Yuma and I returned to Cebu on Saturday, and in the evening Yuma left the Philippines going back to Tokyo to work. Me on the other hand had still a couple of more days to go, and I had decided to spend my two last days volunteering.

An illustration of how to brush your teeth.

The NGO I had been working for, the Rise Above Foundation, was arranging a "dental mission" in the local area where they with help from dentist interns from a Danish university offered free dental checkup and services to poor people in the area who were experiencing problems with their teeth. My task was to assist one of the dentist to make the operations go more smoothly and efficient, which meant that I mainly gathered new equipment between each patient, held the flashlight while the dentist was operating and so on.

Me as a dentist assistant

To be honest the whole procedure made me feel a bit uncomfortable, I think a saw more blood in one day than I've seen my whole life (except for in movies of course). Tooth brushing is something that many poor Filipinos don't do, and in combination with all the unhealthy beverages people consume here it is quite evident that the average person's dental health is rather poor..
In other words, there were a lot of cavities and resultantly many teeth that had to be pulled out. And since I was the one to hold the flashlight I had to make sure that the ray of light hit the right spot even if I'd rather liked to look another direction. YUK.. Haha..

Doing the "hard" work of holding a flashlight for the dentist intern.

I'm really impressed by the work of the interns though, they did an amazing job. I think that such intern programs should be offered by more universities, because it gives the students valuable insight into other cultures, and not to mention that it can raise awareness among people about the life conditions of less fortunate people all over the world. One thing is to see it on TV, but another thing is to go out there and actually experience it for yourself.
And I have to say; with all those nasty teeth to pull out or fill in I bet the interns get more and tougher challenges and experiences during the one week working for the Dental Mission than they do during a whole year working in Denmark..

People waiting to get their teeth checked

Kids outside the school building who wanted me to take their picture

It was a really interesting experience for me to participate in the Dental Mission, and along with my last day at the Family Care Centre it was a nice way to end my holiday in the Philippines. My holiday might have come to an end, but I'm ready for more adventures back in Japan!

• All blogposts from Southeast Asia
• All blogposts from the Philippines
• Volunteering in the Philippines with Rise Above Cebu
• Volunteering with Rise Above in the Philippines: Dental Mission!
• Christmas at Ayala Shopping Center with the Rise Above Foundation
• Sightseeing in the Philippines: Swimming with Whale Sharks in Oslob
• Sightseeing in Bohol: Day-trip to the Chocolate Hills & Tarsier Watching
• Diving in the Philippines: Balicasag - the Diver's Heaven and the Marine Sanctuary
• Sightseeing in the Philippines: Weekend Trip to Iloilo!
• HumanHeartNature: Filipino Ecological Skincare!
• New Year Greeting from the Philippines!
• [Hotel Reviews] Philippines: A night at an aquarium - Hotel H2O

Thank you for reading! Please feel free to leave any comments or questions below
- Anette

It is only a couple of days left till Christmas, and here in the Philippines everyone is getting ready for the big celebration. In addition to our trip to the poor areas of Cebu to deliver Christmas presents from the Rise Above Foundation's sponsors I have also had the chance to come along to one of the local shopping centers where Elisabet and Flemming dressed up as mr and mrs Santa and entertained the kids with stories and christmas gifts. Here is a picture from the event, which I made by using the application Instaframe:

• All blogposts from Southeast Asia
• All blogposts from the Philippines
• Volunteering in the Philippines with Rise Above Cebu
• Volunteering with Rise Above in the Philippines: Dental Mission!
• Christmas at Ayala Shopping Center with the Rise Above Foundation
• Sightseeing in the Philippines: Swimming with Whale Sharks in Oslob
• Sightseeing in Bohol: Day-trip to the Chocolate Hills & Tarsier Watching
• Diving in the Philippines: Balicasag - the Diver's Heaven and the Marine Sanctuary
• Sightseeing in the Philippines: Weekend Trip to Iloilo!
• HumanHeartNature: Filipino Ecological Skincare!
• New Year Greeting from the Philippines!
• [Hotel Reviews] Philippines: A night at an aquarium - Hotel H2O

Thank you for reading! Please feel free to leave any comments or questions below
- Anette

Christmas is drawing near, and as a result the streets in Cebu are filled with christmas lights and christmas songs can be heard all over town. The christmas spirit is here to brighten up the days for the people of Cebu too.
But unfortunately the difference between people is very big, and a lot of the citizens here do not have the chance to enjoy a nice christmas dinner or give and receive presents because of their lack of income.

