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