Gawad Kalinga (GK) is a Philippine based NGO that strives to create homes and sustainable shelters for the poorest of the poor. This past summer, I had the opportunity to spend two months with the organization in Bicol, much visited by typhoons in recent months. 

Through community empowerment and livelihood projects, GK seeks to not only create homes and adequate shelter, but to uplift entire communities and promote a culture of bayanihan.To this day, what remains with me are the memories of the people and communities I interacted with, not only the houses I helped to build. 

Before leaving for the Philippines, I was advised to be grateful for the generosity and hospitality of the people I would work with. I did not understand what this meant until a colleague and I interviewed an elderly couple in the Bicol region. They immediately invited us in and, as we explained our project, the husband discreetly handed money to the wife and sent her to the store.

When she returned, she carried two cold bottles of Coke and a bag of sweet bread, which they offered to us. We accepted the Cokes and the bread, reluctantly. The cost of the snack was around 100 pesos, or about $2. This was equal to their weekly earnings, and they gave it up to make two visitors comfortable in their home.

Repaying the money would have been an insult, so I decided send them the photographs I took of the experience, which from the start really belonged to them. -end-