Blog 39: November 16 to 22, 2015

Monday was P-day but it started off on the run with us doing a great workout and 8 km run up our mountain trail.  My knee felt great and Valerie’s cold is almost gone.  We were ready for a sister who was coming at 9 AM to harvest our coconuts but she didn’t show up.  We started the wash but the power went out so we went to Pili to shop for food.  When we got back at 4 PM the power was back on so I finished the wash.  The towels had been soaking for about 6 hours so they were clean and fresh!  We did a lot of home work to get Pamplona district organized for family history work.

We were out the door into the dark heat at 5 AM .  Valerie was trying to cough up a lung and my leg was too painful to run so we struggled to the mountain and went up the first steep grade.  Going up was good for me but coming down was a painful effort.  We were told by the highway construction crew that we they were ripping out the front drive so I had to move our car across the street to park it .  The crew and equipment are here now so they must be serious this time.

Tuesday was wonderful because we got to work with the missionaries.  We delivered packages to the Zl’s apartment where the other Iriga companionship live then took the ZL to the church to do a training with Elder Samson, the new ZL who came from Lagonoy.  We taught them in the morning, had ice cream for dessert and drove to their farthest area.  After parking in what we could call a canal bank and trying to leave enough room for a trycee to get by (only an idiot would bring a car that far) we walked across the rice fields to the two appointments.  Neither one was home although there were sounds in the hut, so we went to back to the car, drove further into the jungle on a motorcycle trail and parked on the rim of the river valley.  We walked about 1 km into the river valley to their appointment.  The less active sister we taught fell in love with Sister Watson immediately for several reasons.  Their little settlement of about a dozen huts is all family.  They have lived there for 9 generations.  They have gardens, small crop areas and animals everywhere…pigs in pens and goats and cattle grazing.  The sister actually lives closer to Cotnogan although they live in Iriga first ward.

The Zone Leaders are Elder McMurtrey and Elder Samson.

In the evening we did a surprise birthday party with the missionaries at Sister Gloria’s home.  She was surprised.  We left in a hurry to pick up the missionaries so I forgot my ipad…no pictures.  Sister Gloria has put several on her FB page.  We provided the cake and ice cream and the sisters make a card.

We ran, stumbled, staggered on Wednesday morning then met the missionaries at centro to go together to Sister Dy’s place.  We walked to her farm and did some rice harvesting.  I have several videos but a few pictures of us learning how to cut rice for harvest.  The stalk is longer than I had anticipated.  We grab just below the head and cut with a  slicing action of the bolo (machete) leaving at least 10 inches of stalk.  The heads are laid on small piles then gathered to a bigger pile where the thrasher machine.  This is the cutting crew.

Today we passed a guy on the road who was thrashing his rice by hand.  He had a 4 foot bamboo pole in each hand and was beating the straw.  Sometimes I complain when I can’t find a parking place close to the door at Safeway.  I am really getting humbled.  Some of these farmers work the land with a carabow, seed by hand in the mud, fertilize by hand by broadcasting the chemicals by hand, spray with a pump on their back walking into the spray, cut by hand, stack by hand and trash by hand.  I am learning that we are feeding only a small fraction of the world’ population.  

We trained the elders in Nabua on Wednesday.  It went well but I made the mistake of setting my iPad down.  Every time I do that I pick it up to find dozens of selfies.  I deleted several but here is one to show the elder’s faces. Thursday was very busy.  We did wash and other business in the morning after our run then went to Iriga to train the sisters.  This is Sister Falcon from Peru facing us and Sister Tutou a Samoan from Australia.  

After that training we went to a FHE and birthday party at the Juntiliano family home.  We did the birthday party, had a spiritual thought and then played games.  The punishment for losing was to get lipstick on your face.  I lost and they had a great time painting me.

This was the whole family with us 6 missionaries.

Friday was catch up day.  We did household chores and got ready for the FH consultant training on Saturday morning and FH Event in the afternoon in Lagonoy, about 2 hours drive from here in Goa zone.  

The training went very well in Lagonoy.  We have found a short cut highway that goes over the mountain from Iriga through San Ramone where we have a meeting house, to the main highway at Hanawan.  It a beautiful drive and saves about 20 minutes.  The training with the consultants was well attended.  There are four consultants in the ward and there were eight people in the training.  They all claimed to have something to do with FH so we did the training in the clerk’s office with three computers and an air conditioner.   It will take two pictures to get everyone in.

The ward was very interested in doing FH so all four classes were well attended.  The lead consultant taught the beginner’s class and did a great job.  The missionary sisters took the primary kids and did FH games and art with them, the youth went into the clerk’s office to do indexing and we did the class on registering.  With three computers and a very slow internet we only got four people registered and found no ordinance work to do but they have another event planned where we can help again.  Their consultants are well equipped to help them.

On the way home at dusk, on a Saturday evening the streets are packed with people and traffic.  We jokingly call the road the “multi-purpose area” because people us the highway to gather and talk, to walk down, to dry their rice on, to peddle slow moving pakyaks without lights…and auto traffic.  There are far more commercial vehicles and trucks than personal family vehicles.  The more well off families have a motorcycle.  We call them scooters.  Most are only 100cc but the big ones go up to 150cc.  A bike passed us on a busy, narrow stretch of highway between Goa and Tiagaon with his horn on steady blast.  We heard him coming behind us.  He passed us but didn’t get back into our lane.  He was heading straight for two more bikes coming our way in their lane side by side.  Our guy looked down and spit while the oncoming driver flashed his headlight.  Our guy looked up and didn’t correct and hit them both head on at about 75kmh.  They were both doing about the same speed.  There was an explosion of plastic parts and all three bikes didn’t move.  Our guy’s helmet rolled in front of our car down the highway.  I stopped on the side of the road beside the wreck with at least four people lying in a pile of parts and no one moved.  The people on both sides of the road froze.  I opened my car door and Valerie said to not get involved so I closed my door and started to drive slowly away.  By that time people had started to react and close in on the scene.  We passed the emergency vehicles just coming out of Tiagaon  as we drove through about  three or four minutes later.  We had a hard time sleeping after viewing that horrible scene.  We guess that our guy was stoned or drunk to not react.

On Sunday we talked with a few of the local members who are also security and government officials.  They said we did the correct thing by getting out of there.  It can become a confusing issue to be a witness to an accident.  

Sunday was spent in Cotnogan with the new primary president.  Jared Oliva taught the Sunday School lesson but his phone went dead so he had to borrow my iPad with the manual on it to teach the class.  It was a great class and priesthood was good although most of the men had gone early for some reason. 

At 5 PM there was the first District Priesthood preview in Iriga for the 11 year old boys in primary.  President Loida is doing a great job.  I did a 20 minute media presentation with slides and a short video on the restoration of the priesthood.  A priest spoke to the boys and so did President Sorsoza.  I was surprised that there were over 100 people there supporting the boys.

So ends another week.  We are not looking forward to moving next week.  We have delayed the packing etc. for as long as we could.  Tabitha caught up with our last 10 blogs this week.  High five you Tabitha.  It was her birthday on the 20^th and my dad’s on the 19^th.  It is the end of a very busy week.