A Pinch of Salt [SSL 278]
Sorting out the hungers and cleaning out the wounds
Hello!
I’m here in Puerto Rico to help with emergency preparedness and projects that help the many needy people and situations that are taken on by the organization I volunteer for called Mi Patria.
Here is the epsiode. (To hear it at the offical website go here: https://lisadelay.com/blog/a-pinch-of-salt-ssl-287/
Fortunately, hurricane season hasn’t done much of anything this year so far in Puerto Rico. We have a strong jet stream to thank because at least three massive hurricanes were set to hit PR directly, but were push north instead. PHEW! 😮💨
That said, mini black outs, brown outs, and power outages occur for us by “surprise” worse than neighboring, but much poorer countries like Dominican Republic, Barbados, and Jamaica experience. This, even through the U.S. government promised improvement when they took the public power utility by force and privatized it. They handed it off to an incompetent Canadian-American company (LUMA) who has made the situation much worse and more than three times more expensive. The people here have zero power to change the dire situation. It’s heartbreaking and frustrating to say the least.
Last year at this exact time I was in PR and we were regrouping and cleaning up from Hurricane Fiona which was a minor hurricane but one had a major impact. Flooding ruined 80% of the island’s agricultural corps and knocked out power FOR THE ENTIRE ISLAND 100%😮
The outage lasted days in some areas and many weeks in other areas. Residents continue to find ways to muster resources and ingenuity to protect themselves knowing that no one who should be coming to help is coming to help. In so many cases it is a life or death issue.
THIS September 2023—
My work with Mi Patria has been about helping Dońa Elidia live in humane living conditions. The municipality asked us to replace her windows and doors but the problems were much bigger.
We removed everything from her home in 108º tropical heat. Phew! (Plenty of water breaks and a hearty lunch were all part of it.) Then we the hose-washed cleaned and swept out her home. She also had a large number of felines.
To see the latest video update follow this link instagram.com/p/CxnS1BLrgwM
This mini photo gallery shows some bugs during clean up, to the right is Ray a co-founder, then Jonathan on the computer, Dean a manager of digital content getting swarmed by two dogs at the volunteer apartment. Ha! Then a wonderful friend and fellow-volunteer Joyce (a marine combat vet) and me getting a much-needed rest day at El Combate playa in Cabo Rojo.
And finally Doña Elidia who is 91: the vigorous woman who we’ve been helping. She sharp as ever but has it rough with insect infestation and poverty. She is very feisty! She’s had to be. She is a breast cancer survivor and on the verge of being removed from her home.
To learn about the amazing org I volunteer for please go mipatria.org
The rest of what I want to say is meant for the “inner friend and fam circle” of biggest supporters who really stand behind me, put in their own funds to help me, and really look forward to these updates the most.
No worries, if that’s not you or you don’t have the funds to help yet. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for being here. For now you can share my work as you like and walk along side me.
Thank you for reading. I love you all.
❤️ Lisa
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