly unhealthy habits that I fear if I don't break now, I may never do so down the road. I will not be a doormat, if I'm being treated poorly, I will do something about it, even if it makes me or the other person uncomfortable. My "softness" is also at the root of why I love what I do however, and why I seek it out on the regular. I care for people so much, and so quickly, that it becomes a driving force to this odd little life I live. I wrote a bit about that in my personal journal and may or may not post some more on this topic once I have a little time at home to reflect.  

My body has held up well for this deployment, and I look forward to continuing with the PT and lifting regime that is now daily practice. My lower back has not had an issue once, and it is amazing all the ways a regular core workout can fix a variety of smaller issues (not just a bulging disk on L4-L5.) I got back into a healthy eating routine, pretty much by force, over the past couple of weeks. I had lost a decent amount of weight, really quickly, after a recent breakup but this workload has no time for a 500 calorie a day diet, and it only took me skipping breakfast once to realize that you can not do manual labor for 8-10hrs a day without food.   

All around this deployment, no matter how last minute, was a really good decision for me, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Honestly if Christmas wasn't coming up, I probably would have tried to make arrangements to extend a few more weeks, and as it stands I'm exploring the possibility of re-deploying in late January. In all likelihood this won't happen, since the ARC is reclassifying from relief to recovery in the coming weeks, but I'm going to have a chat with someone about it at headquarters today. 

Hope this post finds everyone well,

Claire/Tlotlo

Abierto

Old San Juan

This post is going to be all over the place, you have been warned :)

Distribution point today

Today was long, but satisfying. We went up into Corozal, which is a community that has not received supplies since FEMA did an air drop a while back. It makes sense that FEMA did an air drop because the community is at the tippy top of a mountain. The challenge today was the weather; and though we got out in a timely manner (around 11am), and we were told it should only take us about 45mins to get there, when you factor in rain on mountain roads, and a broken down truck, I don't think we were actually unloading until around 2pm.

These are pallets of snacks and meals

Distribution point two days ago

A couple days ago we had a ton (10 truck loads) of water pallets come in, which is great because people really need water. When we opened up our two trucks we discovered 8 pallets of 1 liter packs of water, and all of us just sorta groaned. Neither of the trucks had a working lift, nor a pallet jack so everything today was by hand. I would show you a picture of my bruised forearms but I sorta have a rule about no injury pictures until I am safe at home, so I don't freak anyone out. 8 pallets of water (each 2,000 lbs or so), 2 pallets of trail mix, 2 pallets of FEMA meals, 2 pallets of rubbermaid coolers, and 8 large boxes of 100 small milk boxes later and we were done. We were distributing at a church, and though we initially thought we were going to have to do a second drop, people continued to trickle in until all of the supplies were gone. It is really wonderful when this happens, because these items are specifically designated for this community and going to a second place might mean that you are leaving one barrio to find a distribution spot in another.

Mind you, the entire time this was going on it was fluctuating between heavy rain, light rain and no rain, so that was fun. Didn't have issues getting back, other than the bridge being out (easy enough to go around) and I got to have a salad for dinner...which means I'm winning.

San Francisco St., Old San
Juan

I had the day off yesterday which was great. Interviewed with Family
Tree Clinic in St. Paul and thought it went pretty well (send good thoughts!), grabbed some lunch with Camilla and Marty (two new friends), and then wandered around Old San Juan with Camilla for the rest of the afternoon. It was also raining on and off yesterday which meant the plans to go to the beach didn't happen, but strolling around the city was a ton of fun and they re-opened the fort which meant I got to get my history geek on. We grabbed an Uber back to campus just before it really opened up, and then went out with a few folks for some drinks in a swankier area of town. After dinner we did get to walk along the beach, and I realized that, as much as I love what I'm doing down here, being on an island in the middle of the ocean sorta freaks me out. How the hell do you run away on an island?

