Getting Used to This

In just one week, I’ve gotten used to a lot of the situations I thought would initially difficult to adapt to. The intermittent running water, electricity, and internet hasn’t really been much of a problem, and bucket flushing the toilets has become completely stress-free. Before coming here, I thought the cold water showers were going to be the hardest part about living here, but they feel absolutely amazing with the humidity and heat. I’ve also gotten used to the thin layer of dirt, sweat, and bug spray that immediately covers my body once I get out of the shower.

Living like this seemed so incredibly hard when I was used to all of the comforts of home, but getting accustomed to base life has been a lot easier than expected. (So easy that any of my theoretical readers should totally log on to www.hands.org and sign up for a project immediately!) In the grand scheme of things, we have it a lot easier than most of the people in the area, so there’s absolutely no reason to complain. I’m really glad we have everything that we do at base, and it’s starting to feel like home.

On the other hand, my biggest fear before touching down in Tacloban was getting Dengue Fever, but since I’ve experienced the joys of diarrhea-induced dehydration on a work site with a bucket flush toilet, I guess the fear of that resurfacing has been added to the list. Though Dengue Fever is still at the top of the list, and there’s even a highly informational warning board on base that can attest to why.

Summary: Don’t get dengue.

But above all, it’s been so easy to get used to the living here because the work that this organization is doing goes above and beyond what I thought coming in, and the impact can be felt every day. Whether it’s the person who gives you a free ride from the airport or the half-hour long conversation that pops up as you are leaving a café while wearing an All Hands shirt, the organization has created solid positive roots in the community. All Hands has worked on builds for temporary housing, permanent housing, beautiful local space, shelters, hospitals, schools, and so much more. No matter what kind of tough or different living situations they throw at the volunteers, we will always show up because this work matters.

We’ve currently got four major projects:

1. Building a classroom for a school
2. Building a dorm, office, study center, and clinic for a local organization
3. Beautifying the immediate area we live in, called Utap
4. Satellite project – Building an evacuation center in Hernani, a municipality on the eastern coast of Samar, a few hours from base

I’ll do individual posts about each work site I go to in the future (possibly much later since I want to post pictures and uploading them has proven difficult).

This has been a quick post, but just wanted to let everyone at home know that all is well and I’m feeling healthy and great. To wrap it up, the quote of the week went something like: If you get cement on your skin, it will eat through it and you will get a cement burn, but you can avoid this by washing it off immediately in the water over there, except the water has E. coli, so avoid touching your face afterwards. And if you have cuts on your hands…then maybe don’t.

Love it here.