Last week, we were blessed to receive some visitors from the U.S. who wanted to come over and personally see our progress on our orphanage project. Our friends Scott Ihle, Skip Slatton, Quinn Brandt, and Michael & Deborah Stock visited us in Tanjay City and we were happy to give them a brief tour around the construction site of our orphan care center and in a couple of tourist attractions in the city.
First stop was at the Casa Esperanza of Angels orphanage site. We showed them the ongoing construction work on the first of four planned children’s homes inside the facility. The security fence is under construction and will take some time to complete but the front section and the main entrance gates are now up and almost finished. We also showed them our plans for a second building to be constructed soon – the Family Guest Cottage – that would serve as our temporary quarters and administrative office to run the facility.
When we conducted our community outreach activity in the little fishing village of Sitio Baybay in Tanjay City, last January, we thought of coming back to that place in the future to bring more help to the needy residents. That future visit, it turned out, came sooner than expected.
We took our friends to see the actual conditions in the village, passing through the same maze of rice fields and dried-up fish ponds along the way. The Sitio Baybay kids were very glad to see us and our American friends were more than happy to share a few light moments with them as we passed around the meager treats we brought for the visit. Hopefully, we’ll be able to set up another outreach activity for these children soon.
The day wouldn’t be complete without the (obligatory) visit to the scenic places in town. Next stop was at the beautiful Boardwalk, a network of walkways and platforms built atop a littoral mangrove thicket. The place is still under development but it’s already a favorite location to adventurous visitors who seem to enjoy kayaking underneath the walkways as the tide comes in.
This location is where we actually held our final outreach program for the residents of Sitio Baybay last January because of safety and accessibility concerns at the time.
We also took them to the Boulevard, a strip of road on the city’s Tañon Strait shoreline facing east to the neighboring island of Cebu. It’s a favorite go-to place for locals and tourists seeking to hang out and catch a breeze during the sultry evenings but we didn’t stay for very long because of the oppressive heat of the morning sun.
Finally, we concluded the visit sharing a delicious dinner of sea foods and tasty Filipino dishes, giving our shared meal a decidedly tropical island flavor.
Thank you for visiting Casa Esperanza of Angels and Tanjay City, dear friends Scott Ihle, Skip Slatton, Quinn Brandt, and Michael & Deborah Stock. Thank you all for your support for our project and we hope to see you again in these parts when the orphanage facility is fully operational in the very near future.