Cast B08 Quotes from the Philippines

There’s no doubt in my mind that an impact has been made here…

Frederik Derks, the Netherlands  

“Here in the Philippines, I feel like our presence is the most relevant. Everywhere you go people are smiling. I feel a spark in everyone’s eye, and I’ve never met a culture this open and welcoming. This is a great country with great people! I love this place!”

Phil Woods, USA  

“In Manila, we worked with an organization called Gawad Kalinga and it was an amazing experience. The people were so welcoming and taught me a lot about hospitality.  I hope that I had a fraction of the impact on them that they had on me.”

Kelsey Wiggins, USA  

“I wasn’t sure what to expect before I met the people at Gawad Kalinga. When it came time to leave those people, I cried. It was the first time I ever cried saying goodbyes to anyone in my life, and it changed me.”

Katrin Skora, Germany  

“In Manila we worked with Gawad Kalinga and helped building a house for the poor people. But we had the greatest impact in playing with kids, because you see how happy they are when they respond with a smile!”

Joshua Guerra, USA  

“I think we all went into Manila wanting to give the people hope, to help them any way we could. I don’t think any of us imagined that the families we worked with could give us so much hope.  Its absolutely inspiring to see people with so much spirit, who want to build their nation into something better.”

Yordi, Ethiopia  

“It has been such a huge exposure to see the extreme difference between the poor and the rich.  Working with a community and really have a chance to develop relationships with people with unique culture and lifestyle, I have learned a lot as a person.”

Arnab Dewan, Bangladesh

“During my time in Manila, I had the opportunity to work with one of the Gawad Kalinga projects.  We worked alongside the local community and absolutely fell in love with their amazing spirit, hospitality and eager to learn attitude.  Apart from the physical structure we helped them build, I believe what our cast has given to the community is the confidence and hope to build a better future.”

Olongapo/Subic Bay – The Final week begins…

Entire Cast B at Ocean Adventure

Cast B has arrived in their last cities of the tour…Olongapo and Subic Bay.  Just 3 hours north of Manila, Subic Bay served as one of the largest international U.S. Navy bases until the early 90’s, when these lease was decided not to be renewed.  The old base is now a “freeport” zone and a major tourist hot spot.  Around half the cast lives in upper class Subic Bay, and the other half in a much poorer city, Olongapo.  It’s a great contrast of lifestyles, and a place that Up with People will have a major impact in all that we can do.  

Sea-lion show

Community Impact projects begin on Monday, but Saturday was a regional learning day for the cast.  We visited an ocean and marine park called “Ocean Adventure.”  The day was spent learning about many marine animals in this area, watching a sea-lion show, and a dolphin and whale show.  We also saw many monkeys, some of which tried to steal our food at the beach, as well as many  rare birds.  It was in incredible day and so much fun!

Mitch and Matt love dolphins!

Just under one week to go until Cast B say’s their goodbyes and heads home to many areas of the world.  December 16th is our departure day from the Philippines and from this 2009 tour.  A few more blog entries to come in the next week, so chech back soon!

Dolphin trainer waving goodbye to Cast B

Subic Bay at sunset...

Manila CI by the Numbers…

Habitat for Humanity was one of 6 CI (Community Impact) sites that Up with People Cast B worked with in Manila, the Philippines… here was there impact by the numbers…

In our eight days of CI in Manila at Habitat for Humanity – Baranguay Pinagbuhatan, Pasig City, we:

·      Made 593 CIB (Cement Interlocking Blocks)

·      Laid 2,303 blocks

·      Poured 21 bags of cement grout

·      Hauled 132 Jackbuilt blocks

·      Hauled 400 CIB blocks

·      Completed 2.5 cubic meters of gravel bedding

·      Bent 325 pieces of re-bar

·      Cut 660 pieces of re-bar

We also…

Were a team of 11 people from five countries (Ethiopia, Germany, Mexico, Singapore, and the USA) who helped to build the first story of a four-story, 120-unit housing complex.

Learned to make CIB blocks, lay blocks, level walls, extend rebar, make cement, mix and pour grout, shovel and bag gravel, haul mud on the chain gang, move gravel in the pit, and to cut and bend rebar.  

Worked alongside the Boss, Mario, George, B-Boy, Glenna, Ching, Anita, Elaine, Mr. Perfection, Engineer Noel, Volunteer Coordinator Ving, and many others.

Ate a delicious lunch everyday at Delia’s.

Drank more than our fair share of Coca-Cola, Royal Orange, and Juicy Lemon sodas, and snacked on Chocolate Pillows, Choco-Pretzels, and Combis.

Rode in taxis, tricycles and jeepneys to get to and from our site each day.

Visited a partially completed Habitat site in Paranaque to see the housing units that last year’s UWP crew helped to build.

Met and played with the children of our home partners, the beneficiaries of our team’s hard work, including visiting Rainforest Park with them.

Were invited to visit the current homes of our new friends, Anita and Elaine, and were welcomed warmly by their families.

Learned that of the 18-20 families that live in the stilted slum housing under the bridge in C-5 that we visited, only four of those families are currently eligible and approved to receive a Habitat home unit.

It was eight sweaty days full of hard work, and I am proud to have been part of such an incredible team.

Putting the “Community” in Community Impact!

For the past couple of days our group of 19 volunteers has been working at Gawad Kalinga (GK) Teguig. This site is located in the surroundings of a stinky river (covered with garbage) and slum houses. But the GK project fights against this by building houses in hopeful colors and paid with the sweat of the future inhabitants. Each family can only live in one of the houses if they have contributed to the construction and can only stay if they remain to be active in the GK community. Our site has seven parts and some are at the end of their development, some are just about to start, some contain school or other community facilities.

The first day they explained us the whole concet by taking a look at the different parts of our Gawad Kalinga project and community members shared their experiences. Besides that, we were treated with a delicious home-cooked Filipino dish.  At first I was hesitant because it looked strange but trying it helps. Another amazing experience was being dropped in a local family, every single one of us was placed in a different family to meet them for 30 minutes. To me this sounded so pushy.  The first moments were indeed kind of awkward, but slowly we started a conversation and eventually I had the best 30 minutes of the whole day. In this half hour we tried to teach each other some words in our language, the kids and I played a bit (I even received a bracelet from the smallest of the 4 children) and just talked about very basic things to get to know one another.

The next days we started with our “real” volunteer work. However I have to mention that one of the GK members made an interesting comment: It is not just construction labor or teaching practical skills to the community moms that should be seen as valuable volunteer work.  It is the interaction and interest of foreign volunteers that gives them the hope that people actually believe in their project. Our group was split into 7 small groups.  Four groups work on construction sites and did work ranging from painting to sifting to building walls.  My site was finishing up for the opening ceremony, which occurred on Monday. The whole community came together to celebrate the entry of the families into the houses, a beautiful moment where our group was part of.  Other groups played with the local children or taught them English and just helped out with their classes.  And the last group was responsible for livelihood workshops, where they teach the local moms practical skills or just have fun.  During the past days we taught them Up with People songs, Japanese writing, everyone danced together, and they taught us their language.  For the next couple of days we hope to do some geography, making bracelets they can sell, teaching some more English, etc. So you see, a high variety volunteer project where our whole group can put in its passion for these two weeks.

 

 By Joris van Doorslaer (Belgium)