Another fantastic day in Puerto Rico! Today the two groups switched places and the group that painted the walls in the school now worked to help improve the Centro Zen Meditation Center. The group painted a roof, fence, planted pineapples and made a bench. While working today the group had some complications with bugs. While trying to paint the roof there were big spiders and had to come up with creative ways to get the spots that were blocked by the huge spiders. After finishing up our work we took showers and went off to visit the JCC of Puerto Rico. There we learned more about the Jewish history in this US territory. We were able to relate to the Judaism that they have here even though society is different from where we lived. Before heading back to Cento Zen, we stopped at a Walmart and had a fun experience.
It was another adventurous day today, starting off with an opportunity to interact with kids. Volunteers who worked at the Zen Center yesterday were given the opportunity to paint at the school where the other group had worked at. Today, the school was filled with students who were eager to learn after having a day off. They were invited to paint alongside us, filling in the drawings of the muralist, Javi. With a positive attitude, Javi encouraged the students to either paint within his drawings or create flowers as a background for the mural. The art stood out against the vibrant colors of the walls that had previously been painted, adding excitement to the room. People were also able to paint the walls of another room in the school, in addition to doing construction. Upon viewing the murals, kids were amazed at the work of their fellow classmates and volunteers. The work done at the school left us with an overall sense of accomplishment, happy that we were able to help people.
Gesher Goes to Puerto Rico 