For Interim 2026, a group of us travelled to the SAS GK village in Dalaguete, Cebu, the village our club broke ground on in 2018. We spent the week working and living alongside the community.
What we did
Building houses. Most days started on the build site, working alongside people from the village on homes for families in the community.
Making cement. We mixed cement by hand (sand, gravel, water, repeat) and passed it down the line in buckets.
Building fences. We also helped put up fencing around homes in the village.
Time with the kids. Breaks turned into games, drawing and a lot of laughing with the children, who never ran out of energy.
Filipino culture. We learnt about Filipino culture from the people who live it: the food, the language, and the way the community looks out for each other.
Ukuleles and the beach. Evenings meant ukuleles and singing together, and we spent a day at the beach before heading home.
Looking back
What stayed with most of us wasn’t the work itself, but the people we did it with. Carrying cement for a house is tiring. Carrying it next to the family who will live in that house is something else entirely.
The kids taught us more Bisaya in a week than we could have picked up anywhere else. Learning about Filipino culture first-hand also made it clear why bayanihan, a whole community pitching in together, matters so much to GK.
“I thought Interim would mostly be about the building, and we did a lot of it: houses, fences, and so much cement. But what I’ll remember is the kids running over the second we finished work, and everyone sitting around playing ukulele at night.
Learning about Filipino culture from the people in the village, instead of from a textbook, made me understand why this club exists. I’d go back tomorrow.”
November Trip 2026 runs from November 26th to 29th and is open to club members aged 15+. Want to come next time?