Foreign Driving

So today was quite the experience. If anyone has ever been overseas and has ridden in busses, trikes, vans, cars, etc, whatever the transportation is, they know it can be exciting. We were traveling back to Puerto Princessa, the main city on Palawan via bus. We broke up our trip by staying in a little town overnight, but that first day traveling, we were informed that the last bus leaving that morning was full. “What about the roof?” Kevin asked. “That will be fine.” So, up to the roof with the luggage we went. We were seated next to a basket of chickens and at first we were the only 2, but we were soon surrounded by many who joined us on the roof. It actually was a nice ride up there, especially since it was only 2 hours.

The next morning however, although we enjoyed the top of the bus, we opted for a seat. So we got there plenty early. The bus is definitely not the most glorious way to travel, but it is the cheapest. It is dusty on this only partly paved road. I soon had my handkerchief tied around my mouth. We were just kind of bumping along, with the usual honks and stopping to pick up and drop off passengers, when another big bus like ours passed us going very fast on a small stretch of pavement.

We were covered in dust for a little while and our driver didn’t leave room for any dust to settle. Instead he was maybe a little irked that we were passed and tried to re-pass a couple of times. We ate some dust for quite some time, but then finally our driver was able to pass this bus. Then for maybe an hour, our driver seemed to drive extra fast as if he were going to really gain some ground between the other bus to eliminate the possibility of being passed again. He drove in the middle of the road, and seemed to swing wildly around the corners. I was very thankful to be in my seat on the inside today. I just hoped our bags were secure. I grabbed Kevin’s leg around a couple of corners and peered back at the other bus riding our tail. Both busses had people to pick up and drop off. We barely stopped and sometimes didn’t even stop when picking up passengers. If it was a man, he had to skillfully grab onto the handle outside and kind of leap to the step as the helper guy grabbed his bags and tossed them to the other helper guy on the roof. All while not fully stopping. There were even some cute older people that had to run a little. Soon enough though, enough distance was made and our ride smoothed out and my grip on Kevin’s leg lessened. We made it safe and sound. Oh the joys of foreign driving.


(This is obviously not ours, this is just a picture from the web. We didn't get a picture, but it was similar to this!)

Trying Dentistry

(having prayer before our ground breaking)


(the instruments)


Nurse, pharmacist, doctor, anesthesiologist and just recently, dentist. I get to experience a little bit of all of this here in Palawan. Just basics obviously, but the other day Josh, another SM here and I got to be dentists. A few days earlier Michelle and I had a patient come for something, I don’t remember, maybe a cough and cold, and when Michelle asked him if he had any other complaints, he said, “Oh yeah, my teeth really hurt.” Well, upon closer examination, we found a mouth full of loose teeth, corroded gums, and a swollen jaw. Looks like an abscess. So we whipped out our handy dandy book Where there is no Dentist and decided that yes, this man did have an abscess. So on antibiotics he went and 3 days later, we dug through our dental supplies, studied our book more on how to do injections and extractions and talked our strategy over, relaying what we each knew to each other and comparing notes.




A day or 2 earlier I had the opportunity to talk to my dad, a dentist, on the phone. He gave me a run down. Josh, just before coming, had a family friend who is a dentist that showed him some extractions. So our game plan: I was going to do the injections and Josh would do the extractions. So, with our brave patient set up in front of the clinic, we began our first experience as dentists. Saying a group prayer and switching our headlights on, we began. Michelle was close by with our book open, reading aloud to remind us and helping to make sure we weren’t missing anything. Ann was assisting in supplies and providing water for when our patient needed to spit. Kevin was our camera man. It was quite the scene. And as the Lord guided our hands, I successfully hit the nerve blocks and Josh successfully extracted 3 teeth with no broken roots. It was a very awesome experience and maybe we’ll get the opportunity to do it again.

Meeting Alex

(They call these mountain shapes the sleeping giant because it looks like a nose and a big stomach lying down. This is the backdrop to the town of Sabang.)


