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After plane trips and connections, a long bus ride followed by a night of getting to know the local Filipinos and celebrating, the time for work has arrived. To be honest, I was looking forward to seeing my student's encounter their first day of true manual labor. Is it because I look forward to them truly valuing what they have in their in lives? Perhaps I want them to realize the importance of jobs that many like myself have done that fall under a blue collar category? Maybe I'm just a sick, sick person who delights in the pain of others? Well, who can be sure in the end? What does matter is that the necessary ingredients to build homes and help others were all present, so time to get to it.
Our jobs were broken down into various tasks. The first group at the top of the hill had the focus of mixing concrete and laying the bricks that would serve as the main wall for the housing unit. The second group at the bottom of the hill had the job of filling the bags of sand and rocks that would end up becoming concrete at the top of
Building men of the next generation
Here is my own team, the highly regarded Midas Men. the hill. The last group was left with the best job of all, moving everything up the hill. While some of my friends in America may think ‘Great job, all you got to do is load the goods on your vehicle, then drive it up. Piece of cake.’ Yes my friends, that would be a piece of cake, so long as a road and vehicle exists to accomplish the task. If not, you’re left with a quarter of a mile stretch, mostly on a steep and overgrown hill that will only means good times are in store. Ahh, what more motivation would I need to immediately volunteer myself and students to this worthy objective (as I consider this idea, is it still enjoyable to laugh at the pain of others if this includes myself?). I have heard it said that the Chinese character for problem is the same character for opportunity, and with this experience, I think I understand this notion a bit better.
First of all, it must be said that the local villagers were not only hard working and dedicated, but were never dismayed nor fell to frustration. It seemed like no matter what learning curves were
made in this period of time, in which I became frustrated with myself by not seeing something earlier, I was always impressed by the sense of positive spirit and attitude the Filipino’s exuded so naturally. I was ever grateful their optimism, which was quite contagious. When I first walked into the village and saw the village, nearly devoid of modern day conveinances, I assumed the local population would find it tough to get by day by day. I assumed wrong, which forced me to really reconsider what makes life 'easier.' Second, I was and will always be very proud of the students and staff I worked with. Many of these students had never experienced a two hour session of being pushed physically, let alone a four day stretch of working 9 hour days in the hot sun. In short, the students became comfortable being challenged. This did sadly translate to less sadistic joy for me on their displayed discomfort, but I suppose there’s a price for everything. Last, I discovered for myself the reality of how fulfilling giving for others can be. My task was to oversee and maintain an assembly line to transport the needed supplies up. Not too
bad, save that neither the students nor villagers had ever done an assembly line as well as never have I been in charge of one. After one day of being in charge of this operation, I can testify that experience truly is the best teacher. Our first day we stumbled through getting goods up, which transformed to the end of the second day having a multi-lingual, inter-mixed, laughing and fast moving assembly line. I am quite pleased to say that the goods were moved faster than the organization had expected, and even when they ordered more supplies at a faster pace, we again moved faster than expected. In other words, a team will always be more powerful than a group of individuals.
As a person goes through these pictures and reads this entry, I suppose they may say ‘Okay, great job on helping to build homes, but what is up with all the costumed dancing pictures?’ The answer to this question falls on our second day of work. In a surprise to all of us (and partially due to waiting for more supplies since they were moved so fast), we were taken to a local dance competition in the
town of Toledo for the area schools. After lunch on our second day, we walked to the main road (seeing more of the traditional lifestyle along the way) to then be picked up by Trikes for an escorted ride to the big event. While I was expecting a sideline seat at a simple and casual dance show, I was wrong. Instead, a fully housed gymnasium and a VIP seat behind the judges was waiting for us, along with a range of stellar performances. After watching the posted videos, which is only a minor sampling of the entire show, you may agree with me and say that dance reality shows would face serious competition if they went to the Philippines. These students were simply awesome. Many times I could only sit and be overwhelmed by the complexity and quality of their routines. I really didn’t know such young students could create something that strong. I had anticipated a much lower scale dance contest with how I viewed the development of the town. My prejudice was way off, I certainly pre-judged in error and saw a great show, one that I was very grateful to see. Once again, Filipino culture revealed a
true sense of spirit and culture to me, and once again, I was impressed and grateful.
After some time passed (and the arrival of more materials), we left the performance early and worked another few hours to end the day. While I didn’t manage to get any pictures of us working after the dance, I was at least able to squeeze off a few after we had finished, celebrating another day of accomplishment. As our second day of work, and third day overall of the trip, winded down to an end, a worn out group of teachers, students and many locals went back to the village to get some much needed sleep. The next day promised more challenges and opportunities, but by our third day of working, we had a pretty good system ready to meet them. As I fell asleep to the sound of a peaceful village far from any paved road, I began to further understand how truly limited material possessions are alone in bringing happiness and a sense of worth. In other words, perhaps one is not really defined by what they own, but instead, by what they do.
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