It's that time of the year again when thousands of heroes meet to do nation building.

It's that time of the year again when thousands of heroes meet to do nation building.

Rizal, Occidental Mindoro --- It's that time of the year again when thousands of heroes meet to do nation building. Every year, Gawad Kalinga hosts Bayani Challenge that calls to different volunteers to experience a 5-day challenge of building houses and other activities. This time, however, there were 5 provinces to choose from: Iligan, Cagayan de Oro, Masbate, Negros Oriental and Mindoro Occidental. The event was conducted simultaneously in these areas on April 9-14.

Team Human Nature, composed of 9 members, majority of who come from the warehouse department, was one of the teams that went and participated in Occidental Mindoro, along with thousands of locals in the area.

Here’s a little background of where we went and how we got there. Rizal is located at the southern part of Occidental Mindoro, about a 7-hr bus and 2-hr ferry ride from the city of Manila. Tiring, but definitely worth it. Most teams, including ours, arrived on Sunday afternoon. We were quickly assigned to classrooms in Rizal National High School which were our temporary homes for the week-long period that we were there. We were transported to build sites through buses, vans and trucks. And not just any ordinary truck at that, what we rode in were dump/garbage trucks. Yup, it was definitely an experience. One for the books!



Of course, since Human Nature is true to their advocacy of being Pro-Environment, we were assigned to do coastal cleanup in 4 coastal barangays in Rizal (Adela, Rumbang, Malawaan and Salvacion). The challenge was to clean up the shores of Rizal, approximately 4 km of coastline in 5 days, under the scorching heat of the sun. Team Human Nature endured the heat and dehydration and finished the challenge in 4 days. On the 5th day, we were assigned to do school refurbishing at Rumbang Elementary School and Rizal National High School. Fear of heights? Well, we definitely conquered that! Yes, we painted rooftops!

Aside from the build and other activities, we, along with the other participating teams, were entertained by cultural shows, live bands and a talent competition at night. To further excite us and add spice to the event, the province of Occidental Mindoro and the Municipality of Rizal prepared amazing treats for us. On our first night, three newly-cooked and sumptuous 'lechong baka’ and bibingka were served at dinner time. A local sapin-sapin was also prepared to be shared by everyone on the 2nd night. And on the 3rd day, around 100 masseurs were invited to give us all free massages! Awesome! It didn’t even end there because on the 4th and 5th night, we were given halo-halo and suman to enjoy. YUM!

After the mix of sun and fun, GK full time workers shared their life stories and words of encouragement that inspired not only the different teams but the thousands of locals who attended the event. Despite the sunburns and discomfort, everyday was an inspiration-filled challenge that made the locals of Rizal realize that there are a lot of people willing to help them build their municipality. It simply gave them hope. The event also allowed us, the volunteers, feel more empowered and it reminded us that if we all work together, there is no reason for the Philippines to fail. As what USec Mari Oquinena said in his talk of reminding our potential as Filipinos, "The Philippine Eagle [our national bird] is there to remind us that if we spread our wings, we can carry the poor with us."