Bamboo houses for villagers, cultural experience for visitors

MARIBIJOC, Bohol: A middle-aged woman sweeps her hands across what appears to be a mosaic painting of stylized young seedlings on the front wall of a bamboo cottage in Toril village in this town.

“This was made by volunteer tourist students of the Asian Institute of Tourism (AIT) and of the UP Pre-Med Society who named this ‘Door of New Beginnings,’ a way of giving us hope for a new life after a disaster,” said Ma. Elena Borcelas, referring to a community-based rebuilding effort after a powerful earthquake struck Bohol and parts of the central Philippines in 2013.