Pilar, Sorsogon

Monday, January 29, 2007

The Bicol Regions of Camarines Sur, Albay and Sorsogon were hit with a 1-2-3-4-5 punch of Typhoon Milenyo (Sept 27, 2006), relocation due to Mayon eruption, Typhoon Reming (Nov. 30, 2006), Typhoon Seniang (Dec. 7-12, 2006) and the Mayon landslide. The needs were great and FTH tried to put together 3 teams and CFO had 2 teams to meet the challenge.

Monday, Jan 29, 2007- After inspecting the damage at Cabatuan Elementary School in Buhi, the FtH volunteers proceeded to Pilar, Sorsogon with the vans provided by Uncle Johnny of Buhi Resort Hotel where FtH volunteers were hosted. We reached Pilar, Sorsogon around 10:00 and met with Dr. Castro, a dentist from NJ who established a medical Hospital in Pilar. Dr Castro gave us a tour of the facility. It is not opened yet but the rooms were almost complete and painted. The building even had a helicopter landing pad in the roof.

We had lunch with 100 indigent children and their parents who will be the recipients of the FtH Feeding Project in Pilar. The children will be provided with meals for 6 months and their progress will be monitored. After the lunch, the children were treated to a gift bag of food, toys and school supplies. The lunch and the gifts were prepared by the local DSWD but was funded by FtH. Very prominent in this trip are the armed military guards in the property. We were advised even before we left the US that Pilar is infested with anti-government elements. However, local officials assured us that since we are helping the poor, even some families of the NPAs, there’s nothing to worry about our safety.

We did a side trip to Donsol, Sorsogon to see the famous Butanding whale sharks but the sea was choppy and no sightings of the whale have been reported. The only big whales we saw are the bodies of Carl and Pablito in front of the vans. We proceeded to Bulan, Sorsogon where we joined FtH Team No. 2 who were assisting the medical mission. Nine (9) FtH volunteers were assigned to 3 rooms at the 9 Balls Inn and the rest of the volunteers were assigned in a separate hotel nearby, jamming 4 guests in a room.

NOTES: This is the second leg of a 10-town tour of FtH. The preparation done by the CFO staff in coordinating the procurement and packing of the gifts, arrangement for the hotels and transportation for the volunteers, scheduling the gift giving with the local government units (LGU) and non-government officials (NGO) is incredible! And the bits and pieces of the puzzle all fall into its places. There were some delays and breakdowns but all were manageable and we were able to carry out the missions.

It was a fun trip of nine days. After 2 bottles of Robitussin DM, 30 capsules of anti-biotic provided by Nurse Malu in Bulan, a bottle of Listerine to gargle my sore throat, living in a hand carry luggage and a back pack of video camera, flashlight, camera, bottled water and TP; using one shoes and a pair of slippers; sleeping in 6 hotels with somebody snoring like me and me coughing all the time; practicing my ballrooms moves in 2 nights and after one breakfast; having a night swim in a hot spring in Irosin; having my $50 shoes repaired expertly by a child labor for $1 using his agile hands and crude tools; seeing the smiles of about 2,050 recipients having Christmas gifts in January; being able to locate the sites of eight (8) classrooms to be donated through FtH, I will do it again for FEED THE HUNGRY and the poor people of Bicol. If there’s a will, HE will show the way!

Pablito
Thursday, February 15, 2007