Paige Elizabeth Leslie
AGE: 22
Originally from: Houston and Austin, Texas, USA
Paige has a heart for humanitarianism. In her 22 years of life she has participated in aid and volunteer work in 3 prominent global disasters and they are: Hurricane Sandy which occurred in the United States eastern sea board, the most recent earthquake in Nepal and with us here in Tacloban City after Typhoons Haiyan and Ruby. By now she has become a seasoned humanitarian but I believe she is just getting started. This is her interview.
LL: So Paige, can you tell us about the place and the vibe where you come from?
PEL: I’m from Houston, Texas. I grew up in a quiet and small suburbia called Sugar Land in Texas; it’s 20 minutes from downtown Houston. I don’t like it, it's cookie cutter, safe, a nice neighborhood. It’s great for when you are raising children, I understood why my parents raised us there but it’s not a good place for adulthood. When I got older I began to explore Houston more and I found it to be a very diverse city. I went to the University of Texas in San Antonio, then to Texas State University in a campus that's 20 minutes from the Austin city limits.
LL: I like Austin too, it’s like a culinary mecca of sorts; what’s the Southwest by Southwest Festival like?
PEL: It’s awesome, it’s a great time. All the bands play in the streets, the big band names and there are films being shown as well.
LL: What was your life like before you came?
PEL: I had already been working with All Hands as a volunteer for Hurricane Sandy.
LL: I understand this occurred in New York and New Jersey right?
PEL: Yes, we had sites in Staten Island and Brooklyn, we did rebuilding...
LL: Of houses?
PEL: Mainly basements. The basements were flooded and we worked with "Resurrection Brooklyn" which is partnered with Red Cross, they funded the project we had.
LL: How many volunteers were there? And didn’t it happen during winter?
PEL: There were about 400 volunteers in a period of 9 months. Yes, it was in the winter, it was brutal, it was very cold. I was also in Nepal these past 7 months, I had already come here to Tacloban to help after Typhoon Haiyan then I went with All Hands to Nepal. I was with a DAR (Disaster Assessment Relief) team, where we go and assess the damage incurred by disasters. After the initial assessment there, it was already very bad that we had to help immediately. There are already 940 volunteers from All Hands in Nepal post earthquake, that number is changing as people get done with their volunteer work. .
LL: There was a second earthquake that occurred one week after after the initial one right? Can you tell us about that? You were already there for the 2nd one right?
PEL: Yes, the first one was 7.8 and the second one was 7.4. There were many aftershocks, we got used to it but then the 2nd one happened. We thought it was just one of the aftershocks but it was very extended and buildings began to shake harder, things were falling to the ground. We were at the roof top so we ran downstairs, we were told to stay indoors though because of the debris falling from the buildings. We were in Katmandu at the time, we couldn’t see the extent of the damage at first but as soon as we went outside, we saw it, then we moved to Sindhupalchok where 90 percent of the place was destroyed.
LL: What are the Nepalese people like?
PEL: They are very sweet, they would help us with the things we would do, such sweet people.
LL: What's your impression of our place?
PEL: I have already been here since last year, but I’ve never met anyone like the people here.
LL: How could we improve as a people?
PEL: I guess, people could take better care of the environment.
LL: What pivotal moment made you choose to become a volunteer/aid worker?
PEL: After Hurricane Sandy, I just had to help. I was in school, I did 3 years of school but I have stopped for now and did volunteer and aid work. I have to do 1 more year of school though.
LL: Has your experiences here affected or changed you as a person? And do you think that your experience here will be useful for you in the future?
PEL: Being here made a very big impact on me. There was more of an obvious need here compared to New York. We were restoring and rebuilding basements in there but when I came, one could see that the need was more obvious.
LL: Yes indeed, after the typhoon loads of people had no houses at all.
LL: Given all that has happened in the world, the news we see, the political and religious upheavals between countries and ideologies, there’s terrorism and the natural disasters which we cannot control. Do you feel there is hope for the future of our planet?
PEL: Call me an optimist but things are constantly changing and people will help with the change, like in Nepal, new ideas have come up in building more earthquake-resistant structures.
LL: How so?
PEL: There is this new thing called “Earth Bags”; it’s new, but they are trying to do this now where they use bags filled with soil and they stack them until they are dense to make the wall. It makes the walls absorb more shock in the event of an earthquake because unlike concrete which is rigid, it breaks; whereas the walls with Earth Bags will sway and not break.
LL: Cool! Like the suspension bridges during earthquakes.
