Iloilo

Last week was exam week for the kids.  I gave my exams on Wednesday, and I was so happy to see that the kids overall did pretty well.  We had our staff meeting after school that day and had a guest come do team-building exercises with us.  It was fun!

Activity one: we formed ourselves into a human knot, holding hands all twisted up, and we had to untangle ourselves to form ourselves into a circle.  I'm in the back of the picture and was unaware that the picture was taking place :)

I don't have a picture of our second activity.  In the third activity, we had a row of boxes drawn on the ground and half of us each stood in a box facing in, and the other half stood in their boxes facing us (also inward).  There was one empty square in the middle.  The objective was to get everyone moved across to the other side.  You were only allowed to move forward, and could only step forward one box or pass around one person at a time who had started on the other side.  We were happy when we finally figured it out!

Dan and Tori were here last week and Dan told us Wednesday that there was supposed to be a fairly strong typhoon passing right over Boracay at noon on Thursday.  Shannon decided to cancel school Thursday, which I'm sure was the right choice but inconvenient timing since the kids were supposed to have exams Thursday as well.  Friday and all of this week is fall break, so the kids will have to go a week and a half before taking their exam.  And guess what, the weather ended up being clear.  That's the Philippines for you!

Friday, Carla, Lauren, Russ, Anderson, two of the Russell boys, and another MK that lives near the Russells, and I headed to Iloilo, which is a city on Panay Island.  After taking the ferry to Panay, we had a van driver take us to Iloilo.  It was such a weird sensation to ride in a vehicle for four hours when I've only been in a van maybe five times for no more than ten minutes since I've been here.  Other than having the AC blasting right in front of me (but I had to keep it turned up for the sake of everyone behind me) and my nose freezing off and running, it was a smooth ride.

First thing we did after we got there and got checked into our hotel was head to the mall and eat McDonald's.  So funny that McDonald's probably isn't my favorite choice of fast food at home, but it was EXCITING to get to go here!  And the mall was nice too!  I couldn't stop smiling while I indulged myself in possibly the most unhealthy fast food chain in the world :)

The Russell boys and Gaant (MK's)

We then headed upstairs to the movie theater and saw Taken 2.  It was a short movie but pretty good.  We don't have a theater on Boracay, so that was fun.

Lauren, Josh, Carla, and Adam holding up their tickets into the movie.

After the movie, we headed to a coffee shop run by some young Americans about my age and got there at about 9:00pm.  Russ and Carla had met them on a visit last year, and the coffee shop is geared towards high schoolers and is a great witnessing tool.  It is Christian based and this week was social justice week.  They had an art exhibit night, music night, dance night, and I think another night of some sort to bring awareness to the large amount of slavery and sex trafficking that exists today.  A couple of years ago I went to a Passion conference and learned that slavery is more prominent today than it has been at any time in history.  Friday was dance night, and there were some really cool dances performed by amazing dancers that told stories of abuse.  There were also a couple of songs where a couple of high schoolers read what they had written to go with some background music.  It was deep, Christian-based, and very inspiring!  After all of the choreographed performances were done, the floor was open for break-dancing and we got to see some Filipino kids do some amazing tricks!

Sorry it's dark, but I didn't want the flash going off!  Wish I'd caught them spinning around on the ground :)

At the very end, they had everyone in the shop stand up and learn some dance moves.  We practiced them a few times and then they said there would be a dance competition!  They asked for three volunteers, and Anderson and Lauren both volunteered.  Pretty funny considering we were surrounded by people who knew what they were doing a lot better than any of us did, but no one else was stepping up, so they did!  The other "volunteer" was one of the coffee shop workers that they dragged out to the floor.  I loved seeing Lauren getting out there because she's really shy, but apparently she loves dancing!  Technically, the coffee shop worker probably should have won but that wouldn't have really been fair, so that left Anderson and Lauren.  They were all supposed to do the dance that we learned, first together, then individually, and then freestyle by themselves for 16 seconds.  The worker did all of that.  Anderson did the choreographed part with the group but didn't do it by himself and just freestyled.  Lauren did the choreographed part with the others and then by herself but basically skipped the freestyling part.  In the end, it was pretty much a tie based on everyone's cheering but they gave the award (a free snowcone) to Anderson.

For the first part, doing the choreography together, the leader helped them out.  Pretty funny they're going the opposite direction from her :)

Saturday morning, Carla, Lauren, and I ordered breakfast in bed!  I got a combo meal including French Toast, sausage, scrambled eggs, papaya, and juice brought to my room for 160 pesos...$4!  We headed to the mall for lunch, and of course ate McDonald's before going to see another movie.  By the way, the medium meal deal for a quarter pounder with cheese here is $4.  Movies are $3.25.  We saw Argo which was really good.

