Blog 20: June 8 to June 15, 2015

I have been whining about the heat and humidity for two months now.  June is supposed to start the rainy season.  Until today we have had one little shower but my complaining has paid off as it usually does.  Today it poured for about an hour.  Here on the concrete you see it collect and you know it has rained.  We had to go out to Nanale’s farm in Bula this afternoon.  I wore my crocks and shortest dress pants to keep out of the mud and when we got there the ground was dry.  It must be a gravelly surface because there were only puddles in the yards.   This is a picture of the rain in our front yard.

This is what it looked like out on the highway to the north west.

This is Valerie walking back from the Nanale home on the dirt alley to their house.  She is pointing at the lack of water standing on the path and at a big covered hole in the road that would break your leg if you fell in.  I guess I missed the hole but trust me, it’s there.  At home there would be flags, barricades, flashing lights and several laws passed to protect us and use against the hole in a court of law.  Here they just use common sense and don’t fall in the hole.

This is the view from Nanale’s home looking out across the rice fields to lake Baao. 

We visited a school on Tuesday.  This is Sagrada Elementary school with grades 1 to 6 one of those we helped clean in May.  The following are a few of the pictures we took.  The whole building is in a U shape and each classroom opens to the courtyard. 

This is a grade 3 class.  The teacher is a good friend of ours, Jenny DeLima.  Each class has about 50 students.  This is about ½ the classroom.  She said this is the smallest room in the school. 

We visited a few classrooms with the home made desks and tables.  The grade 5 teacher spoke English very well so we learned a lot from her.  There are 120 grade 5 students divided into three groups.  There are enough text books for about 55 students so the teacher rotate the texts and adjust their schedules so each group gets their turn with the old, paperback, consumable texts that they are not allowed to write in.  Mnay desks were vacant and she explained that their parents can’t afford the notebooks and pencils so the kids are too embarrassed to come until they have the basic equipment.  There were some kids sitting in bare desks watching the others work.  It was heart breaking.  She said that the teachers supply all their own visual aids and class decorations.  They didn’t have a wall map so I couldn’t show them where Canada is.  She desperately wants a projector so three teachers are saving to buy one and share it.  This is her class.

We then went to the grade 6 classroom.  Whenever we entered a room the whole class would stand and recite together, “Welcome visitor.  Please come into our class and have a seat.  We are happy you are here.”  Then they sat back down and continued working.  We had to take a picture of the bare feet.  There was a pile of flip-flops on the floor at the back door. 

Their uniforms are so cute but many couldn’t afford them so they dressed in street cloths.

We have many more pictures but this will be hard enough to send with our technology here.  We are in a rural area of a third world country and we are reminded every day!    They also have sports in evenings and weekends like us but more limited in travel.  With 600 to 1000 kids in a school you don’t have to go far to find other teams to play against.

This is a copy of the school schedule.  Note that the kids are in school from 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM.  The teacher’s day is longer than that.  Darn, I can’t get the schedule to attach but I will keep trying.

WE walked our 5 mile hike into the mountains this morning at 5:15 AM.  There is a little girl who runs out every morning for knuckles with us.  Her parents stand in the doorway of their home about 50 yards back in the jungle.  They smile and laugh but keep an eye on their daughter.

We have a mango tree in the front yard and the over ripe mangos keep falling on the driveway.  The could really leave a mark if they hit you on the head.  On our morning jog we run under several very high coconut trees that are loaded with coconuts.  We hear them crashing to the jungle floor at times and wonder if we should wear helmets on our run.  If you think I am kidding about the size of the vegetation here, look at this leaf that fell on the path.  Don’t ever complain when your mom tells you to go rake the leaves!

We visited the biggest school in the district today.  There are 1000 students in a K-6 school.  We cleaned here last month and know Sister Elenor Cordez, a teacher there.

 This is Elenor Cordez and Valerie in the only library they have.  She is trying to make it inviting to students and has asked for books to be donated from other places.  The room is about 14’ X 14’ and very sparse.

