October! October! October!

At Saud beach again at sunset Don't know why this is here twice... Sabbath Lunch!
A sweet ship wreck!
Little Brittany leading me on the beach

Tomorrow is October first, which means I will be here for 7 more months! We fly back May first. It's hard to believe I have been here for almost a month. The first week went by very slow, but now the weeks are starting to go by a little faster. It is almost constantly warm and sunny. Yesterday it actually rained (amazing, considering it's the rainy season!) and we all put on jackets. It felt delicious.

Last Sabbath we went to a new church, out in a little coastal town called Pancuin or something like that. It was about 40 km away, and after one breakdown on our tricycle and a beautiful drive, we got there. Church was held in a karaoke bar. We did church for the kids, and a little girl named Brittany and I got to be friends. She was probably 3, totally adorable, and was fascinated with my camera case. After lunch (beans and rice...a far cry from Sabbaths at home!) we went down to the beach to bless a fishing net. The beach was SO pretty--the sky was this deep blue color, which matched the fishing boats and turned the water a pretty turquoise. Combined with the burgundy color of the fishing nets, it looked beautiful. On the way back to Pagudpud, we stopped to see a wrecked ship that a typhoon had blown in. It was pretty cool.

We are still waiting for this elusive doctor to show up. We tried to find other things to do this week--Pastor Mark spends nearly the whole day with us, which is fine because he is good company and can take us visiting. Yesterday I gave him a brief outline of the US, after he asked if New Jersey was close to Washington state. :) This week we visited the local clinic and an elementary school, and arranged to volunteer at both places next week. Hopefully this will keep us a little busier!

Today we went to a Bible study at Odette's house (a local church lady) She and her sister served us chips, coffee and tea, and Ferrer Rocher chocolates! Never were there happier student missionaries. Her sister is from Singapore, and suggested we should try and visit. We'd already been looking up flights to Hong Kong and other nearby places, and when we found out flights to Singapore were only $130 and the universal studios there was only $13 to get in....well, we've already started planning a February trip :)

This afternoon us three girls went to the beach for a few minutes. The boys were in charge of dinner, so they went back to try and figure out how to cook beans while we watched the sun set. It was so incredibly pretty. There were these clouds that the sun lit up in such a way that they looked like a painting from the Sistine Chapel...I swear I could almost see the faces of angels or something in them...so pretty. Sometimes I will just get these random "oh my goodness! I'm in the Philippines!" moments.

Some of the differences between us SMs have started to flare up. Mostly over food budget issues, yesterday specifically over egg salad, of all things. Apparently mayonnaise is expensive. We're trying to get along...and most of the time we do, but it's like any other "family"...we get on each other's nerves. We are going to know each other really well when it's all said and done over here.

I guess that's about it. We did laundry today; Heather and I like to do it at Noemi and Rizal's house because they have this cool little well that we get water out of to fill the rinsing buckets with and they also have a little open washing machine that does the actual scrubbing for us. When we went back to pick up our clothes later, Noemi had already folded it all. She folds neater than even Zach, which is really saying something! My underwear are folded into these perfect little origami squares.

Tomorrow is Friday. We will clean and cook and sweat and visit again, a typical day for us. Maybe we'll go to the market; we'll go to vespers and I will probably play the piano. We will get ready for Sabbath (our least favorite day here, unfortunately) It will be October, we will get our stipend, and our second month will begin.

Every Slow Day

Today we went to Laoag again. I always jump at the chance to go to Laoag because it means we will have something to do; it puts us into some action and helps get our minds off stuff.

I almost enjoy the ride to Laoag more than the city itself. It just gives me time to think and watch the world go by. Maybe I just like the feeling of being in a car again. I am starting to recognize landmarks that we pass...the restaurant billboard that advertises "unlimited rice!" instead of "unlimited fries!", the goats and cows along the side of the road, and the Filipino version of speedbumps (little fences put up in each lanes that force you to slow down to go around them, like an obstacle course).

Laoag was busting as usual. We saw white people in the mall today, which was exciting. I have never been excited to see another white person before. I also hit my head on things hanging from store ceilings as usual. I tower over everyone here, even the other SMs. And no one will let me forget it. Emily and I each got a cute pair of Sanuk flip-flops, mine are purple because it was the only decent color they had in my apparently gargantuan foot size. I feel like I'm living in a miniature world; everything is made for smaller people here. Even the sandwich I got at KFC today was maybe half the size of one in the US. It was accompanied by about seven fries, and I am not exaggerating. I suppose it's good that they serve smaller meals. Maybe we should adopt that.

