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.