We toured a few of the classrooms.  Sister Cordez was teaching her grade 6 class, operating the library and subbing in another grade 6 room because the teacher was absent.  We went into her room where there were 47 grade 6 kids and the sewer line had broken.  The smell was horrible  and the kids had no bathroom.  While I stood in the door talking with her three girls asked to leave.  Elenor told me that they run into the jungle behind the classroom to go to the bathroom.  I can imagine how that would work at home!!  We try to be positive around the staff but their conditions are not conducive to teaching/learning atmosphere.

We went into one of the kindergarten classes.  There are 2 teachers and 174 kids enrolled so far.  They are so cute!!

This is the kindergarten group doing a “Wakey” picture with me.

Everyone is drying their rice before the rainy season although it rains a bit every day.  We have been hoping for the rainy season to get a break from the heat but after each rain it gets hotter with the humidity and our cloths won’t dry on the line.  We have to do small wash loads at a time and bring them in to fan them dry in the house.  We had to race home from a meeting today to get our computers for a family history appointment to find someone was using our driveway to dry their rice.  They don’t care if you walk, drive or run carabow over it.  This is Valerie leaving our place.

We attended the funeral for Sister Tino last night.  She was 73 and had served 2 missions since her husband died several years ago.  When we first met her I told her my son-in-law had served in Naga mission and she said she was serving in the office then and remembered processing Elder Woodruff from Canada.  As we passed by her coffin they had her two mission badges, her mission pictures and a page opened in the mission directory on display, propped up against the open coffin lid.  Joel's picture was directly above hers in the directory. (I need to move my finger when I take pictures from my iPod.)  I directed many members, friends and leaders over to the casket to see my son-in-law in the 2 hours we visited before the service.

The funeral was held in the Tino home.  It was very cramped and hot but people came from all over the district to attend.  The Tino family have been members for over 30 years so they have had a lot of influence in this area.  All the branch presidents attended, the district presidency and a councilor in the mission presidency was there.  We sat in the house beside the casket and visited with many friends not knowing the service was held outside.  We couldn’t hear it very well when it started and everyone inside kept visiting through the service.  There was lots of food and laughter. 

We attended a fiesta in the street in Iriga on Saturday.  It was just a lot of venders in the centro.  We bought 2 bamboo spoons as souvenirs.  We walked the city alleys in the business district for awhile but it is so crowded, hot, humid and active we came home and crashed, “ in our little love neths for two” to quote Margret with a lisp in the movie Dennis the Menace.

We are presently waiting for a district priesthood meeting to start at 8:00 in Iriga.  The problem is that the national highway that runs in front of our home is closed for a bike race this morning.  People and pudyaks are parked along the road and in front of our gate waiting for a biker to come peddling by at the rate of one every few minutes.  It is very quiet except for the odd ambulance on it’s way to Naga.

Thanks so much Tab for getting the last three blogs up and posted.  Here is another one to post,  as we pass our five month mark.  We are still loving this experience.  Thanks to all our wonderful family who are sacrificing so we can accomplish our mission here.  Remember, if you fail and we lose the farm and livestock we will live in your basement for the rest of our lives, so keep things running!  We love you all too much.

Blog 19: May 25 to June 6/15

Another week has slithered past us.  The Baao branch had a swimming party at a spring filled pool complex they call a resort.  The water was beautiful and clear.  It filled four swimming pools and was cool and clean.  Most of the branch was there from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM.  We drove the sisters and got there at 11:00 AM.  I took the bag full of mangoes President Botor had cut down on Saturday.  I should have taken pictures because Brother Nanale and Genorge  were barbequing tilapia on a grill.  They use burned coconut shells for charcoal and fan it to keep it hot.  The funny thing was that the fish were not dead.  One flipped off the grill on to the ground and was immediately replace on the grill.  Sister Bakly saw it and walked away.

This is not a complaint but a reminder to self how good this week was.  On Monday my ipod switch stuck in and wouldn’t work.  I googled how to use it without the switch but it is not easy.  On Tuesday our phones quit working for no reason at all; Thurday was Valerie’s turn…I had been using her ipod for calendaring and camera duty but it quit working and only displays a grey screen.  I have googled how to fix it but it won’t restore.  The average temperature has been 38 degrees with high humidity and it doesn’t cool down at night.  We have experienced brownouts day and night for two weeks now.  Yesterday, after a really hot busy day we got home in the evening to no power, but that is expected, and no water.  When the water did finally come on they pressured about 3 miles of line without  bleeding it so when we turned on the taps we would get huge blasts of air…didn’t know that in time.  I desperately needed to do one load of wash to hold us until P-day.  I turned the water on manually into our washer to fill the tub and blew the water hose off the faucet. It is a manual type washing machine but better than a scrub board.  The room and I got a good soaking.   I finally filled buckets in the house and dumped them into the washer tub and did the wash that way.  When I see Jon Denver next I am going to sing his song about the sweet simple life down on the farm then punch him in the face! 

