San Juan, PR – Jan. 19-25, 2025

One volunteer from Iowa stayed with us from last week; we gained 6 young men from Pennsylvania and another man from Ohio. Three people from for our partner Techos Pa Mi Gente (TPMG, Roofs for My People) helped us each day with the construction work and with the language interpretation needed for us to understand the clients. 

We began work for Client 3.  This work again was a bit of an exception for our partner TPMG. We rebuilt walls and replaced windows as well as replacing the roof.  TPMG had originally planned to replace the roof on only one part of the house, but Crew Leader Jeff suggested a plan for the replacement of the entire house (a simple 3-room house) in a way that would not cost much more than replacing the roof on only a part, and TPMG agreed. 

The local people want to help by providing lunch, so TPMG not only interprets but arranged for wonderful lunches throughout the week. 

By the end of the week the work was complete!   Walls, windows, rafters, roofs were up! Our volunteers were again awesome!!  

We noticed what a simple life the owner lived.  He had no running water, no electricity, only a hole in the ground for a bathroom, a kerosene two-burner cookstove and a refrigerator that was ruined with rust due to the lack of a roof.  We noticed only a few cans of vegetables, so we collected some money and purchased a sack of canned items to present to him as a house-warming gift. His smile in the picture needed not interpretation! 

Next week we move down the block a bit to a larger house for roof repairs.