Day 3 : Jewelry Making, Cockroaches and Paper Folding

Youth Build 2008 Version
Marinduque, Philippines

"Jewelry takes people's minds off your wrinkles." ~Sonja Henie - Olympian Figure Skating Champ

After the great make over of the Model House, we had enough time to plan our next afternoon's sessions with the Manangs and the kids.

Last year, Therese started with the basics of Jewelry design and vowed to bring back more beads using her influence and charisma to come up with a give-back project called "A Bag of Beads". She collected extra supply of beads from her classmates and had it shipped to Marinduque including pliers and magnifying lenses.

Our job is to follow through her legacy and review the manangs of their learned skills from last year. We were not disappointed. They were able to churn out as much jewelry from the supply given and were ready to go primetime with their finished products that they planned to sell in the bayan for Php 15 each. I had a grand plan of getting them financed through orders from Canada. The quality and workmanship is good and of course it's all for a good cause.

Let's see.

************

We had a scare in the middle of the afternoon as Ruby had swollen arms and was breaking out from her right temple, nose and lips. Apparently she was bitten by a cockroach which prompted me to bring her to a doctor, fearing that it could be more than what we think it was. I asked her if she wanted to go home the next day so that she can get treated by a real city doctor. She agreed to stay if she will not get chills or feverish. She was given meds by the doctor, and we have to move out from our newly painted house to a resort across the street.

************

Ruby's will to continue and her tenacity to finish the build sked and spend as much time with the kids was admirable. She inspired us to do more that afternoon and provide more quality time with the kids. Eliza volunteered to share her paper folding skills, giving each kid, numbering to almost 40, a paper crane each.

Tired after all morning of painting, fulfilled to see that the manangs can create masterpieces from their own hands, anxious with what bit Ruby, and happy to be around the kids til late in the night, all in one day.

It ended with an afternoon dip and night swimming. A well deserved treat for all the hardwork, and to take away the anxiety and trauma of a cockroach bite :(


Day 3 slideshow is here