After the movie, we walked around the mall for a while and I bought the book The Hobbit.  We headed back to the hotel then, played games for about an hour, and then headed out to eat at a Greek restaurant.  My meal was $4.50.

Sorry, the waiter covered up the flash!

Then we went duck pin bowling.  It like bowling, but the pins are smaller, the bowling ball is also much smaller, and you get three turns to roll the ball each turn instead of two.  There's a worker that waits by the pins to reset them after every third roll and he also rolls the balls back.  It's pretty funny because the gutters were shallow enough that sometimes the ball would hop around enough to still knock down a pin.  Also, if the balls aren't rolled back just right by the worker, they lose momentum and won't make it all the way.

 

That was fun, and then we went back to the hotel.  I was so tired and my nose was still running and my throat hurting just a little bit from drainage...but we brought high schoolers with us, so bed was not an option.  Especially when Carla, Lauren, and my room seemed to be the hang out place.  I was half asleep, but still had fun playing charades for about four hours, and then sardines (backwards hide-and-seek where one person hides and you look for them and join them once you find them) for about an hour.  I finally got to bed at around 4:00am.  I'll admit us 20+ year olds have stayed up almost that late playing games a couple of times, but that's when I wasn't already feeling tired beforehand!  It was fun, though.

Sunday we woke up and got ready to go.  Of course we stopped at McDonald's to grab lunch to-go as we headed out.  It was a great trip, but I'm happy to be back.  Especially when I received a greeting like this (and the picture doesn't do justice):

I also loved seeing all the kids around the Barn when I got back, and I was even happy to run my errands today, walking around the island in the heat dropping off laundry and grocery shopping.  I needed to work up that sweat after eating at McDonald's three times :)

New experiences for all

Friday I woke up with pink eye!  I'd woken up a couple times during the night because it was so miserable.  It felt like there was a huge clump of something under my eyelid that I just wanted to pull out and my eye was so watery!  I finally woke up once and for all at about 6:00am when I thought I needed to get ready for school anyway, but when I saw my eye I texted Shannon and told her I was heading to the clinic.  I missed two school days in one week!

I got to the clinic and thankfully I was the only one there!  The doctor was a little Filipina lady wearing denim shorts, flip flops, and a tshirt.  She gave me my prescription and I was able to get it filled right there.

Two firsts for me: pink eye, and a doctor dressed so casually!  My eye is great now.

Saturday morning I was out on the beach with a volleyball and noticed a little Ati girl hanging around some of the little boats that were pulled to shore.  I first asked her if she wanted to play with the volleyball, showing her with motions because I doubt she speaks much English.  She was super shy and hid behind the little boat.  I sat on one side of the boat and started playing with the sand and singing "This is the Day that the Lord has Made" in a tone kind of like I was singing to myself (I felt pretty silly), and she started playing peek-a-boo around the boat.  That's as far as I got with her!  After a while, I finally went back to my bag for something.

Some of the other neighborhood kids were playing with the volleyball now, and at one point it bounced off and rolled to her.  She gave a good kick at it and it came soaring back!  Then, she went into hiding again, staying behind the boat.

Isidro, the fix-it man at the Jungle Barn, had also tried to get her to play a couple times.  I don't know if it was on purpose for the girl or coincidental, but he eventually went and got a dog he's been dog-sitting to take it on a walk and the little girl suddenly came out and wanted to play with the dog!  She was having a blast, and wasn't even shy towards the other Filipino kids when it became more of a small group gathering.  I bet that was one of very few times that she's ever played with the local Filipinos, and who knows, maybe her first time.  I LOVED to see that.

Eventually the dog got taken somewhere, and I decided to see if she'd kick the volleyball around with me for a while since she'd kicked it so well earlier.  She did!  That was fun for a few minutes, and then the dog reappeared and off she went again.  I think she eventually just ran off and left, but it was pretty cool to see her playing while she was around.  It's also rare for an Ati child to see a white person and not put on their "sad face" and stick out their hand for money.  It breaks my heart that that's so ingrained in them.  They may be running and playing with siblings and friends, but as soon as they see a tourist looking at them their whole demeanor changes.  They learn at such a young age, too.  I'm so happy this little girl got to simply enjoy some play time!

U.N. Day and feeding site

Yesterday was the United Nations celebration.  I haven't seen any parades here, but apparently they're popular, and that's exactly how we started off the morning!  The kids met at the school at 7:30am and we left at 8:00am to walk down the streets of Boracay.  This kids were so cute!  I was thankful that most of the parents walked in the parade with their kids.