(Danelle writing)

Just under the “Sleeping Giant” and at the gateway to the world’s longest underground river, there is a sweet little restaurant called Panao in the town of Sabang on Palawan. Kevin and I had been restaurant shopping earlier that day to check out menus and prices. To each we just wanted to see a menu and maybe to return for dinner since we had just eaten lunch. We decided to come back to this one. And little did we know that the staff at this place was wondering if we were coming back, and knowing it was close to our anniversary, wanted to do something special for us. They were going to set us up a special table right on the beach, but they weren’t sure we’d be back. But we came back and when we did, we officially met Alex. Earlier that day, she informed us that some of the meat options would not be available that night, but we said sigilang (no problem, its ok) we were vegetarian anyway.

She easily and skillfully changed some of the menu choices to make us a delicious meal. And, on top of that, knowing it was our anniversary, prepared us a delicious chocolate crepe with Happy Anniversary spelled out for no charge. This was incredibly thoughtful and sweet of her especially since she just was getting her restaurant up and running and needed the business. Alex just graduated with nursing in Manila, but living expenses in Manila were more than her monthly income and a job as a new graduate nurse right now couldn’t even pay enough to live. So she came to Sabang to start a restaurant and make some money.


(These are the wonderful chocolate crepes that Alex made for us as our special treat for our anniversary)


Later that night, her follow up question to our vegetarianism was, “So are you Adventist?” It ended up leading into what we were doing in the Philippines and being able to talk a little bit about what we believed. What a divine appointment it was to meet Alex. We talked about why we were vegetarian and why we were different in some of the other ways. She has some friends that are also Adventist, but not really practicing. She wasn’t unfamiliar with some of the beliefs. She is Catholic right now.

Talking with her was natural and pleasant. She said that we were very encouraging to her, although, we weren’t doing anything in particular. It must have been the Holy Spirit. She was also very encouraging to us. Especially since we feel so strongly right now about our beliefs and we were able to tell her our story of truly searching out truth for ourselves. We told her how important it was to search for truth, wherever it leads. We told her we found it in Adventism and really were convicted, but that each person truly does need to search for themselves.



(This is us coming out of the underground river. It's like a huge cave with a river going through it.)

She was encouraged by our conversation and we set up a date. Her words were strong and sweet. She said, “Maybe I’ll check out your religion…no, I will check it out.” Next week we will be back in Puerto Princessa for Sabbath, and she is going to be there too. We agreed to meet up for Sabbath and to go to the church there. Maybe we can go out to eat at Imas, an Adventist run vegetarian restaurant. Alex said she would like that so she could get some ideas for her own restaurant.

This is an example of something Kevin just listened to in a sermon by Nathan Renner. In the sermon, Nathan Renner told of a situation where he went into a hardware store with a fellow church member. He was appalled and surprised by the way he witnessed his fellow church member act toward the salesperson. He saw him be very impatient and rude. He explained in his sermon that the guy missed it. He missed the point of being a true light bearer for Christ. Didn’t he know that they were going into the hardware store to be a light and a witness of Jesus Christ, and to be an encouragement for somebody who was potentially lost. If they got the part, that would be great too.

I just goes to show that even when we are on vacation from being “missionaries” we are always missionaries. Every opportunity that comes our way should have a nest in which the opportunity can grow into what the Holy Spirit leads. It’s a good reminder to keep the chance for opportunity forefront in our minds. Everything else is secondary.

During Kevin’s Avalon years, the Adventist school in Port Hardy, his principal, Mr. O, always reminded them of this. Remember who you are, where you come from, and what you represent.

Alex, if you’re reading this, thank you for the wonderful dinner and the thoughtfulness of the delicious chocolate crepe. Thank you for the much needed encouragement while we were on vacation. We look forward to meeting you again.

Christmas in Palawan

Merry Christmas

As I write this our Christmas day is drawing to a close, we spent Christmas day snorkeling and relaxing on a beach. As luck would have it this is the same way we spent Christmas last year due to the fact that we got married in Hawaii. Thankfully this year however we don’t need to repeat the events of last winter, when we flew back to Spokane only to have to dig our car out of about three feet of snow! Hopefully the snow isn’t to bad for everyone this year, dealing with all that snow isn’t fun…the only thing we have to contend with is the sun…and the heat rash that just recently resulted from that! Well we have many blogs soon to come, Danelle and I our on a two week vacation and we are hoping to get more pictures and stories up soon. For this blog I will keep in sync with the season and talk about what

Christmas is like in Palawan.

