Last day in Boracay

Today was our final full day on the island. Everyone's suitcases have been packed, weighed, repacked, and double checked. The last breakfast orders have been sent to the kitchen and slowly all the lights are being turned off as the hotel quiets down for the night.

We used our last full day here to finish off some projects and help out around the hotel. Right after breakfast a couple guys headed back to Christine's house where we were doing some renovations, to lay down the vinyl flooring and cut it to size. They left behind a hammer and some nails along with the extra boards and plywood from the renovations so that the boys there can keep improving their living conditions.

It's amazing to see the transformation there from the first time we visited when dropping off a food hamper to now. Before, we could barely walk on their floor as the rotted floor boards couldn’t support our weight, and now they have a beautiful floor with plywood around the walls to protect them from the wind and some shiny new tin on the roof to keep the rain out. What a blessing to be able to help this family in this way and give them hope for the future.

Some of the others guys stayed back at the hotel and helped the local workers that are repairing the roof of the hotel. When the typhoon ripped across the island on Christmas Day, it blew the church right off the roof. The guys were able to straighten out the pillars and build the trusses back up so that pretty soon the tin can be put on and church services can be held there again. 

A bunch of us ran down the road later in the morning to have a quick look at the school there. A lot of the students had shown up today but there were still a lot of teachers missing just like yesterday so once again we weren't able to do the feeding program. It’s hard for us to imagine that school would need to be cancelled for 2 days because the teachers are recovering from a local holiday. However, we were able to look around the school, play some tag with the students, and hand out the friendship bracelets that some student from TCS sent along.

We spent the rest of the day organizing the hygiene packages for the sponsor children for the next 2 months, doing our interviews for the team video that Hungry For Life puts out, and doing our final debrief. It’s very nice to be able to talk as a team about the different experiences that we've all had before jumping back into the regular hustle and bustle of daily life in Chilliwack that often keeps us so busy. It’s important to take a step back and look at all the lives we've touched by being here for a week. Our field partner Joven used a really interesting example. He said that when he went snorkeling a while ago, the instructors told him not to touch any of the coral as it would leave a mark and the coral would never be the same again. That’s the example that he compared our visit to. We have had some very meaningful time here and will return back home differently then when we left it 10 days ago, but the people here and the community of Yapak will also remember that group of Canadians that flew across the world to help their community.

P.S. for anyone that is adventurous with their food, Google what Balut is and you can see what some of the team had after supper for dessert