A Game of Two Halves (Second Half, Extra Time and Penalties)

It seems that every blog post I ever read begins with an apology for it not having happened sooner; unfortunately this one is no different. We have, as ever, been incredibly busy. Time has a funny way of working on project: a day can often feel about 72 hours long, while a week can disappear before it even feels like Tuesday evening should have arrived. Months disappear like a conjurer's trick. We are now past our original end date with AHV as we were expecting to travel the Philippines for a month or so before our flight home. We have extended our time with the organisation by a (slightly flexible) month for two reasons: the first is that we are slightly worse off for money than expected at this point in the trip and the AHV lifestyle is a remarkably cheap way of living; the second (and more admirable) reason, is that we are constantly overwhelmed by the amount of work that is left to do. Somehow it doesn't feel quite right to go and spend five weeks on a variety of beaches while Tacloban is still in such a dire state of need.

The original "Game of Two Halves' post was intended to document the change in mood and fortune that took place over a two week period, some three weeks ago. I wrote the first post about some of the hardest times we had experienced since our arrival, and this post, the sequel, was supposed to detail the brilliance of the week that followed. Of course enough time has passed since then for the entire somersault to have taken place twice again. This, then, is Match of the Day - all the highlights with a bit of chat in between.

The picture above is the updated 'before and after' images of Jeremy's house. I wrote in the previous post at length about his experiences in the storm and I am happy to be able to write that work on his plot was completed a few days after the blog was published. He will now have money made available to him for rebuilding to take place.

Background time: In a similar arrangement to the AHV/Operation Blessing deal I described previously, AHV is working alongside other charities such as Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and the UNDP's Cash for Work scheme to enable the most effective relief effort. CRS, as an organisation, make funds available to homeowners to rebuild on their land, but are not permitted to clear debris or deconstruct buildings on private property. They will also not release the funds until this process has been completed by a third party, which is where we come in. In fact, it's more complicated even than that. CRS give money to families only in multiples of ten, per Barangay (the local name for a small residential area within a city; there are 138 Barangays in Tacloban). The idea behind this is that the families will all help each other in the clearance stages while CRS will only communicate with one representative per ten families, reducing the strain on their own human resources in the city. However, money will only be made available if the work is completed on all ten plots by a set time, meaning that our priority sites are often the ones that need to be done as quickly as possible to ensure the beneficiaries receive their funds. Jenny has recently begun training as a field coordinator, working closely with CRS representatives to identify our priority sites and carrying out assessments on potential new programmes around the city. She will eventually be leading the 'work for tomorrow' briefings in our nightly meetings, instructing all AHV volunteers on what needs to be done the following day, and introducing team leaders to their beneficiaries. This job is incredibly stressful, by virtue of being one of the most vital links in the chain that takes us from sitting on base drinking San Miguel to picking up our tools and heading out in the morning but it also takes the job satisfaction level to new heights as she is now actively, personally helping a far greater number of people over the course of a single day. She also gets to carry a clipboard which everyone knows is a sign of true authority, I'm immensely jealous.

Since completing work on Jeremy's house Jenny and I have worked on a range of similar programmes. Below are a couple of 'before' photos for job sites that will be coming up in the near future:

Each job is different, but the daily routine remains the same: We arrive at the job site, where the team leader discusses the proposed goals with the homeowner. The team leader then briefs the group of volunteers (anywhere between 3-10, usually) on the task at hand, discusses any major risks and delegates specific roles to team members. The primary objective is to make any structurally unsound areas of the site as safe as possible as soon as possible and then clear rubble and debris and salvage any building materials so that the CRS funds can be put to the best possible use. In some case this is a simple case of knocking over a wall, but it can be an incredibly complex and dangerous task, in which case, special AHV 'safety trained' teams are brought in. A programme can last anywhere between a couple hours to a number of weeks. Jeremy's house, for example, took teams numbering as many as fourteen over three weeks to complete. We completed ten deconstruction and clearance sites in Tacloban last week and the eleventh of this week was finished today. The plan is for all deconstruction and clearance work conducted by AHV to cease in August, so the orginisation can focus on the transitional shelter programme in Santo Nino, but even that would see us complete somewhere in the region of a further 120 sites before easing up on the work that is normally completed within three months of a disaster.