An interesting fact about the Philippine culture: no matter how poor you are, you get decked out for school programs.  It's really kind of ridiculous.  Every kid comes wear fancy costumes and the girls will often have on a ton of makeup.  It kind of makes me embarrassed to post photos on facebook because people probably wonder what kind of mission trip I'm on because my kids look rich, but that's really not the case (although some are more well-off than others).  It really is just a big thing in the Philippines to get all fancied up on special occasions.  It’s kind of the same concept with the birthdays I posted about a while back.  There are certain ages here that traditionally call for big celebrations, and you can bet the parents will give a big party.

The kids did a great job!  I have to give Jhing the credit.  I would have loved to help out but she pretty much always worked on song/choreography with the kids in the afternoon after I was gone.  I wonder if she may have done that because I “kindly disagree” with her on several things that she does in the class, so she was probably worried that I would do the same for the dance.  Oh well!

Another interesting thing: Filipinos get so caught up in the production, the learning aspect gets pushed to the side.  I’m not sure if any of the kids learned a single thing about the United Nations.  They just know that it’s an annual school program.  Some classes did get costumes that went along well with their assigned country.  Some classes also did really neat dances that tied in with their country.  And some classes, like mine, just wore fancy clothes and danced to a song that does talk in some way about unity in the world, but didn’t have much to do with New Zealand (our country).  I guess I could have tried to give more of an opinion for my class, but I just let them do their thing.  They were cute, after all!

Lance.  He can be pretty rambunctious, but just look at that face!!!!

Aina Rose, Mark John, and BJ

Aivic

Lynnie

Von Sandrix, Jamal, and Justine

Eden and Teressa

Kianne and Mathew.  I love all my kids.  I don't have favorites.  Really!  But Mathew sure can be extra cute sometimes!!!

Blurry picture of Chloe and Eden

Eden

Von

Justine and Kianne

Aivic

Teressa

Today was feeding site day.  After I helped lead the songs, story, and provided coloring sheets, I offered to serve the food which I’ve done a couple of times before.  These kids were hungry today!  There’s usually at least a little bit of a lull after we give the first serving.  The kids will come back for more just here and there, and the food dwindles down until it’s gone.  Today, though, the line never ended because kids were coming back for seconds before I ever finished serving firsts.  My back was aching so much by the time I was done!  The food was gone in a flash.

Anderson has been coming to this site as well and doing the first aid.  There’s been one boy, probably a preteen, who Anderson has been doing his best treating what we thought were bad burns on his legs.  They were looking better each week but today they looked worse again.  According to Ramelyn, a Filipina who helps at the site, they’re not burns but are diabetic ulcers.  That’s so sad, and it really stinks to know that no matter how much they’re treated, they’re likely to just come back.  It makes it even worse when they live in filthy conditions and therefore the sores stay uncleaned.  I learned that the boy’s mother is the cook for the feeding site (Teresa takes to food to her every week), which is a connection I hadn’t made.  Ramelyn also said that he’s the oldest of seven and is “special,” which I assume means he’s mentally handicapped.  They can’t afford diabetes medicine/insulin for him.

Even though I live here, I hate to admit that I sometimes forget about the conditions that the majority of the island lives in.  Every time I get out of my own little bubble on the island, I’m reminded of how blessed I am. 

And I thought pilates would help

Sunday was a fun, normal day of church, getting to play a full court game of basketball with the other missionaries here, and playing card games.

Then Monday came!  It seemed like a pretty normal day at first.  I went to school, taught, and all was well.  After school I went home and ate lunch, then took a great hour and a half nap.  After I woke up, I felt a little nauseous but thought maybe it was from napping on a full stomach or something.  I headed off to pilates at Shannon's house (she taught pilates back in Canada and has been doing it with whoever wants to for a few Mondays now).  Along the way, I tripped on something and sprawled out over rocks and dirt in front of plenty of Filipinos!  Generally, Filipinos are very hospitable, but when they see someone they assume to be a tourist make a fool of themselves, I imagine they probably find it funny.  No one really asked if I was okay...I just got up and kept walking.  I scraped up my toes a bit, got a scratch on my hand, and a couple of scrapes on my knee.  Could have been worse.

I had hoped that by the time I got to Shannon's I would be feeling better.  After all, I wasn't feeling that sick.  I still felt a tad queesy but went ahead and started pilates with Shannon and Carla, still thinking that maybe I needed to just work off some of my food.  I don't know what I was thinking.  It's not like I'd eaten a ton, plus it's not normal to feel sick like that from a meal...  Whatdya know, but we end up starting off with movements going up and down and up and down and it just wasn't the greatest feeling for me.  After about ten minutes I decided to stop.

