Week 6 in PR

This week has been an interesting one as we’ve all been trying to recover from Hurricane Fiona that came though last Sunday. We’ve been without power or water all week and it has been an adjustment to live life without both of those. But we’ve been fine. Our generator has been great and gives us enough power to run our fans, refrigerators and a couple of lights for a few hours a day. We’re in a good rhythm and have enough extension cords running to different parts of the house that we can function with almost everything we need to live. Our extension cord system is impressive to say the least. It’s a labyrinth of cords mixed with power strips and surge protectors but it’s working just fine for us! 

The water on the other hand has been a little more difficult to live without. Our cistern has been supplying us with water to our toilets and a tiny stream of water out of the faucets. Not enough to wash dishes or wash clothes but we at least get enough filling up the toilets that we can flush and let it refill for the next 15-20 minutes to be able to use again. That has been a blessing for sure. We’ve had to relocate our dishwashing station to the spot with the most water pressure and that happens to be the outdoor shower down at the corner of the house. That has been the spot for showers, dishwashing and rinsing out of anything that we need running water for. It’s has worked good enough and we just feel lucky to have any water at all. The adjustment to very little water in the house has been more difficult than adjusting to no power. But we’ve managed and it has worked out ok so far. I got up on the roof Friday to check the level of our cistern. We were right about halfway full and I started calculating how many more days we’d have water if the city water doesn’t return. I figured we’d have about 6 more days left in the cistern and that’s if we could really conserve. So the kids and I decided we could do limit our showers and use minimal water during dishwashing to help out. That night Rhen and I even showered in the downspout after a rainstorm and figured we were doing our part to conserve our water that way :) The kids have been amazing during it all and we’ve found lots of different ways to keep ourselves busy. The elementary kids started back to school Thursday and Rease and Rhen go to the church everyday to work on their online classes. It has been a good setup down there for them with internet, power and water which is what we don’t have at home. And we’ve been so grateful that we have that place for them to go to work on school. The middle school and high schools have been out all week so I’ve had Liev home with me during the day while the others are at school or at the church. He’s been helpful doing all sorts of things with me and we spend some time at the church with the girls too during the hottest part of the day while our generator is off. It’s been a week of lots of learning and trying to just get through the day with no air or ac. A couple of highlights from this week with no power:

We met Elder Linford at the church while we were there doing school with the girls. He just got to the island Wednesday and was assigned to the Luquillo Branch just down in the next town from us. He was at our church for district meeting with the other elders and we happened to be there at the same time!

Rhen has perfected the Pina colada and we’ve had multiple nights of delicious dessert. 

Josh and I celebrated our 18th anniversary - although celebrated may not be the right word since he was in utah and I was here. But we acknowledged the date anyway!

Our outdoor shower continues to be the place that we wash everything: dishes, clothes, bodies etc. 

And the best thing I saw this week? This little doodle that Desh had written on our white board. I’ll let you figure out what it says. It’s absolutely true. 

I also had the task of changing the oil on the generator. Since it’s new it was recommended that the first oil change be after 25 hours of usage. So of course that happened to fall this week so I got to work with two of my favorite side kicks. We had to get a part or two before we could actually get it done. But when it came down to it, it was actually a piece of cake. Desh and Beck filled the oil back up and it was good as new. 

We’ve also had water trucks and Luma trucks all over our mountain this week and I hope that means that our power and water will be back soon. I know everyone is working hard so I’m trying to be patient. But at least it’s a good sign to see trucks around getting some things done. 

While Josh was in utah he stopped in and grabbed a blanket from my friend suz who had made it for me for our move. She’s so sweet and Josh grabbed this pic of my basketball ladies while he was there. Miss them all like crazy! 

Saturday turned out to be a great day! Mid morning we got our city water back! It was a celebration at our house as we realized the water was coming full speed out of the faucet when we turned it on! We cheered and celebrated and then all took showers in honor of our renewed water. Kim invited us over to swim and we took her up in the kind offer to get out of the house. After swimming we took a little drive down to Fajardo and made it to Seven Seas Beach. Beautiful little beach outside of town with a gorgeous view and we ordered some drinks and hung out just taking it in before we headed back home. 

Homemade pizza night on Saturday and sadly we couldn’t watch our movie but we played games like champs instead. Beck and Desh were in charge of dish duty Saturday night and it was obvious by the suds leftover that there was just a little extra soap used during the washing. 

Today we had stake conference and it was so great to gather with such a large group of saints. I loved being there and hearing the messages from our stake presidency and being able to worship together. And this afternoon the boys wrote letters and made a box for their favorite YouTuber Mr A Game. They’re convinced that he will open their letters and packages to him on air, so we got a package all together for him. They’re the best!

 Tonight as we wait for Josh to get home we’re all grateful for the week we’ve had and the things we’ve learned. I’ve had so many moments that have brought me to tears as neighbors and strangers have offered helping hands to those of us that are around. I drove down the hill one afternoon and was stopped by a group of people handing out bags of food and cases of water to everyone that drove past. I was so touched by their generosity and know I didn’t express it well enough in my very broken Spanish. Another day our neighbor two doors down knocked at the gate and said she had saved some bags of ice for us. Her son brought up 5 large bags of ice for us to have in our freezer and I know she was giving more bags away to the rest of the street. Just kindness. And another morning I snuck away to the gym with Rease and we both took our bags to be able to shower and change our clothes while we were there (it had been a while since we’d each had a good shower to wash hair and everything). The woman who works at the front desk stopped us on our way out and told me that Planet Fitness is opening their doors to all family members to be able to come shower and take advantage of the facilities while so many of us are without water still. I just couldn’t help it and broke into tears as she was welcoming me and all my kids into the gym for something that is seemingly so basic as a shower, but something that we haven’t had enough of this week. My heart was touched and I realized how kind hearted and welcoming the Puerto Rican people are and have been to us since we arrived. We’re a community that is working together to get through this difficult situation and they’re all doing it with a smile and kind word. I hope that I can be the same way someday when I see another in need. For today, I’m grateful for all those around me that have loved and served us. 

Just a few moments from the week that I know I’ll never forget. For all of my life I want to remember what we’ve been through this week and what has built our character. Here are just a few:

- Cover Your Assets by lamplight until we can’t play anymore!

- Dish washing in the down spout 

- Reading books because we have no tv

- Pina coladas (perfected by Rhen)

- Hardy Boys every night before bed

- Conserving water in all sorts of way - boys peeing off the deck instead of using the toilets, showering outside or in the rain, filling up gallons of  “poison” water to use for hand washing, washing a few towels and essential clothes by hand (not enough water pressure for washing machine), and just the thought in all of our minds that we are short on water. It makes you think and act differently when you know it’s not endless.

- Early dinners so we can cook in the daylight

-  Liev learned how to light the gas stove with a match so he can still cook his eggs

- Girls working hard at the church on their online school classes

- Beck helped me start the generator everyday. Knows all he steps it takes to get it started

- I learned how to exchange empty propane tanks for full ones all in Spanish. And then exchanged them daily as we went through a tank a day with our generator. 

- Plunging toilets until we couldn’t plunge anymore to get it all just to flush down the drain! 

- The midnight shower in the downspout with Rhen (because we knew it had just rained and it would help us save the water)

- Learning to cook everything on the gas grill

- Teaching my boys (and learning myself as I went) how to check the oil in the generator and then change the oil when needed

- No school most of the week so we learned to be creative with our time. Make believing, writing letters, playing Pokémon, sleeping, playing games together. 

- Being grateful for all the “little wins”. There were many. 

- The simpleness