Puerto Rico Adventure - Part 5

 Puerto Rico Adventure Part 5:

Hurricane Fiona Relief

Both Lyndon and I are teaching English as a foreign language online for part time income.  One of the things we enjoy is teaching non-native speakers about multi meaning words, like relief.  It's often confusing, but also fun when they are ready to learn more advanced vocabulary.

We live in a 3rd floor apartment in the north of Puerto Rico, in a town called Vega Baja.  As you can see from the photos, our complex received some significant rain and wind damage, but we are ok!  What a relief  to have made it through our first hurricane.  We now know what areas of our own apartment need to be fixed as we had some water leakage-but nothing significant.

The feels like temperature today is 102!  We are hoping to get some relief from the heat and humidity.  We have been without electricity since Sunday and without water since Monday.  We go to bed early, because it is very dark by 7pm. No meaningful word on when utilities will be restored.

I (Julie) had a scheduled trip to Chicagoland to visit my mom, so I now have the luxury of a shower and air conditioning. Lyndon and Charlie, the cat, are still in Vega Baja.  Questions we are often asked:  Do you have a generator or inverter for power?  No, we don't.  We do have access to our complex's fitness center with air conditioning and electricity to enjoy for about an hour a day.  And today they will be distributing 5 gallons of drinking water, and 5 gallons flushable water for each apartment. 

Enough about us.

Maybe some of you remember that after Hurricane Maria, I coordinated a work trip to Puerto Rico and several friends from Wichita went on that to help repair a home that was in disrepair after the hurricane.  We met that family through our sister church, Primera Iglesia Bautista de Orocovis.

In fact, when we first moved to Puerto Rico, we lived in Orocovis, in the mountains.  They have been hit VERY HARD by the flooding.  Bridges, roads and homes were completely destroyed.  I heard from pastor Ruben today that one church member reported that her daughter lost everything.  They are in great need of relief.  

Every month Primera Iglesia Bautista de Orocovis volunteers in the community with various activities.  We helped give out free school supplies to families on Saturday in August. They will continue to support both church members as well as their community in upcoming days. We are coordinating with the pastor  of the church to provide aid to Orocovis and to the south of Puerto Rico as well.  

  

If you want to see and listen to more on that specific area see https://www.facebook.com/Noticiasdeorocovis on FB.

If you are interested in providing aid to people with feet on the ground, that I know personally are trustworthy, you can

1. email Wal-Mart gift cards to bautistaorocovis@gmail.com. (not Target---no Targets in PR)

2.  You could send a check or money order to Postal Address:

Primera Iglesia Bautista de Orocovis
PO Box 181
Orocovis, PR 00720

3.  If you think I'm trustworthy you could Venmo me at  Julie-Perry-58 or PayPal julieperry1376. I will make sure that the funds get to Orocovis and beyond!

Of course your thoughts and prayers will be much appreciated too!

Yes, it's a relief  to have made it through our first hurricane, but much more is and will be needed for many friends and strangers on the island.  We welcome your questions and comments.

*Please note if this blog doesn't look as nice or flow as well as it usually does, that's because my editor, Lyndon, doesn't have much internet access, so I winged-it on my own :)