San Juan, PR – Jan. 26-Feb. 1, 2025

The Project Leadership transitioned last weekend. We bid farewell to Larry and Karen, Jeff and Becky and Dorothy. Rex took over as Project Director and I replaced Karen as Office Manager. We also welcomed Pauline as Cook and Nevin as Crew Leader. 

We were joined Sunday afternoon by a group of 10 from Parkview Mennonite Church in central PA… 7 young men (and 3 less young). Most were skilled carpenters and roofers. We completed the scheduled work Thursday afternoon. They found time to hit the beach at Arecibo a few times and enjoyed very loud games of Rook in the evenings. 

Monday, we completed Pablo’s roof and he signed-off his job-card. He is not known to show emotion, but Rex described him as being ecstatic and very grateful. 

This week the crew worked mostly on Judy’s roof. Judy’s sister signed-on to Judy’s job-card as she is in the hospital awaiting biopsy results. The 3 jobs we worked on in Arecibo, Pablo, Judy and Andre still need flashing which has not arrived yet. We anticipate 1 or 2 more days in Arecibo to complete. Rex spent some time in San Juan, with Daniell (Danny) and Nohemi (Michie) lining-up some jobs for next week. 

On Wednesday evening, Pastor Hector Lugo invited us to a wonderful meal of arroz con pollo with salada at his church Iglesia Cristiana Menonita near Paloma, in dairy country, SW of Arecibo. 

This is our last week in Arecibo at the Campamento Methodista Cumbres del Calvario. We thoroughly enjoyed our time here and will miss the insect and frog “white noise” at night… and our rooster “wake-up call” in the mornings. 

Thank you to Juan, our camp caretaker, and his wife Eileen, for taking such good care of our facility needs and dropping off treats. Also, a huge gracias to Jessie for doing laundry and deep cleaning the bunk rooms on the weekend.  

Hasta la proxima 

Denis Sabourin