Monday, July 23, 2018: The sunrise wasn’t the most beautiful, but I took a few photos anyway. I missed getting shots of the blood orange sunrise the week before, but it was still beautiful. (What sunrise isn’t?) The great thing about the location of the Institute is that it’s 50 yards off the Atlantic Ocean. Great for watching the sunrise and sunset. (Not so great for hurricane safety.) The 6:00 am Yoga class and many of the other classes are held in a building called the Beach House. The Beach House is on the ocean and from here you can look to the left to watch the sunset or in early hours, turn your gaze to the right and watch the sunrise. It truly is amazing.

If you recall, Leola explained her confusion about not immediately remembering me by telling me she thought she had been talking to the “other Michelle” and wondering how on earth Michelle knew she loved Fiji apples. Leola insisted that it was remarkable how much we resembled each other, therefore making it an easy mistake confusing me with this beautiful, young colon therapist and yoga instructor.

I wish I had taken a better photo of the “other Michelle”, but I think photo will give you an idea. I mean seriously, she is about 20 years younger than me, 20 pounds lighter, and about 4 inches taller, but yes other than those few obvious differences I would have to say we look like a couple of bookends!

Let’s see, tall, beautiful, young, Michelle and short, older (maybe wiser:), wheatgrass face Michele.

Yup, just a couple of bookends. Good try Miss Leola! (HAHA)

 

Sunday, July 22, 2018: Sunday (Domingo) was reserved for my friend and spiritual brother (mi amigo y hermano espiritual) Manuel Acevedo Santiago. Manuel was one of the Raw Food Chefs at AWNHI for many years. He worked mostly in the student kitchen assisting teachers, grocery shopping and preparing some amazing all vegan raw – living dehydrated foods. (Crackers, pizza crusts, cookies, “hamburgers”, and other amazing treats.) One awesome treat he made was a raw living cake for my 50^th birthday. The first photo below is Manuel and I with the beautiful cake he made me and the second is a group photo of some of our coworkers that came to sing and share some birthday cake. Back row left to right: Petra, Daniel, Lydia, me, ?, Belkis, Rosa, Kaelash. Sitting on the floor left to right: MaryAnn, Manuel, Sandra is waving, Lalita and Michael. The photos were taken on October 27, 2008.

 

 

Manuel also was the chef for the book Lalita and I worked on for months, “Candida Health through Living Foods”.  We were co-workers at AWNHI, however, an event happened that changed our relationship forever. I believe it was in 2008 (all my files on this mission are in Texas). Colin Campbell, the author of “The China Study” called and asked to speak with me. I happen to be downstairs in the reception area and our receptionist, Teresa, put a call on hold and said, “Michele there is a Colin Campbell on line one for you. Do you want me to take a message?” I said, “Teresa, are you sure? The caller said Colin Campbell?” She assured me she heard him correctly. Teresa had no idea who he was, but I was quite familiar with his work. I said, “No, I’ll take the call right now. I’ll use the back office.”

I will cut this part a little short because the Dominican mission is an entire story on its own, but, the result was that AWNHI needed to send someone to the Dominican on a healing mission. All the healers were either busy teaching or on other missions, so Lalita and I discussed it and we decided that if Manuel accompanied me to do the food prep and growing, that between us we could handle it (remember, I was the ED, Not a healer). Manuel and I spent 17 days in the Dominican on this healing mission, and during that time, we created a bond that will never be broken. Here are a few photos of Manuel and I in the Dominican. One of him taking care of the sprouts and wheat-grass he planted and one of Jesus, (a family friend of the man we were helping) me and Manuel.

 

 

We were planning a trip to his home, or I should say the rebuild of his home. Most of the houses, well, all buildings really, are made of cement. It makes them withstand hurricanes and termites much better. Manuel’s house was wooden except for some reason the baño (bathroom) that was made of cement. The entire house was blown away / destroyed by Maria’s fury, except the bathroom was still standing. (go figure!) After many months, Manuel received money from Fema. It was enough to cover about 2/3’s of the rebuild of his one bedroom one-bathroom home. It’s still a work in progress, but it will be adorable when it is completed. Along with the bedroom, and the indestructible bathroom, there is a carport big enough for one car, a patio, a laundry port, a kitchen dining living area.

Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico on September 20, 2015. Maria is considered the worst natural disaster on record to affect Dominican and Puerto Rico. Maria was a high-end Category 4 hurricane when it struck Puerto Rico.

As much as I was looking forward to seeing my friend, I was a little apprehensive. You must remember, Manuel speaks very little English and all these years later, I speak very little Spanish. Understand, I had no idea how we would be able to communicate without Google, but I had to see mi amigo y hermano espiritual.  My worries were needless, as always, we found a way to communicate and had a great time.

 

 

The photo of Manuel is more recent, I borrowed it from one of his FB posts. The other photo was a selfie Manuel took of us inside his casa. I also took this from one of his FB posts.