This is embarrassing but that week is over and we are half way into the next.  Without ipod I don’t take as many pictures because my ipad is too big to carry and Valerie has taken my camera. 

We were busy last Sunday as I had to race into Pili to meet the Hoopes to exchange some paper work.  I got back in time to take Valerie to Baao where she taught a primary lesson and I did a demo about home teaching in the joint session.   We left Baao and went to Iriga 1^st branch to do sharing time in primary. It went very well.  This is how cute those little kids are.

I have bragged about the district primary president before.  Here is a picture of her with Valerie in the new Buhi chapel.

Most of the grade school students went back to school this week.  We love passing the many, many schools and seeing the kids in their uniforms walking arm in arm.  In the morning as we jog out 5 miles into the mountains we pass a lot kids walking to school.  Some little grade one kids walk a few miles out of the mountains to the schools in the towns below nearer to where we live. 

We made a point to stop and see Sister Corito at her little store.  We took her Liahon and visited with her for a few minutes.  She is going to the temple for the first time, in a few weeks.  She sells candles and matches for a living.  We make sure she has food and transportation money…we have a purchased a lot of candles.  Here she is laughing.  She so so cute because she has a lisp but has no teeth to stop her tongue from coming out.

This is one of the streets we walk.  It is about 5:45 AM.

That is Valerie beside a carabow.  We have noticed that these animals have adapted to be browsers to exist.  There is not enough pastures land for grazing so they eat jungle vegetation as well.

This is further along on our walk/jog.  Can you find Waldo…I mean Valerie?

Every morning people sweep their yards to clean the food packages that just get tossed as they are used and the leaves that have fallen.  Then they burn the pile beside the road.  We were told it is against the law but it is part of live so the law is not enforced.  The yards, the homes and the people are exceptionally clean but the country is horribly polluted in every way.

Toward the top of the mountain the little kids from the huts come out to knuckle us and talk Tagalog to us.  We understand enough to answer in English.  They don’t care.  This is a picture of the road where we turn around.  Valerie is a small orange blur in the distance just coming over the hill.

This is a couple of families coming down from the mountains to go to work and to drop kids at schools.  It is about 6:30 AM.

On we jog, stumble, trudge to our end point and then back down the mountain we go and back through the streets.  We were about 10 minutes late this morning so I missed the many groups of kids in school uniforms going to school.  This is just small group of elementary kids.  The ones in street clothes probably can’t afford a school uniform.

Because we have been walking this route for two months the people know us and sometime gather to speak to us.  This group has been calling me, “Daddy” for a while.  Most older white men are here just to find young girlfriends so it is a joke on me although Valerie is always with me and I tell them I have an asawa, wife, the laugh and call me daddy.  I tell them to call me lolo which is grandpa.  Often when we are walking in the markets young girls will say, “hello daddy”.   I tell them lolo and they laugh.

We had to take some books to the sister’s apartment on our way to a meeting in Naga.  These kids were watching me while Valerie was delivering the books.  The little girl in the door was so cute.  I think I miss my little granddaughters more than I want to admit.

These are a few of the stakes and wards FH leaders in the mission.  This is taken at the meeting held by the area FH Consultants, Brother and Sister Gamil.  The one in the middle beside Valerie is Kimi who is an RM and a college student.  She is our district FH Consultant and does a commendable job.  We love and admire her dearly.

We had Hoopes over for dinner after fast Sunday services at Baao branch.  They were a great help in the meetings as Sister Hoopes plays the piano and Elder Hoopes helped me role play a home teaching situation.  President Botor is trying so hard to get things working correctly in this branch.  He assigned me a home teaching route with two companions.  We are assigned to two less active families who are both connected with local politics here.  It should be fun!