PEL: That’s the idea.
LL: Given an opportunity to resolve one global issue or conflict happening in the world right now, which one would you take a gander at?
PEL: Homelessness and the way we treat mentally-ill people.
LL: Indeed this is a concern isn’t it? After Yolanda, there was an increase in the number of people who could not cope mentally, a lot of them bear the trauma of watching their loved ones drown or get taken by the water.
PEL: That’s so sad.
LL: Apart from volunteer work or being an aid worker, what’s the next best thing that makes you eloquent with words?
PEL: Swimming, volleyball, shows, concerts.
LL: What’s next for you?
PEL: I might take an extended break but I am not done with All Hands, I am very passionate about this organization and doing humanitarian efforts.
LL: Who founded All Hands?
PEL: A guy named David Campbell began All Hands. He started after the big Southeast Asian tsunami that affected Thailand and Indonesia.
LL: How many projects has All Hands been a part of from the beginning?
PEL: In the past 10 years, we have had 55 projects.
LL: How impressive!
LL: We are about to get done but wanna play one-word-answer questions and Bonus Q?
PEL: OK.
Moon or Sun? Sun
Monochrome or Colored? Monochrome
Iceland or Australia? Iceland
Fútbol or Football? Soccer
Coffee or Tea? Coffee
Eagle or Dolphin? Dolphin
Heels or Flats? Flats
Red or Blue: Blue
Beach or Shopping: Beach
Bonus Q: If you were given the power to spend 2 hours with someone who has passed on, who would it be and why?
PEL: Andy Warhol, because I would like to talk about his life in New York during the 60’s. I’d like to ask him about Edie Segdwick, the very first “It Girl." I like the pop art he did. I find that whole lifestyle interesting.
The things that Paige has gone through in the 22 years of her life is profound to say the least. Her good deeds done will leave memorable footprints for the many people she has touched and affected. It was an honor to talk to Paige, she has put many things on hold like her schooling, pursuit of a successful career, personal life and comforts for the sake of the stricken. That cannot be taken lightly at all, not by the New Yorkers, the Nepalese and the Filipinos who have seen her hands reach out to them in the time they needed it most.
Thank you very much Paige.
Hassan Adebayo Bello FB: Bayo Hassan Bello
AGE: 22
Originally from: Osun State, Nigeria, Currently lives in Dubai.
When I met Hassan, he was with his friend Costa in a coffee shop. The positive spirit that flowed from Hassan was obvious the moment he walked inside the room. His story as a volunteer is an atypical one. He visited Leyte without any intentions of becoming a volunteer at first, but after getting to know some of the other All Hands volunteers and learning about the need for helpers to build a structure somewhere in the Tagpuro area, Hassan rose up to the challenge. One really has to admire that.
LL: Hassan, can you describe the place and vibe where you come from?
HAB: I have been living in Dubai for some years now. Dubai is like a playground for young dreamers, because it’s a young country, the things that Dubai has achieved there within 10 years is amazing. Dubai as we know is rich in oil, however, it has diversified on to other ventures because in 10 years the oil will run out. It has become a tourist place, an important port around the region and a place of enterprise. Dubai has it’s flaws but it’s a nice city; the only way you can know it is by visiting it.
LL: My impression of Dubai is that no one can go there unless you have an exorbitant amount of money or unless you enter as a worker. But as a tourist, don’t they check if you have money to be able to afford your visit?
HAB: No, you need money to travel but they don’t check your level of income or something, you’ll be OK there. There are places for the working class or low income earning people too and they are just as nice as the ones for the upper class. Like cute cafés or restaurants.
LL: What was you life like before you came?
HAB: I am a software programmer, our clients are those that need enterprise solutions and so on.
LL: What's your impression of our place?
HAB: To be honest, I barely knew about Tacloban before I came. I only knew from the news about the typhoon (Haiyan), I saw the news and I just had to get here. I just hooked up with All Hands when I arrived here. I was at the Yellow Doors (hostel) and a lady there Marielle Trixie suggested that we volunteer. I started to volunteer for just half a day but it ended up to be more. I saw the site where we worked and I saw buildings that were pretty new.
LL: What pivotal moment made you choose to become a volunteer/aid worker?
HAB: I saw the initiative of the other volunteers from All Hands. It’s very gratifying to see how the locals are and you can really see the gratitude by the people we do this for.
LL: Has your experiences here affected or changed you as a person? And do you think that your experience here will be useful for you in the future?
