Welcome to Budlaan!!

Coming from an enjoyable two day introduction to the Philippines, this day seemed to be one of the first times we started to understand what work we would be doing here. We left at 10:00 AM to take taxis in the rain to Budlaan, the Gawad Kalinga community we would be working with for our project!

When we arrived, everyone was warmly welcomed by the Gawad Kalinga members of the village, Jerdie and "Teacher Tess" haha. And going even further were the pre-school and kindergarten children of the community! There were tons of them chatting and swarming around us, even bringing our hands to their foreheads in the Filipino traditional blessing. After being introduced to all the members of the Gawad Kalinga community at the village, the children all gathered around to sing the Gawad Kalinga theme song. That must have been the cutest thing for me to have ever seen in my life. Seriously, the kids were so emotional and into the song that everyone was singing along at the chorus. They said the kids had been practicing that for a year already, so I can definitely see how big of a role Gawad Kalinga plays in the Community.

We then took a tour of the entire village of Budlaan, from the colorful, quaint homes to the mini convenience store, and into the pre-school and kindergarten school. They did mention that they did not have any sort of clinic in the village, however. Overall, I would say that the GK community at Budlaan was very warm and connected as a community, which I took to be truly inspiring considering how other Filipinos came together to help build houses and the entire village from the ground up. I had visited other Filipino GK sites in the past, but never looked into it so much to notice the thriving synergy of the community.

Next we met the members of the Sealnet club at UP Cebu for the first time, and had a great time as they showed us around the school and then played an exciting game of I'm a Ninja. The students were so happy to meet us, I couldn't wait to work with them.

Lastly, we attended a fairly in depth lecture on the history of the Philippines by Dr. Sofia Logarta. I learned a lot more than I had previously known about the Philippines by Dr. Logarta, who seemed so passionate about her work. It was definitely a joy to learn more about the history of the country my parents are from. In general, I would say that this day was definitely a bright, exciting introduction to the different people we would be working with for the coming weeks.

I'll add pictures soon! BTW This was for Tuesday August 16th