2009 Typhoon Ketsana
House-Building (CHARIS & HFH)
Calauan, Laguna Province, Philippines
12–18 June 2011
By Lee Wung Kong
Just six months earlier, I had returned from my first ever house-building mission trip in Padang, Indonesia. With that experience still fresh in my mind, I wanted to continue giving of my time and energy, and decided to volunteer for the house-building trip to Calauan, Laguna Province, Philippines.
Upon registration and much to my surprise, I was told that I would be the trip leader. Initially apprehensive about the huge responsibility of leading a group of strangers of different age groups and backgrounds into an unknown place, I nevertheless decided to take on this challenge. Here was the best opportunity to put to greater use the good experiences gathered from the previous trip.
This mission trip was CHARIS’ support for Habitat for Humanity’s (HFH) project of providing 4,000 families residing along the polluted, clogged Pasig River with decent homes within a sustainable community all to be built in Calauan. In September 2009, Typhoon Ketsana had struck the city of Manila and left hundreds dead and thousands displaced as well as damages amounting to several millions of dollars.
Calauan is a two-hour bus ride from Manila. On the first morning, we were taken to the worksite in a jeepney and were introduced to the home partners who would work alongside us. These were families from Phase 1 of the relocation programme who had had their homes built for them and were now paying it forward by building homes for families in Phase 2 of the programme.
A typical day started at 8 in the morning, followed by a 15-minute break at 9:45, a 1-hour lunch break at noon and another 15-minute break at 2:45 p.m. Work ended at 4 p.m. The days just flew by for when one is hard at work, time is forgotten.
During this trip, we were exposed to various types of work, including brick-laying, brick-fabrication and house-painting. While we tried our best to do everything well, our enthusiasm was no match for the finesse of the home partners who made some of us feel like we were more a hindrance than help! Nevertheless, the appreciation they showed us through their grateful smiles and the many Thank You’s stirred our heartstrings and got us all to pull that extra weight despite our limitations and exhaustion in the Calauan heat.
Despite the physical exhaustion at the end of each workday, we looked forward to the evening session when we shared and reflected on the day as well as our encounters with God for the day.
On one of our free days, HFH arranged for a play visit by the children of our home partners as well as a visit for us to the homes of the families. Playing with over 50 kids transported us back to our childhood days. The squeals of excitement and laughter that rang through the compound acted as natural endorphins for the aches in our bodies from the manual labour.
For the volunteers, it was humbling to enter the small, simple 20 square-metre homes, which were the size of a standard bedroom in an HDB apartment. The partners proudly welcomed us and showed us their simple way of life. Without electricity, the homes were void of electrical appliances that we all take for granted, like televisions, refrigerators and washing machines. There wasn’t even running water. The visit left me feeling somewhat ashamed of my excessive and materialistic ways back home.
On our last day, the families put up a little song-and-dance show as their gesture of appreciation and to bid us farewell. It was a tearful event, so full of genuine warmth that it left us all pensive on our final jeepney ride out of the worksite.
I have been asked if I would do this again and without hesitation, I said “yes”. It is not simply because of the many feel-good factors that come with participating in a mission trip but of the invaluable lessons that our good Lord so graciously teaches on these trips:
Humility and thanksgiving in what I have been given in life, patience and love that I can share with so many others besides my family and friends.
