Feed the Hungry volunteers Percy and Pepito S., Pablito and Tess, Fely and Manny D. and their niece Gloria F. from Las Vegas met at Terminal 2 of the airport at 6:30 AM, Feb 18, 2010 for the 8:50 AM flight to Tacloban, Leyte. From the airport, we hired a van to take us to our hotel in downtown Tacloban. We had lunch at Chow King, toured a couple of sites around Tacloban and retired for the early trip the following day. We left Tacloban at 6:00 AM, Feb 19, 2010 for the 4 hour trip to Bontoc, Southern Leyte where we will inspect the water system in Barangay Pagmisian, as funded by the Hawaii International Relief Mission (HIRO) through ex-Rep Jun Abinsay. We were provided with a van by the provisional government of Southern Leyte as arranged by CFO. The driver left Maasin at 3:00 AM to be with us by 6:00 AM. The road from Tacloban to Bontoc is very good except for the short leg to Brgy Pagmisian. We had breakfast of bread, lanzones, chocolates on the van and had brunch when we reached Bontoc town proper.
The water supply system cost about $15,000 consisting of a concrete reservoir to hold water from an existing spring and piping the water downhill for about a kilometer (0.6 miles) to the cluster of homes of the residents. The homes were organized by Gawad Kalinga in coordination with the Dept of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). Each group of 8 to 10 houses was provided with an outlet and a common wash basin/reservoir for all.
On this visit, the water pipe was ripped apart by a backhoe working on the road system and had to be repaired; we were not able to see the actual flow of water on the outlet.
We also visited the school on top of the hill. The school building was donated by UNESCO complete with china ware, plates, cups, computers, furniture, refrigerator, drums and guitars, etc. We were told that they have the drums but not being used because they do not have anybody to teach the musical instruments. FtH volunteers chipped in P3, 000 as seed money for the school and barangay officials to find a teacher so that the students will be able to play the drums during flag raising ceremonies and other activities.
Even though the neighborhood is very poor, we were still treated to some snacks of young coconuts, bananas, sweet potatoes, rice and one chicken menu for lunch.
We left about 12 noon for our next inspection trip to an FtH classroom in Maasin, Southern Leyte.
Feb 23, 2010
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