Day 6

Dear Parents/Friends & Supporters,

Today was the best day of the trip so far! The team worked extremely hard and put in all their effort to complete a basketball court and paint the community building. I helped lay out the foundation for the concrete with chipped limestone, carried sand bags through 30m of slippery mud and helped in passing buckets of concrete. When collecting sand in old sacks there was music playing, so I started dancing and eventually encouraged all the Filipino children to join in and dance too. Everyone continued to push through the heat, in clothes drenched in their own sweat and dirt. We weren't able to finish the court due to running out of sand and cement but got a third done. The community was so appreciative of our efforts and the goodbye was extremely difficult. We are leaving for Bacolod again tomorrow morning so won’t be able to go back to the community again. There were many tears from both the Filipinos and us, but one little boy stood out to me the most. He was about two/three years old and was so shy. I spent time trying to talk to him and when leaving a few of the teenagers noticed me watching him. They told him to go to ‘mum’ and bought him over to me for a hug.  It was the most magical experience so far in the trip. I had a really awesome day today and the whole team was happy with their efforts, the only disappointment was that we couldn't stay and finish the basketball court for the lovely families.
Miss you Mum, Dad & Steven xoxx
- Rachel

Today was such an awesome day! The team performed amazingly and worked so hard to accomplish our goals we had set for the day. We made a start on the construction of a basketball court for the local community, and the painting of a community building. I was a Jack of all trades today, did all of the things do to, such as getting sand, mixing the concrete by hand, filling up the water tank, pick axing all of the rocks, passing the concrete mixture to the fellas, and passing the concrete getting prepared to lay it. The amount of sweat was tremendous and dripping off my face, and back it wasn't the most pleasant feeling, but I loved all of the hard work we did and felt so good about the job we had done for the community.  After the massive day of smashing out the work we all went to a resort place to go for a swim and clean up before we went back to the hotel, we all got into the pools and it was amazing and felt so good after a day of hard work and labour. Was a great day in all and can’t wait for another day like that.
Miss you Mum, Dad, Ash and Nelson my dog :’) cya all soon xo.
 - Blake.

Today was the best day of this trip so far. Everyone looked like they had a great time and couldn't have performed better. We also made a start and completion of the painting of the C.R (toilet) which we painted white and the almost completion of the varnishing of the undercover area and the Filipino coordinator (Burt) house. I was a little upset with myself because I was a little sick and couldn't do the concreting but it all worked out for the better because I could reach all the high spots that the others couldn't reach so that was good.  The dinner tonight was also amazing as we had beautiful whole mangos and spaghetti.  All in all it was a great day and I give the day a 9.5.                                                  Miss you Mum, Dad and Scott. Xo.     -Brad-