I splurged today and bought essential supplies to get me through the next couple weeks: a toblerone bar, a can of pringles, some grapefruit juice, and a little sample box of ritter chocolates. Yum. They will go nicely with my rice.

Tomorrow the doctor is supposed to come for the day. We were supposed to prepare the clinic as best as we could...which wasn't that much. We swept the floors and finished some inventory and tried to sterilize some instruments. (boiling water for 1/2 hour and bleach? Does that sound right? We didn't really know what we were doing...) I hope it goes okay. I am kind of nervous.

It has also been week of prayer this week, which means I get to play the piano for their hymns. Or maybe more like slaughter the piano for their hymns. But they don't seem to mind too much, which is good news. I suppose it's good practice.

I guess I am kind of writing a lot tonight, but it's a good way to keep my mind off other stuff. I have a headache. I miss my friends and my family and Gracie my dog. I miss burritos and macaroni and cheese and sandwiches. I miss Daisy and my cell phone and I miss the grass in front of my house. I miss Walla Walla and American Eagle and even Home Depot for crying out loud. I am tired of people staring at me anytime I go anywhere. I am tired of not being able to go anywhere by myself. I am tired of the sun, I'm tired of the rain, I'm tired of the ugly warty frogs that jump around the compound at night. I am tired of dwarfing everyone around me. I am tired of not being able to understand anything anybody else is saying and I'm tired of waking up in the morning and realizing that I am still here and missing America so much that it just kind of hurts. I wish I had never taken anything for granted! I wish I had enjoyed every trip to wal-mart more, every cold afternoon and every snowy, foggy morning. I wish I had just soaked it all in, because now I don't have any of it and I wish I did. I wish I had enjoyed my winter clothes more and relished nights when I actually needed blankets to stay warm. If anyone reads this, please, just enjoy whatever you are doing. Because imagine what it would be like if you didn't have it, at all. I am lucky because someday, hopefully, I will have all the American stuff again...but that seems like so far away.

I guess it sounds like I am complaining and not appreciating it here, but that isn't true. I am slowly growing to like it, or at least tolerate it. It comes and goes. The people are nice, and the weather is hot. I got the summer I wanted. I have friends here. I have a beach. I guess contentment is really not about things, huh? It's something inside your head, instead, I think. Now I just have to figure out how to get it.

"When you try your best but you don't succeed, when you get what you want, but not what you need...when you feel so tired, but you can't sleep...stuck in reverse. Lights will guide you home, and ignite your bones. And I will try to fix you." -Coldplay

Eternal Summer

So, almost time for our second Sabbath in Pagudpud. Apparently I am supposed to play piano for church tomorrow. A lady just mentioned this to me at vespers an hour or so ago and hastily showed me about 1000 hymns I needed to practice. I am not pleased. Most of these hymns are too hard for me, as I have not played the piano consistently for a couple years. So I will probably just be playing the right hand, and they will just have to live with that. However, Rizal just told us that the power is supposed to be off tomorrow from 7 in the morning till five at night...the piano is electric...so unless they turn on the noisy old generator...Acappella! Woohoo. I suppose I will have to get used to playing the piano up front sometime...but I would like to practice a little more first!

It feels really late hear, even though it is just a little after ten. It was another hot day...it looks like it is supposed to be hot all next too. Isn't the rainy season supposed to start by now? I am sitting outside and finally feel perfecttly comfortable...it is probably upper seventies right now, but the humidity always seems less at night which is really nice.

We all kind of feel like we are just twiddling our thumbs until the doctor arrives. The hospital administrator promised that he would be here by the beginning of October, but that is still two weeks away. Today we did more inventory of the clinic--almost all the medicines have expired--and went to the market and the beach. We hiked almost all the way to Saud beach. It was fun, and we played in the water along the way and I worked on my tan. :) Tonight, we made spaghetti and Emily made sauce and Heather made homemade garlic bread. The meal was probably the most delicious thing I have ever had; it tasted soooo good after days and days of rice for lunch and dinner and Milo cereal for breakfast.

Tomorrow we have church. Am headed to bed!