HAB: Certainly, I was looking at the videos and they are educating us about the typhoon and how the death casualty was really not just 6,000. We saw a video about this shop owner whose warehouse was looted and how she just allowed the people who were in need to go ahead and get what they needed. She also allowed her warehouse to be used for charitable purposes.
LL: Do you consider yourself as an activist or an advocate?
HAB: I am an activist because I put action into my words.
LL: Given all that has happened in the world, the news we see, the political and religious upheavals between countries an ideologies, there’s terrorism and the natural disasters which we cannot control. Do you feel there is hope for the future of our planet?
HAB: I do. I was in Magallanes St. and I saw shoes and stuff instead of corals on the sea shores but because of the things for example that All Hands that has done, there’s improvement, simple things that they have been done inspires you.
LL: Given an opportunity to resolve one global issue or conflict happening in the world right now, which one would you take a gander at?
HAB: The problem of generalization.
LL: You mean prejudice or lack of education?
HAB: No, its generalization, for example, when people think that all Muslims are bad. I am reading a book right now called "Black Swan," in the book there is a black swan, it exists but is rare, just because you only mostly see white swans, that doesn’t mean black swans don’t exist. Another example is the typhoon; before the typhoon nobody knew that a typhoon of Yolanda’s magnitude would happen but it happened and because it did, it can bring about change. This can apply to religion and so on.
LL: Apart from volunteer work or being an aid worker, what’s the next best thing that makes you eloquent or effusive with words?
HAB: Extreme sports, mountain climbing, skydiving even though I cannot swim. And also BoSfit videos (extreme workout videos).
LL: What’s next for you?
HAB: I’ll go back to Dubai to my work, I still have one more subject to finish at university.
LL: Wanna play one-word-answer questions and Bonus Q?
HAB: Sure.
Moon or Sun? Sun
Monochrome or Colored? Colored
Iceland or Australia? Iceland
Fútbol or Football? Soccer
Coffee or Tea? Tea
Eagle or Dolphin? Eagle
Bonus Q: If you were given the power to spend 2 hours with someone who has passed on, who would it be and why?
HAB: Anne Frank. She was only 8 years old when the events in her diary happened and for her to think like that, I mean other kids were only perhaps thinking about hula hoops. She is one I could easily identify with. The hardships she experienced.
The interview has now come to a close and it was admirable to see Hassan and Costa because they were both open and very enterprising. Indeed I may not see them again but I know I will not forget this encounter or this kindness given to us by these gents that they would volunteer their efforts for people they don't know.
Hassan and Costa, thanks for all your efforts.
Jayson Alexander Carr
AGE: 22
Originally from: California, USA
Position held prior to coming over to the Phillipines: Graduated in May of 2015, worked under a government contractor company cleaning up after the Avian Flu epidemic in the US for USDA.
One would need to do a double take on Californian Jayson Alexander Carr because he could very easily pass for Liam Helmsworth with a beard right? But make no mistake, this gentleman is worth his weight in California gold because of his big heart. Jason volunteered here in the Philippines because to put it in his own words, he wasn’t happy not doing anything at home in a humanitarian sense. This is his interview.
LL: Can you describe the place and vibe where you come from?
JAC: I come from Orange City, California, a suburb, I live in a track home or a cookie cutter home where everything looks the same, it’s a small, safe and nice little bubble of a neighborhood.
LL: What was your major in college?
JAC: I majored in psychology.
LL: What was your life like before you came?
JAC: I was the intermediary between contractors and the government, we were in place to make sure there was no over charging of equipment and services. Life was great, my parents provided for everything, I had a private catholic education. I had plenty of opportunities to take. Living in Southern California, the weather is amazing, there’s the ocean, it has a relax feel.
LL: What's your impression of our place?
JAC: I was in Manila first, then when I came to Tacloban, there was this welcoming party of the porters who would clap (a rhyme) and bid us welcome. When I arrived, the sun was just rising, the fishermen were already out to sea. It was a great welcome. I find that the shops are distinguishable, the sari-sari shops, it’s redundant but it makes sense. I’d never seen the living conditions I have seen here, I visited in the coastal towns and to see so much trash… I saw toilets that are on the beach with kids just playing underneath it. It doesn’t make sense to me why there’s poop where you play. I also saw these signs on some barangays which said, “this is a public feces-free barangay,” I didn’t understand why the sign was even there. The way I see it, you start with a clean bedroom, your begin and end the day somewhere clean, then you extend this to your entire house, then your neighborhood, then your community.
