San Juan, PR – March 16-22, 2025

The end is in sight…only two weeks to go.  We are down to our last two projects and each requires a major restoration to the roof.

Mr. Raul’s house was a concrete structure with a beautiful country view.  Unfortunately, it had lost its entire roof.  Mr. Raul had done some wall restoration on his own, but it would have been unable to withstand a serious storm.  Last week’s team did a major concrete and rebar retrofit to all the walls so that it could stand the weight of a proper roof as well as future storms.

This week team busied themselves with building, lifting and setting trusses, cutting and setting blocking, and subsequently adding plywood sheets to cover the roof surface.  They finished the week out by installing the metal roofing.

Also, toward the end of the week, a portion of the team started work on Mr. Rafael’s house.  This home had suffered damage from a tree that had fallen on the roof.  The team began by removing the part of the tree that was close to the roof and subsequently assessing and starting remediation of the trusses underneath.  The roof will be finished next week.

As has often been the case, some of the volunteers arrived  early or departed later than their volunteer time allotment in order to enjoy the great beauty of the island, the awesome beaches and some of the historical sites.  My wife and I were fascinated with the “El Morro” fort and some other historical buildings in Old San Juan.  We found that the public bus system was a very convenient and inexpensive way to travel to Old San Juan from our accommodations as long as to have lots of time.  This strategy was especially convenient as parking is very limited in Ols San Juan.