Final thoughts

Final Thoughts
Never have I been in a place that needed more help than Tacloban.  We've seen many poor...but never so many poor burdened with so much loss.  Their resilience and faith is remarkable.  In China we saw great need...but we could do so little to help...water was not to be found and only the gov't could allow them to move from their unproductive & isolated location.  Here with AH, we could make a dent.... and have a great time with amazing kids from all over the world.  Our week helping the special need kids at Mother Teresa's orphanage and the two weeks with Children's Garden was very rewarding and brought lots of smiles to us and the kids.  Walking among the ancient yet still worked rice terraces was breathtaking.  Bohol's beach was relaxing.  And as usual, Rog got us where ever we wanted to go and shared all the joys & challenges with me!  How can I be so blessed???

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Update 57

The founder of All Hands, David Campbell, his wife, Gay (Boston) and the major fundraisers, Ian & Shannon (London) arrived.  I learned lots about AH.  Just ten years ago at the age of 62 David started AH.  He'd gone as a volunteer to help after the Indian Ocean tsunami and that sparked a fire within him.  We enjoyed hearing him enthusiastically talk about AH.  Here's a few things he said that impressed me:

-AH's motte:  Get Shit Done

-3 major missions:  help disaster victims, give them encouragement and volunteer personal growth

-AH steps in when an event overwhelms a community with over 100,000 homes destroyed

-Only way to know what the needs are is to be there so they always send in a crew ASAP

-Over 2 million people live in refuge camps & average stay is 17 years

-AH counts on volunteers and also trains & hires locals

-It cost AH about $25 a day for each volunteer (food, housing, transportation, staff) and about $30,000 a month to run the Tacloban project which includes building homes each about $5000.

-AH gets some funding from other major NGO's like Habitat, Blessing Children & OIM.

-Because AH did not feel like they were qualified to help in the ebola & yet wanted to help...they offered some of their proven, effective staff to help with the organization...they know work for another NGO.

-His final & strongest message to us was that we are not late to the party...we are the party.  AH is young and he looks forward to seeing how the AH volunteers create the next growth phase...we are the creative ones on the ground solving problem after problem on work sites that vary day to day.  We are the ones that will see and meet the needs in the future.  Inspiring message to this group he called:  "The good for nothings."  

Update 58

Out of Our Comfort Zone          by Rog

Volunteering with All Hands has been one of the best experiences of my life.  I hope that there will be an  opportunity for us to work with them again.  If we had not been willing to get out of our comfort zone we would never have come here.  It has been a great joy to meet and work with wonderful, energetic people from many countries who have come together with the purpose of helping the people of Tacloban.  It really gives me hope for the future when I see volunteers from various places around the world coming together with a common humanitarian purpose.  Many volunteers speak of how much fun they are having and if they must leave, how they can't wait to come back.  One girl simply said, "This is happiness!".  Those that have to go on mandatory break complain that they have to leave.  Who would have guessed that hard manual labor could be so uplifting and valuable to the volunteers?

We are here and helping those who have suffered greatly.  As we build in Barangay 83C, the houses go up in front of the family and offer hope for them to have a brighter future.  The fact that so many volunteers come back day after day and continue to help the community reminds everyone there that although they have suffered so much  they are not forgotten in their misery.   

The founder of All Hands said it best when he told the volunteers, "You are a bunch of good for nothings". He explained that we are like-minded people who are willing to do good for nothing.  Actually most volunteers have given up jobs and/or other opportunities for the chance to be here helping the people of Tacloban.  I am awed by the level of commitment by many...not just weeks but months and months of volunteer labor...some have been here since the typhoon struck in Nov. 2014.  The conditions here are challenging..just walking down the street is tough (see Jane's scraped knees).  Tools are shared among many volunteers so that just when you get going and start to make some real progress  a saw or chisel or tape measure  disappears for a while. The local carpenters that are also working on the house cheerfully share the tools with us even though most of the volunteers are not as efficient  with the tools as they are. They know that their continued employment is dependent on the success of the project and funding necessary to build would disappear if the volunteers were not here (Typhoon Yolanda is old news now so less is given to assist them).

 We carry all of the tools (some purchased with DUMC $) to the worksite  each day so the loading and carrying of tools is a big job that seems to get accomplished easily by the mostly 20-something volunteers who manage the chore without complaint.  One day it was announced that there would be no power from 6AM to 6 PM -good thing we have been improving our skills with hand tools!   The building site itself is usually a tiny lot surrounded by neighboring houses so there is very little room to  spread out and have sufficient space to work.  Nearly all of the neighboring houses were put up by families after the typhoon.  They used anything available...scrap wood, tin blown from another house, a piece of tarp or plastic.  Many were emotionally scarred by the typhoon and the loss of their loved ones but had no choice other than to carry on the best they could.  They generally cannot afford to purchase anything for their house.  When I gave my worn shoes to one of the carpenters he said, "Thank You!  I spend all of my money on my family so  I have no money for shoes."  