Visiting the poorer areas of Cebu

A typical home where the whole family share one room and one bed.

Entrance gate to one of the homes

The NGO that I work for here in Cebu (the Rise Above Foundation) has with the help from sponsors from all over the world gathed christmas gifts for families from the poorest areas of Cebu. I had the chance to come along on a trip around the city on Sunday to deliver christmas gifts to some of the many poor families that live here. We talked with many of the local people here, and they told us their stories. One lady was the mother of ten kids, and she told us that last year there had been a fire burning down her house. She had managed to save nine of the kids, but forgot about one of her daughters as she was trying to bring the others to safety..
One thing that seems to be the standard among the poor families we visited, is that they all have large families with many kids but with only one (or none) working parents. One of the girls we met was only nineteen, but she already had a two-year old daughter.



Marie has just given out gifts to one of the families.

We saw a lot of poverty during our trip around Cebu's slum areas. The families living close to the river were especially unfortunate, because everytime the river overflows the water would flood their houses.


There are so many cute kids living in the slums of Cebu.. I believe that helping them all to a better life will be hard, and it will definately be impossile without the help of people from outside. Rise Above does a really valueable work in the community here, because they give children the chance to get an education and improve their health through the NGO's many programs in the community. The Family Care Center where I'm working as a volunteer give the children the opportunity to get out of poverty through their educational programs, at the same time as it gives their parents the chance to work. All this is possible because of all the hard-working people within the Rise Above Foundation, and because of sponsors contributing from all over the world. By supporting this organization you can be a part of empowering local women, and you can ensure that the kids in the slums of Cebu gets an education.

My two first weeks here in Cebu I am planning to spend most of my time working as a volunteer in the NGO Rise Above's family care center. The family care center is a place where sponsored children are taken care of by Rise Above workers and volunteers, where they take part in both fun and educational activities while their parents can use the opportunity to work. At the family care center the kids get to take a shower in the morning when they arrive, and put on a nice and clean uniform with the Rise Above-logo on which they use until the end on the day. In addition to the shower, they also are taught how to brush their teeth. Apparently many people here drink a lot of sweet drinks with a lot of sugar, but unfortunately they do not pay enough attention to their dental health. It is thus quite a lot of kids who already are having problems with their teeth here. After this first session the kids are divided into groups depending on their age, and they are having a couple of hours of regular classes with math, English and other subjects.

When I opened the door to the car outside the center I could already hear the voices of laughing and playing children. They all looked very happy to see us coming, and they greeted us one by one by taking our hand and lift it up to touch their forehead. We had arrived at the family care center just in time for lunch, and all the kids soon lined politely up to get their servings.
This day was quite a special day, because one of the local workers had brought a bunch of friends along who wanted to help out making some fun activities for the kids. After dinner we gathered the kids and our guest entertained them all with some funny games. The kids also contributed to the entertainment with a round of Gangnam-style, which seems to be their favorite dance.
The kids are so cute, and I'm looking forward to spending more time playing with them. I'll be back with more posts from my stay here, in the meantime, check out Raise Above's homepage at http://www.riseabove-cebu.org/

Today, after nearly 21 hours of traveling (I had to spend one night sleeping at a bench in Incheon airport) I finally arrived in Cebu, where ill be spending the next three weeks of my winter vacation.
Here my first plan is to volunteer for the NGO Raise Above for two weeks, an NGO which was founded by a Danish-Norwegian couple: Flemming and Elisabet Hansen who have been working with the local community in Cebu for thirteen years.
I received a very warm welcome by them when I arrived, and was taken back to the headquarters of the organization where I will be living for the next two weeks. I will try to be effective and write a lot about my activities here during the coming weeks! Anyway, I've added a picture from my room where you can see a Rise Above-brochure, in addition to a yellow basked made by a lady in the local community. One of the projects of Rise Above has been to teach women how to make baskets from used sacks so that they can sell them on the local market, and the basket on this photo is one of these. Rise Above also have a lot of other projects which I probably will write about during my stay here. For now, feel free to check out their website.

