I visited Puerto Rico for two environmental conferences

Thank you Arturo Garcia-Costas and Dr. Austin Shelton for the incredible experience.

2020 Environmental Grantmakers Association Winter Briefing/ Second Climate Strong Islands Dialogue

February 23, 2020 Sunday, Guam time

My jet lag started at 3:00 am when I woke 2 hours before my usual time. Then I traveled 24 hours across the globe from home to Puerto Rico. Along my path, I slept, ate, talked, watched and worried. I was worried that I had a speech to give the morning after I arrived.

February 23, 2020, Sunday, Puerto Rico time

I arrived at 4:00pm- give or take. All my flights arrived earlier then advertised. I wonder if it will be the same going home. When I left the airport, I rode an Uber to Caribe Hilton. Fancy hotel. I checked into my first four star hotel- my first checking into of any hotel. I didn’t know that you had to give your credit card for ‘incidentals,’ and incidentally, i didn’t know what incidentals were.

Being a newbie to hotel-ing, I struggled to use the elevator. It took me a few tries and a second elevator to realize that I had to swipe to activate.

After 24+ hours of traveling, feet tend to give off interesting scents. So, I washed them as any sane person should. Then, I changed my socks and rode an Uber to old San Juan. The weather was breezy and cloudy, and for the most part, was enjoyable. I touched the walls of the fort and caught a few pictures. Afterwards, I walked through the streets and visited a few stores. I’m not a memento type of person, and so I didn’t buy anything. As the sun set, Dr. Shelton looked for a restaurant to eat at. His first choice was fully booked, but we ended up at a “best mofongo” restaurant and split the bill. I enjoyed their mofongo.

February 24, 2020, Monday PR

I woke up, did my daily exercise and ended up late to the pre-breakfast meeting with the panelists. Feeling unprepared and rushed, I knew that this was going to be a disastrous plenary. And it kinda was. I read from my phone because I hadn’t adequately prepared to speak without it. But, despite my ugly performance, I met a lot of nice people.

When I went back to my room, I met Hatuey from Vieques.

February 25, 2020 Tuesday PR

I woke up earlier, did my exercise and arrived on time for the second meeting. I was able to enjoy my breakfast. Overnight Quinoa is the best. I had three servings of it. The 2020 Winter Briefing Conference highlighted lots of problems that Puerto Rico faces even years after Hurricane Maria passed. One word I heard a lot was “resiliency” and its variations. I cannot express how much I hate hearing the word resilient. I’ve heard it too many more times than anyone should be allowed to speak of it in a lifetime.

I’ve always understood that Puerto Rico and Guam were cousins, grounded on shared colonial history, diaspora, and struggling economies. But, If I had to pick which of the two have it worse, Puerto Rico would be my pick. Because of climate disasters, fleeing populations and austerity measures, Puerto Rico’s been tangled into an unbreakable bond (like Guam).

Listening to powerful stories and connecting them to Guam’s struggles made me realize that a lot of our problems are designed to keep the people poor and trapped.

The ideas and programs presented seemed impossible with the current system we have today. But it wasn’t impossible. It was working, and if given the needed resources, I’m pretty confident that many of these programs and ideas could be upscaled and is the needed change to transform Puerto Rico from dependent to self-sustaining.

If only they had the money, philanthropy. or government funding?

The second part of my day started when Hatuey and I were tasked to greet and handle the name cards for the Island Strong meeting. I participated in the closing dialogue and shared that youth feel ‘hopeless’ in the fight of climate change. Because who wouldn’t feel hopeless if you follow the rules, meet with lawmakers, attend and participate in public hearings, write petitions and still receive a unanimous decision to build a new fossil fuel power plant?

I met Ana from Hawaii after that meeting.

February 26, 2020 Wednesday PR

I woke up early to finish and submit my plant science assignment. I sent it 2 hours before the deadline. and by the time I hit send, it was sunrise.

I carpooled with the rest of the island representatives who stayed at the hotel. It was about a 5 minute drive.

Day two of the Island Strong meeting centered around the signing of the declaration. There was a press conference, pictures and a long period of us standing, not knowing if we were still in pose or not. Then we weren’t, and we had lunch.

I forgot to mention that I was tasked as the IT specialist for the day. I did not pretend to know what I was doing, and it showed.

If I could share my favorite presenter from today, it would be Sommer from the Virgin Islands. She was compelling, honest and charismatic. The program of farm-to-table is being experimented on Guam, and last year, for a whole month, one school’s lettuce was supplied.

A central theme of both the Island Strong dialogue and the 2020 EGA Winter Briefing, was this idea to readopt culturally and placed based practices. It’s not a new idea, and before World War 2, islands had already practiced island sustainability.

If before my presentation, I was known as the “hopeless” kid, after my presentation, I would be known as the “hopeless and mental health” kid.

I could have prepared a presentation like I had for my first plenary on Monday, but I wanted something more raw and organic. I continued off the idea that youth should be part of the dialogue and that we should be able to make mistakes now, so that we would (hopefully) have the skills to lead by the time we are adults.

At the end of the discussion, I talked more about mental health, and I wanted the room to know that it is ok to express our feelings and by being sad, angry and upset, we are being human. I needed the men in the room to hear this so that we can ditch the toxic patriarchal mentality and move towards true human love.

I know that we are ways away from being perfect and there are lots of problems, but I am hopeful that together, we will achieve something way better.

updated March 1, 2020, 8:13PM.