We started listening to music while at work last week and it really made a big impact on the pace of work, everyone just got in the zone and kept working great through the end of the day. Today is our last day of work and will be a half-day. The second half of the day will be a going away party. We leave for Manila tonight and off to the airport tomorrow.

~ Ryan
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It is a wonderful finish to an ambitious building plan. The effort of the workers (Toni, Jerry, Larry 1 & 2, Gilbert) is definitely evident. The work days have been long, hot, humid, but most importantly: filled with laughter. We have learned so much about the community in which we work. We have been tremendously blessed by the loving people of Cut-cut. I cannot begin to describe our new family in words. What ever they own has been freely given to us for our comfort. People’s homes have been opened without hesitation.

We look forward to the snack breaks that we Must take and the food we must try less we be shunned by the throngs of women cooks. At lunch we take a daily trip to a small shop on the street to get some RC cola and Zest-O. It has become such a daily oasis at the store owned by a gracious Mrs. Naughty. The whole town is now aware of our presence and now our departure. Instead of our expectations to build a school, we have constructed a strong family of friends.

The building has been going well considering yesterday was our first introduction to electrical tools. The only thing we used electricity for is a welder. Hand saws and hammers have been the means to an end. The walls have been constructed up to their finished height and the windows are in place. The roof trusses have been completed and we are laying the roofing deck for our last day. We all have such a desire to get to this level of completeness, having the roof on that is. School will not start until March 2010, so the building will be ready by the date of its intended use.

Everyone is ready to return home both back to the states and to the Philippines. The people we have met will become life long friends. You should not live your life without paying a visit to the most hospital people in the world.

~ John
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Last day of the trip and very sad to leave. We have built everything up to the roof. Yesterday we welded all the trusses and beams to the structure and today we are putting the metal sheets on. The welding tool isn’t quite as advanced as what we have in the states, but the welds are solid. I am very happy with the progress we have made in the 3 weeks we have been here. We have been busy every day and used the short amount of time very efficiently.

We have built very strong relationships with our group as well as with our co-workers, mothers that cook for us, volunteers, and especially the family we stay with. Everyone is sad that we are leaving and we are sad to leave. It has been a trip that I will never forget, and hopefully I will have a chance to come back soon.

~Gordy
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Finally. Today is the last day of work. For the last three weeks, there have been a lot of frustration, but we overcame them. I had a lot of fun working with everyone. We have already made connections with everyone.

To the moms that cook for us everyday at work made food that was awesome: They put a lot of heart into preparing good food for us.

To the little compound where we stay: They are some of the most wonderful people I have ever seen before. Also, thanks to Lorna who washed our clothes everyday, even though we were always very dirty. She always smiles while doing the chores for us. Inang (grandmother) was like my mom: Wake up early in the morning to prepare breakfast for us and stay up late to wait for us to get home before going to bed.

To the four guys I stayed with, ate with, and worked with for the last three weeks: Soon, everyone will be back in the states, and I know that I will miss you guys – Regardless of the ups and downs we shared.

I can not wait to get home to see my family, but I also do not want to leave this place. The people had so much love for us. I feel like am part of their family.

I will say no more. If I keep writing, I may cry. The people here say I am a sensitive person which is somewhat true.

Love you all,
~Hau

Today we are working on getting the trusses welded so the roof can go on. This leaves a good possibility for us to start on the floor Friday. Tonight we are invited to a volunteers home, Dennis, for his wife’s birthday party.

Tomorrow, we work half a day and then there is a planned event in our honor. We will have a pig roast, party, and say good bye to so many. We head back to Manila that night, Taal Volcano Saturday (http://travel-advisory.blogspot.com/2008/02/taal-volcano-is-located-on-island-luzon.html), and finish at the airport by 5am. We fly out of Manila by 8am.

I hope to snag a personal update from everyone and post it before we leave here.

Lunch break is over,

~Richie

Apologies, the internet access has been down in this town since the whips of a Typhoon sent us some stormy days. We should return Sunday to the states. If thorough updates do not come by then, expect them later next week.

