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Doing good in Manila

Our big ending climax has started: the Philippines. There are so many stories to tell: crazy Manila-city-traffic moments, being confronted directly withe poor/rich-gap, my first Asian culture-experience or the total climate change compared to the freezing cold North Platte, aside from that the biggest thing is our volunteer work.

For the past couple of days our group of 19 volunteers has been working at Gawad Kalinga (=GK) Teguig. This site is located in the surroundings of a stinky river (covered with garbage) and slum houses. But the GK project fights against this by building houses in hopeful colors and paid with the sweat of the future inhabitants. Each family can only live in one of the houses if they have contributed to the construction and can only stay if they remain to be active in the GK community. Our site has seven parts and some are at the end of their development, some are just about to start, some contain school or other community facilities.



The first day they explained us the whole concept by taking a look at the different parts of our Gawad Kalinga project and community members shared their experiences. Besides that we were treated with a delicious home-cooked Philippine dish, at first I was hesitant because it looked strange but trying it helps. Another amazing first day experience was being dropped in a local family, everyone single one of us was placed in a different family to meet them for 30 minutes. To me this sounded so pushy. The first moments were indeed kind of awkward, but slowly we started a conversation and eventually I had the best 30 minutes of the whole day. In this half hour we tried to teach each other some words in our language, the kids and I played a bit (I even received a bracelet from the smallest of the 4 children) and just talked about very basic things to get to know one another.



The next days we started with our “real” volunteer work. However I have to mention that one of the GK members made an interesting comment: It is not just construction labor or teaching practical skills to the community moms that should be seen as valuable volunteer work, it is the interaction and interest of foreign volunteers that gives them the hope that people actually believe in their project. Our group was split into 7 small groups. Four groups work on construction sites and did work ranging from painting to sifting to building walls. My site was finishing up for the opening ceremony, which occurred on Monday. The whole community came together to celebrate the entry of the families into the houses, a beautiful moment where our group was part of. Other groups played with the local children or taught them English and just help out with their classes. And the last group is responsible for livelihood workshops, where they teach the local moms and children practical skills or just have fun. During the past days we taught them Up with People songs, someone learned them Japanese writing, everyone danced together, they taught us their language and we taught them some English. For the next couple of days we hope to do some geography, making bracelets they can sell, teaching some more English, etc. So you see, a high variety volunteer project where our whole group can put in its passion for these two weeks.



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Mid-west small towns

Would you ever as a tourist think of a destination like Cheyenne? Or Aberdeen? Or Sioux Falls? Or North Platte? Maybe not, but that is what makes it so interesting to drop a 22-country counting cast inside of them.

Cheyenne
The capital of Wyoming, but only 53000 people, very small compared to the other USA state capitals. But it is famous for it's rodeo traditions, it has the largest outdoor rodeo in the world. Our whole cast got the chance to meet some rodeo-cowboys. I got the opportunity to throw a lasso, catch a goat and ride a fake bull.






Beside this chance to get some rodeo-experience, the opportunity arised to have a 20 minute radio interview. It went really smooth, so a very good first experience. Another great memory was our community impact project in this city. Together with CALC we worked on constructing houses for the homeless, which will hopefully be finished by next month. Our contribution here will last forever, let us hope because we set the walls!



Aberdeen
On the way to Aberdeen our buses stopped at 2 places, first of all Mt. Rushmore. The famous monument of 4 presidents that were important for the American history, i.e. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865). And a real treat was waiting for our cast, a group overnight in cabins in the Black hills



Our stay in this small town mid-west city was made more exciting by our host family, the Halloween-happenings, a surprise birthday party of someone we did not know and a very intense cast-week-game (Up with people Land). This cast game simulated a hierarchical city and was focused on immigration issues, super interesting! Aside from that I worked on educational workshops, about international relations and one about Belgium (!).

Sioux Falls
This city will always leave a strong memory, because of a great mixture of exciting things. Goofing of at a basketball court on a volunteer project in a rehabilitation center. Another great moment was performing at the half-time show of an important high school football game, we had to bear freezing cold temperatures but we danced our heart out! This week was also my first internship week, what means that I'm helping out the education staff for 6 weeks. It is a great way to learn a lot about up with people, improve some of my educational skills, learn more about volunteer projects we do along the way, etc. And last but not least my host family was incredible. If all people in Sioux Falls are like this family then everyone should visit this city!

Crazy basketball moments


My host family


We performed at a football game, incredible experience (however also really cold)


North Platte
Our last city in the USA was North Platte - Nebraska.

Up with People also performs at parades apparently... A great cast atmosphere moment.


This is the last sunshine in the US shining on the railroad factories. North Platte has the biggest railroad hub in the USA, which makes it the 5th most attractive place to bomb for terrorists in the US (what a random fact to close down...)
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