The last week of school before break,l I had relief from my teaching and lesson planning because all the students and teachers were preparing for the Christmas play. This was a great time and it offered a lot of entertainment for all involved. I spent most of the time just taking pictures and video’s, and then most of that time showing the students replays of their bloopers. It was really fun to be able to relax and interact with the students in this way. We practiced for three days and then the students performed for all the parents on Thursday. The play was traditional; Mary, Joseph 3 wise men etc…but there were also a couple of additions not typically present in a traditional Christmas play. An example of this was adding a scene of Jesus casting out the demons and sending them into a heard of pigs (mostly 1st graders) who then preceded to run of a cliff. The 2 boys who played the role of the demoniacs are class clowns, and they played their role to perfection. This was the cause of most of the laughter in the practices sessions and during the play itself. The play though also offered an opportunity for outreach. The Palawano teachers explained the significance of the scenes to set the stage for the play, and in doing so were able to describe what Jesus’s dying on the cross really represents. The opportunity for witnessing is there because many of the student’s parents never come to church, and it gives them an opportunity to see who the teachers are, and what the church is about.

The baby in this picture is one week old,and during the play peed on the little actor who played Mary

There were two plays, one from the Kensuli school children, and one from the Kamantian kids which includes high school students. (Kensuli is the neighboring village where there is another school run by a local Philippino missionary who works very closely with the Georges.) The plays were a success and it was great to see the students singing their hearts out…and be on pitch too. We are thankful for this because last night while eating at a vegetarian restaurant we were serenaded by carolers who were horribly off pitch and in general just plain awful! The Palawono’s in comparison sing with the voices of angels. In some ways we have been experiencing the joy of the Christmas season since we arrived in September. Everyday the students sing Hark the Harold’s Angels Sing, and Joy to the World…but we talk more about that in one of our audio blogs.


Following the “play” the real playing began. We got to experience a sort of Palawano Olympics, which included long jump, high jump, walking across a tight rope, basketball and more. Many of the people from the surrounding villages came to watch and participate in the events and we were able to join in as well. The “games” started with a sack jumping race which I haven’t been apart of our seen in years…it was a lot of fun to watch. The first thing Danelle was able to jump into was “double dutch” (jumping into two ropes and skipping). The first thing I did was a high jump competition which involves scissoring over a line as in the real Olympics…but here there is no mat on the other end to catch your fall if you trip up. The highlight of the games, and the noisiest by far was the basketball. Woman and girls were literally screaming, just joining in the spirit of things since they didn’t really know about the game at all. It was a lot of fun to play and watch the chaos of what basketball is on an 8 and half foot rim in Palawan.



The festivity of Christmas up in the mountains was a great break from the grind of teaching and language learning. Everyone seemed especially happy and it was great to leave for our vacation on such a happy note.


We have been on vacation now for one week, and I am glad we still have one week to go…and even happier we are not flying home just yet to a snow covered car. It has been great to have a break from our mission project, but even while on vacation we do not want to forget our mission. In fact we have had some amazing, God given opportunities to represent who we are as Christians…but more on that in a blog soo