~Richie

I rent internet time at a local house a few blocks from the construction site. There are 7 computers that are in wooden cubicles with elbow room forgotten. The computers are adequate for local kids to game on, but this place seems to share an internet access point. That basically means it takes a very long time to upload pictures. However, the price is respectable at 15 PHP an hour.

While working the other day, Marjorie rode up on the back of Beth’s motorcycle and informed us that we shall eat Boa for dinner. We had mixed emotions at first, but we truly excited for another chance at exotic food. For 200PHP we were treated to a live Boa about 5 feet long. Decapitated, skinned, gutted, quartered, and prepared all in a few hours. It tasted like chicken with a consistency of tuna, once you figure out how to eat it that is.

The former first female president of the Philippines died this past weekend, and the nation held services on Wednesday. It is meant to give everyone a day off of work in order to give remembrance to Cory. I read and asked about her all around to learn of her importance in Filipino history. I wish to cover all aspects of this trip, but I implore those reading this to look up a few of this country’s facts and history. Seeing as we have a very limited time here, we decided to take up an adventure and day of rest outside our Island Compound.

We headed to Subic Bay Tuesday night. We sleep beside a blowing fan and take showers in cold pumped water. American amenities like cold air conditioning and hot showers have become a fantasy. Subic Bay is our chance to indulge in some leisure, if only for a day. We stayed at Camayan Beach Resort. For a four hour car ride with tolls, a resort stay, a bike ride through the jungle mountains, breakfast, lunch, beach, and, of course, air conditioning and hot showers we each paid an equivalent of 50 American dollars. The volcano will have to wait another day. We wanted to get back to make sure the project is on track.

Not only are we done with all the walls, but we are currently pouring all the tie-in beams and sanding the floor tomorrow. This means we will be ready to level the floor and we will be receiving all the roof and truss supplies by tomorrow. The rain has been a major hindrance the last few days because of the typhoon. The five meals we receive through the day have been a warm blessing in the cold rain. The schedule is running tight now. With our bellies always full and our hearts still in gear, we plan on making up time by working 6 day weeks.

~Richie

~Last night we ate a Boa that was 6ft long and cost 200 PHP.
~Today we have more volunteers as we finish the walls and level the floor area.
~Tonight we are heading out to Subic and a hotel by the beach there.
~Tomorrow we will enjoy the beach and hopefully have time to see a volcano on the way back.

Salamat,
~Richie

Right now we are at a Walter Mart ( Think Wallmart expanded into a mini-mall). I am paying 60PHP for one hour while everyone else is shopping for gifts and the like.

Not to entice everyone too much, but I have taken over four thousand pictures and over 8 hours of video already. I have several panoramic shots made up of multiple merged photos that I still go back to and just look at for awhile.  I have plans to get more pictures up tomorrow night at 9pm my time.

~Richie

We are well fed. Scratch that – We are over fed. The norm here is approximately 8 meals a day. Food is very inexpensive and each meal is very nutritious. The key is to eat lightly each time and the body will reward you with an ebullient metabolism.

The family we are staying with is in a traditional format of a Matriarch and an extended family. We are to call her Inang Mitring, Mother Matring. We bless he each evening by bringing her hand to our own forehead. There are 19 people that live on what we have come to call the Island Compound – not including all of us. Lorna, the mother of two, takes good care of our needs and tries to communicate with us. The amount that can be written about all of the people here would be a story in-and-of-itself. I will get to that another time.

We have been immersed in the culture and daily life here. The mornings begin at 5am and we call it a night no later than 10pm. We have had five days of hard work and one more day of work before we rest on Sunday. Here we work an 8 hour day that starts at 8am and finishes at 5pm with breaks accounting for the time. We work while school carries on. It’s a pre-school, so the curriculum is simple and involves a lot of singing and group activities.

