I knew it had been raining a lot here in Bohol but I wasn’t prepared for the storm that came through the first night. We were offered space inside to sleep due to the concern of camping with the expected wind speeds of 100km/h. I don’t know if the wind was at that speed but it was loud enough along with the rain to make me glad I wasn’t in my tent!
If you didn’t know I’m volunteering for a charity called All Hands in The Philippines.
The local communities need help from a devastating earthquake as well as one of the most powerful typhoons on record.
I’m on the island of Bohol which was the epicentre of the earthquake. There are a lot of unsafe buildings that were damaged; people’s houses, churches, schools, etc. The buildings need to be demolished safely and the resulting rubble cleared so rebuilding work can start.
They are lots of people living in temporary tents/structures as they have no where else to go.
I’ve noticed special tents called shelter boxes by Vango, so well done to them for supplying them, don’t know if they donate them but I hope they do.
My living arrangements consist of my tent surrounded by other tents in a festival type arrangement, ie they are virtually on top of each other! The base is part of a holiday resort, although that is a strong word for it!
There are around 70 people on base, 60 or so are volunteers.
We share 4 toilets and 2 real showers. I’m choosing to use the bucket variety as the queue is shorter…
We are provided with 3 ‘meals’ a day. Food has turned into fuel now, so breakfast is generally a peanut butter and fried egg sandwich along with a bowl of oatmeal (porridge) with milk powder and nescafe 3 in 1 which just isn’t coffee! That is my allowance of food and the most calories I can come up with.
We leave base at 7am with everyone piled on to a jeepney, people covering the roof, sitting on the bonnet, basically anywhere you can hold on.
I’ve worked on a couple of people’s houses and a few schools. It’s hard work demolishing as everything is done by hand. Imagine smashing concrete walls, floors, beams, pillars to get to the metal reinforcing bars and then cut them out with bolt croppers, then do it in the hot sun with high humidity and you’ve got what I’ve been doing!
The fun bit is weakening a building so we can pull it down by people power with nothing but ropes.
It’s satisfying to see a building fall to the floor done purely by the 7 or 8 people there with nothing more than sledgehammers and ropes. That does leave a big pile of rubble though which we then clear into piles so the materials that are undamaged can be reused to build again.
The locals seem so happy to have us here helping, smiles and waves when we drive by. The kids screaming ‘Helllloooo’, it is really nice and rewarding.
The group of volunteers here are a diverse bunch but everyone is here by choice and for ultimately the same reason, to help. For that reason we all seem to get along fantastically and its great to be part of this group.
The one problem we have is tools, namely a shortage of them. We break a lot due to the nature of the work. There is no shortage of willing people. We could do more with more tools.
If you would like to help you can by donating via http://www.justgiving.com/DennersHQ or text my code ‘IDHQ99 with £5 or £10 to 70070.
It really does make a difference to people’s lives and to the children who are being taught in tents right now.
The sooner we can get the buildings down, the sooner the classrooms can be rebuilt.
Do it for the children!
As I finish this post it is absolutely pouring down, hope my tent works!
One thing for sure it means the mozzies are coming…