Things that Creep and Make you Shriek

A couple weeks ago I killed my first snake. It was close to sunset and one of the other nurse’s here (Michelle) was going to try and take a shower before dark. Its usually a bit of a scrabble to get the showers in before sunset, something about the dark is more synonymous with spiders, snakes, and things that creep and make you shriek, so the darker it becomes the more motivated we are to embrace the cold water and get in and get out . Well the sun was quickly fading and from the general direction of the shower we heard a shriek…and then Michelle say…it’s a snake! Danelle then immediately told me to go kill it! I am not terrified of snakes but I definitely wouldn’t call them the most wonderful creature in the garden either if you know what I mean. As I was finding the knife Michelle described the snake to us and from that description Danelle wondered if it may be a serep, the word “serep” means sundown, and the snake is so called because if you are bit by it in the morning you are dead by sundown.
When I arrived at the shower the snake was hanging from the roof and stretching its way to a tree. I was on a mission to kill and I didn’t want to botch the job by hitting the snake in the wrong place and then having it lunge at me…or by glancing it, and in doing so fling it upon Michelle. So after several prompts from Danelle of, “kill it” I jumped and swung, and it fell to the ground…with several more whacks it was dead, mission accomplished. Upon examination we didn’t think that this was the deadly “serep” and in reality it was a fairly small snake. But regardless, the thought of being interrupted by a snake coming through the ceiling while taking a shower…is never a fun thought. I have only seen two really big snakes the whole time I have been here and unfortunately or perhaps providentially I haven’t seen these ones long enough, or been close enough to get a picture.

Another similar bathroom experience that we had involved a large black scorpion. This encounter was from the first night that we arrived and Danelle being apprehensive about venturing into the bathroom alone took me along to investigate. I glanced through the bathroom and declared the all clear. But Danelle wasn’t so sure, and good thing too because in the toilet there was a large black scorpion, to which Danelle flatly exclaimed there is a scorpion in the toilet! She then asked what do I do, the girls next door, hearing the news about the scorpion, said “pee on it.” Danelle opted not to do that and flushed it down. I was reminded that what was previously foreign to us is now a potentially ever-present part of our bathroom experience and daily lives. This is not the only time I have not fulfilled my role as a spotter but I think we talked about that in our audio blog on this topic already.

Because of all the things that creep and crawl on the wall and in the stall, one of our favorite texts now is Psalms 91. Verse 5-7 says, “You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but none will come near you.” There is also a book called “A thousand shall fall” that is a true story and inspired by this Psalm. The book is the story of a Christian who served as a German in World War II and through his faith in God, found the promises of the bible to be abundantly true when we follow God’s commands and leading. If you haven’t read I highly recommend it as a worthwhile read.

Thankfully not all things that crawl are creepy. The locals here have pet dogs and cats and some of them are very cute and lovable. One of the teachers (Rinal) has a dog named puppy, who no longer is a puppy but is still everyone’s favorite dog. Puppy has a playful yet submissive spirit and loves to walk along with us on the trails. Rinal treats Puppy very well and they are constant companions. Unfortunately not all locals treat their pets as well as Rinal does his. Most of the dogs here are small, mangy, and ridden with fleas and their owners not only make fun of their misfortune they add to it by abusing them. I wince when I see them pinched, kicked, and laughed at…and would love to comfort the poor animal with a gentle pat…by as I mentioned they are ridden with fleas, so I find that a morsel of food works just as well. Because most of the dogs are so small and underfed they sometimes have ferocious battles over scraps, which again many locals just laugh at.

Many of the church members treat their pets well, and I have to remember that when they don’t I am viewing their actions through the lens of my culture and upbringing which is vastly different but not necessarily superior to theirs. For instance last night I was watching the “Animal Planet” doing a documentary on animals that have been abandoned or abused. I hate that…but what makes me wonder sometimes is the amount of money, resources, and time that is given to the protection of animals rights…while at the same time in America children are being abused and abandoned just as frequently as the pets. If I came from another culture and found out that somebody gave charity to an animals rights organization but nothing towards the interests of protecting children I would think that was pretty messed up too.

I know that in the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth all that He had made was “very good” (Gen 1:31). The world as it is now was not God’s intention or original design; He is our redeemer and restorer because He desires that we and the world can once again be “very good”. God hates sin because the consequence of sin is death and since sin entered the earth sin has had an eroding effect on all of its inhabitants. God’s mercy and justice are perfectly bonded in love and God’s justice says He must put an end to sin and all of its consequences. God’s mercy says if you believe in Him there is no need to perish with sin, yet if we cling to sin we must accept its wages and consequently we choose death instead of the gift of eternal life.

