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!