As did Sandra, Manuel also wanted to say hello to Leola when he dropped me off. Leola lives in one of the Institutes apartment buildings. This specific one has 4 units. A one bedroom and a two bedroom on both the upper and lower levels. For years, Leola lived in the lower one bedroom. She had moved into the 2-bedroom the year before because her daughter Anita was scheduled to join Leola in Puerto Rico for a season. If you have been following this blog, you are aware that dear sweet Anita never made it to Puerto Rico, however Leola was still in the 2-bedroom. It was so funny, hysterical really – Manuel assumed (of course, who wouldn’t) that Leola was still in the lower 1-bedroom. The windows and door were open with just the screen door closed. Manuel headed to the one bedroom yelling loudly, “Leola! Leola, es Michele y Manuel! Leola!” And he proceeded to walk right into the apartment that some student was renting. Oh my gosh, I was laughing so hard I could hardly talk. Somehow, I managed to yell, “Manuel!  Aquí! Aquí! Manuel, Leola es aquí! Finally, he heard me and stepped back out of the apartment. He was jabbering away in Spanish, I’m sure defending or explaining himself how Leola always lived here. OMG! It was so funny, it still makes me laugh. Leola was taking a siesta when we arrived, but that didn’t stop us, we went into her bedroom to visit. When I told her the story of Manuel bursting into a student’s apartment all three of us laughed almost until we cried.

 

 

Miss Leola was extremely happy to see Manuel, and even though we woke her up, we had a great visit. Manuel promised to make a living foods dinner in his new home for Leola, Lalita and I when I return to Puerto Rico. I will try to get back to Puerto Rico next season, but life is just so darn busy, who knows if it will happen? Maybe a quick trip? Who knows….

The next Puerto Rico post will be, A couple of book-ends! Take care and thanks for tagging along on this journey.

Friday, July 20, 2018 Talent Show The talent show always amazed me. Each class would be told about the show early in the week, so they would have time to prepare and to sign up. The institute always had some very talented singers and dancers that would fill in. The Friday night talent show was no exception to amazing talent. Only two people were scheduled to perform, Jordy a friend of Pamela’s (AWNHI’s Administrative Director and a Colon Therapist) and of course Miss Leola. Both sang, and both are extremely talented. Again, I did not take a single photo. I guess I was just too darn busy enjoying the show.   In the end, 4 more people performed, Joy, Robin, and Pearl all sang and each was beautifully talented and unique in their performance. The 4^th walk on performer was a gentleman from Greece. He and his wife were there and both spoke conversational English. He performed and told several jokes and to be honest we all laughed and laughed at his jokes. We could not understand half of what he was saying, but that made it even funnier! He was having a great time and laughing himself at his jokes which made us all laugh even more. I don’t remember the last time I laughed so darn hard.

Speaking of hidden talent, my friend Sandra worked at the Institute while I was there. Sandra is an extremely talented woman. Born and raised in Puerto Rico however, she spent most of her adult life in New York in the entertainment business. Sandra was in several movies, performed as a singer, dancer and later owned and ran a theater company where she produced and directed several plays. At some point Sandra was drawn back to her homeland and ended up working at the Institute. She still did some modeling and acting gigs in Puerto Rico, (mostly San Juan) and wrote and directed several plays around the island. I would go see her perform whenever I could and even when to a few of the plays she wrote and directed. All would be in Spanish, but Sandra would write a scene by scene synopsis of the plays for her gringo friends.

Here are a few photos of Sandra from about 2009 during a performance and the other at work with Alec or bookkeeper at the time.

The weekend finally came! I had plans on Saturday to spend the day with Sandra. I was very pumped about seeing her and although we hadn’t seen each other since 2009, we had stayed in touch over the years by phone, email, and more recently, Facebook. I was very choked up when I first saw my old friend and I must say, it was hard to pull myself together.

We drove all over my old neighborhood (Rincon) and stopped at a few of the beaches including Steps Beach (Playa Escalar).  I used to walk my neighbor’s dog and we swam here in the morning before I had to go to work. This is where I would see most of the Helicopters looking for drug deals going on and “aliens”. Sometimes I would see yolas abandoned on the beach here with clothes and empty water bottles scattered around. I would always wonder if they made it or were detained before they could make it to the “safe-house”. I know I used this photo before, but I love Steps Beach. I spent many hours walking, snorkeling and swimming at this beach. There used to be an octopus that lived in the old pilings here. I’m not sure if he is still alive, but he used to be quite friendly.

You know we talked for hours. We sat on the patio overlooking the ocean and talked. We just picked up where we left off like it had been a few months instead of several years that we had last seen each other.  The photo below is of  mango’s I picked up from the ground at the resort Sandra now works at. The mangoes were left abandoned when they fell from the trees. The passion fruit were given to me by the owner of Sana (a local vegetarian restaurant). I always have and always will love the fresh fruit in Puerto Rico!