Because of God’s love the earth continues yet because of God’s love the earth cannot continue as it is. In the book “Desire of Ages” the author explains that even nature itself including the sparrows in the trees would cease to exist if God removed His hand of protection and allowed Satan full dominion. The same author also describes how Adam must have felt when experiencing the effect sin had on nature, seeing a flower wither and die for the first time may have been to him as dreadful as the death of a human being now is to some of us. God tells us that we need not worry because even “the lilies of the field grow and they do not labor or spin” “and the birds of the air do not sow or reap or stow away in barns, and yet our Heavenly Father feeds them” (Matt 6:26,27).

Many people here like to hunt birds for sport, and theoretically hunting would be a good way to bond with the culture. But I cannot get past the fact that I love the way birds sing, and I know that God created them…and I could, for no purpose take pleasure in killing them. I also am reminded a story my dad has from his childhood of killing one, and the regret that he had as a result. Danelle wrote a blog earlier about how the Palawano’s mistreat the birds as well and it really can be quite disturbing, because they don’t just kill and eat…they often kill and then play with the victim in similar manner to that of a cat. However the boys that caught the bird in these pictures found it dead, I was kind of glad to here that they never killed it though I don’t know how it died.

Even if we have not ourselves been the victim or rape, murder, divorce, or death we all have seen it and know that these things and worse exist. If God is love, justice demands that there be a penalty and that penalty is that sin and those who cling to it must perish. But His mercy says He desires that non should perish, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, yet we can choose to receive life if we simply accept his sacrifice and cling to him instead of to our sins.

Terminators

Terminators

So the other day Kevin and I spent the day terminating our house. In the back corner of our house, where school supply is kept, there was a HUGE nest (or whatever you call it) of termites. These little suckers destroy houses very quickly. They say a house that is not lived in for a month or two ends up not being a very good house anymore. They require constant up-keep. We rarely go into that part of the house but now we know to check more often.

So, we scrubbed the other side of the storage and prepared hot chili pepper water to pain on all of the posts and trails. We knocked down all of the trails and started to paint. Supposedly it doesn’t kill them, but deflects them. Then once we got all of the school supply boxes reorganized into that side, we tackled the side with the HUGE nest. So disgusting. It’s like raiding an ant hill kind of. But maybe not as bad. Kevin did this part. 

Then we painted the rest of our posts. We still have some little trails to get rid of, but the big part is taken care of. Now we will definitely be looking for and knocking down the trails while they are small.

Oh, and while we were in there, we found a nice dead decayed rat. I guess the poison worked. This one was not nearly as bad as the one Minan (aka Leonda) found the day before in there. It smelled in our house, but we couldn’t find it. She had to get some stuff out of storage and got the right spot. It was bloated and full of maggots. Gross.

Glimpses into our lives

This is Napthali, our fellow missionary with our friend Bikwa. Bikwa is a funny guy. He likes to where is Baag around sometimes. This is the original native dress. Hey, it's cool he likes to keep this culture alive. He also doesn't mind us taking pictures of him and is happy to show us his rear end as well. The baag in the back is like a thick thong. Kevin also language learns with him.


Here is Kevin teaching a math class.






This little girl is "enjoying" a charcoal slurry at the clinic.

Sick and Homesick

(by Danelle)

I’ll have to admit. I’m pretty homesick right now. I’d like to be home. I’d like a hot shower or bath. I’d like a fried egg on toast. I’d like some orange juice with lots of pulp on ice. I’d like to lie down on a couch and just sleep to the sound of cupboards opening and closing and pots being stirred it, the sound of mom cooking. What do all of these wishes have in common? These are all things I like when I’m sick. I am sick. The worst of it is over actually, I hope anyway. And I’m homesick.

Sunday I got kind of nauseated in the afternoon. I ended up throwing up multiple times until about 1am. Then, when the nausea finally did go away, my body ached. It’s that kind of ache you have when you have a fever, it’s like your bones and blood hurt. Massage doesn’t even fix it. I didn’t feel like I had a fever, but my thermometer broke. I wasn’t about to go to the clinic in the middle of the night to borrow one either. Poor Kevin. I was so restless. With my body aching the way it was, it felt better to move than to hold still. I finally took a Tylenol and got to sleep around 3am. The next morning, I though maybe that was it, but no. The aching came back and I had a slight headache. I was so thankful that I wasn’t nauseated again though. Then I had a low grade fever.

