Day Eight: From Trash to Treasures

Today we started by splitting into two activities, feedings and construction. The people doing construction dug a septic tank and used the dirt to level a floor ready to concrete. This will help the people living in the house dispose of their waste properly instead of having it flow above ground through their street. The people on feeding went to Angona, which is a small community next to a rubbish dump and handed out food, balloons and pipe cleaners.

After lunch the whole team jumped into vehicles and headed to San Mateo but stopped at a school along the way called Bagong Nayon II Antipolo Christian School where we were greeted by signs and a multitude of screaming, smiling children.  One team did a devotion for the children and some of the students did a cheering leading presentation for us, which they had spent hours practising since being invited to go there three days ago.  Then a group of us played basketball against them. Although our team was slaughtered, we all had lots of fun, with Sharon scoring an incredible 3-pointer. 

After that we continued onto San Mateo where we were greeted by a smiling community. This part of the day was definitely the highlight as we gave out care packages to the families. We went in pairs to a home where we prayed a blessing over the family and the care package. It was emotionally challenging to see their living conditions as most of the houses were smaller than our standard bedroom size in Australia.  The families were so welcoming and the whole team felt privileged to be able to bless the families with the packages and see the joy on their faces. After we handed out the packages we made balloon animals for the children. It was great to see how they appreciated such a small gift. It made many of us feel guilty with how privileged we are in our own lives. It was then that difficult time when we had to leave and say goodbye.

For our night activity, we went to Blue Water Spa, where we indulged in a relaxing massage and were able to sweat in the saunas. With that we enjoyed some scrumptious donuts and coffee!

Later that evening, during debrief time you could sense the heavy-hearted atmosphere and how emotional the whole group was. It really impacted us how unfair and unjust the world truly is.