Today is P-day, Monday.  I went to the dentist with a loose bridge but she wants it to come off before she re-cements it back on.   Valerie is presently doing FH work in our home with Sister Nanale.  We don’t usually do this in our home but Sister Nanale is going to the temple with her daughter this week so we are helping get some family names for her to take.  She is a very determined, ambitious mother and wife and we love her and her family.  They are very humble farmers who live quite a distance from here but she gets to church every Sunday with as many of her family will come.  They ride a bus or a trycee to get here so it is expensive for them.  We were in her home this week and she showed us how she budgets her rice for meals every 5 hours so they have enough to eat and enough to sell.  This is Valerie with Sister Nanale in our home office.

I will close this blog with a picture of me and my companion in our yard.  As you can see we are getting along very well!!  The truth is, we are madly in love and enjoying every part of this experience.  We miss you all so much it hurts sometimes but we are doing well.  Thanks again for your support, for Mike and Bex and their family keeping the farm on the map and Tab for making this blog so successful!  We love you all!

Blog 18: May 17 to 24/2015

It is Thursday already and I am just starting my weekly blog.  On Sunday we said good-bye to sister JayLe Breana and Elder Robles.  It was difficult to see them go.  I attached one last picture of them to remember them by. 

Since we were in Naga on Tuesday to help Jayle get packed to go to the Manila temple and the MTC we decided to explore some of the mission north of Naga city.  We went to a costal port called Pasacao.  We have a beautiful chapel there but the internet service was no better than at home.   We then searched a farming town called Pomploma which is the district center but could not find the building.  We will try again when we get serious about working in that area.

The Filipinos have a great concept of community involvement in education.  April and May are the hottest months so that is their summer break.  The kids go back to school in two weeks.  The third week of May is the time when the school yards and buildings are cleaned by the parents, community members and volunteers.  Our church and the missionaries serving in this area, Iriga helped clean two grounds this week.  We had yellow vests made with our church logo showing.  Because we are in such a rural area, white people are very rare so many parents came out to see the white people work in their schools.  We swept the grounds for a local school; grade 1 to 6 school where a member, Sister DeLima teaches.  It only took about 4 hours but it was 38 degrees above with high humidity so we drank a lot of water.  This is a picture of our group at that school.

The next day we cleaned the largest school in the province.  It is also a grades1 to 6 school but has over 1100 students.  There are a lot of kids in the Philippines.  Sister Cortez teaches there and is very involved with the operations there.  We even trimmed trees with bolos (machetes) and hauled the branches about half a km to the compost pile.  All weeding, lawn mowing and trimming is done with bolos.  They are very skilled with the blades.  This took about 6 hours until noon to finish but we were very popular by the time it was completed.  We made many new friends with the parents and have been invited back to visit the classrooms next month.  This is our group after several hours of brutal heat, humidity and labor!

These are four teachers who teach grades 5 or 6 and have invited me to visit their classrooms. 

The back part is grade 3, 4 and 5.  The two story building is grade 6. 

The hallway is the outside court yard.  Every other classroom has one sink and a CR (comfort room, toilet) for the staff and the students to use.   The average classroom size is 55 students.  The teachers I have talked with complain about lack of resources, books, text material and technology in public schools is non-existent.  They go to high school from grade 7 to 10, then to college or the workplace.  I haven’t seen a high school yet although we did go to a graduation ceremony in February and it was amazing.  The pageantry was like nothing I have ever seen.

I didn’t think teachers in Alberta had anything to complain about during my teaching career but after seeing these conditions, I know how spoiled we are in North America.  That is enough of that rant!

Friday was a tough day as we attended the funeral service for Sister Michelle Oliva Victorino from Cotnogan.  The service was in the Bato chapel.  Both the mission president and the area 70 spoke.  It was a great service but very difficult to see Michelle’s mother, sisters and family surround the casket.

I helped sing in a missionary choir.   We sang, “Bring the World His Truth”.  She passed away while serving her mission.

On Saturday we went to San Ramon for a baptism.  While driving the elders to the Ocompo chapel some kids must have been hiding in trees along the road and dropping large rocks on vehicles.  We took two to the roof of the car.  The elders said we couldn’t catch the kids so we just drove on.  This is the damage they did to the roof just in front of the back window.