Rise Above Basket

Before and after: Beautiful handbags made from recycled sacks

• All blogposts from Southeast Asia
• All blogposts from the Philippines
• All blogposts about Volunteering
• Volunteering in the Philippines with Rise Above Cebu
• Volunteering with Rise Above in the Philippines: Dental Mission!
• Christmas at Ayala Shopping Center with the Rise Above Foundation
• Sightseeing in the Philippines: Swimming with Whale Sharks in Oslob
• Sightseeing in Bohol: Day-trip to the Chocolate Hills & Tarsier Watching
• Diving in the Philippines: Balicasag - the Diver's Heaven and the Marine Sanctuary
• Sightseeing in the Philippines: Weekend Trip to Iloilo!
• HumanHeartNature: Filipino Ecological Skincare!
• New Year Greeting from the Philippines!
• [Hotel Reviews] Philippines: A night at an aquarium - Hotel H2O

Thank you for reading! Please feel free to leave any comments or questions below
- Anette

A very interesting lecture by Melinda Gates about global challenges she faces through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Melinda Gates - Pursue Passions with a Vengeance

For those of you out there who can read Japanese, here is a blog post written by me on United Earth's home page!

This is a blog post written by me for the volunteer group United Earth. Original text can be found here.

こんにちは、ノルウェーから来た留学生のアンです。
　
ユナイテッドアースにお世話になった十二日間はあっという間に終わってしまいました。
林業をはじめ、草刈り、ワカメの作業、漁港のタコ、老人ホームでの蕎麦打ち体験、ホテル観洋でのプール監視など幅広い活動をやらせていただいたお陰で様々な新しい経験ができました。


ボランティアに来る前、ノルウェー出身の私は受け入れてもらえるか少し心配でしたが、ユナイテッドアースには優しい人ばかりで、現地の人々からも頑張って下さいと応援の言葉を頂いたので来てよかったと思います。毎日美味しい和食を食べさせて頂き、様々な楽しい活動をやらせて頂いただいていると、私は被災地にいるということを忘れてしまう程、充実した楽しいボランティア生活を過ごすことができました。しかし、自然の中の南三陸を通ると数多くの家のない土台や防災対策庁舎を目にし、今も続く住民の苦労を感じました。
短期でボランティアに来る人の多くは帰る前のスピーチであまり何も役に立てなかったと嘆いていました。私ができた支援もアリのように小さいものだったかもしれません。しかし、小さなアリでもみんなで協力することで一匹では成し遂げられないことも達成できると信じています。頑張っている多くのボランティア達の姿を見て、これからも一緒に南三陸のために頑張ったら少しでも現地の人達の役に立つことができると思います。


私はこれからは違う道を歩みますが、機会があったら是非南三陸の復興に貢献したいです。そして将来復興した南三陸を再び訪れることを楽しみにしています。

• All blogposts about volunteering
• All blogposts from Minami-Sanriku
• Ready for Volunteer Work in Minami-Sanriku (南三陸)!
• Volunteering in Minami Sanriku: United Earth
• Volunteer Report from Minami-Sanriku: Day 1
• Volunteering in Minami Sanriku and Kesenuma: An Introduction
• Volunteering in Minami Sanriku: The Seaweed Factory
• Volunteering in Minami Sanriku: Forestry
• Minami Sanriku: The Voice of a Survivor
• Minami-Sanriku: The Story of a Hero
• Youtube: Minami-Sanriku's United Earth
• Blog Post for UE: 譬え、小さなアリでも成し遂げられること
• 8 Months After the Tohoku Earthquake: Trip to Ishinomaki

• All blogposts from Japan 

• All blogposts about volunteering
• All blogposts from Minami-Sanriku
• Ready for Volunteer Work in Minami-Sanriku (南三陸)!
• Volunteering in Minami Sanriku: United Earth
• Volunteer Report from Minami-Sanriku: Day 1
• Volunteering in Minami Sanriku and Kesenuma: An Introduction
• Volunteering in Minami Sanriku: The Seaweed Factory
• Volunteering in Minami Sanriku: Forestry
• Minami-Sanriku: The Story of a Hero
• Youtube: Minami-Sanriku's United Earth
• Blog Post for UE: 譬え、小さなアリでも成し遂げられること
• 8 Months After the Tohoku Earthquake: Trip to Ishinomaki
• Last update from Minami Sanriku: The Voice of a Survivor

• All blogposts from Japan 

United Earth is a volunteer group that have been contributing to the still ongoing recovery of Minami Sanriku since the area was devastated by tsunamis in March 2011.

