Online!

We are back from the middle of nowhere - there were only about 12 buildings that I could see in the whole area - and it was lovely. For security reasons I can't post pictures of the people we visited online, but you can definitely come see the 400+ photos I took in person! (I'll be back in Seattle on Sep 14th..) 

It was a wonderful weekend, full of lots of new experiences:

• I petted a snake for the first time, and it was surprisingly dry in texture.
  
• I rode a caribu (pronounced care-i-bow)
  
• I ate a new variety of pancit that was made in a massively large bowl, from which we used mini-shovels to transfer the food to our plate.
  
• I only used toilets that had to be flushed with outside buckets of water
  
• I never ate with a knife, only a spoon and fork.
  
• I also ate this good soup dish with papaya used as a veggie.
  
• I slept in a mosquito net.
  
• I learned how to make rice in a bamboo stalk with banana leaves - it was quite tasty
  
• I ate off a banana leaf plate.
  
• I ate french fries for breakfast.
  
• I learned that ordering a hamburger from McDonald's here means that I get no pickles, no onions, no ketchup, no nothing except for a bun, a slab of meat, and this strange sauce that was orange on it. However, cheeseburgers come with all of the above.
  
• I ate rice for breakfast, with soy sauce.
  
• I rode in a trike and an FX (both public-ish forms of transportation here)
  
• And many other things, I'll remember them when I go through photos with you!

I realized that I missed the country way life more than I thought I did, as being in foothills was so restful and peaceful. The people we visited were very warm and welcoming, and though we initially thought that there would be a large language barrier, many of the children had a very good command of English, and we also had two ladies who could translate from English to Tagalog or the native language (and vice versa) very well. 

I could write about them all day, but I'd really rather tell you in person with pictures to narrate. I even have some awesome videos of our team being taught the native 'courting dance'. :)

But, since the internet is working well, I will post some pictures of the family home kiddos and our team:

 

Offline

Soon (as in 2.5 hours) we will be traveling north to visit a village where Bible translation is occurring, just to meet and interact with the people there. While I am quite excited for this, we have to leave before we can see the talent show the kids at school have been preparing. While the show was not planned for us, the kids were disappointed to learn we would not be there. 

Yesterday I came down real hard with a cold and was only able to help out in the Science classrooms in the morning. I napped all afternoon. That morning, however, was experiment day for the grade 5, so I got to help them look at different types of cells underneath a microscope. We first looked at onion cells, which we could see surprisingly well, and then we looked at a few kid's cheek cells. Because we didn't have the greatest of stains, those were hard to see. And then, for the grand finale, we looked at blood cells. The director of the school volunteered to prick her finger to get the blood, but since we had no needles, she sterilized a relatively new knife from the microscope kit in a hot flame and then tried to cut into her finger. However, the knife turned out to be really dull and the heat just caused blisters to form, and she never actually cut her skin. So, I looked at my fingers, and while I didn't really want to donate my blood to science, I found and pulled a hangnail far enough to get some blood on the slide. While it was too thick to really see individual cells, it was red colored and good enough for 5th graders. They'll see blood again eventually if they take any more bio classes. And don't worry, I washed my finger with antibacterial soap, and bandaged it with antibacterial neosporin right after we were done with class. 

You won't see any updates for a while since the village has no internet and we are leaving our computers behind. I am taking my camera though!

Here are some pictures of kids from the school and orphanage!

Back to School

Now that I've told you all about how we explored Manila and the generally touristy places, this post is about where and how we are serving.

Currently we are located in a subdivision called 'Cuatro', which has a squatter settlement of about 5,000 people, but only about 100 families own their own plot of land. There are four main buildings that the missionaries here work in: the children's home, the elementary school, the community center, and the guesthouse. We are staying the in the guesthouse while were are working here, and it is really just like a large house with lots (4+) beds in every room. Charis, Sarah, and I share a room, but in order to get AC at night, we all pile into Mrs. Jones' room each evening. 

The community center is where we spend the least time, in fact, I have only been in there once, when we toured it last Saturday. The kindergarden age students go to school there, they even have a basketball court on the roof so that they can have PE! There is a sanctuary there where a community church meets each Sunday. 

The elementary school is where we spend the bulk of our day. We are up and at breakfast by 7:15 each morning, and off to school to help in the classrooms. We were each assigned to a subject as a general helper. Science, math, language arts, and Bible are the four morning subjects. Each subject is taught by one teacher, who moves from classroom to classroom. The children range in age from 6-13, but not all are with their 'proper' grade, as their education backgrounds are very varied. They do teach grades 1-5, so we get to interact with lots of different children. The school is following the ACE Lifepack curriculum that allows each child to work at their own pace completing their units. This means that the teacher doesn't really teach, just answers questions and grades things as kids finish. I have mixed feelings about this system, but it seems to be working for them. The older two classes, grades 3-5, are very hands off and don't really need much help from me or the teacher, however the younger kids do need lots of help just reading the directions and understanding what they need to be doing. Tomorrow though, the science teacher has promised some experiments, so that will be fun!

