It’s been 36 days since Irma hit Puerto Rico and 30 days since Maria destroyed this island and even though 95% of the island is still without power…you would never know it from the smiles and love of the Puerto Rican people.  The hotel that we are currently staying at has power, but immediately once you leave the premises and head to the airport to where the helicopter is parked, there are no traffic lights, it’s a free for all out there….but everyone just makes it work….pieces of debris still lay all over, metal tin peeled back from roofs, chain-linked fences laying down alongside the road which completely blocks one side of the road not allowing an entire lane to be used at all….but everyone just makes it work and you look up and you see new growth on the palms…new growth on the trees that had been ripped down to absolutely nothing….flowers once again making a presence and you realize that slowly but surely, little by little…things are starting to come back to life!

Sometimes you can say there are perks to the job…well, most days riding along in the chopper I would have to say it’s a “perk” but this was a definite one today! Unfortunately it was not under the best circumstances as we are here delivering food, water, and supplies…but our drop site happened to be at the Arecibo Observatory which was an amazing site from the air and an even more fascinating site once we landed.  The folks were so grateful to receive the supplies and once we had a chance to unload, we were able to take around 10 minutes or so and check out the Radio Telescope Observatory by a Engineer from the site.  From its construction in the 1960s until 2011, the Observatory was managed by Cornell University.  You may have seen James Bond at this location in the movie GoldenEye!