My daily commute

A lot of folks have been asking me what the conditions are like on the island, and I suspect, give them a bit more of an on the ground perspective than they are getting from the media. It is a hard thing to explain, especially since I'm trying to be conscious of my bias. San Juan seems to be doing alright, but I know there are still large parts of the city without electricity. The communities I have been going to (I would say 2/3 at this point) are without water and electricity, and we are seeing FEMA tarps on a lot of roofs. There are a ton of downed power lines, and the ecosystem is just starting to recover. I'm not really going to post pictures of this at the moment. Disaster pictures can be educational, but much like injury pictures, tend to freak my loved ones at home out. Generally speaking, the mountain areas are in rough condition, the south too since that is where both hurricanes made landfall. The cities are getting more resources and the really remote areas in the interior are not.

Trees that have some new growth after
the hurricanes stripped them bare (I
call them poodle trees.)

Spirits seem to be generally high, and everyone is looking forward to Three Kings, and Christmas down here (though I have been told that Maria has been banned from the Nativity scene until 2018.) We passed a pile of debris today that was decorated with bows and tinsel, and I couldn't help but laugh. We pass a lot of "Abierto" signs on the road, because people want folks to know they are open and doing business, even if it is cash only. The first wave of cruise ships since Maria came to the island yesterday, and they are hoping for more. Old San Juan is having a city wide celebration of tourists and folks around the island by offering discounted food and drinks for the next couple of weeks. As I have been telling people it is hopeful and heartbreaking, exhausting and inspiring, and generally a bit of a roller coaster down here. Don't believe everything in the media, especially since there are so many unknowns still, and if you are able try and get a hold of articles that are written by Puerto Ricans.

Puerto Rico Se Levanta!

Old San Juan (view from Fort)

Claire

Those semi circles are tracks for artillery from WWII

Look out post at the fort!

Cruz Roja

I made it down to Puerto Rico and have survived my first three days of work, while establishing a daily routine that I believe will allow me to mentally and physically get through the next few weeks! Working down here is inspiring, and heartbreaking, and wonderful, and exhausting. I have met a bunch of really cool people, and have found the relief volunteer culture to my liking. I was assigned to the Distribution of Emergency Supplies (DES) team, and have had my room mate as my team leader for the past three days which is awesome. Since, much like Peace Corps, what the job description is and what one actually does from day to day, are incredibly different, I thought it might be helpful for me to give you a break down of what my days have looked like so far.



This is what comes into the
field with me

Morning:
What is supposed to happen: Wake up, and eat dinner between 6am-7am in the second floor break room. Prepare what you need for the day, and then head down to the lobby to catch a ride with other volunteers to wherever you might need to get to. For the DES team this is the Caribbean Produce Warehouse, for many it is headquarters. Arrive at Caribbean at 8am.

What actually happens: This is pretty much my morning, not a ton can go wrong in most of these steps, and as my roommate is my team lead, I always have a ride. Sometime there is extra traffic, but for the most part this has been smooth sailing.

Early Afternoon

These are our trucks!

What is supposed to happen: Check in at Caribbean, and wait for the morning meeting/briefing. Chug down a couple of bottles of water, and hang out for an hour until you team of 3-4 people is assigned, along with a truck full of supplies, a translator, and a location for you to distribute at.

What actually happens: Arrive at Caribbean, check in, do morning meeting/briefing and then sometimes wait for up to 5 hours to have your team and location assigned. In an ideal world your team is 3-4 people, but sometimes teams of 2 go out. In an ideal world you are only in charge of one truck of supplies, but 2/3 of my days it has been two trucks. Sometimes you get a translator, and sometime you have to work with the person with the most amount of Spanish who happens to be in your group.

Mid Afternoon

On the way to our drop site yesterday

What is supposed to happen: Use your directions and follow your trucks to the location in the barrio you have been assigned. Drive safely. Get in touch with your Person of Contact before arriving at your location to confirm the drop and possibly arrange to meet them, or determine if you will need a police escort. Arrive at the location and meet your Person of Contact to determine the best way to distribute supplies.

