PR Day 3: Volunteer Time 5/30/23

AHHH first day!! I’ve never experienced this kind of excitement. It was finally time, finally time to do what I came here for, and what I’d been planning for months. It feels so surreal that it’s actually here now. Belle and I got ready to be there by 10 am. Which by the way is great because we get our morning to do our own thing. I decided to go on my first run and oh my goodness, it is so hot!!! I have never been that slow in my life. But really I kind of self sabotaged by not drinking enough water beforehand. However although the heat was draining it was definitely one of the most beautiful runs I’d been on, I plan to do it most everyday. Anyways, the organization we are working at is called CRES. It’s a community based organization that works to restore native plants and resources as well as educate the surrounding neighborhoods. This organization started in 2014 and has now grown so much over the years connecting with volunteers from all over the country. I’m grateful to say that a woman runs the program. Her name is Yvette. She started this organization with her neighbors and friends, her mom even occasionally helps out too! She went to college here at the university in Puerto Rico and graduated with an anthropology and history degree. Currently she’s getting her masters in environmental studies, all while having 2 kids. She has already taught me so much and I’m looking forward to learning more. Today we got a full tour of the garden and learned what the program is all about as well as planted somethings around the garden. Today we also learned we’d get to harvest fresh honey at some point which I’ve always wanted to do so I’m super excited for that day. After volunteering Belle and I just spent the rest of our day at the beach. We decided to go out for dinner and try this place that we kept walking past on the way to our hostel called Acapulco. Incredible is all I can say, I got chicken street tacos and we shared an order of churros at the end, which I might add they were served with ice cream. If you know me you know I love ice cream and definitely churros. Perfect way to end our day. I can’t wait for tomorrow to see what we do!