I relaxed for almost an hour until they were done and accepted some toast from Shannon.  It had been a come and go feeling.  I would feel great one minute and sick the next minute.  Walking out the door of their house, I suddenly felt sick and sat on their step for a minute, but then started feeling better so Carla and I left.  In fact, I started feeling GREAT!  I was joking with Carla and showed her where I fell and was saying that all the people we were walking by probably recognized me as "the girl who fell," and told her I was pretending to be sick to get out of pilates ;)  Carla asked me if I felt up to eating out with some of the others.  I felt pretty good so I decided to go.  By the time we got there, I was still feeling okay but not as great as I had been, so I just got a shake and sat there with them while they ate.

After eating, they all wanted to go get ice cream so I decided to head back.  Carla asked me if I'd be okay, I said yes, and was on my way.  Boy, I couldn't get back fast enough!  There was one point along the way where I started scouting out a good place to throw up because I thought for sure I would.  Thankfully, I made it back without any incidents.

I didn't have the energy to shower or change into pajamas, so I just went to bed in my clothes at about 7:30.  At about 10:30, I woke up and, well, was sick.  This is the first time I really wished I had a toilet that would flush "normally," rather than having to fill a bucket with water and pour it in...

I felt SO much better then, but went ahead and texted Shannon saying I wouldn't be at school today.  I fell back to sleep around 11:30 and woke up at 8:00 this morning.  Still feeling pretty good as I write this at noon here!  I probably could have gone to school but I think the sleep was good for me.

Tomorrow is a United Nations school program they have every year here.  We have rehearsal at 4:00, so I'll probably go to that.  So thankful that it was just a 24-hour bug!  At least, I'm still hoping that's all it was!

We press on!

Not too many things to report here about this past week.  I will say, though, that it can be hard for all of us to be away from home sometimes.

Within the last month, a lot of things have happened within people's families.

Tori Beaver's mother passed away.  They had been caring for her here in the Philippines but wanted her buried in the States where the rest of the family is.  Apparently there are a lot of legal matters to deal with, because I guess there's some sort of law here that says if you are a foreigner and pass away in the Philippines, the body has to stay here.  They really wanted her back in the U.S., though, so things were pretty stressful for a while on top of the emotions.

I think it was within the same week that Tori's mother passed away that Dan and Tori welcomed a new grandbaby that lives in the U.S.  Pretty exciting!

Rusty Russell's dad passed away about a month ago.  They decided it was best to stay here rather than go home, but the two oldest Russell boys had been in the States to be there for their Grandpa's last days.  On top of those emotions, the boys weren't wanting to return to the Philippines, plus the Russells were in the process of deciding about moving.  The boys are back now, but the family had to deal with a whole lot at once.

Gretchen Kropp (the mom in a family here) is a teacher at Agape and her mother passed away a couple weeks ago.  They all decided to stay here as well.  It was difficult for Gretchen to not be home.  She tried to help plan a lot of the funeral so that she could feel like she was a part of the process, but then a lot of it got changed.  It was a very emotional time for her.

Anderson has two friends at home going through chemo/cancer treatment.

Olivia has a baby cousin at home who her sister cares for (so Olivia calls her her niece), and she has been battling cancer for quite some time.

My almost 10-month-old nephew has been diagnosed with Infantile Spasms.  It won't go into all the details of his story, but I think it's a form of epilepsy and he is currently not able to receive the treatment he really needs until he gets over an ear infection.  My sister and brother-in-law live in Oklahoma so it's not like I would be there to physically support them anyway, but it's still hard knowing that all of this is going on on the other side of the world, and mostly hard to think about all that my nephew has gone through in just his ten months of life so far.

And here, Lauren has been battling sickness off and on since she's been here.  She got extremely sick last week and is currently in Manila with Elizabeth where she can get better treatment.  In this case, I imagine it's very hard for her parents to be so far away, wishing they could be here to care for their daughter.

Though it is hard for all of us being away from home, GOD gives us JOY through it all.  There are things to rejoice in ALWAYS.

Students proudly memorizing Bible verses.
Kids from feeding sites coming to church.
Olivia, Carla, and Lauren all finding out since they've been here that they will be an aunt or an aunt again.  I think this trend should continue.  I feel left out!
Being on a beautiful island.
Enjoying weekends with great friends here.  I'm so thankful that there's a group of us that can hang out together.
The kids here!  They are so incredibly loving and always happy and sweet.
And SO SO SO MUCH more!

God is GOOD!