That's a Wrap

Our time with AHV has come to an end. 15 weeks after arriving at the hospital in Kananga we said our goodbyes to our new family at Tacloban airport and travelled for a few days around the Philippines before flying back to England on June 5th. It is incredible to think that the journey we were anticipating for so long has reached its conclusion already and we are both desperately trying to formulate a plan to get back to Tacloban and AHV as soon as possible. 

True to form, however, our final week on project was not an uneventful one. While I worked on my final decon. sites, the issue of asbestos became a larger and larger stumbling block for the organisation. Jenny was at the forefront of AHV's approach to the issue and eventually the decision had to be made to halt all rubble clearance, decon and safety work in Tacloban. As a result, we committed our entire volunteer force to the Santo Niño rebuild project, which, I am pleased to report, was completed a week after we left. Despite the issues with the initial houses that we worked on, there are now sixty fully completed transitional shelters ready to be moved into as a result of AHV's work: something to be immensely proud of. 

Surrounded by AHV built shelters, I am looking at the only house that stood when we arrived in the community in March.

Jenny's role changed significantly over the course of her time on project and, as such, she is certainly the best person to explain how and why that decision was made:

The last few weeks on project were an entirely different experience for me than the previous months, and the final week brought about some enormous decisions and changes.  I mentioned in the last post that asbestos was becoming an issue on some of our work sites.  Sadly this did not cease to be a problem but only intensified.

After extensive research we had a pretty good idea about what Asbestos was and the type of materials that it could be found in. Unfortunately, however, it was one of those situations where the more we learnt, the more we could see it.  And it was everywhere! The likelihood is that the majority of the houses we have worked on have had asbestos in them; it is not only a risk in the roofing insulation, as we first assumed, but also in wall panels and concrete adhesives.

In a pile of debris like this, it's almost impossible to avoid disturbing any asbestos that may be hidden in the wreckage.

One of the problems we faced through research was that there are a variety of opinions on the amount of exposure that can be damaging to humans, from one particle, to regular long-term exposure.  Therefore there was a lot of talk about working on sites but avoiding the areas where asbestos was found.  It is less likely to cause damage when it is wet, as the fibres do not float into the air, and so AHV bought watering cans for each team.  Masks were also discussed, making it mandatory for all volunteers, although I wouldn't want to be the one to make all the boys shave their beards (more on that later)!  And, sadly, it turned out that the Philippines do not manufacture or sell a mask that would be able to protect us against the fibres.

We had a meeting with our Team Leaders discussing the material and ways to reduce the damage it could cause.  This was a low point for me.  I couldn't bear sending my friends into an environment that I did not consider safe.  I felt a huge responsibility to the people I cared about and despite wanting to do my best for the communities and especially the families we had already promised to help, I just didn't feel comfortable sending my friends to work everyday.

The more the issue was discussed, the bigger the problem appeared to be.  AHV have no protocol in place for dealing with the material and, although this made me angry at first, it turned out that no one in the INGO world does!  Even the UN cannot fathom how to deal with a material that is so useful (cheap, fire proof and insulating) but poisonous.  I attended a meeting with two men responsible for waste disposal at the UN and the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), where they run a ‘Cash for Work’ scheme, hiring locals to clean up private and public property.  Neither of these men were any further along than us and their workers were still continuing to expose themselves, just the same as ours.  They did have some positive points though: an asbestos expert was being brought in at the end of June to try to tackle the issue in Tacloban.  This would be a huge job and the primary question would initially be, ‘Do we deal with this according to US/British laws, or according to Filipino ones?’  The answer to that question will define which of two very different paths the organisation will move down next.

These kind of damaged structures are the bread and butter of AHV work - the search continues for a safe way to continue.

During this meeting three different Team Leaders rang me to say they had found asbestos on their sites.  It was one thing if it was found rarely and we could shut down the site, but with it on 5 of our 7 sites, something more drastic had to be done.  And so the enormous decision was taken that we would put decon projects on hold until the UN official arrived and a satisfactory method could be found for dealing with it. This was truly heartbreaking.  It has the potential to change the very identity of the organization as a whole who primarily work in decon projects and have made their name doing the jobs other people don’t want to do.  It also meant letting down families that I had promised to help; this was hideous.  I had to ring an old man and tell him that I would not be sending a team the next day to start his house.  He yelled at me, confused at what the material was, why it was so dangerous and why I was making life so difficult for him and his family.  His grandchildren were spread all over the country and by clearing that house they would all have been reunited.  I cried when I hung up.  There was nothing I could do and yet he felt completely betrayed.

He wasn’t the only person I had to answer to.  I had to go to meetings with CRS to explain why we would no longer be clearing the houses in their rebuild queue.  This was a much more positive meeting.  They supported our decision to protect the health of our volunteers and promised to check for asbestos in all the houses that were being rebuilt and refuse to continue funding if it was found until it was removed.  This was truly excellent news and with all the negativity surrounding the topic, if this is the only thing I managed to achieve then maybe that is one small step towards less asbestos in the future.

Telling the volunteers they would not be returning to decon for the foreseeable future was also awful.  To work for a family and help them rebuild their life is the true joy of AHV, and I knew people would feel as if that was being taken away from them.  I just hope that they know it is because we wanted them to be safe. 

With all this negativity, that is not to say I had a miserable last week on project.  I got the chance to see the start of some permanent rebuild projects in partnership with Gawad Kalinga, ‘Building Communities to end poverty’ , a fantastic organisation that build beautiful rainbow homes.  I was also invited by our Project Director to join her at a WASH (Water and Sanitary Health) meeting, and although they did not cover topics relevant to AHV, I felt very lucky to have an opportunity to see the progress of the city through the eyes of other organisations.