Update 59

It's been a long time since we've been so dirty & tired!  We have both been working on building homes for the last many days:  nailing up wall boards, laying floor boards, constructing windows, hauling wood, digging holes, mixing cement, bending re-bars & making cement rebar frames ...and enjoying the company of the AH volunteers, home owners & their neighbors. The home owners glow with joy and today, Doris hugged me tightly & cried when I said good bye saying thank you, thank you...

Update 60

Our final day with AH was a trip to Calampong on Samar island where AH is building boats for many of the fishermen who lost or damaged boats meant no food on their tables.  The ride there was through rolling hills covered with coconut trees, thatched roof homes, rice paddies, water buffalo, glimpses of the sea, over the longest bridge in the philippines and all on a newly paved road.  Rog rode upfront with the Filipino driver Ray who talked the whole time and he too told his Yolando story.  He had an aunt who'd lived through New Orleans's Hurricane Katrina and she told him to go to the mountains...he tried to convince his neighbors to go to but they figured they knew how to survive a typhoon...after all this area weathers about 20+ a year...Yolanda was #25.  When Ray came down from the mountain, the streets were covered with debris, trees & dead bodies including his neighbors.  For almost a week no help came.  Bodies smelled.  He tried to help by carrying people to the hospital...but some asked him to just carry them to a church or the cemetery so they could die there.  Today his kids panic when a storm starts.  How do you face that fear so often?  How do you rebuild again...and again...and again??  Why pick up the trash...next storm will bring it all back.  

 When we arrived at the pier, we got in a small boat with bamboo outriggers and crossed a bay where several fish farms had been constructed...I do love being on the water.  The AH crew was working hard when we arrived and we got right to work...Rog planing & me painting.  The man who will own this boat was painting too.  Our time there went by quickly & soon all the AH crew & their gear was loaded into boats & we then the jeepney that headed back to the AH base in Tacloban.  I thought of how Jesus first called fishermen to follow him.  Today I felt Him smiling down on me & all the AH crew in Calampong.

Update 61 by Rog

On the way to Samar, our driver Ray, told me that after the typhoon many people were so traumatized by the destruction that they walked around like that TV show...The Walking Dead.  I don't want to visualize what it must have been like here right after the typhoon.   

Many people tell us their story with little or no prompting.  I think they need to tell someone, and somehow through the telling they can process a bit of what has happened to them and their city.  They probably don't want to talk about it with others who live here as they also have memories of  Typhoon Yolanda.  So maybe they really need us to listen to their stories.

Jess (Filipino now living in New Zealand) rode back to base with us from Samar.   She saw a Ted Talk on Doctors without Borders several years ago and decided that she would prepare herself to work for them.  She is now an epidemiologist and has been working with them for three years.  When she has time off she comes here to work with All Hands.  Asked about ebola, she said that she thought that eventually it would be less deadly and have an impact similar to Dengue Fever or Malaria.  Is that a good thing???

Update  62 by Rog

Traffic and Safety

In our lifetimes there has been great progress in reducing traffic injuries and deaths in the U.S.  We have better roads and road signs and we have many stop signs and traffic lights.  In the developing countries that we have visited we see very few road signs and almost no traffic lights, but everything seems to flow along surprisingly well.  Road conditions and congestion often limit speeds here to 30-40 mph and all drivers seem adept at avoiding collisions.  Motorcycles fill in the gaps between and beside vehicles and often continue for great distances over the center line when getting past slower vehicles.  Oncoming traffic may slow a bit or just move over to avoid the on coming traffic in "their" lane.  When pulling out into heavy traffic little care seems to be given...just pull out and then see that the space appears.  If you need to go in the opposite direction, just look for a little gap in oncoming traffic then make a slow U-turn right in front of them and trust that they will brake to let you in.  This can be a bit frightening when you are riding in the sidecar of  a small motorcycle and the sidecar is the first part to swing across the road!   Pedestrians cross anytime and anywhere if there is a small gap in traffic.  We are told, "just walk".  If you panic and run or stop in the middle of the street to wait for a car to pass by you are usually in more danger than if you continue across the street at a steady pace.  The drivers see you and are avoiding you so it is best to act like the rest of the pedestrians here.

Imagine...Dexter with no traffic lights or stop signs, slower traffic using all of the road.  This might be easy for Grandma Boyce to do because that was what it was like in Dexter 80 years ago.

