Continuing on with our first day’s visit, here’s someone I have grown more and more fond of as time has passed. I remember seeing her when I first visited the "old" orphanage and met the children and staff. Then I remember visiting and interviewing and filming her with Christian when we were at the orphanage in June/July of 2006. It is obvious to me she remembers us too. She has become even more beautiful with the passage of time. I think I knew once what happened to her arm, but have since forgotten. No matter, her face tells the story of her beauty:

Behind the beautiful girl with the black hat, you can see a cinder block building. In it are three toilet stalls like the one shown below. These are the bathroom facilities for the 50 plus people living at Atlantis. Unfortunately, they’re not adequate so there is a smell of urine around the home. I mentioned this situation to my friend, Allan, and he said he’d call a meeting and tell the children to go further from the home when they have to go to the bathroom and the toilets are fully occupied. This is something we are hoping to correct sometime in the near future. First things first with our limited resources, though, as you will see as this post progresses.

The staff and children at Atlantis have planted some plants and started a garden. Of course, it is nothing like what we’ll be creating as we install Sustainable Tropical Agriculture there over the next 4 to 5 years, but it is a great start and provides some fresh vegetables to augment the food they purchase:

Here are the children playing around the outside of what will eventually be the health and counseling rooms in the orphanage. A health room for children who are ill to go and be treated until they are non-contagious and feeling better again. And, a counseling room where they can receive discipline or guidance in private on any number of issues from how to better socially interact to hygiene to career guidance:

The area in front of Atlantis is quite beautiful:

Here’s the driveway going up to the home from the road (The sun is going down and it is starting to get dark):

Looking up at the home from the street:

Here’s a picture of Juliet and Allan with their daughter (More later about Allan and Juliet. Suffice it to say for now that they are the backbone of Helping People to Help Themselves Inc. of the Philippines.) and of course your team, Chrstian, Joao, and me, about ready to head home for the night:

As I mentioned in my last post, although I was happy with all of the improvements I had seen, by this time I was beginning to be troubled by the lack of some basics the children needed for healthy living. These included adequate cooking, bathing, and toilet facilities.

And, there was one more HUGE thing missing I hadn’t anticipated: A LACK OF ADEQUATE FOOD SUPPLIES.

We had arisen at 4:00 a.m. in Manila to begin our trip to Mindinao and Atlantis on this day, so by sunset we were all pretty well exhausted. And, although I hadn’t fully cognized the implication of the lack of adequate food supplies, I was beginning to realize our activities would need to be re-prioritized for the next day.

More to follow in the upcoming post, "Return to Atlantis - Part 3," which will include more photos of the magnificent 4 1/3 acres of land at Atlantis which are, as you read these words, already beginning to be readied for Sustainable Tropical Agriculture and a long term solution to the orphanage’s food problem.

Until then, thanks for listening.

Scott & Team