Bayanihan

Bayanihan is a great word I learned from my filipino friends during this project. It somewhat means "community spirit directed towards a goal." It more concretely refers to an old tradition of getting a community together and literally carrying a community member's house to a new place when they needed to move.

My friends pointed out that when we got the whole community together to move the boat into the ocean, we revived this old tradition quite literally. The image of us rounding up the neighborhood to all help carry this huge boat into the water made them all recall the ancient island traditions, and the sense of community spirit it invokes. More info and pictures about Bayanihan are available here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communal_work#Bayani...

http://groups.csail.mit.edu/cag/bayanihan/bayanwor...

Community Spirit

Keeping any large-scale project alive ultimately relies on the community taking ownership of it. As an outsider, I did not just want to bulldoze my own values over those of the community. Instead dedicate time and resources to connecting with the neighborhood with whom you will work and listen to what the important issues and challenges they face are.

Build Pride

Chances are, your large outsider project might seem strange to the people living there. Thus you are faced with the challenges of both explaining what the projects are, but how they can help and why the community should have pride in them.

Simple things like branding equipment and making t-shirts helps establish both respect for the tools and ownership within the community of these tools. You should also host lots of public events where people of different social classes can come together. Also make sure to provide plenty of incentives for people to come; in the philippines, this meant FOOD :)