Last Working Day on Leyte

A bus stop on the road between Kananga and Ormoc.
© 2014 Andrea Rip

My last day on the job, I worked in Ormoc and decided to stand on the back ladder on the 45 minute ride back to base. I soaked it all in, watched the distressed palm trees one last time, smiled at the beautiful sky and hills, mourned the still-broken houses and roofless schoolrooms, while feeling enormously grateful and downright blessed that I had the time and opportunity to serve in the Philippines after such a major disaster.

If not me, then who will go...

This is what many temporary (and for many, permanent) homes looks like

in the Philippines. Made from salvaged materials and not so storm proof.

© 2014 Andrea Rip

That was the phrase that passed through my head while I packed and prepared for the trip. And, it found me again on this last ride. When I leave, who will follow? Most certainly Project Leyte will find volunteers - a demographic of mostly 20-something backpackers with some younger professionals taking a break in life, freckled with other do-gooders who have time and space in life to accommodate some work. There was a 1500 - 2000 person wait list while I worked on the project. But with so much damage, I hope there are more people and more organizations who can keep the momentum for rebuilding and recovery going throughout the year.

John with his "hard yakka" shorts riding on the back
of a jeepney.
© 2014 Andrea Rip

Part of me considered that all this hard work ("hard yakka" as the Australians put it - also an Aussie clothing brand) could be wiped away with another typhoon. Part of me hopes that the work we are doing is a little bit better than what was there before - and when another disaster hits this island in the Philippines, the next relief effort can build it a little more resilient than how we left it. And, part of me prays that it never happens again - though this country is perfectly positioned for tropical storms, flooding, volcanoes, and earthquakes.

The women at the Gawad Kalinga Tambulilid neighborhood in Ormoc took

a photo with me on my last working day.

The last day of work, I went out to Ormoc and worked with the Gawad Kalinga project one last day. The familiar Filipino faces were so warm and friendly. They were sad to see me go and gave me hugs and gratitude for my work. The girls and women all posed for nice photos with me in my bright pink tank top. I worked, tried fresh coconut juice that was about the best drink I had in the Philippines from a woman who sold it for 10 pesos in a plastic bag with a straw. She thanked me with such a lump in her throat it nearly made me cry. She said she wished she had more to thank me with than words. I told her that I was only giving to her what other people had given to me throughout life and for this trip. There are really so many people behind my effort. Her story, like so many others is of heartbreaking loss, but strength from God to move forward, come together with her neighbors, and reestablish their homes. It is pure inspiration.

All That is Lost...and Found

A man came by to look through the debri for his personal

documents that had been buried by the storm and tree.

© 2014 Andrea Rip

Perhaps the time that I was most moved to understand how deep Yolanda's devastation permeated through a place was while I worked at the Valencia Elementary School to clear a classroom of a large tree. Initially, Yolanda uprooted and massive tree onto the classroom. It destroyed the roof and compromised the entire structure of the classroom.

Another response team sent a group with chainsaws who cut up the tree in manageable pieces. However, when All Hands took on the project, the room was a pile of branches, sawdust, leaves, glass, concrete, and a dilapidated metal/tin ceiling structure that was between six to 12 feet (2 - 3m) high.

The "Philosophy of Education in the New Society" sign was

a casualty of Yolanda.

© 2014 Andrea Rip

Every day, between two to six people worked on cleaning this room. Some used a metal grinder to safely remove the roof structure as others shoveled sawdust and pulled the branches from the room. After we cleared the rooms, we sledge hammered the walls and pulled them down to clear the concrete foundation slab so that a new classroom could be built.

The interior of the classroom next-door to the classroom that was destroyed
by a massive tree at Valencia Elementary School. In much better condition
than the kindergarten room that shared a wall, this room was waiting for an
engineering assessment to determine if the walls were structurally sound.
© 2014 Andrea Rip

As we cleared the tree out, we began to uncover what remained of the classroom after the storm. Most of our job sites were cleared out of the substantial and salvageable material before we arrived. I wish I had taken a photo of the alphabet blocks that I discovered mixed in with sawdust, but it simply remains a sad memory in my head of the kindergarten classroom that had probably been filled with children just a day or few before the storm. I wanted to keep one of the blocks as my reminder of the storm, but brought them to the principal's office instead - hoping that even though the blocks were quite battered, some children might still be able to use them.

As we found items that were in the classroom, much of which was still wet from ongoing rains or broken, we tossed it in a pile of mixed debris. One of the afternoons when we were working, a man came by to assess the work we had done. He asked if we found any items in the room and I pointed him in the direction of our pile. A little later, I walked by and saw him still sorting through some of the papers. In one of the envelopes he pulled out some important documents and showed me the one on top that read, "Marriage Contract." He had many of his personal effects in that classroom. As sad as I was for what had been lost, I was relieved that he had found some important pieces of what he was looking for.