Our first day on the site was eventful. The kids sang for us and gave us flowers and the mothers of the children cooked food for us on a make-shift, gas-powered kitchen out front. They continue to cook for us. The kids sang us a song with lyrics like, “welcome to lour family.” We do feel very welcome here. We walk to work and say, “hello” and “good morning” more times each day than I would as a flight attendant. The most welcome feeling is returned by our ability to give back through the schools construction.

The school build time is really moving along: all the column re-bar is in place; 3 walls are half way up; 2 columns are poured to that line; all the footers are poured; we have plans in the making to get the roof on before we leave; solar panel placement is calculated; and electrical tubing is going to be in place soon for the floor pour. The methods of construction here are creative and practical. A build of this nature is optimized by the locals understanding and fitted to the limited space and budget at hand.

The details of the build are best described by the construction majors. I just take pictures and help out where I can.

~Richie

~ Hau Nguyen

The progress on the building has been far ahead of schedule. We had anticipated some rain, but did not expect to some everyday. The foundation layout and structural elements traditionally used here are adequate, but have some unnecessary elements that have been removed.  Primitive construction would be the phrase best suited for the building techniques employed. Simply, the job has been a learning experience from day and a very enjoyable lesson at that.

~ Johnathan Brown

Construction techniques here in the Philippines are much different than in the US. Labor is chosen over machine in just about every way. Concrete is mixed by hand using the sand and aggregate that is unloaded from trucks by hand and then set into place by hand. The re-bar is cut by hand, bent by hand, and tied together by hand. Labor is abundant, so it makes it so much cheaper to use rather than equipment which is expensive to buy, rent and run. We only have basic hand tools on site such as shovels, hammers, pliers, tape measure, and string; and we are still able to create a sturdy building.

~ Ryan Kirk

After one full week of work in Cut Cut, I have adapted a little more to their culture. Their lifestyle is so different from ours – especially their building methods.  We eat breakfast, go to work, eat a morning snack at 9:30 am, eat lunch at 12pm, take a siesta after lunch, work more, eat again at 3pm, and then work until 5pm. It took a little to adapt, but now it is going to be hard not to take a break 4 times a day when I get home.  Aside from that, the people are so nice and have made us feel like family.  I felt homesick the first few days, but now I enjoy this place a lot.  The project is going faster than I first expected and hopefully we will have the walls and columns up in the next few days.

~Gordon

Prior to heading out, Noel’s mother Mercy provided us a brief breakfast of cooked little red-juice-soaked hot dogs, cooked ham slices, coffee, bread, and some fresh bottled water. Showers were taken in turn in the one bathroom on the second floor. After eating and cleaning we headed up to the roof on the 4th floor. This place has become a little club house of sorts while we plan out, acclimate ourselves to, and gather ideas for the next three weeks. Nice pictures of the sunrise can be found in the gallery along with some pictures of the things described herein.

From the roof, a random cat slumbered the morning away while some local, likely relatives of Noel, youths played basketball in the same view. We gathered there before heading off; Noel’s father, Nelson, joined us for this trip

As we headed to the mall, we switched transportation methods 4 times: jeep to train to jeep to foot. It is very worthy to note that while on the train, which is separated to female and male boarding zones – optional for the females, I caught an interesting moment as we passed by a grungy, grassy lot. A man dressed on in bright lime-green underwear was bathing himself, best he could, in the center of this lot using what appeared in a passing-train-speed-glance as a broken tap water pipe. This pipe jutted only 3 feet in the air so the lime-green underwear man was sitting like a toad under this false spring… I regret not having my camera at the ready.

On the construction front, we have great and exciting news. The footers are poured, and today the columns should be poured too. This means the concrete should be settled in the spots we will work on starting tomorrow, and this hyperactive, hopeful schedule now has a tangible time line.

I am speaking for all of us when I say that we have come here expecting to direct, but we believe that we will be the students. The methods of construction are different, and in many respects the methods are better for the budget, the tools, the needs of the people, and the future builds to come.

We are still very excited.

-Richie