This year we worked on two projects.  The first was finishing a four stall bathroom in an elementary school that was started in 2018.  The "CR" was not yet operational due to the lack of doors for privacy.  This year we finished the doors and painted the inside and outside of the "CR" to match the school.  Our hope is that the kids will now be able to use the "CR" as they are playing around the school grounds.  In addition, we brought treats, basketballs and frisbees for the kids to enjoy.  We enjoyed the work but always enjoy playing and making jokes with the kids.  

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The second project was a home for a family in desperate need of additional shelter.  In the Philippines there are two seasons, hot season and rainy season.  Families with subpar housing are not able to stay dry with all the rain that continually falls each day during rainy season.  In additional, there are typhoons that often drench parts of the Philippines for days at a time.  This family has struggled to keep the floor in the inside of their house dry especially during the rainy season.  To help with that, we were able to assist them with new materials for the roof, walls, and install an elevated concrete floor.  These additions will make it so that when it rains they will have a place to escape the wetness they have not been able to avoid.  

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We were able to work very efficiently on this project.  We hauled in loads of dirt to elevate the floor prior to hand mixing concrete and packing in bucket after bucket of concrete for the new floor.  The foreman on the job was Rudy, a local who helps us each year.  His assistant was one of the beneficiaries of the project who worked so hard while we were there.  He has a name but goes by "Calbo" which means bald in Tagalog.  As volunteers the task was not easy.  There wasn't any running water or a water pump on the property or near by so Joe one of the volunteers waded through a foot of water and mud to a water well where he threw down a bucket, let it fill up, and pulled it up with a rope.  He then repeated this several times to fill a few 5 gallon buckets. He would then wade back through the mud and water to the project site where we used the water to mix concrete.  Thanks Joe for your willingness to do this.  It was a dirty job and Joe did it with happiness and did not complain once.  He said about the job "If the people here have to go there to get water, I can certainly do it as well."

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Everyone worked hard.  The men were outworked by Laila and Hailee.  Thank heavens for them and their hard work otherwise the job would have taken much longer than it did.  Lance, Matt, and Neil put forth a strong effort too along with Noel and many others.  We hope that this structure will provided the needed comfort for this family in the future years and at some point be converter to a hollow block home.

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Aside from the manual labor we were also able to bring additional basketballs and frizbees to give away to people along our way.  These giveaways are always a hit.  Its fun to see the enjoyment of the receiver for something as small as a basketball.  

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