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.