Sandra had not known about Annetta’s passing so, of course, when she dropped me off she had to stop in to visit Miss Leola and offer her condolences. Leola always a gracious hostess, was almost as happy to see Sandra as Sandra was to see her.

 

I cannot even explain how wonderful it was to see my friend. I swear, I will do everything in my power to make sure we find a way to see each other again before another 9-years slip by. Until next time Sandra, I love you and am sending hugs and positive vibes your way.

Next post will be After the Hurricane with Manuel. Until next time, take care and buy some type of exotic fruit!

Thursday, July 19, 2018

I started noticing more helicopters than I recall as normal. They were obviously scanning the coastline, looking for something. There were always helicopters, looking for drug drops, however, mostly they were looking for Dominicans.

 

I know it went on while I lived in Puerto Rico, but I just didn’t remember so much of it. Maybe the “traffic” has increased or maybe it’s because I wasn’t working this trip so had more time to notice it. I’m not sure which, although I do recall waving to the helicopters during my morning walk and swim (I’m guessing they didn’t like that very much). I don’t know much about the drug trade, however I do know more about the Dominican “aliens” trying to get into the United States in hopes of a better life.

Since the beginning of the New Year Border Patrol Agents have apprehended 49 “aliens” that have illegally entered the United States via the Mona Passage. They were all taken to Ramey Border Patrol Station for processing.

Some fishing charter boats would take the Dominican Refugees as far as Mona Island, dress them in swimsuits and snorkel gear and drop them on the beach. The second crew would pick them up on Mona Island and sail or motor them back to Puerto Rico delivering them as tourists. I think those may have been the lucky ones that had family or friends in the US and money to make the journey.

More commonly, these “Illegals” are transported in rustic homemade and extremely unsafe wooden vessels called “yolas”.  These yolas were underpowered usually with a single outboard motor and so overloaded with passengers and no life vests. It was not uncommon to come across one of these wooden vessels on my morning beach walk. Clothing and empty water bottles would be scattered around the boat. The clothing they wore on the journey was always discarded on the beach and whoever picked them up would bring fresh clothing, I guess so they had nothing to identify them as Dominican. The engine was always gone – repurposed as part of the payment for the “rescue” effort.

Somewhere in my photos I must still have pictures of a discarded boat with clothing and empty bottles scattered around, but I cannot seem to find one right now., so am borrowing one from the internet of a discarded yola.  The second photo of my sister Linda is a boat discarded new AWNHI. I’m not positive it was a transport vessel, but it is very likely it was. Last is a loaded yola making the crossing. Luckily they had 2 engines…..

 

I do not know how you feel about it, but, these people (most who do not even know how to swim) must be so brave and so desperate to make that crossing that I sometimes think maybe we need to reconsider “aliens”.

I want to end this post with a sunset. It’s not Florida and it is definitely not the best of the sunsets I witnessed in Puerto Rico, but, I was too busy vegging out, reading, or getting massages to remember to take a phone with me!

 

Next post I’ll tell you about some undiscovered Hidden Talent.

Tuesday, July 17, 2018 – Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Finally, I’m back at this Puerto Rico story. It’s taken me way too long to get back to it, but here goes. Tuesday and Wednesday were more days of reunion. It was so wonderful and yes emotional to run into people that were not expecting me and that I haven’t seen in 9 years. I think Edwin, the maintenance guy was the most fun, his double take when he saw me. First the look of shock, then of disbelief finally just pure happiness. Edwin speaks conversational English, I speak some Spanish, so we could communicate easily. Edwin and his wife Lydia both worked at AWNHI when I was there. Edwin was and remains the head maintenance guy and Lydia worked in Housekeeping. She’s moved on (disability I believe, Lydia was a work horse and paid the price with her back,) but, Edwin remains a full-time employee. The Institute is very lucky to still have Edwin and I believe they would be lost without him. He was always so conscientious and extremely reliable and trustworthy. Other workers told me that Edwin was at the institute within the first few days after the hurricane sorting through and cleaning up the mess left behind by Maria. Most of the time I did not have a phone with me while I was in Puerto Rico so yes, most of the pictures were taken on the one day I decided to take it with me for just that purpose.

The next two photos are of Migdalia and her husband Omar. Omar worked in the greenhouse and in the kitchen however has sense moved on. Migdalia used to be in housekeeping, then went to school (in Puerto Rico) to become a massage therapist. She is an outstanding therapist, however, not for the “weak of flesh”! Migdalia did an amazing job when she got out of school 10 years ago and she still does an amazing job today. I cannot even tell you how much of a treat it was getting a massage from her again. A few years ago, the Institute was in need of an additional colon therapist, so Migdalia being Migdalia, went to Colonic school in Florida and now splits her time giving massages and colonics. (She’s great at both.) The picture of me and Migdalia is not very flattering of her. She really is quite cute, but this photo does not do her justice, but it’s the only one I have of her. Omar’s photo looks good. (Yes I look terrible on both pictures, but this is what I have to work with!

Next post we’ll talk about Sunsets and Yolas!