Students were surprised to find that, although residents of Manila suffer abject poverty—living in shanty structures amid waste and heavy pollution—they remain upbeat, finding joy in each other’s company and in the few posses- sions they have. “Our trip to the Philippines was the most eye-opening


experience I have ever been a part of,” says MechE junior Richard Musgrave. “The fact that someone could be so happy in what we consider unlivable conditions reminded me that everything we have is a blessing, and that we should cherish all we have in life.”


When students first arrived at the construction site,


they were shocked by the scene—which one student described as a “garbage heap” of broken wood, housing materials destroyed by the typhoon, shards of metal, and animal waste. Using minimal tools and resources, team members worked with a volunteer carpenter to construct new homes, exchanging information and knowledge. For example, the students showed the carpenter the best way to build a staircase, and he taught them how to properly use a handsaw, as there were no power tools. “The house plans didn’t include any written measure-


ments, so we kind of built as we went. The homes were small, with plywood walls and tin roofs, but the people were so


Real-Life Challenges Bring Lasting Rewards Led by Team Leaders Reid and MechE Ph.D. student Sarah Neyer, the Carnegie Mellon delegation left Pittsburgh on May 14. Students endured a full day of travel, including a 13-hour flight, before being hit with Manila’s staggering heat and humidity. “At that moment, I think all of us thought, ‘I have to


spend two weeks in this weather?’” says Kwadwo Som-Pimpong, a MechE senior with a minor in Biomedical Engineering. “But everyone maintained a positive attitude throughout the trip.” The students split into a construction team and a


teaching team, switching duties after one week so that each student could experience both tasks. The construc- tion crew rebuilt homes destroyed by September 2009’s Typhoon Ketsana, ultimately having a hand in the recon- struction of nearly 20 structures.


happy to have them,” Som-Pimpong says. “The commu- nity really welcomed us. While we worked, everyone was smiling, people were waving, and children were peeping around corners to watch us. Some children would follow us down the street, saying ‘Hi, Joe!’ because they associ- ate all North Americans with the name ‘Joe.’” In the meantime, the teaching team worked at two local


churches, demonstrating engineering concepts to children from all over the community through hands-on projects, such as building bridges out of uncooked spaghetti and assembling mousetrap cars. As the days continued, the popularity of these engineering sessions grew. “We expected to have about 30 kids each day. But on


the second day, we had about 150 show up,” Musgrave says. “They were all very willing to learn. I remember one seven- or eight-year-old asking me, ‘How do I make this [mousetrap car] better?’ The fact that we were able to im- part some of our knowledge to and positively impact these children through engineering was amazing.”


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CARNEGIE MECH


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