The houses AHV build with GK (http://www.gk1world.com/home) in Ormoc. 

Finally it was time for our last day and I truly couldn't have asked for a better send off.  Robbie and I both went back to Santo Nino and spent the day building two walls together as had been our lives for the two months we lived there.  

One block left to put in on our final wall, on our final day. 

Our neighbor and friend Fred came out of his house on his way to college and presented us with two friendship bracelets.  We saw the little girls that we had grown to know and love and I was able to give them some photographs of us altogether to remember us by.  The day was over far too quickly and before we knew it, it was time for Saturday Kareoke!  By the time people were singing, ‘Save Tonight’ in our honour I was well and truly gone, tears running right down my face! I might have been able to make it back had it not been for the tears of our wonderful friend Kevin. It’s always so much worse when boys cry! Finally it was time to pile into the jeepney and multi-cab for the drive home. We looked around the multi-cab as we pulled away and noticed it was only the old Santo Nino group in it. What could be more fitting?! We reminisced, laughed and cried most of the way home until… we weren't heading home at all! Jheri (our driver and friend) turned off the main road towards his house. I have no idea how he did it but it was no accident that it was just the long-term volunteers in his vehicle and he was so smug that we thought it was all a coincidence! He presented Robbie and I with plates of food to take back to base. A better man than Jheri cannot be found in the Philippines, he is a huge asset to the organisation and a wonderful friend; we were very honoured.  In fact our whole send off was incredibly humbling: our cook Nancy cried when we said goodbye, we were given an amazing card signed by loads of the volunteers and 4 of our best friends even took us to the airport. I couldn't have asked for anything better and in the end there just aren't words to express what this experience has meant to me, how much I love everyone we've met and how much I would like to go back and continue to help and witness Tacloban fight back.  Tindog Tacloban.

While it was sad to see such an unceremonious end to my time on the Decon sites, it may well have come at the right time. Everyone has a limit as far as this kind of physical work is concerned and, after such an extended period, my aches and pains were beginning to take their toll and my daily endurance levels had dropped to an almost embarrassing level. While I didn't spend a day working on GK, it was nice to spend my final two days at Santo Niño, building houses, reminiscent of what was probably my happiest period of time during my stay. I mentioned falling in love with Santo Niño in my leaving speech (mandatory, emotional) and I have incredibly fond memories of the little community in the mountains; it was a fitting farewell.

Ready to move in!

One of the results of living in such an intense communal environment, not to mention sharing such visceral work experiences, is that the relationships you build are immediately stronger and more complex than they would be in the same stretch of time in a normal context. For that reason we felt as though we were saying goodbye to family; it was an absolute wrench to walk away from. Our final week felt very much like one of the 'peaks' I wrote about in a previous post in which the social group hits a high point, and this was illustrated on Thursday night. Volunteers have been known to hold auctions in the name of AHV as people shed unwanted travel items and the occasional service or (generally comedic) act. For 7000 pesos (approaching £100) I agreed to lose the beard I had been cultivating over the course of the trip along with three other fuzz faced members of the group, a decision I did not take lightly! We raised a total of 32000 pesos that evening, all of which will go towards tools and a couple of luxury items for base. 

Freshly shaved and not too pleased about it.

That night also saw Jenny and I reach our long awaited Just Giving target of £1000 for AHV, the culmination of endless Facebook plugs and irritating emails. Astonishingly it didn't end there: some phenomenal offline donations have been made since then, most notably an incredible £950 from the Wrington Vale Rotary Club, and the overall figure currently stands at £2,285. I never believed we could raise such a sensational figure and it means a huge amount to us both: enormous thanks to everyone who donated; it will make an unquantifiable difference.

It is now over three weeks since we left project, and almost two weeks since we arrived back in the UK after the culmination of our four months in the Philippines. I began writing this post almost three weeks ago and have only now managed to bring myself to complete it. Writing this has been a huge part of my experience - offering an outlet and decompression zone in which I have been able to lay out the events of the previous weeks as they appeared to me. I have already been asked the question 'how was your trip?' and it is genuinely impossible to find a way to condense my time in Tacloban in a way that does it justice without being boring. The things we have seen and done have very little context when being discussed over a pint in a beer garden in summery England and, while that is a relief, it has made me value this blog even more. Thank you for reading. 

[The search continues for safe ways for AHV to work with asbestos. If you know anything at all about asbestos, or anyone that does, please do not hesitate to get in touch with the organisation or either of us. We are looking into ways to remove it, educate locals in its dangers and materials that can be used as substitutes. Both mine and Robbie’s contact details can be found at the bottom of this post.]

Base #1. Kananga Hospital.

Our first working day - painting the hospital roof.

We moved out of the hospital into this tent, were flooded out the following day and thus began ten days of almost constant moving around.

A compromised house in Ormoc, one of Jenny's first jobs.

The view of Tacloban from the roof of the Alejandro Hotel. We both fell in love with this city and it's not hard to see why.

One of the many boats washed ashore by the storm surge.

Our little helpers from Santo Nino.

The customary way for Filipinos to travel.

The work force on our final day in Santo Nino.

My favourite photo from the whole trip. Look closely and you'll see that, despite shoveling trenches in human feces, we are both in hysterics. This picture typifies for me what it is to work for this amazing organisation.

Bangon Leyte.

Robbie and Jenny.

robbie.brown4@googlemail.com
jenny.burns@btinternet.com