Children, Children, Children
Trip Start
Jul 27, 2011
1
51
73
Trip End
Dec 14, 2011
Where I stayed
Homestay
What I did
Build-A-Home and Placement
Palo, Eastern Visayas, Philippines
Friday, October 28, 2011
The new house we have been working on is really coming together. Tomorrow they will put the finishing touches on the bathroom and house and call it complete! The pictures pretty much speak for themselves. It has been a lot of hard work, but like I said before very fulfilling work. Erica and I, along with two other volunteers Mark and Ron, have spent a lot of our time working on the project for the last two weeks. The children all get so excited when we arrive and always ask for pictures and stickers as soon as we arrive. They are all such good helpers though, they deserve the treats.
On Thursday some of the other volunteers came to the site, so the supervisor has them begin the bathroom that will be added on to a previous build-a-home project. Mark and I helped mix cement for the floor of the bathroom and hand it over to the workers. Then we were instructed to get all of the cinder blocks from the road to the new bathroom. It is a little ways, when you can only carry one or two at a time, they are slightly fragile. So we got all of the children to help us form an assembly line and worked the blocks halfway to the house. They really did a great job, and all enjoyed the process surprisingly. I try to picture a bunch of American children getting as excited as they do about digging holes, hammering nails, and moving cinder blocks...but I just don't think it happens much.
After we finished working on the house Mark and I headed to my sister Suzy's sponsor child's home to pay her a visit. We walked from the build-a-home and I got a little confused as to where her house was a couple times, but we made it fine. She is so big! I hardly recognized her when she met us along the way.
Today there wasn't a whole lot for us to do throughout the afternoon. We got the kids to help us again, when we needed to move a bunch of sand from the road to the new bathroom. Although they couldn't carry much in their bags, they ran a lot faster than Mark or I were willing to in the heat. Today was definitely a lot hotter and sunnier than the past few days out at the project site. After all their work I gave the children lots of stickers as usual and we took lots of group shots. Today was our last day working on the house. Tomorrow Mark, Ron, Erica, Erin (an American volunteer), and I are going to some caves on a near by island for the day, so we won't be able to go to the site. We are planning on going back on Wednesday to bring them some housewarming gifts and take pictures of the family with the new house. I am so excited for them to have such an amazing new place to live!
Elsa
Comments
Do the windows end up having screens? or any kind of cover to keep rain/bugs out, maybe roll down flaps of canvas? I see there is an open area at the roof line so I'm sure the bugs would find there way inside anyway...
I see one pic labeled Father and supervisor. Is this the father of the family that will be receiving the home?
No screens, Filipinos are used to bugs. ;)
The Father pictured is in fact the Father of the house.
And no door, right?
I guess the temperature change isn't enough for the need for it that way, but doesn't it just rain in, especially during typhoons and such. (I'm such a spoiled American.)
There is a door silly! haha :)
I thought you said no doors! :P
Saw this today and thought of you. Not because you say, "I am only one" but because you are one part of the body of Christ! Love you!
"You say to me, "I am only one person." This is true, but look at what other great men and women before you have done in the span of just one lifetime: Francis of Assisi, Paul, Thomas Aquinas, John the Baptist, Augustine, Teresa of Avila, Thomas More, Edmund Rice, Don Bosco, John Vianney, Dominic, Patrick, Rita, Mary, and of course, Jesus.
Look also at what others have done in our time: Mother Teresa, John Paul II.
They too could have used the excuse, "I am only one person." The difference is they didn't see themselves as one person, but rather as one part of one body. Then, dedicated to the gospel message of Jesus Christ they chose to serve, and to choose to serve is to choose to love."
I am confused about the bathroom. That's not finished yet, right?