After an exciting weekend in El Nido, we came back on Sunday night, exhausted but looking forward to a good week of volunteering. Monday was a national holiday here in the Philippines and the schools had the day off, so a few of the teaching volunteers came to help with construction (which was good because we needed as many of the extra hands as we could get). Our task: building a stage for the local community, about two miles from the camp where we were staying.
After a hearty breakfast and a hefty application of sunscreen, we departed in the morning to work on building the walls and structure of the stage. We mixed bags on bags of concrete (lots of de-piling and re-piling) while others were spreading and filling the concrete on a layer bricks and then laying another layer of bricks. With the everyone working and sweating hard in the heat, we were able to make major progress on the structure throughout the morning. After breaking for lunch and resting our muscles, we worked on filling the inside of the stage with dirt, thereby raising the middle of the pit so it was level with the bricks. Buckets and buckets of dirt (shoutout official bucket man Charlie Moore) were hauled from behind the stage to the center. Again, this was exhausting work, but with so many hands and an energy boost from lunch, we were able to fill most of the stage with dirt before breaking for the rest of the day. Overall, it was easily our most exhausting day of work, but also incredible to see how much progress could be made in a day of hard work. Nothing could have been more refreshing than jumping into the sea as soon as we got back (the rough waves kept the jellyfish out of the shore line).
Tuesday morning, we woke up with soreness in our muscles but determined to push through and make an impact. Again, we headed out to the construction site, this time to lay more layers of bricks, fill in more dirt, and sift dirt to separate the fine dirt from the rocks. The rain cooled us off throughout the day, but also made some of the tasks more difficult and we had to break a few more times when the rain came pouring in. We worked hard and rewarded ourself with a nice dip in the sea again afterwards. That evening the power went out for a few hours, but we got into an intense game of Pitch (a card game taught by Yusuf) and played with flashlights. Afterward, with the light still out, we broke into teams to solve a logic puzzle supposedly designed by Einstein. Chaos ensued as 8 different nationalities attempted to work together on the riddle. Regardless, by the time the lights came back on, it was almost time for bed after a good night of bonding and competition. We went to bed with the realization that our time in the Philippines was quickly drawing to a close and reflecting on how great of an experience is has been so far.
– Umang Lathia
EGL Family Abroad 