Updates on Updates on Updates!

• Dela Cruz House
  As of the last time I visited the Dela Cruz house (2 days ago), the construction of the house itself is basically finished!  It's much bigger than their old nipa hut and is much more stable since it has a concrete base.  Right now, the house is made up of one large interior room with a kitchen space at the back, which is separated by a wall.  Since we still have funds available, we decided to ask the carpenter to add some interior walls to split up the space into 2 small rooms (one for parents, one for kids), and a small sala/living room. 
  From the back door in the kitchen area, there will be a little cement walkway going out to the CR (comfort room/bathroom), which is currently under construction.  It will be a simple little outhouse made of cement blocks and a corrugated metal roof.  I'm hoping we can make use of a bottle bulb to save on electricity.  Speaking of electricity...
  Thanks to a very generous donation from Matt & Leanne, we will be able to install ELECTRICITY in the new house!!  Since they live a couple hundred yards from the closest house with electricity, before now it was largely impossible for them to afford the wires that would bring power to their home.  An electrician is supposed to be visiting the house today and I've been told they should have power by Sunday!  It's hard to verbalize how significant this development is for the family, but Lorena's gratitude was clear when her eyes welled up with tears as soon as I told her we'd be bringing electricity to the new house.
  Depending on the expense of the power lines, I would also like to outfit the new house with bamboo bed frames and bed foams (like a mattress).  It's very common here for everyone to sleep on next to nothing.  On their concrete floors, they might stack a couple pieces of cardboard, or mats about the thickness of a yoga mat, to make a place to sleep and roll them up in the morning.  I've slept like that for a few nights before (when we traveled up north), and it's awful.  I would love to get them comfortable beds... and hopefully a bunk bed for the boys!
  Picture updates will hopefully follow in a few days!
• Library Opening
  The "Grand Opening/Turnover/MOA Signing for the MCS Library" event took place yesterday and was really nice!  The library is officially open and has been officially turned over to the school!  There are a few things I would like to finish if I have time, but it's mostly out of my hands!  Feels so good!
• Other Library
  Since I still have books that need to find homes on open shelves, we are having our carpenter build shelves this weekend for the smaller primary library on the other side of our school campus.  It still needs a lot of work before it can be open to the kids, but the teachers have promised to help.  As much as I want to go all out and do my best, I'm going to try to keep this second library smaller and simpler.  We'll see how it goes!
• Despidida
  aka "Going Away Party".  Yesterday, after coming inside from hanging out with my neighbors, I checked my phone to find a ton of missed calls from my teachers.  I finally talked to one of them to find out that they wanted to request my presence at a hotel in Naga on Saturday night!  It's all very secretive so far, but from what I can gather, I think they're planning my despidida!  I was impressed and excited to learn of the venue because I'm sure it wasn't cheap to rent out a hall or something (especially when it could just be held for free at the school!).... must be fancy-ish!  So that's Saturday from 6-10pm and although I know it will be really fun, I just know I'll be in tears at some point...
• COS Conference
  COS = Close of Service.  On Sunday I leave for our COS Conference in Bohol!  The travel is less than desirable (Van to Legazpi, fly to Manila, fly to Cebu, van to port, ferry to Bohol, van to hotel) but our hotel looks super fancy!  I'll be there most of the week then I'll be doing all that travel again to get back to site; luckily, though, I'll fly from Manila straight to Naga on the return.  This conference will be the last time the majority of my batch 271 will be together (until our reunions in the U.S.) so it will be very bittersweet.

Picture updates to follow!