Time is slipping past
me. Every day I plan a time to do this
blog and every day that time slot is filled with something else. Valerie is beat and resting on the bed
beside me, under the air conditioner and 2 fans. It is 38 above and very humid.
It supposedly feels like 46. It
feels like a sauna to me and it is only 3 PM.
It didn’t cool down last night and the humidity is so high my washing
takes several hours to dry then we bring it in and put it in the closet with a
fan blowing on it for a couple more hours.
I will stop whining now.
Our family history work has
slowed because the kids are out of school for summer break and we can
not get on the internet after about 10 AM. None of the members have their own
transportation so it is difficult for them to get to the churches. The internet cafes are full all day until
evening when everyone hits the streets for a fiesta of some type. We tried taking our router and computer to a
member’s home to save her the drive to the church but it didn’t work any better
in her home. I got beat up by her 5
year old son, Marco Masculino. We got
into a knuckle’s pushing fight and he won.
I think all this rice is weakening me.
He was very determined to win this contest!
We
went to Buhi last week with Gardners and Hoopes. Gardners wanted to say good-bye to the people in the Buhi
branch. Buhi is famous for its mountain
lake. While we were at the dock a
worker carried three 90 pound bags of feed to a boat for 40 pecos, about .10
CAD. Their bodies are so compact and
they have very strong backs and necks.
I think a chiropractor would go broke over here from lack of patients.
This
is Elder and Sister Gardner, Valerie and Sister Hoopes at the lake.
There is a sister we call the
Buhi Lady who makes specialized clothing and accessories for LDS people so we
went to her home/factory and bought some items like a woven bed spread, hand
woven ties, scripture bags…we will go back for some things to take home next
year at this time. We had lunch with
the group in Iriga and went our own ways.
As we drive from Iriga to Nabua there is a home
that intrigues me. It is built over a
rice field so it is constantly above the water. In this rural area there are extremes in housing. They either live in a makeshift bamboo hut
or something like this although this is rare.
In Iriga on Saturday, Sister
Icutan was baptized. I love this
couple. They are in their mid 60s and
their kids are members. Their married
daughter is very active and lives in Manila.
We have done a lot of family history work with this couple. She worked in Saudi Arabia for 18 years
while he raised the kids. She only got
home every 5 years but made enough money to make their retirement
comfortable. She calls her husband,
Pretty Boy. He has no use of his legs
but gets around like an athlete. When
we were working with her in February, her phone rang and a picture of her
husband came up and the words, “Pretty Boy” showed on her screen so I call him
Pretty Boy and he smoothes his hair down to make fun of my bald head! He was baptized last year and is being
advanced in the priesthood this month.
This is the group of supporters from our little
Baao Branch with Brother (red shirt) and Sister Icutan with the elders. Elder Robles is baptizing her which is
wonderful because he goes home next week.
What a great ending for a valiant missionary.
At the baptismal service,
Valerie was asked to lead the unaccompanied music and she wasn’t comfortable
about it so I jumped up and volunteered.
They all helped me and we got through it but I wasn’t asked to do it
again. That explains things very well!
I was sick Saturday and
Sunday but went to church in Baao since we haven’t been there for so long. I skipped out early to rest and went back
for Valerie. We had to leave for Iriga
at 2:30 and had stake meetings until 7:00 PM.
I was wiped out but we had to get up and go to Naga on Monday morning to
meet the group for a good-bye lunch for Gardners.
Gardners are on the far left and President and
Sister Reeder are on the far right. We
are the only couple not from Brigham City, Utah. The others knew each other before their missions and planned to
serve together when President Reeder was called.
This is just a picture of a cool display in front of a store in Iriga
I had to take some supplies
to the elders in Bato on Tuesday and Valerie stayed home to do genealogy
homework for a family. While driving on
the diversion road to the Bato church I found this rice drying on the highway
and guys walking on it to spread it around to dry. It is very common to see this but not spread out for a mile. Traffic just drives on it like it wasn’t
there. I got a few pictures when the
traffic didn’t block my pictures.
These two pictures are looking two different
directions down the highway.
After
the rice has been swathed by hand, stacked in piles and put through the
trasher, the straw piles are either scattered back onto the field, fed to the
caribow, or burned. Most of it is
burned.
Wednesday
was an exceptional day. We went to a
new area outside of our district in the Goa stake. Ocompo ward has a group about 25 km into the mountains. We went there with our technology hoping to
find better service. The church in San
Ramon is just a small warehouse with an overhead door to open the room. I will get a picture of that next time we
are there. We tried the router and
laptop but it didn’t work any better than in Iriga district so we will re-plan
our time table for a month. While we
were in San Ramon we went on two appointments with the elders. The first was a new member who will be
receiving the Melchizedek priesthood this month. We visited with him and his wife in their home in the hills then
he went with us to the investigator’s home about a kilometer away. It is only a foot path and a caribow trail
so we had a great hike through the river valley and into the next valley. This is Valerie with the elders under the
umbrellas for shade and the member behind them.