LL: How can we improve our place and as a people in general?
JAC: Knowledge on cleaning up trash.
LL: What pivotal moment made you choose to become a volunteer/aid worker?
JAC: I heard about All Hands from a friend who went to Nepal, also a big reason was that I never traveled, and I think when you travel and make a home in a place, it would involve you in making a place better. Also, I am a huge follower of humanitarian efforts. Personally, I wasn’t happy, I was only sitting at home.
LL: Has your experiences here affected or changed you as a person? And do you think that your experience here will be useful for you in the future?
JAC: It has definitely helped me because it has actualized an idea I had with traveling. I didn’t know what I could do with my own hands. Regarding NGOs, you get ideas about how to do work and coming into All Hands, it’s different because you are doing labor, though I was expecting more locally sourced help, I didn’t realize the projects would take the whole day for the team.
LL: Are you an activist or an advocate?
JAC: I’m an advocate. I spread the knowledge that way.
LL: Given all that has happened in the world, the news we see, the political and religious upheavals between countries an ideologies, there’s terrorism and the natural disasters which we cannot control. Do you feel there is hope for the future of our planet?
JAC: Yes, I feel it in myself, everyday when I can control myself. Then I know that someone else can control their own selves. For me, there’s empathy out there, every human has the same biological grain and if i can do it, it’s possible for someone on the opposite end to do it too, if there’s a little hope than theres hope for the general sense. If you can do it in your way then anybody can do it.
LL: Given an opportunity to resolve one global issue or conflict happening in the world right now, which one would you take a gander at?
JAC: The refugee crises in Syria through Europe.
LL: Apart from volunteer work or being an aid worker, what’s the next best thing that makes you eloquent or effusive with words?
JAC: Reading and writing, I like essays, I write from the stream of consciousness because that’s what people are, that’s why I studied psychology.
LL: What have you written?
JAC: Letters to people, essays from my own stream of consciousness.
LL: What’s next for you?
I have a flight booked to Vietnam and I will go to the Northern province to teach English in Hagiang (pronounced Hazhing), then I will go back home to pay my student loans and I want to help in the Syrian refugee crises.
LL: Wanna play one-word-answer questions and Bonus Q?
JAC: OK.
Moon or Sun? Moon
Monochrome or Colored? Colored
Iceland or Australia? Australia
Fútbol or Football? Soccer
Coffee or Tea? Coffee
Eagle or Dolphin? Eagle
Bonus Q: If you were given the power to spend 2 hours with someone who has passed on, who would it be and why?
JAC: Earnest Hemingway, I just want to know how did it, how he get there, what made him write what he wrote. I’m not even sure if I can say anything, it will be more like he will be the one who would talk and I listen.
LL: Good choice.
As we conclude the interview, we wish Jayson all the best in the world and all his endeavors. What a fortuitous circumstance that we first got to know him while he was extending himself to us in such a selfless way.
Jason, from all of us, Thank you very much!
Jaime Martín Grau
Age: 24
From: Barcelona, Spain
Currently going to a university in Denmark where he is majoring in Architecture/Engineering and Law
I met Jaime in a coffee shop where he would hang out in between his volunteer work. I found him to be warm and affable. Very engaging not just in conversation but also with life. It was inspiring to see a young man be very committed with helping people he’s never met and are not familiar with. All these were palpable throughout the interview.
LL: How did you start off with volunteering?
JMG: I did volunteer work at home with the homeless, the elderly and people without families but that was when I was very young, then I wanted to do something else. At University, I became a member of an architect NGO made up of students but we were not able to do a lot and we didn’t have tools; I also wanted to do volunteer that had to do with my home in Spain and I wanted to help in the poor countries. In Barcelona, I was working in a “Comidor Socíal” a kitchen not necessarily for homeless people but also for people who were down and out; you could see that some of those people just fell on hard times, they were embarrassed to be there. Also with my grandmother, she had Alzheimer’s disease, she was in a home for old people, we got involved easily, me and my sisters, it came naturally for us. We took our grandmother home to live with us and we when we saw that there were other elderly people in the care home who didn’t have families that could take care of them the way we did our grandma, we helped in the old people’s home.
LL: What made you decide to volunteer in our place?
