This blog is a little late due to some technical difficulties in getting pictures posted on it. In the beginning of our month in the Philippines our contact Jeremy asked if anyone had any professional experience in construction. As I looked around the room I saw no hands go up. So reluctantly I volunteered to help in whatever Jeremy had in mind, though I clearly explained to him that I had no professional experience. But at this time I would like to thank my dad and brothers for allowing me to help in random projects and giving me some knowledge of construction. After I volunteered another racer, Matthew, agreed to help. He too had little experience with construction, but we both had eager hearts to serve.
Jeremy informed us that he knew very little about the situation. The only real information he could give us is that a young married couple needed us to build them a bathroom. Instantly my thought process went from we can do this to oh crap. My mistake in this was that I was imagining a typical American bathroom with running water, toilet, and a shower. All of this of course would be surrounded by drywall with a few outlets and at least one light bulb.
I realized my mistake the next day when we went to visit the site. They lived in a very small and basic house. It didn’t have electricity, running water, or even drywall. It looked like somebody had taken some wood and bamboo, and made a large fort. I realized all they needed was a basic toilet with some kind of structure around it.
That day we went out and picked up all our supplies that we could with the limited budget we had. The next day we began working and made good progress. We started off by cementing the toilet to the septic tank. Then we
made a basic frame with four posts sunk deep in the ground to keep it stable. We may have been able to finish in one day, but we ran out of wood. So we left and picked up more wood. These are all random pieces of wood that we found in a large wood pile. Many of the pieces still had bark on them. Clearly we were not shopping at Lowes but it would be enough to finish the job.
The following day we went back to finish the job. We finished the siding first. Then we put on the tin roof, and we finished by adding a K.I.M. tarp for the purpose of a door. The couple was thrilled that they could stop digging holes, and I was thanking God that He gave Matthew and myself the wisdom we needed to complete the project. It may not look like much from the American perspective, but that bathroom will be a major blessing in that couple’s life. God definitely taught me through this process that I need to leave my American ideals in America. Just because we do things one way in America does not make that the right way or the only way.
God Bless