The only nice thing about being sick is that it’s like a mini vacation. You get to be in bed all day. Although, this wasn’t fun. I’d much rather have been at the clinic. I thought with the amount of vomiting I had, it was maybe some bad food I ate or maybe I had caught a little flu bug. That’s still a possibility, but just to be sure it wasn’t malaria, I started Demal as well. Demal is this herbal spray stuff that we are using as malaria prophylaxis and first line treatment. It’s nice because it’s natural, non chemical and it stimulates your own body’s malarial antibodies. It actually has been shown to decrease the symptoms of malaria and be a treatment. So we are trying it. The thing about Demal though is that it’s so time consuming. You spray it under your tongue every 5 minutes for awhile, then every half hour for like 6 hours. Then if it doesn’t get better you spray it every 5 minutes for even longer.

Luckily for me, it seemed to work after the first 6 hours. Today I’m not achy, just weak, and don’t have a headache or temperature. So I don’t know if I just had a flu bug and it just so happened that my symptoms went away by coincidence when I started Demal or if I had malaria, but either way, being sick is never fun and it really makes a person homesick.

The other day our fellow student missionary, Josh, was reminding us about something that one of our teachers at training said. He said there was something like 4 stages of language learning.

Stage 1: High motivation and energy, but very low skill
Stage 2: Low motivation and energy, and also very low sill
Stage 3: I don’t remember the other 2 actually, something like still lower motivation but improving skill and then stage 4 energy because able to communicate effectively and have skill.

Well, we are in stage 2. Being here for just about 3 months now, and still having very low language skills is very tiring and discouraging. Progress is so slow and low motivation does NOT help. I don’t really feel connected to anyone here. How can you when you can’t talk? There are occasional moments of laughter and times where you feel connected because they shared in a blooper or were teaching you something. But it’s just hard.

I definitely find myself just wanting to spend as much time as possible with Kevin and find it painful to have to go out and interact. After awhile, you kind of get used to not understanding and can easily just think about something else in church for example so you don’t fall asleep.

I am not a shy person, but I’m not exactly a chatty Kathy either. I like to do things with people, I like having a group of people around, but I like to watch more and just throw a word out here and there. But to just come up with whatever to talk about with no real purpose is difficult for me a lot of the time. I think Kevin struggles with this even more than I do. He’s not so big on small talk. He likes to talk with purpose about deeper things.

So, just pushing through this stage, and going out anyway, and trying to make friends anyway, even though I don’t feel like it. We really need prayer in this area. It definitely has been our biggest failure and continues to be our biggest struggle.

I’m not attached at all here right now. I could go home and not miss anyone. It goes in stages. Sometimes I feel like I could stay for another year, other times I feel like I can barely get through this year. But I need to remember why we are here. We are here to serve these people and to let God grow us in whatever ways He needs to.

I am SO thankful God is SO much bigger and more consistent than our feelings. Being homesick is an awful feeling. But we continue to pray for the fruits of the Spirit, and choose to act on our prayers. “For the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.” Gal 5:22.
Oh how we need those fruits. But before we can bear those fruits, we need the Spirit. So pray for the Holy Spirit. Pray for Him in our lives here and in your lives there.

Pictures!!

These 2 boys are brothers. I think they are cute and the older one especially has really loved Kevin. Kevin will chase them and they just LOVE it. They are quite the little hams as well.



Here's one of the school boys carrying. He's a cute boy. He calls me ma'am. I don't know how to spell his name, so I'll have to take some pictures to introduce people properly sometime and get their names before hand.



This is in front of the clinic. I get alot of pictures from here because I'm here so much! But this is another rainy day. The blue thing I have wrapped around me is called a tadyung. I don't know how to spell that. But it is the native dress/bag/baby carrier. It is wonderful and so multipurpose. It's also nice to run to the shower in etc.



This is a picture of a potluck we did one night. It was the night before Joha left and we had it under Napthali's new house he's in the process of building. That was some GOOD food!