Fiesta Days

The day started like all of our other days here in the Philippines so far, with breakfast at 7am, except for one thing. The kitchen had run out of bacon. It was a sad day for some people, but the breakfast was delicious as always. 

After breakfast we got organized to head out to the new homes to do some more work. The final few things that we needed to complete the new homes were ordered, along with plywood and tin for us to repair the house of Christina, a single mom with several children who we had given a care package to last week. More details of this work will come when we do the work, hopefully tomorrow. As we were about to leave, it was noticed that the jerry can gas tank was empty, and we did not have anymore gas to fill it up. Nobody was sure where the gas went, as we had lots left in it the night before. The team ended up taking the resort shuttle bus to the jobsite.

At the work sites, the women painted the first coat of colour on the upper home. One team of guys were at each home, and worked on the windows and doors. That is our final task on these couple places. We should be able to get this done with a small crew tomorrow.

At 9:30am, we packed up and headed back to the resort with the shuttle bus, as it needed to be back by 10am for the other resort guests, and Joven had arranged a fiesta with the children from town. The word had been spread on Facebook, and was planned for about 10 or 10:30am. Joven had some traditional Filipinogames planned, and we had some group games arranged for the children.

We didn’t know what to expect with Joven’s games, so we were just as curious about them. For the first game, we saw Joven oiling up a tall bamboo pole, and planting it in the middle of the open space behind the hotel. Then he got a ladder and hung a bag of many close to the top of the pole. The object was to see who could climb the oiled pole to get the money bag. A few of the boys started putting sand on their hands and feet to give them grip, but that didn’t seem to help much. Then they started working together on lifting other children up as high as possible. It ended with one of us lifting up one of the children to reach the money bag. A really cool thing to see at the end was that the child who grabbed the money bag shared it with as many people as he could.

The next game was 4 blindfolded people and 2 chickens inside a circle of people. The blindfolded people had to try catch the chickens, and the circle was to keep the chickens inside. The children who caught the chicken got to keep if for their family.

Another game was a coconut covered on oil and charcoal, with slits cut into it, and money shoved into the slits. The coconutwas hung on a rope, and the children had to grab the money with their mouth while the coconut swung around like a pinata. The younger boys had to be stopped several times because it was getting too rough, and the girls got to finish getting the money. There was a lot of black faces by the time it was done.

There was also a pinata and a couple other games that the children played.

After lunch we headed out to White Sand Beach for a relaxing afternoon. There we walked the beach, got some mango ice cream, and did some shopping. 

At 3:30pm we went out for a sunset sailing trip. We all had grand envisions of sitting on the upper deck with a glass of wine in lounge chairs enjoying the sunset. We sure were in for a surprise. The boats were about 3’ wide with outriggers about 12’ out on each side. Our seats were a plastic net between the main boat and the outrigger. Some of us ended up being dunked under water a few times when the wind gusts picked up. It was definitely an experience that we will not soon forget.

Once the cruise was done, the group went for a nice buffet dinner, and headed back to the resort for the evening.

The big highlight of the day for me was seeing Roque Siera working when we got back to the beach from our sailing excursion. He was standing with a group of his co-workers on the beach, and came over when he saw us. 

Roque Siera is who we are building the one house up on the hill for. He has a wife and 2 sons, age 14 and 16. His job is a boat captain who shuttles people from the high-end resorts to watersports and other activities at White Sand Beach. He makes 590 peso, or $15-$16, per day. It is hard to imagine that families are surviving on this.

It was nice having an easier day, and being able to see some other parts of the island, but the relationships we are building with the locals and people we are building the house for is what makes the trip meaningful. Being able to help the people, show them that other people care, and that God cares for them is why we are here in the first place. We hope and pray that the Lord may show Roque and the other locals that God really does provide for all things, and that He is able and willing to save all people.

“Praise God from whom all blessings flow”