Day 5

Last night ended with final celebrations for Stephen’s birthday and a challenge to eat the Filipino delicacy Balut (a partly formed chicken foetus boiled while still in the egg). Paul led the way with not many volunteers after the demonstration, but in true team spirit Clare and Stephen ate one each - even the crunchy bits.

The new started with typical gruelling labour under the hot filipino sun. Most of the team worked for the morning continuing to tie the steel re-enforcing bars, bending steel for the form work all the while singing Australian Songs with joy and passion.

The next major challenge was shifting the “church” a 10m X 12m structure 150m, to a new location. There were 38 persons involved, and it nearly collapsed on the way down the hill. Due to the local rough but effective engineering, the structure and our lives were saved.

Ollie spent most of the day hanging over the toilet getting out of the hard work. He wasn’t even sick- he was grouting tiles and fixing the “comfort room water closet”.
Steven Moore helped the Hong Kong team concreting and shifting sand and hundreds of 40kg bags of cement. The Filipino workers are incredible. They carry 80kgs at a time when they weigh no more than 60kgs themselves.
We are very thankful for the cold showers and God’s strength and

Day 4

Today started at 6:30am with the typical symphony of natural sounds including roosters, stray dogs and creaking bodies after 3 hours of street basketball the night before. Playing basketball against the local pastors and Christians was a great encouragement to them as they flogged us three games to one.

We started our serious projects this morning; removing existing scaffolding and preparing the re-enforcing bars to enable the pouring of the main slab of the children’s home later this week. This was a big deal as it required 250 6 metre lengths of steel rod hand tied in a grid pattern and the production of large ramps and platforms to move the industrial cement mixers up to the first floor.

We had a wonderful lunch today to celebrate the birthdays of Stephen Cressie and Cedreck (one of the children from the children’s home). This was hosted by Glen and Grace (a couple who have provided the land for the new children’s home) and held at one of Malaybalay’s finest restaurants, home of the very tasty Shanghai Lumpia, chicken on a stick and iced mango drinks.

After lunch we continued to tie the re-enforcing bar for what seemed like forever, but we were sustained by the amazing provision of local bananas and the spectacular view of the Philippines second highest mountain Mt Katanglid. The day ended differently with someone leaving the guys dorm open with lights on attracting what looked like all of Malaybalay’s flying insects and a giant toad.

Looking forward to another busy productive day tomorrow.

Day 3

After yesterday being so long and busy, a restful day was enjoyed by all. After breakfast we headed off to the CCF church in Malaybalay, where the message is given in English. The Pastor who spoke this morning was giving his first sermon! We met some Australians who are missionaries for New Tribes Mission who are working with the people here.


After lunch… a snooze (some longer than others) we were off to go exploring the town and to do some shopping. Whilst in town some of the boys went and got a close shave with a cut throat – which they can assure you was ok since the blade was cleaned in alcohol?! We all bought a range of lollies and chocolates, which did not last long once we got back.

From Malaybalay we headed to the children’s home…. Where the kids were excited and took charge of most people’s cameras. After playing with the kids and exploring how the house has changed in the last twelve months we headed back for dinner…. then headed back out for a game of basketball with the local Pastors and Christians. Will let you know later how the boys fared!

This morning Paul was thrown into the driver’s seat and I’m glad to report we survived Paul’s driving in the Philippines!

Day 2

Saturday the 5th

It was amazing to see how many people in the Philippines were catching domestic flights at three and four in the morning. We arrived at our destination and after meeting our hosts, were quickly on our way to have a buffet breakfast. At seven thirty, we left the city to finally set out for Malaybalay. The drivers in the Philippines are very daring. Solid white lines are more of a guide than rule. This combined with the twisting uphill road and beautiful waterfalls left some of us worse for wear (you might want to talk to Aaron about this one when he gets back, but he now has a new nickname - Yak).

Most of us went to bed pretty much after we arrived at the Orphanage. We had lunch about one and then got into a bit of work in the afternoon. The working part of the trip has now begun. It feels like we have been going for a lot longer than a day and a half. Looking forward to church and a day of rest tomorrow.

Day 1

Friday the 4th of July

Everyone met at Perth international airport at about eight in the morning ready for the big trip. After the usual preliminaries, we set off for Brunei at 11am, arriving there at 4 in the afternoon. We then had to wait for almost four hours until the connecting flight to Manila was ready to take off. Brunei airport is quite small, so we were all able to explore the shops very quickly. To pass the time, some of us had a meal, some of us tried to sleep, some of us were males and wore a feminine face mask (Chris G), and some of us caught up with a chat.

The flight from Brunei to Manila took about two hours, so after a collecting our luggage, going through customs and changing our currency, it was now getting on towards 11. It was now about fifteen hours since we arrived at Perth airport so we were all very tired. The next thing was we had to get to the KFC hotel near the airport to have a rest. The only thing was, it was not that easy getting there, with the heavy traffic and the cramped conditions in the van ( the van was packed to the max). We only had two hours to rest before we had to leave for the domestic airport in Manila to catch the next flight to Cagayan de Oro.

Welcome

This is where we will be keeping you updated on what is happening while we are in the Philippines. This July our team will be helping complete the construction of an orphanage in Malaybalay in the southern Philippines. We look forward to keeping you updated on our progress as we head out in July.