HXP - Cebu, Philippines (Part 1)

(published 3/26/24)

I got an entire two and a half weeks with Cat! We began our adventure by flying out of SLC on July Fourth, met up with our group in LAX, then all flew together to Taipei, then Cebu, Philippines.

Cat had been planning the trip for about a year and a half. HXP (abbreviation for "Humanitarian Experience") is an LDS-affiliated group that has organized trips for youth to dozens of locations in the US and abroad. Each itinerary includes a significant amount of time dedicated to humanitarian projects benefitting the community, but the youth also have opportunities to connect and bond by enjoying local adventures. There is also a strong faith-building component with group devotionals every morning and night, attending Church and activities with local wards, and a temple trip.

It was so much more than I expected. Truly an incredible experience. It was hard for me to be "on" for two and a half weeks, and try to connect with the youth, and document the entire experience for everyone by taking pictures and posting on Instagram. (That last task was a big part of my job since the youth hand over their phones at the beginning of the trip and Instagram is the only way their family at home knows what they're up to and that they're okay.) BUT I'm so glad I could be there with Cat so that I could experience it all with her and truly understand it.

We arrived in the afternoon and drove straight from the airport to the ferry station.
We took a ferry to Bohol for a weekend of getting to know each other and adventuring.
We spent the first evening at the beach, eating a yummy dinner and just hanging out.

The next morning we went on the excursion that made Cat choose this
location over all the other amazing HXP trips: snorkeling with Whale Sharks!

We took small boats from the beach out maybe 100 yards to floating
platforms where locals were flinging out fish and a few whale sharks
were enjoying a free breakfast at each platform. It was so cool.

After that we had lunch on a boat that looked like a turtle!

We cruised down a scenic river and stopped for a photo op with an indigenous tribe.

And then we tried tinikling for the first time!
It's harder than it looks.

In the afternoon we had a river paddle boarding adventure, with
lots of acrobatics and antics from the youth. It was beautiful and so fun.

The next day we saw the Chocolate Hills.

And walked through a tarsier sanctuary.

We left Bohol for our home base in Cebu on Saturday night.
On Sunday we went to Church, then did ministering visits in the afternoon.

On Sunday evening we decorated our hard hats so we would be
ready for the jobsite in the morning.

Hype to get started! Over the course of the trip we worked at three
different schools in Cebu, building nutrition centers where undernourished
children will get free healthy meals during the school day.

We had a fun FHE activity with the ward on Monday night,
with a devotional taught by Cat and Logan, then games.

There were school children around during the work day, and Cat and the
other youth made some friends, and sometimes the kids even painted with us.

We had SO MUCH RAIN and "Filipinos don't work in the rain," so we didn't
get nearly as much work done as we would have if it'd been sunny. But it was fun.

We had dedicated cooks who brought us a hot lunch every day,
which we ate in an empty classroom at the school.

There were lots of water fights...

Driving back to the home base after a downpour.

Without their phones, the youth had fun hanging out together whenever we
had down time at the house. We spent a lot of time playing card games,
playing basketball, doing hair, and singing/playing guitar.

We visited the local mall and had fun finding souvenirs
(and haggling) in the lower level permanent "market."

Treats at the jobsite! No complaints.

Building up the cinder block walls meant mixing a lot of concrete by hand.

...to be continued in Part 2...