Disaster Chasers
Latest Post
Snake Slaying …
We’ve had a couple of interesting jobs going on this week, broadening the menu of work available again now that our volunteer numbers have increased. In the run up to Holy Week numbers dropped off as people went on break and volunteer turnover was high as short term volunteers wanted to wait and arrive after … Continue reading
Featured Posts
This evening on Project Cagayan de Oro it started to rain. We raised our voices through the meeting and yelled at each other across the table over beers later. Then it really started coming down. The noise of the drops hammering on the tin roof of our eating/meeting area was unbelievable. The conversations stopped, people … Continue reading
A magnitude 6.8 earthquake has struck the Philippines today. The quake shook most of the Visayas region, with the epicenter located underwater between Cebu and Negros islands. Here in CDO we felt a slight swaying of the house, around a I or II on the MMI scale. This is similar to the feeling when a … Continue reading
As you can see the Philippines has some glorious weather if you want to lounge on the beach sipping Mai Tais. Digging trenches or running wheelbarrows under this unforgiving sun is a different matter entirely. Even repeat volunteers who’ve come here more-or-less straight from Haiti, not known for its cool weather either, are finding … Continue reading
The crew is back at Phase 3 today – soon-ish to be site of 400 homes for those displaced by the flooding caused by Typhoon Sendong. After helping to complete the very first unit on a very tight schedule in time for the President’s visit, we’ve been invited back to dig the trenches for the next … Continue reading
Yup, that’s right. The President of the Republic of the Philippines, Benigno Aquino III, stopped by Cala’anan today to lay a ceremonial block in the wall of the first house of 6000 that Habitat for Humanity will be building – with the help of All Hands volunteers, of course! There was much cheering and hand … Continue reading
Nita is a local lady I met a couple of days after arriving here in Mindanao. She was walking house-to-house in the community, and tent-to-tent in the large relocation centre near our base, selling the tasty Filipino snack empanadas – based on the Spanish treat of the same name. At less than 60p for seven … Continue reading
Project CDO has opened its doors to its first official volunteers. The All Hands old hands were out in the field flying the flag as new volunteers started arriving at the base. The team hauled and scrubbed and bucketed and gutted. Back here at the house forms were being signed, papers were filed, the copier was humming, … Continue reading
Protected from both wet feet and the hot, tropical sun, today we set about finding homeowners who need volunteer assistance ready for the influx of willing workers on Friday. Paddling around a flooded subdivision of Cagayan de Oro we found a hive of activity. People were busy doing what they could; hauling mud to the … Continue reading
I am still waking up at 5am on account of jet lag so I had plenty of time to eat breakfast, fire off a few emails to potential volunteers and pack everything back into my bags before the big move began. You wouldn’t have thought I’d have unpacked much, only having been here since Wednesday, … Continue reading