What actually happens: Firstly, the Person of Contact never seems to pick up the phone. Getting to the locations, especially the remote ones in the mountains means getting lost, and on my first day what was supposed to be a 45min ride, turned into a three hour one with one such misdirection. Driving is also incredibly treacherous at this point, there are downed power lines, washed out roads, mud slides, and debris still. Today our drives had to physically move downed power lines that made it so they didn't have enough clearance. As the majority of these places don't have power, this isn't an issue at this point, but it seems like an electrocution risk waiting to happen. The drop locations are not always able to accommodate the trucks, especially since we have been going out with two lately, which means another location has to be determined. The police escort has come through for my teams two out of my three days, which has been wonderful though.

Later afternoon
What is supposed to happen: enlist a few volunteers and unload your truck in an orderly fashion in a way that people can easily pick up supplies. Supplies for those community volunteers are put aside so we know they get some, and the team lead determines how much of each item goes to each family or individual. With the help of your volunteers and your translator have everyone calmly move through the line and collect their items. Make sure you distribute everything in your truck, and begin to pack up.

Could you carry this on your own? This was a
per person supply

What actually happens: Getting volunteers hasn't been much of an issue, which ahs been awesome, but the orderly part is always a bit of a trick it would seem. Sometimes the supplies in the truck don't match the manifest. Sometimes the supplies in the truck need to be additionally parceled out, like yesterday when we had bags in rolls of 16, but had enough people that we wanted to give each person 8, which meant unrolling the bags and rerolling in 8's. Putting aside supplies for community volunteers always happens, but sometimes folks that aren't volunteering also want supplies, in which case we have to tell them to wait in line, or if they are not community members, that these are not for them. Rarely do we have enough of everything for everybody, but we always have something for the vast majority. The biggest issue I have seen so far is that the average person can not carry two packs of 25 water bottles, a box of MREs, a box of snacks, a roll of bags, two pairs of work gloves and a flashlight, and many don't bring cars or baskets. This means setting things aside in piles until people can figure things out but that causes the line to stop, or large groups of people to congregate, which means its hard to keep things organized.

Another big issue is that now that we have been going out with two trucks, we aren't always able to empty at the first site, and so we have to talk to local leaders about doing a second drop at a second location. Mind you, these trucks are carrying over 10,000lbs of supplies at times, and sometimes we are only a team of three. Repacking the trucks and then starting the whole process over again in a different location is both mentally and physically taxing, but also necessary.

Early Evening


Meal box (but they are all different)

What is supposed to happen: Pack up your trucks, stop for a late lunch/early dinner with your truck drivers on the way home, and then return to campus! Shouldn't be getting back later than 4 or 5pm.

What actually happens: we had a group return at 9pm last night, and many of the times, since you
have to be on a highway before dark, you aren't eating for most of the day. The dorms serve a dinner at 5:30pm, but if you are still making your way back at 6:30pm, there won't be any left. Cliff and Luna bars are my new favorite friend. This especially happens with two drop days, or days when folks get lost, or when the roads are particularly precarious.

Still couldn't imagine being
anywhere else :)

Ultimately the work is exhausting but also incredibly rewarding. Folks have been so kind and grateful and helpful. The ARC volunteers here are all wanting to help no matter how many hours, or miles in a car, or driving along cliffs is takes. It is inspiring to be around such an impassioned, and dedicated group of humans. I have my own routines that help, include journaling in the morning and evening, reading a book in the car when I'm in the field (Artemis) and another at night before bed (Stone Butch Blues), and keeping on top of my lower back PT. I try and get protein whenever available, even if it
is meat, and I have been chugging more water and electrolytes than I know what to do with. Sunscreen and staying out of direct sun generally are a must, showering, even if all I want to do is also a must (for myself and everyone around me.) I'm getting into an incredibly satisfying and healthy rhythm, and I believe it will keep me in tip top shape for the next three weeks. Not to mention I assume I will be coming back looking like tan GI Jane with all the lifting I'm doing in the trucks, and all the crunches I'm doing so my back can do the lifting. :)

I honestly would not choose to be anywhere else at this moment, and that is an amazing feeling.

Will try and write more later, the dorms just switched over to 24/7 electricity so I should have a bit more access!

Hugs and smooches,
Claire/Tlotlo