JMG: In April, during the earthquake in Nepal, I wanted to go there but I couldn’t because there were already a lot of volunteers helping, so I asked my university some time off to do volunteer work, but after internet research I couldn’t find an outfit with which to volunteer. I needed to go somewhere, so I went to visit Cuba for the break that I had, I also visited Central America. I researched about Latin and South America but I couldn’t find any for which to volunteer, I didn’t know where to go. I did more research in the internet, then I remembered Yolanda (Haiyan), the typhoon in the Philippines, the faces of the people, it came to my mind and I found "All Hands” (NGO) and I saw that they were doing the rebuilding phase; All Hands has been here for 2 years already and there were projects for building houses, many volunteer outfits were here only for the emergency phase, but All Hands has been here for the rebuilding. I also wanted to continue with the human experience. I was disillusioned in a way with plainly doing architecture because I didn’t just want to work in an office.
LL: How would your field of work connect with doing good in the world?
JMG: I really believe that architecture will improve the people’s living condition. These points are connected, people need to live in a place that is healthy for them, they have to be careful with that and they need to live in a place that is comfortable and they should have dignity with their home; it has to have proper conditions that they can live as a human, not as an animal. When I saw this in Tacloban, it was a match for me, it had the need for rebuilding as well as an element of humanity.
LL: How was your volunteer work for Samar and Leyte? How did you find the people?
JMG: I think people are doing good. In my goodbye speech for All Hands when my time to volunteer was up. The biggest thanks that I have is for the people I’ve met. There is really something about this word “resilience” here in the Philippines. People have been through so much but they carry on, they continue. During the 2nd anniversary, there was this candle lighting, I saw people who were sad but I also saw people who were positive, they gave candles for the dead. I saw this old lady, who wanted to talk to me, she was happy. I asked her why she was happy? She said "the bad things are gone now, the city is even looking better, there were many people who helped and it was good." I think the people are positive and want to move on. This is also connected with my own life personally. One of the mottos of All Hands is "rebuilding lives", not just homes. It made me admire the positivity of the people, they are thankful with what we do for them. Sometimes people don’t understand that being a volunteer, one does not earn while volunteering. But they are thankful.
LL: Has your experience here given you more desire to volunteer?
JMG: Of course, because volunteering makes you learn many things. How to work with the city, with different people, different cultures. I have seen nature destroy but I also have seen how people can rebuild. And I learned many things. I will volunteer again.
LL: Given all that has happened in the world, the news we see, there are political and religious upheavals between countries, there’s terrorism and the natural disasters which we cannot control. Do you feel there is hope for the future of our planet?
JMG: Thanks to the social media and the internet there is more information within the people, so that the population are more able to criticize their own governments, they are able to say “ you don’t represent us” to the leaders of their country. The panorama right now for the world is bad but there will be pressure from all over the world. Syria for example, the government was using the lack of education of people; they should be more proactive though, especially the rich countries. They should be more involved. In connection with this when the time comes, I want to help rebuild Syria, just because the conflict is manmade, doesn’t mean we should not help. When I am talking about hope I am not being unrealistic, don’t just say "everything is sh—" ; you need to face the truth and do something about it. I have been lucky with travel, I have been in 55 countries in my 24 years. I have seen many things, poverty, disasters, dictators, I don’t trust the media on how they influence us. The best education is to see it with our own eyes. Example Iran, it was surprising , we have a bad perception about Iran but in terms of the people, they are the most amazing people you will ever meet - The Persian people. How cynical we are, but when you travel you are able to understand. I really have hope in young people because they are saying a lot now. Social media helps them to express that. It’s still far in terms of connection but with the leadership, it’s about the power struggle, the youth is now saying to their governments “You don’t represent me, this is not the government/country that we want.”
LL: Are you an activist or an advocate?:
JMG: Advocate. I am not militaristic.
LL: Given an opportunity to resolve one disaster or conflict going on in the world right now, which one would you take a gander at?
JMG: I would show the reality of the the guns, I would show them that the people who are behind guns are people, like co-workers. I would build more schools instead of guns.
LL: Do you still find time for your personal life after all the travels and volunteering?
JMG: Yes, yes i do.
LL: What’s next for you? Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?
JMG: I am also studying law, I don’t want to be a lawyer for the sake of being one, but it (law) is important for everything. I am interested in human rights, people’s lives, if I make good with engineering and architecture then I also want to help improve people’s human rights, to improve dignity. In university, I had this paper about helping the slums in India, in terms of architectural and things that will improve lives.
Jaime did volunteer work in Leyte and Samar for 3 months, he helped build and rebuild homes in Leyte and helped rebuild schools in Hernani, Samar. After his work in the Philippines, he will take a break and go back to the university to finish his studies in Denmark.
From all of us, thank you Jaime.