This is the chapel at San Ramon which is just a group of the Ocompo ward about 35 km away.

It is just an overhead door into a small warehouse room, but it works for them.  Most of the members of the group already travel several kms by pudyak or tricee to get here so this is a blessing for them.

The girl who was baptized is one of three in the family to be baptized this month.  Her mother and sister have a date in three weeks.  The girl in the white shirt was baptized. 

When we got home in the afternoon President Botor, his brother and nephew were harvesting the

 Mangos from our tree in the front yard.  They left the gate open so the neighborhood kids came to “help” as well.  It was chaos but very fun to watch.  The typhoon last June knocked the blossoms of most of the mango trees in the area so they are a rare treat this year.  We got several bags full.  We did fill one feed sack full that I stored for the branch party on Monday.  The rest got eaten on the spot or taken home in shopping bags to feed families.  We have had severl “Salamats” from the neighbors who obviously had kids here and took fruit home.  The adult males climbed the tree and cut or shook the fruit down.  There are lots left on the limbs of branches too small to crawl out on to, but too big to cut down.  I would damage the tree.  We had fun for an hour then cleaned up the yard.

The bigger guys caught the fruit as it fell.  The guy with the pole is has a blade attached to the end.  He would cut the fruit off with the blade in one hand and catch the fruit with the other.  I was impressed!

We went to church in Buhi to see their new building on Sunday.  They deserve it.  They live in a small fishing village and have grown from a few members in the early 80s to a branch with 120+ attendance in sacrament meeting.  The branch president lives way up in the mountains and cannot be contacted by phone or internet services.  He comes down regularly to check in with his counselors for messages etc.  He is a wonderful man.  He is dedicated and faithful yet his wife is not a member.  We were the only white people there except for a sister who was visiting from California.  She served a mission here in 1982 and came back to reunite with some of her companions and the members she knew here.  We gave her and her two friends a ride from Buhi to Iriga.  She knew people there too and she had a great reunion with them.  Valerie and I spoke in sacrament meeting.  President Bermudo asked us several weeks ago and it has taken us this long to satisfy all our other commitments so we could go there.  We need 4 Sundays a week in order to get to all the people we need to deal with.  Sunday is when they assemble and it is difficult and expensive for them to travel.

Thanks again Tabitha, one of my beautiful daughters, for doing this blog for us.  We love you all.  We are very happy and busy but miss you so much!  When our technology allows us to connect with you on facebook, your pictures and activities make us a little home sick for you.  Keep up the great work. 

Congratulations Mike for your new call as Elder’s Quorum president.  You are a good man and will serve well.  I am so proud of you and your family!!  I love you so much.  As a bishop I could not have done my call without an Elders Quorum President (Tracy Hall) or a Relief Society President (Roselynn Easter then Carol Gibb).

I will close with a picture I took at 6:00 AM while we were on our morning jog.  Think about this the next time you complain about your breakfast.  They are just trying to prepare theirs.

Blog 17: May 10 to 17/15

Monday was a hot one again.  We spent most of the day in the air conditioned car, the mission office and the Nags S&M mall so it wasn’t too bad.  Valerie’s laptop is fixed and home from the hospital again so we are ready to go full steam ahead but the local wifi is still not working after about 9:00 AM local time.

We had no power most of Saturday, Sunday and Monday with short sessions of brown outs the rest of this week.  The generator got a few hours on it and we are very impressed with the ability of this 3200 Watt machine.  We can manage the fridge and the air conditioner in the bedroom by unplugging cords but the Genny keeps chugging along. 

There have been two wakes in process on either side of our house since Monday.  The move in a rented tent top and block the streets with the tent poles and rented chairs.  They hang a big banner about 3 feet by 6 feet, with the deceased picture and short bio on it.  The big thing here is videoke like our karaoke and they sing from about 6:00 PM to 4:00 AM.  Fireworks and cherry bombs are very popular and are blasted all day and night during the wakes and fiestas or just when they feel like it.  They love to celebrate any event and they know how to dance, decorate, dress up and party.  There is always something going on.

