Posted in Philippines on November 7, 2016
Wednesday, Nov. 16
The projects are coming along really well. The little house is nearing completion and the family is showing great excitement and dreaming of spending their first night in their new abode.
Also, on Tuesday, we fed more than 150 children.
The children’s feeding was held under a huge mango tree in a green field near where we are building the little house for Nida and her family. More than 100 families with many children of six or more of very, very poor children live in the area. The food was cooked in what looked like a witch’s brew pot from the story books and was appreciated by the children and our volunteers of DWC.
Bonnie Flanagan,
Volunteer to Cebu, Philippines November 2016
Friday, Nov. 11
After lunch, we travelled by a big ferry to Bohol Island, a small tropical island two hours away. Then we went another 45 minutes to our accommodation right on the ocean. We stayed for two nights and the first day we did some touring to the Chocolate Hills, visiting the tiny monkeys with the big eyes and ziplining lying down. The island is so lush ind tropical. Our accommodations were excellent. We enjoyed the adventure and the time off from the job.
Bonnie Flanagan,
Volunteer to Cebu, Philippines November 2016
Thursday, Nov. 10
The project at the family community centre is about three-quarters done; we’re painting white walls with blue trim.
At the home construction site, the plumbing part is coming together nicely with a shower and pipe going to the second floor as well. The four daughters, mom and the auntie will be very happy to see the additional electrical outlets. The roof is almost completed. After work today, we went to a swimming pool and enjoyed cooling off and frolicking in the water. From there, we took some time driving up a steep and scenic road to a huge restaurant with a kitchen catering to about 500 customers. Abby, the lady who drove us up, is French and very entertaining thus the drive took no time at all. Food, service and ambiance was outstanding. The view from the mountain top in the dark with city lights made for a perfect picture.
Tomorrow will start early as we are off for the weekend to Bohol Island after lunch.
Bonnie Flanagan,
Volunteer to Cebu, Philippines November 2016
Wednesday, Nov. 9
Today we went straight to the community centre where we planned how to proceed with building the house for Nida and her family.
Gabe drew on the blackboard the priorities and order we would proceed in with the plans that were prepared before we arrived. By doing this, we would not have to go back and redo things that we could’ve avoided.
We needed to do some plumbing and hardware shopping so half of us went to get the purchases. This turned out to be a long, long process as the traffic was just horrendous. It took an extra hour to get to the plumbing hardware store in a huge mall right across town. This put a big delay on our progress at the site.
The painting was very successful today at the centre and most if not all the walls have been repainted in white. Our lunch was wonderful as usual with a lot of greens, rice, chicken, salads and fruit. We also continue to buy bags from the centre which are made by some local ladies who do this for a living and are just beautiful. As you can imagine we will be bringing many of them home especially with Christmas just around the corner. We have been working for almost one week now and the time has just gone by so quickly, we hope we can complete that house before we leave.
Bonnie Flanagan,
Volunteer to Cebu, Philippines November 2016
Tuesday, Nov. 8
We have been very fortunate to have wonderful weather hot a little humid but beautiful clear blue sky. Today we started out with a great breakfast as usual up on the top floor where we can see all around.
The group split up a little bit today a bunch; Lawrence, Kathy, Marcia, John, Neville and Cam went to the site and worked on many of the jobs there and three of the ladies Twyla, Marny and Jan did some painting in the classroom. And you know what I was doing: blogging and sending photos.
The very exciting part today is when the corrugated iron went up on the roof and I know it looks great and brand-new but it also keeps the sun out and the rain which is forecast for next week. We seem to be progressing quickly every day and Nida and family look very happy with the progress. They are staying nearby with friends while the house is being built.
When the work was done for the day we were taken up to a large golf course where we were two days ago and had a swim in the pool and a light dinner. What a treat.
Bonnie Flanagan,
Volunteer to Cebu, Philippines November 2016
Monday, Nov. 7
We started on the project to build a house for a family of seven: a mother, a father who has a heart problem and can’t work, an aunt and four children.
The house will be very small. First thing we did was demolish all the walls and strip the place of everything, for example corrugated iron roof sheets which had been used for walls and generally cleaned up the place.
Bonnie Flanagan,
Volunteer to Cebu, Philippines November 2016
Sunday, Nov. 6
Our first day Sunday was very interesting colourful and informative. We started out the day with a great breakfast on the top floor of our hotel. The view from up there showed views of the city.
Everybody had arrived including Lawrence from Zimbabwe Africa a very delightful informative and gentle person. We were picked up at the hotel in a van that held 10 of us including an additional three in the front seat.
The first day we drove to the Rise Above community centre where the staff had prepared a beautiful lunch and a birthday cake for Jen. The couple who run the organization are in Denmark but will be back in Cebu within a couple of days.
Staff had also given out tickets for 100 children to have free lunch with us as well from the nearby slums. The children were very excited and could hardly wait to eat the food and play with the other children at the centre.
We had a conversation with the workers there and also noticed that there was a complete dental room with all the equipment necessary to attend to these children. They told us that some years anywhere from seven to 18 dentists would come for two weeks. Dentists would come over in January and July and do a practicum at the same time look at the children’s teeth and make corrections.
We also met Nida and one of her young daughters, who was painting the fascia boards for her house that we going to be working on starting tomorrow.
The children were excited to get a lunch and we we ended up having the same lunch and then we headed out to Nida’s place where we are going to rebuild her home. When we arrived we had a five-minute downpour of rain. We we went in and had a look at the sad conditions where Nida, her husband and children live. The roof trusses have been put on and tomorrow we are going to put the fascia boards around and then put the steel corrugated sheets on the roof. By that time we headed back to the hotel.
We wrapped up the day with a swim and a beer after work at a fancy golf club which had a big swimming pool. Great day!
Bonnie Flanagan,
Volunteer to Cebu, Philippines November 2016
Posted in Philippines on November 7, 2016
