Hello again! We are still on the island of Samal. The small paradise island where the more fortunate people of Philippines and Davao go to enjoy a day in the weekends. We have notice the fact as the resort got invaded by locals to celebrate a day with their families enjoying sun, bath and some food. The few of us staying at the resort was aware of the crowd already by breakfast. Like Germans they had already occupied the sun-chairs on the beach and by noon we stood there as two misguided tourists asking ourselves where to go. To the reception! [View Full Entry]

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Paradise Island Hi again; after a day with no internet-connection we are again on line to the rest of the world. We left Panabo and the small village were the Project-house is and headed for Davao City to take a boat over to Samal Island, also called Paradise Island. I was only a trip of 15 minutes so we thought we should be there within an hour or two. We did not calculate the time it would take to struggle through the heavy trafficked road going south of Mindanao. All though it was Wednesday and the clock was showing 10 am [View Full Entry]

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It’s not all Bananas After a day in the Projecthouse not doing anything but read books, make sketches on some houses and doing some calculation we where pretty exhausted with the lack of program. Add to that a two-hour massage and you will understand our state of frustration. As we were used to go daily to the town we also realized that we did not have any food, but some sweet bread for an afternoon tea. But as mentioned; laying around not doing anything did not burned many calories and we both have some spare so we coped pretty well. The [View Full Entry]

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Sunday We had three godchildren left to visit so we started early while it was quite a distance to drive. Well, maybe the distance was not that far but it still took an hour to go there. Joville Dave was home with her mother and sisters. They lived in the same simple environments as all the other but here they had floor because the house was standing on pillars. I guess it was because of floodwater that now and then could come. We was invited inside and talked with a very polite 11 years old girl. Within minutes the room and [View Full Entry]

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The Godchildren We packed our gifts and got in the van with Mr. EmEm, his sister and five other godchildren. The journey went through fields of Rice, Banana trees and pure jungle. After a while in our van it was time to say hallo to the first Godchild. He was adopted by us as Godparents just recently. The boy was 14 year of age and lived with his sister, mother and father. His father was at the moment working harvesting Bananas. The tree of them greeted us with big smiles, and Jessie, the godchild invited us in to their home. Normally [View Full Entry]

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Saturday, the cleaning day. This morning we wake up really early with noise of children. Today it’s the big cleaning day were all the godchildren get their allowance. Some are here early because it’s the highlight of the week. Within a couple of hours it’s around 60 children sweeping and cleaning everything in the garden that needs to be removed. Some are more enthusiastic about it and some are disturbed by some white people. We was introduced to one of our godchildren; Jessie. He got his first allowance today and we could see he was proud. We are waiting to go [View Full Entry]

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Friday the 13th We started early to see the plot on where the education-center, storage/machinery-hall and orphanage shall be build. The plot has access from to sides, which are good. The immediate idea was to divide the orphanage and the agriculture-center from each other with a separate entrance to each part. In this way we can leave the natural boundary consisting of a small river with lots of green plants and trees. The plot is fairly flat with only a few meters difference in level. With a land of 50.000 m2 this will than be of no problem. People, mostly farmers, [View Full Entry]

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Hi, my name is Shibur and I am 9 years old. Today is my birthday and I can come home early today, before it’s dark. This morning, like every morning, I was waked up by my older sister. She are one of my 5 sisters and the second oldest of my sisters and brothers. My two brothers are younger than me. It’s starting to get bright during my early breakfast with rice. I have to be there before 6 am; otherwise I will miss the first busy workers. I ride with my older sister on our bike. She’s working at a [View Full Entry]

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Hello everybody, at last we reach our destination in the Phillipines after an exhausting trip of 23 hours. In addition we (I) had to be in the air (over India) when Liverpool played against Real Madrid. So the first thing I did in Singapore airport was to check the result. And you can all guess that the trip further on went good. 4-0 ; would any of you believe that? So we landed on the international airport of Davao. The size like an average airport in Sweden. Four docs and one belt for luggage. Then the obligatory line for Passport, check [View Full Entry]

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The first stop of the trip to Phillipines; Barcelona. A big city, crouded streets and people all over. But probably nothing comparing to what we expect in Davao City. We found a nice hotel in the middle of Barca; Eurostar. A newly redecorated boutique-hotel located in the famous La-Rambla street. Just over 50 Euros for a doubleroom. With free internet and very clean (and new) interior, we think this is good value for money. www.eurostarshotels.com Went for some hours walk in the heart of the city....Cosy, small streets with tiny restaurants, coffeeshops and cervezerias made it impos [View Full Entry]

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