There is, however, another reason for being too busy to post. My previous entry came at the beginning of our second mental health break. I try not to talk too much about our relaxation time out here for fear of straying too far from the point of the blog but rest assured we had a much needed break on the neighbouring island of Samar. Driving for hours in a hired van, Jenny and I, along with two of our closest volunteer family members spent three days enjoying beaches, food and the unforgettable experience of watching Filipino boxer / congressman / hero Manny Pacquiao in action on a big screen in a local sports centre. Thankfully he won and the national holiday that occurs whenever he fights was able to continue in good spirit!

We returned to base and completed a day and a half's work before packing up our lives once more, and moving to the new headquarters of the project, in the much more central Barangay Utap, around ten minutes (and, more importantly, ten pesos) away from the city proper. Our new base is the final step for the project and we are finally being joined by the full volunteer force from Ormoc, the first time the entire AHV Project Leyte team has been under one roof for over two months. This means a return to full scale communal living, sharing our home with over 50 people, and it has come as a real shock to the system after our lengthy spell in the mountains with a much smaller group. That said, it is a huge improvement as far as the orginisation is concerned, and sleeping under a roof rather than a tent has come as a relief! The move was timed to coincide with Holy Week (Good Friday - Easter Sunday) in which the majority of the country shuts down, much like England between Christmas Eve and Boxing Day. This is a family time for Filipinos and our work schedule was halted, which allowed us a long weekend to adjust to our new environment and a little more beach time thrown in for good measure!

Taylor saying goodbye to our mountain home.

By the beginning of this week, then, we had managed a paltry 1.5 days of decent work in the previous fortnight. Needless to say, returning to the six day week has been a difficult task, and we have both felt the effects of the physical work, the heat and the return to routine extremely hard. The physicailty of the work takes a cumulative effect on the body and, at the end of our tenth week on project, every little ache or hour sledgehammering in the sun feels like a body blow in a way that is much harder to recover from than it was earlier in our stay. Jenny was forced to take a few days off suffering from serious fatigue, while I have taken on a site which is less physical than my normal work, allowing me to pace myself. That said, clearing wooden and plastic debris in temperatures exceeding 35C and >85% humidity is only slightly easier than clearing concrete and I am only just holding on! The staff here have been incredibly understanding and have all experienced the same problems having been long term volunteers on previous projects. Thankfully there is no judgement passed over anyone who needs to take it easy for a while and everyone is afforded the time they need to maintain their health.

After two days of clearing, my recent site is slowly returning to normal.

There has been no lack of drama on my new worksite, though. Work is currently suspended for the second time while we review the safety of the area. Our first scare revolved around the discovery of huge amounts of a dark, sticky liquid that rose from the ground as we dug.  Our initial thought was that it could ahve been blood, and, as such, the site was evacuated and a sample taken to the local authorities for testing. Seeing as I had already discovered a dog's jaw bone in the rubble, our field coordinator then conducted a thorough search of the area for any other animal or, potentially human remains. Nothing was discovered and, despite still not having heard the results of the tests, we felt comfortable to resume work. However, that did not last long as we almost immediately stumbled across large quantities of asbestos. It is still legal to build with asbestos in the Philippines and we will have to be able to deal with it as we continue clearing these kinds of sites but, until the correct procedure has been developed, we will be working on other sites in town, of which there are more than enough to choose from.

Finally, if you want to do something crazy, try climbing a mountain in the Philippines in flip flops in the blazing sun and occasional downpour with no drinking water and a 'guide' who confirms your suspicions that he has never before actually climbed this exact mountain just as you have fallen and slid halfway down it and are inspecting the myriad cuts, scrapes and grazes that now cover your body. This was our day off last week. We were expecting a casual stroll up a hill but, before long, found ourselves scaling sheer rock walls, hanging onto vines and giving each other leg ups, only to have to bushwhack our way out of the jungle with a machete. Here are some photos of the most memorable day of rest I have experienced in a long time!

Our welcome party, after four hours of bushwhacking, was this rather suave looking water buffalo.

Thank you for reading, apologies again for the time delay. We fly home less than five weeks from now but I will endeavour to post at least twice more before we finish with AHV. Also, massive thanks to those who have donated to our Just Giving site, I would really love to reach our target before we leave so please take a look.