Davao Day 2 - Habitat for Humanity

Today was a relaxing day spent with Junjun, the head of the Davao Philippines Habitat for Humanity office. The main priority is to help rebuild after typhoons or earthquakes. Whereas Jon's county will build 1-2 houses a year, Junjun's goal is to build 3000 in one year!

But first, to start with breakfast. Our hotel has an AMAZING breakfast. All of the fresh fruits from the island - pineapple, melon, papaya, mango, and pomelo. We can get cereal, baked goods, hot breakfast food, bread pudding, rice, noodles, fish dishes, chicken dishes, pork dishes, salad, sushi, and the list goes on and on. I personally like to end my breakfast now with Ube ice cream!!! Ube is a purple yam grown in Asian countries. I'm in love with the taste of this ice cream! The only think I can kind of compare it to would be like pistachio, but I don't think that is even quite right.

Junjun took us to a very nice restaurant in a nicer area of town. The sign below I had actually seen on the tourist website when looking at Davao attractions! The D is durian, A is and orchid, V is the national Eagle, A is Mount Apo, and the O is a pomelo.

I took a ton of shots of the view from the restaurant. It was a great sight! The restaurant, like most, was open air, just a roof to cover us from any inclement weather. 

We ate more traditional cuisine - Junjun helped us order!
Tuna (seviche) dipped in fresh calamansi juice (like a lime) and soy sauce
Kare Kare - which was like a beef dish, but made of ox tail, and dressed in a peanut sauce
Tuna belly - Jon really liked this one!
Vegetables made in coconut milk, they included squash,beans, and a bunch of other unknown veggies, some good, some we weren't very keen of.

Here are some pictures from outside the restaurant, including the pet monkey, playground equipment with landscaping right next to it, the traditional stars, a bathroom with a view (so many of the public bathrooms are open air!), and some traditional. instrument play.

After lunch Junjun drove us to some Habitat Houses. These are habitat houses that are not built due to disaster relief, but are built more like they would be in America. Once built, the owners pay for the house but at an affordable price. These houses are not occupied yet because the teachers that should be in them are struggling to get there loans to completely process. Each house has 3 rooms - the main room, a bedroom, and bathroom. The whole thing is about the size of our living/dining room, maybe a tad bigger. And these houses are considered to be the best most people could get around here. Of course, there are people who have much nicer, but majority would find these amazing. Sure puts my own excess into perspective. 

In the evening we went to Velendico which is a triangluar type mall that houses MANY shops of local baskets, women's clothing, jewelry and some other things, but mainly those three things over and over. I bought a couple baskets, but otherwise there wasn't much we were interested in, I think it was more overwhelming than anything!

Here is the view from our hotel room on the 11th floor. Jon and Caleb took in the sites, the crazy traffic, and the loud sounds for a while. Then we all tried to settle down and sleep before our big day coming!!!