Update 63

Two more stories told to us by Ray (the driver to Calampong):

-There's lots of foodoo practices in Samar.  For example, when the long bridge was built, the blood of over 1000 street kids was mixed into the cement to assure it's strength.

-Best way to prepare dog:  Day 1 give the dog a big juicy bone to chew.  Day 2 & 3 feed dog rice and Day 4 give the dog only water.  Then cook and eat.  It will warm your body especially during the rainy season.  

 Can't imagine how many more stories he has!.  

Update 64

Here's the best way to describe the "Pilopino"....(yup that's how they pronounce it) culture as told to us by a Filipino:

"We are like the Halo Halo (favored dessert combo of shaved ice, Ube ice cream, sweet yellow & red beans, flan, red tapioca, green jello, candied bananas, coconut milk & cookie wafer)  We are a unique combination of many cultures.  When you first see it you are overwhelmed but the more you dig into it, let the ice & ice cream melt, stir it up....the better it becomes.   And we are like the jeepneys.  From the left overs of WWII, we created the colorful, unique & very functional vehicle that fills up with happy "Pilopinoes!"

Update 65

Sunday.  Our last day in Tacloban.  We set out about 7 a.m. to check out the Chinese cemetery where families build a "vacation" area complete with a little kitchen, bathroom & furniture with decorated roofs surrounded by gates...with the elevated graves "dead" center & photos displayed with flowers & incense bowls.  It's a Chinese tradition to worship & honor their ancestors.  Many must travel great distances thus needing a place to stay when they arrive.  I was surprised to see stain glass or statues of Jesus with Buddhist statues next to them.  Next we looked for a barber.  While Rog sat in the barber chair...I visited with the lady who ran the fruit stand & recharging station right in front of the barber shop...three businesses operating in one spot.  She loved seeing my pictures.  $1.25 is all it cost to make Rog feel & look much better.  And it was fitting that we'd spend part of our last day in Tacloban in a church.  When we found one, we slipped in...just as they were reciting the Nicene creed...the same we say in USA.  Then the choir began to sing, "Lord here I am to answer your call.  Here is my heart..."  I was overwhelmed with a strong feeling of reassurance that God had led me here.  Next, the call to prayer:

Ask God to help us as we struggle with understanding the suffering.  Hear our prayer.

Ask God to continue to have the help we need from others.

Hear our prayer.

Ask God to encourage our Gov't officials to serve the poor and not give into the call of the rich and powerful.  Hear our prayer.

And if my hear was not already torn...the last song ripped it open:

"Because He lives, I can face tomorrow.  Because He lives, all fear is gone.  And I know I can face the future, Just because He lives."  Singing this familiar son with people who'd lost so much.  What an emotional and poignant experience.  Rog & I both fought back tears.  

Back at the hotel packing our bags, I felt like I was deserting.  Last night I'd cleaned my legs & arms with a scrub brush...trying to remove the dirt that had accumulated...Tacloban dirt.   It felt wrong...like I was washing my hands of Tacloban.  Though I know I'll be so thrilled to hug my grandkids & kids, visit with family & friends, take long hot showers, sleep in my own bed, eat meals with no rice and be surrounded by my own, clean home...I will also feel guilty...for having so much all my life.  So many Filipinos asked me not to forget them and pray for them.  I will.

Sent from my iPod Touch

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Update 55

Tidbits:

-Another language "uniqueness" is that words are often said twice.  Ex:  Halo Halo (dessert), Sari Sari (small store), Waray Waray (dialect in Tacloban) 

-Filipino's have the most flirtatious way of saying yes...they lift their eyebrows and have a smirky grin.  

-Since Yolanda uprooted so many trees, it is much hotter in Tacloban.

-Philippine University professors have to do one money making project every year and then give the $$$ to the university.  Tuition is ver low...less than $40 a semester...but most jobs require a university degree...even McD!

-Very few police carry guns and there is very little military presence.

-Our evening AH meetings are short, informative and very light hearted...if only staff meetings had been like that!

-Re-bar foundation frames are a REAL pain to make!!!!

Update 56

The tool shed is done1  Rog has worked almost everyday this week on it and today I joined him.  It will house lots of dirty tools that were being stored in the dormitory.  Rog has gotten many compliments on it's construction and some tease him that it will be christened "Roger's Tool Shed." Bad news is last night the dorm was robbed.  Someone climbed a back fence, crept into an open window in a bedroom where Nestor was sleeping.  Since 6 guys sleep in there coming & going all the time, Nestor didn't suspect anything.  Several computers & phones wee stolen.  Nestor felt so bad...not just because his computer & phone was gone but mostly because he was ashamed that a fellow Filipino would rob good people here to help.  What a shame.

Sent from my iPod Touch