Life is becoming more real and less surreal finally. It is kind of fun having just the SMs here now that all the adult missionaries have left...sometimes we aren't quite sure what to do with ourselves. This week we have done a decent amount of visitations; Elly-one of the church members and construction workers here-takes us to houses translates and helps us visit with the people. The poverty is amazing...everyone lives in one or two room little cement houses. This helps keep it cooler and helps keep stuff from rotting in the humidity, but it is also dark and dank inside these little houses. Today Elly took us to one of his classmates houses. This classmate had a stroke about six years ago and is now no longer able to walk. We met his wife and hi...I think she has a hard time taking care of him. He really wants us to somehow find him a wheel chair. We would love to, but we are not sure how to go about getting him one here...we might have to see if someone could bring us one from the states. Tomorrow we get to learn how to wash our clothes in buckets...yay. And then we have a meeting with the guy who is supposed to be getting us a doctor. Here is a picture of the little girl who got hit by the bus. We went with Elly and Pastor Mark to visit with the mayor about getting her to Manila on an ambulance and getting the money paid back to Nathan, her father. So far it looks like this will all work out, thankfully. The picture is a little gruesome...but it shows what her family (her mother and father are with her in the picture) are going through.

Sabbath, September 11, 2010

Today was our first Sabbath in Pagudpud. It was a tough day…I am still very homesick and all the reminders of home that come with Sabbath didn’t help. I played piano for a song in church today, with Emily on the guitar and everyone else singing…interesting…I never would have done that at home! Still no doctor…it looks like we won’t have one solid until January probably. Until then, hopefully we will have subs that come for a few days a week. We are supposed to focus on mission work until then. This will be hard, because there isn’t a good way to stay completely busy by just doing mission work. The only thing we can do is visitations to the local people. We meet with the pastor of the church, Mark Montero, tomorrow to figure out how we should spend our time. Our caretakers are the Riveral family—Rizal gets paid by IHSA to upkeep the church and provide what the student missionaries need. His wife Noemi has been cooking for us; starting Monday she will only cook lunch for us. They have three girls and a boy, I think…I haven’t figured out their family entirely yet. The oldest is Rhea (pronounced Ria). She is my age, 20, and just graduated from college with an education degree. She is nice to have around because she speaks fairly good English and is a good translator for us during outings. The two other girls are Collette and Fiona. Fiona is adopted.

Today we got our first taste of what a medical clinic might be like. A little girl got run over by a bus about a month ago. She just recently got let out of the hospital, but they let her out before her wound was barely healed. I walked into the little one-room clinic and I am sure my jaw almost dropped—her leg was completely raw flesh from the knee down. It was totally exposed muscle and fat, I couldn’t even see where any skin might be left. Her foot was swollen and had cuts and bruises. She needs a skin graft, but those are expensive and might not even be possible without going all the way to Manila. Dr. Mitzelfelt (Jay Coon’s father-in-law and the doctor who will probably be back in January to run the clinic) and some others poured Hydrogen Perioxide over the entire thing and then bandaged it up. After that, they let the dressing dry and then pulled it off to let it bleed and pull off the excess tissue to clean the wound better. Apparently it’s a lot better from what it was…there were maggots in the wound when Dr. Mitz saw the girl a few days before. The girl (7 years old) cried and cried but it was her mother and father who I really felt sorry for…her mother looked tired and drained. The bus company will not pay for the hospital bills because they said the mother must have been negligent if her daughter ran into the road. I think the father used up most of his money trying to get treatment for her. Her ear was also injured, and was sewn together when she was in the hospital so now her ear can’t drain and she can’t hear out of it very well. I hope they can get decent treatment for it.

Please keep me in your prayers. The homesickness and culture shock feels almost unbearable.

First Few Days..

We are finally in Pagudpud after about a thousand years. We are all still very tired but it is nice to be here. So far I am quite homesick...I can't imagine 8 months right now! Your prayers are greatly appreciated. It is the rainy season right now...It is very warm but has been overcast and pours rain periodically. Yesterday we went on an eight minute "tricycle" ride (like a rickshaw) to the beautiful tropical white sand beach. I want to visit there often! We sipped coconut milk out of the actual coconut and toured the beautiful (and cheap!) resorts around us. Then three of us went to be judges for the local high school's beauty pageant. It lasted 4 and a half hours...but was fun to watch. They are very westernized in their music and clothing...quite risque though! The girls had lots of dance routines in their little belly shirts...the boys were partial to lots of pelvic movements in their dances...definitely an experience! Pray that the doctor arrives soon...without him, we don't know if the clinic will run. He is a filipino man and we have not heard from him yet. Please pray lots and lots for me! I am incredibly homesick and need prayers. I miss America a lot. But I know this will turn out for the best...at least I hope so!