There was a fiesta in the Elder’s area in Bula yesterday so we took the sisters with us and went to Brother Vibal’s home.  There were several member families there including President Botor.  We socialized and ate a lot of different foods including one that looked so good I took a large amount only to find it was ground up green jalapeno peppers.  I was able to mix enough rice and adobo with it to eat it.  It was masarat (delicious) but HOT!  I tried to get the missionaries to take a spoonful but they are Filipino and know what the food is. 

We then went back to the sister’s area with them after dark and did two discussions with investigators and one member visit.

This is Valerie at the fiesta eating a dessert with a type of jelly from coconuts in chilled coconut milk.

As is the case so much around here, a member of a family will go “a broad” to work to make good money to send home.  The investigators we taught had their daughter’s three month old baby while the young single mother was working in the middle east.  This kid was huge for three months old and very happy.  There are still two girls at home to help lola (grandma) take care if the baby.  He is not hurting for attention and love.  Sister Killian from Washington is in the background.

At the less active member’s home some kids came to listen  but I  couldn’t get a good picture of them.  They kept hiding from the camera.

Friday was sooooo hot and we spent most of the morning outside walking for various reasons.  This is Valerie and Sister Cynthia, one of Baao’s family history consultants walking with me to get a key to the church.  Cynthia is amazing.  She was widowed very early into her marriage but has stayed active and has such a positive attitude toward to life.  She is very ambitious and loves to learn.  She is always taking classes to learn a new skill.  She also serves in the district primary presidency.  She is a great person and it is a privilege to serve with her.

We had a tragedy in our district.  Sister Michelle Victorino was serving in another mission in the Philippines.  She and her family are from Cotnogan in our district.  She got sick and went to the hospital last week and they couldn’t find the source of her problems.  Finally they discovered that her gall bladder had burst and overwhelmed her system with toxins.  We were texted on Friday evening to pray for her but she passed away in hospital at midnight.  Her body will be shipped home and the funeral will be this week.  The area president will preside at the funeral.  We were asked to not visit the family yet but plan to go next week as we know them.  The branch president is her uncle and good friend of ours; President Oliva.

We did family history work in Baao on Friday.  All our other appointments fell through or there was no internet to operate so we did a lot of running around for nothing.

Saturday evening we had a Canadian farewell supper for the district and for JayLe from Baao branch who is going on a mission.  Elder Robles is finished his mission and Sister San Jose will be transferred.  We will miss all three of them too much.  Darn these attachments.  It is really like a funeral to see them leave because we will not see them again in this life.   We have had eternal experiences with each of them and it is hard to see them progress.

We are eating a traditional branding meal from the ranch back home.  Valerie had bbq beans, potato salad, rolls (pandesal), potato chips and a jello…but the gelatin here is made from sea weed and does not taste good.  It went to a special place instead of the dinner table.  The kids drank root beer.  This is the group with us, Elder Robles, Elder Alveran, Sister San Jose, Sister Killian and JayLe.  She is going to a Filipino mission where all the missionaries are Filipino.  Foreigners are not allowed there because there is a civil war going on against the Muslims who want to claim that area as their own and separate from the nation.  It is a hot war and many soldiers are killed on both sides of the fight.  We have a sister in our branch whose husband is a marine in the war zone.  She has some very sobering stories.  Her husband gets a 30 day pass to come home on the 23rd.  They are going to the temple in Manila to be sealed with their 4 year son, Sky.

Anyway…here we all are having a great time together one last time!

We went to church in Baao on Sunday to hear JayLe’s final testimony.  During priesthood/Relief Society/Primary I got to babysit the Primary President’s son, Mark Joseph.  He is a sweet little man and is so easy to keep occupied.  He is only 4 months old and has 7 older siblings.  Elder Robles has my ipad!!

I will close with a few pictures of the neighborhood.  This is a picture of a neighbor’s home two doors down from us.  It is the Roperto family’s home but the neighbor woman is about to bath her daughter in the community water pump.  It is a bit dark but there are others sitting in the alley up and to the left in the picture.  There are several homes packed into that small area.  I am standing on the very busy, narrow, 2 lane national highway that runs past our homes.  The kids have no space to play.

Behind their homes and between our yard and them is a sewer ditch.  You can see the sewer pipes sticking out of the homes.  The kids sometimes go into the ditch to look for treasures when it is not wet.

Thanks so much Tabitha for helping us keep this blog going.  We love you all!!