Some
of the trail was quite steep into the river valley.
The
investigators have five children who walk this path three times a day for
school which is about 2 km from their home.
Half the time it is in the rainy season so I am sure it gets muddy.
The kids are half finished their summer
break and will be going back to classes in June. Apparently, the dry season (summer) ends and the rainy season
begins about that time. After July we
start the typhoon season but it is all part of life here. Typhoon Noel, whose name will change to
Dodong once it hits the Philippine Area of Responsibility, is going to hit us
tomorrow night, May 9. We are supposed
to get wind and a little rain but the worst will hit north of us again. I keep asking why we are getting wet weather
in the dry season and they blame it on climate change. This is just part of the family we taught
standing beside their home. There are
two girls, both in grade 8 that participated in the lesson with their parents
but they must be camera shy.
We
took a new highway across country through the mountains to find a road we had
heard about from the Gardners. There
are no road signs and the map we have is very unreliable and not very detailed
so we went by faith. While I was
navigating a narrow mountain road and texting the elders Valerie asked to
drive. It was her first time driving
here and she did a commendable job!
This is proof.
We
went to Sister Gloria Bacsain’s home for dinner at 6:00 PM. She took us to the fresh market yesterday to
show us what and how to buy and what to avoid.
We bought all the ingredients for one of my favorite meals here. It is called adobo and it is amazing. Gloria is a world class cook and she spoiled
us. This is what chicken and pork adobo
looks like.
It is a mixture of Asian and
Mexican taste and it is soooo good. She
also cooked another dish I have forgotten the name of. It was very good too but I used most of my
eating space for adobo. We look happy
here after the meal. This is Gloria
with her daughter across the table, her son and granddaughter on her lap. We owe her a meal in Canada some day!
Wednesday was a great
day. I could do lots more like that!
Thursday we went to Nabua to
do family history with Sister Bermito but she didn’t come so we worked with the
elders and went to a meeting in Iriga2 branch with President Burmudo. He is young and very agreeable. That branch needs help with family history
and they meet in the district building so we have access to the district family
history equipment.
So…here we are in the Baao
building doing family history with Sister Nanale while the primary is
practicing a dance routine in the next room.
I am catching up on the blog while Valerie is helping the sisters.
They have a district primary activity tomorrow
from 8 AM to 4 PM. I will get more
pictures of all the kids tomorrow as we are going in the afternoon to watch the
dancing. Eight hours seems like a long
time to maintain all the primary kids in the whole stake but the big plus is
that they get to be in an air conditioned gym all day!! Check out the costuming for these little
primary kids.
This
is Sister Nanale with Valerie and JayLee who is an amazing branch consultant
but is leaving for her mission in two weeks.
The branch will miss her.
Saturday
was a district primary activity day in Iriga.
They did crafts and games in the morning and we got there about
12:30. Each of the 7 branches did their
part in acting out the Book of Mormon story from Lehi leaving Jerusalem and
finally making it to the promised land.
That took about an hour and half but was priceless in so many ways. The costuming and acting was
incredible. Part of the charm of
primary kids is to see the wide range of dedication to the individual
parts. Some of the kids were very serious
while others just took it in stride.
One of my favorites was a 5 year old who was a Holstein cow wainting to
become part of the flocks and herds the Nephites had in the new land. He went out on stage during the scene where
Nephi is just taking the sword from the dead Laban. That brought a good laugh at the wrong time but Filipino people
don’t “sweat the small stuff.” The back
wall says, Iriga District Philippines District Primary Activity Day.” The district primary president is an amazing
woman. She is quite young, always
happy, a single mother, operates her own business, is the Buhi branch family
history consultant, the branch organist and the branch Gospel Doctrine
teacher. She is in every meeting I attend
representing one of her calls. I have
great respect for her!
After
each branch participated in the play they each did a song of their
choosing. Some did some modern music,
some did hymns and Baao branch did a traditional Filipino folk song in Tagalog. Then each branch did a dance number. Again, there was a wide range of
presentations and again Baao did a traditional dance in costume. I have several pictures but I will show this
one that was so amazing and cute because the little girl in the middle knew her
part so well and their bodies are so compact they can really move. They were doing a modern dance to a Beyonce
song. Sooo cute!
I will end this week’s rant
with a picture of a shy little DeLima girl from Baao. She has three sisters that all look the same and they are rowdy
but shy and sweet. This is the best
picture I could get of her. This one of
the million reasons I love it here!