Even being on the ground where Yolanda hit the hardest, it was hard to comprehend how much had been lost. This work site provided me a small picture of how much it will take to rebuild people's lives - even after the structures are back in place, there is so much that will need to be acquired to fill up those new empty places.

Watermelon on the Outside, Bubble Gum on the Inside

A glimpse of the "big pink watermelon" from across the sugarcane fields.
© 2014 Andrea Rip

For the first week that I was on Project Leyte, I spent my days painting the hospital's interior. At first it seemed like a good way to ease into the work with All Hands - and by Wednesday, I just wanted to see the rooms painted in the entire building.

Feeling quite accomplished for finishing off a large green room. We worked
around boxes filled with donated medical supplies from around the world.
© 2014 Andrea Rip

With so much bright pink paint, the exterior of the hospital looked like what Katie called the "big pink watermelon." The green roof enveloped the pink fruit while the black window sills gave the building it's seeds. All that color on the outside did not prevent the interior from becoming quite colorful itself. We painted every room in a shade of green, blue, or pink - just like a selection of Bubblicious Bubble Gum.

Before we could think about painting, we had to clean. We cleaned up gecko poop, small animal carcasses, various "fluids" on the walls (it's a hospital so your guess is as good as mine), debri left from all the construction projects going on, and in the kitchen - a whole lot of grease and grime. Cleaning involved washing, scrubbing, sanding and sweeping. Only then could we start with the rollers and paint brushes and put two coats of paint on each wall. I even was able to teach Jessica, from China, the English phrase, "coat of paint" which she thought was quite clever - or just odd.

Keeping track of wet and clean paint brushes for
each of our colors was a bit challenging when
painters changed out nearly every day.
© 2014 Andrea Rip

Did I mention that we all lived in the hospital while this work was going on? We even had bunk beds set up in the morgue. During the work, any given group of people would have to move out of their room so that it could be fixed up as an administrative office, operating room, recovery room, birthing room, or nurses station - and then some other group would move into that room when work was completed. This happened until the entire place was fixed up and we eventually all moved out into tents out front of the hospital building.

Tim, with his enviable hair managed much of the hospital work including the
meticulous painting of each room, doors, windows, and trim.
© 2014 Andrea Rip

I quickly found that I had a good hand for painting a straight edge for the eight-ish centimeters of "trim" (a darker color of the wall paint) around the bottom of all the walls. So, after the rooms walls were coated, I went around and did a lot of the trim twice over for a little visual variety.

There were a number of team members who participated on any given day. One person who I really enjoyed working with was Kamila from Poland. She reminded me so much of another Polish friend who I have and we painted quietly and occasionally talked and joked about life and the project work. I was sad to see her go after a week but she was participating in a project at the Tarsier Sanctuary on Bohol that I had visited.

Tim, and Australian American, was much more committed to the hospital painting and repair work than anyone. He had an aversion to both hospitals and the color pink due to his wife's recent breast cancer. But, I think in the end, the experience was rather therapeutic for him and he left our team with quite an accomplishment under his belt - the hospital was completed. He had one of the bigger farewells from volunteers who respected him and missed him after he took off toward Australia.

The Ceiling at Lonoy Elementary School

Carlo and John screwing support beams to the ceiling.
© 2014 Andrea Rip

One of the first projects that I did outside of the hospital was working on the Lonoy Elementary School Kindergarten classroom ceiling. When the team originally arrived to the structure, classes were still being held in this room despite a bowed and broken ceiling. The rafters and support beams were distressed and falling. First, the team led by Carlo and John removed the damaged ceiling structure and salvaged as much reusable wood as possible. Then they commenced restructuring the beams and supports.

John and Joe hammering in additional support for the plywood ceiling.
© 2014 Andrea Rip

This is where I joined the project. Just finishing the beams and supports, John's friends back in Australia donated some money to the project. John used this money to purchase plywood that was not originally funded in the project scope through All Hands.

Over the course of the day, we had to add extra wood beams so that we could secure all the plywood to the roof structure. Then we started nailing in the plywood sheets as evenly and securely as possible. The first day we only managed to tack in three plywood panels. The next day we added the rest that we had on hand and still required six more to complete the work. The volunteers back on base pitched in enough money to purchase the remaining panels and complete the ceiling in the classroom.

Kids, including Neil, always found a way to sneak in the room.
© 2014 Andrea Rip

While we worked, school kids would constantly wander into the room to see how the project was coming along. Sometimes they brought us flowers - that poor school grounds must have been picked bare by the time our work was done there. Many times we would receive notes of thanks from different classrooms, individual students, teachers, and staff. I received several from nine year old Neil who professed his love to me several times over!

Maybe the best part of working at Lonoy Elementary School was snack time. Clearly, if the kids are getting breaks and snacks, so should the volunteers who are helping out. On one day we were the grateful recipients of a stir fried meal with an entire loaf of white bread for the four of us workers. We ate our fill of it all and then some that day - along with a traditional bottle of Coke.

