3-Weekend at the Beach

The past week I actually got my hands dirty and participated in some building at one of the GK villages. I joined the group of young people from Hong Kong who had come over for 10 days to do work on 10 new houses at the Banago site. We laid bricks one day and did cement rendering another day. It was quite a challenge in the intense heat but so much fun. Part of my AYAD assignment is to develop the design of the housing modules, and what better way to understand what is possible than to build some myself!

To soothe the building muscles I was dying for a massage. It just so happened that my fellow AYAD, Aruna, works at the Christian Foundation for the Deaf and Blind in Bacolod, where one of their programs is training blind masseurs. So I booked myself in … and I think I might become a regular customer!

Also this week, I was one of the party to meet an Australian Rotarian from Canberra and escort him around one of the GK sites. His Rotary club had provided the funding for the furniture, books and AV equipment for the school in the village.

When the weekend came around, I was very much looking forward to the planned roadtrip. Myself and Aruna had been invited by an English aid worker to join her, her daughters and some visitors from England on their trip to a beach resort 200km south of Bacolod. The 200km took about 4.5 hours due to the bumpy roads but the scenery was beautiful – cane fields lined the road with mountains on one side and the sea on the other, and every so often passing through a town or village. We arrived Friday evening in time for a dip in the warm tropical water before a delicious meal of rice with seafood and curry dishes was served in the bamboo pavilion overlooking the beach and the setting sun. The very well appointed cottages stepped up the hillside, each with a fantastic view through the palm trees to the turquoise waters below.

It was a very relaxing weekend of sunbathing, snorkelling, kayaking and devouring plenty of the delicious tropical shakes from the bar. The snorkelling was fabulous – beautiful corals and stunning tropical fish, accessible directly from the shore, no boat required. If anyone is interested, the resort at the other end of the beach is for sale: A$50,000 for the entire resort!