The members are almost exclusively Japanese (there was a French freelance journalist here the first couple of days I was here); at the present I'm the only foreigner in the group which right now in the summer holiday counts close to 50 members. Still, if you have a certain level of Japanese knowledge you'll meet a lot of friendly and nice people coming from all over the country.

The volunteer group United Earth has been helping out in the area since the disaster stroke last year, and they are helping out the community through various projects. These projects covers a wide range of sectors including fishery, forestry, removal of weeds, farming, senior citizen's home, a seaweed factory, and their activities varies according to the demand from the community. The recovery of the community takes time, and there is a lack of manpower in the area even with a lot of available jobs.

In order to get to Minami Sanriku there is a bus running three times a day from Sendai at 8:00, 14:10 and 16:20, and registered volunteers has the opportunity to get picked up at Hotel Kanyō (観洋). Staying as a volunteer costs around 3000 yen pr. night depending on the duration of the stay (repeaters pay less than the regular price). This covers most daily life expenses, so you don't have to worry about special equipment or food during your stay.

Working at a factory cutting seaweed

Cleaning an area for trunks

Holding an event at a senior citizen's home

Some other post with activities I participated in:
-Forestry
-Kessennuma's Sea Weed Factory

-United Earth's members are almost exclusively Japanese. If you prefer a more mixed volunteer group, check out for instance It's Not Just Mudd.

• All blogposts about volunteering
• All blogposts from Minami-Sanriku
• Ready for Volunteer Work in Minami-Sanriku (南三陸)!
• Volunteering in Minami Sanriku: United Earth
• Volunteer Report from Minami-Sanriku: Day 1
• Volunteering in Minami Sanriku and Kesenuma: An Introduction
• Volunteering in Minami Sanriku: The Seaweed Factory
• Volunteering in Minami Sanriku: Forestry
• Minami-Sanriku: The Story of a Hero
• Youtube: Minami-Sanriku's United Earth
• Blog Post for UE: 譬え、小さなアリでも成し遂げられること
• 8 Months After the Tohoku Earthquake: Trip to Ishinomaki
• Last update from Minami Sanriku: The Voice of a Survivor

• All blogposts from Japan 

The number of United Earth members has been rising steadily since I came, and today we probably reached the highest number of attending members on the daily meeting with more than 50 people in the room. As you can see from the picture the room is pretty filled up, and in addition there were many members sitting behind me as well.

One of the hardest volunteer activities I participated in with United Earth was the 林業 (forestry) group. One of the local farmers wants to open up a restaurant by the side of the main road, and as there were a lot of trees on the lot our job has been to cut down the trees and clean up the area.
Carrying the trunks is quite a tough job. In addition to the heavy weight the burning sun also make this quite a demanding activity. But at least by the end of the day you feel you've really earned to hear "お疲れ様です" when you return to the HQ.. ^^
Here are some pictures taken of the forestry group:

The area we are working on

Trunks

In action!

Cooperating with carrying the trunks

Luckily we also have a machine to move the heaviest trunks

• All blogposts about volunteering
• All blogposts from Minami-Sanriku
• Ready for Volunteer Work in Minami-Sanriku (南三陸)!
• Volunteering in Minami Sanriku: United Earth
• Volunteer Report from Minami-Sanriku: Day 1
• Volunteering in Minami Sanriku and Kesenuma: An Introduction
• Volunteering in Minami Sanriku: The Seaweed Factory
• Volunteering in Minami Sanriku: Forestry
• Minami Sanriku: The Voice of a Survivor
• Minami-Sanriku: The Story of a Hero
• Youtube: Minami-Sanriku's United Earth
• Blog Post for UE: 譬え、小さなアリでも成し遂げられること
• 8 Months After the Tohoku Earthquake: Trip to Ishinomaki

• All blogposts from Japan