Lonoy Elementary School always provided good snacks while we worked.
This 'snack' nearly constituted an entire meal.
© 2014 Andrea Rip

Working at schools was rewarding because the students are always there. We could always see the kids we were benefiting and they always expressed their gratitude, asked us our names, tried to provide help, and pummeled us with questions about why we were there and our personal statuses. The teachers and staff were always full of smiles as well and treated us with a great deal of respect for the work we were doing so that they could move out of their tent classrooms and back into their normal rooms. It was not hard to feel really good about finishing a days work at a school!

Nearly finished with the project, the school presented us with a 'thank you'
banner in gratitude of all the work we performed. We also snapped a photo
to remember the day.
© 2014 Andrea Rip

Riding Caribou | Water Buffalo

Kitty mountain the caribou for her very short ride.
Photo by Mikel Iriarte

As soon as I discovered the water buffalo (locally known as caribou) in the small river near our base at the hospital, I wanted to try riding one. I witnessed men casually riding them down the road from fields to watering holes so I knew it was possible. Knowing that it was probably not going to happen, I made a joke out of it and encouraged Carlo, one of the Filipino volunteers on the project, to find a friendly water buffalo to ride. He never did find one.

Petting the water buffalo was the closest I came to riding it.
Photo by Mikel Iriarte

Diana, from Portugal, had the most beautiful way of pronouncing buffalo as BUFE-a-low. She had already given it a try - getting poked in the posterior by one of its horns before managing to secure a seat on the animal. This had the potential to be my 'running of the bulls' moment.

So, on our moving day, Kitty, decided she was going to find the owner of the buffalo in the river and give it a ride and I tagged along to have my turn, too.

Myself with Kitty and the caribou's caretaker in Kananga.
Photo by Mikel Iriarte

The woman, who was only the caretaker of the water buffalo was reluctant to let us try since she didn't want the owner to find out that she was allowing us to play with the buffalo. We convinced her to let us do a photo op only on the buffalo - just Kitty and I.

She came along the river bank and dragged the beast out of his pleasant spot in the water and pulled him along side a large felled tree trunk so that we would have a step. Kitty mounted up and, like a rodeo, began bouncing along on his back. I think Kitty was a little surprised that he started waltzing around the tree stump and it didn't take long before she fell off his back on the ground. Watching the water buffalo's wiliness, I determined that my travel insurance may not view a water buffalo incident very kindly, but settled up next to him to pet his prickly and sparse hair on his back.

We laughed so hard. The caretaker laughed right along with us. It was some salve on the overworked soul that afternoon. I think everyone really enjoyed their time and the hysteria of it all. We posed for a few photos and we gave the lovely caretaker a gift in pesos for her time and the risk she incurred for allowing us to ride without the owner's permission.

Kananga National High School

Seated for the Kananga National High School Program.
© 2014 Andrea Rip

Though I never worked on the Kananga National High School projects, I was invited, along with the rest of our group, to be a part of an appreciation ceremony that the school put on in honor of All Hands Volunteers. We all raced home from our work sites at the end of the day, cleaned up the best we could, put on our finest wrinkled clothes, clamored up onto our jeepneys again, and rushed off to the festivities.

Brett signing autographs for his screaming fan base of girls at Kananga
High School.
© 2014 Andrea Rip

The high school is located up a hill in Kananga and is a large high school campus. Many of their classrooms right now are temporary rooms donated by a Buddhist organization and set up on a playing field below their main buildings. Among other things, All Hands had teams at the high school to tarp some roofs, demolish some classrooms, and separate materials for reuse.

The students stayed late on this particular day so that they could put on a program after we finished our work day and could manage to arrive for the dinner. The program was fantastic - an hour or more of student and teacher performances put on for our Team's enjoyment. They started the evening with the Philippines' national anthem and followed that with a violin solo, dancing, and even a skit about Yolanda blowing through the Philippines and how the people (including All Hands) have come along behind her to restore the Island of Leyte.

Full pig roast at Kananga National High School.
© Andrea Rip

For the people who did work on the high school projects, there was a ceremony where they received a certificate for their work and a Philippines key chain. It was clear from the beginning of the evening that the KNHS community was grateful for the work that All Hands did for them. The generosity and gratitude that we received from the school seemed like a huge extravagance next to the work that our teams happily did for them.

After the performances, dinner was served including a full pig with all the Filipino fixings including fruit, potatoes, a salad, and a stir fry. Many of the students and nearly all the teachers stayed to socialize and enjoy the meal. Many of the girls treated Brett like a pop star and he started signing shirts after dinner. It did not take too long before everyone in our group was autographing tshirts and hats. An impromptu dance party started and some of those who had performed led everyone in the Philippines version of line dancing to songs like Gangnam...

Due to most of the students being under 18, the party broke up pretty early for our group of volunteers. We left the school looking for our jeepneys and quickly realized that the drivers had headed home for the night. At least the 5km walk back to base was mostly downhill. And, it was a beautiful night for star gazing and grabbing a little mango smoothie in town.