Many of the kids read very well, even some in the youngest grade 1. It has made me wish that I knew how to help them read phonetically, as I just try to slowly sounds the words out, even though I know that it is probably not the best way to help them learn to read in English. My afternoons, from 12:40-3:20 are spent in the library, just listening to kids read, correcting them as they go along, and sometimes reading a book to the youngest students. 

After all day at the school, we either watch the kids play some bball on the school's court, or head up with the Children's Home kids to play with them until dinner. They are pretty happy to just play with basketballs all afternoon, and it is kind of funny to see these little squirts tossing the ball around like someone twice their size and age. And they love Chris. He has already been given the title of 'brother' and now 'uncle' (tito) and they just love to play with him. If he suggests they do anything, especially if it involves bball tricks, usually there are 4+ small fries trying to copy him. My favorite though, is their favorite question: "why don't you speak Tagalong, tito Chris?" Since he is a dark skinned Filipino, they want to know why he looks like them but can't speak their language. Though he has explained to them again and again that he was adopted, they just keep asking "why?" That is their favorite response to anything you might say, the kids always want to know why something is the way it is, even if that something is as simple as the grass being green. We have played so 'planned' games like Duck, duck, goose and Sharks and minnnows, but the kids really just love bball. It is truly the sport of the Philippines.

We hang out with the kids as they eat dinner, talking with them and getting to know them better, and then after our own dinner back at the guesthouse, we go back to the home and do a little worship time and devotional with the children. It is so great to see them worshipping along with us to songs that we all know. Some favorites are 'Amazing Love', 'Every move I make', 'Father Abraham', and 'Now is the time to worship'. And after all that, it is bed time, which usually takes at least 30 minutes to get all the kids towards bed, and we usually leave before all of them are asleep and staying in their beds.

Which reminds me - it is now past my bedtime, so I am signing off for now! 

Pictures!

Finally, some pictures! Thank you to those who stayed with me through the not-so-picturesque last two blog posts, here is your reward:

This is the Manila skyline (at least part of it, I need a panorama for the whole skyline)

This is Charis' school, Faith Academy. It was a gorgeous campus.

And this is a map of the Philippines painted on an area of the floor of Charis' school; the Philippines were the center of the map. 

This is another shot from Faith, they have this lovely sitting area/garden in the center of the compound. There were about three of these structures, as well as other places to sit in the area. 

This is rambutan, which means "hairy". The outside of this fruit is a vibrant red/orange, with kind of rubbery hairs. You peel this fruit like an orange and then pop the whole thing in your mouth and eat around the very large seed. The goal is to not eat the seed, but to spit it out, however some of our team members might not have listened to instructions very well....

This is the mega church in the mall, where about 3,000 people come each service. This picture was taken right about when the service was starting, but all the chairs did fill up by about 20 min into it. Apparently Filipino time = whenever you show up. 

Also, not blogged about, but this was a non-Apple store set up to look like one. It felt like I was walking into a real Apple store, but this is only a 'Premium Reseller", thus 'The A.shop'

Two panda breads. Delicious. Enough said.

Jumpseats in the back filled by the guys on our trip. They really enjoy being pretend Marines (or at least Alex does) when they go to climb into the back. I will admit, it is kind of fun to ride back there, if only for the different view. The window in the back is great to see out of, as it is huge.

This is Charis' home church's new building, which was very pretty and light and airy on the inside. They were also rockin' the AC, so it was a mite chilly. 

Day Deux: Loads of new things

NOTE: picture posting might be few and far in between until I get back to the states because of the really slow internet connection here. While the WiFi may be free, when more than one computer logs on, it slows down. I will post bunches of facebook albums when I return and give the URLs out, so please bear with me now :)

Day two: Manila, the city.

Two churches, three malls, new fruits, panda bread and pancit made up the whole of our Sunday. In fact, we were gone so long yesterday that I had to wait until Monday to blog (aka: I feel asleep early). Another note: the time difference here is +15 hours, so all the time stamps on my blogs are incorrect. I never bothered to change the time on my computer, partially so that I can see what time Ellensburg is sitting at. 

Church #1: GCF East. This is Charis' home church, where she attended when she lived here. Ironically enough, they moved church buildings the week we came, so it was only sort of like coming back to the same church. The church did have the same pastor and the Jones' were able to see some old friends of theirs, and we were warmly greeted guests. In fact, we were probably the first to use their new visitor center, which did not yet have a door or windows yet.

Following GCF East we dashed up the street for some Panda bread. I think it's real name is Pan de Sol (or that's what it sounds like) but it basically delicious rolls, baked in a special oven and really inexpensive, for our wallets anyway. We got 15 rolls that were a good 3+ inches in diameter for 85 pesos, which is like $1.75. It was a great snack, and a good new food experiance #1. The nickname 'Panda bread' comes from some boys our team met at the Faith Academy pool who, after much coaxing, finally said that panda bread was one of their favorite Filipino foods. 

All this dashing around town reminds me to mention our mode of transportaion. While we have not yet braved a Jeepney, pedicab, or strange looking boat, we do travel around in the Revo. This car is like a SUV, but in the truck reside two jumpseat benches. Apparently, the reason is that Filipinos like to squish as many people in a car as possible, and these help. Also, no seatbelts are worn besides the driver and shotgun seat, as again, they try to fit as many people as possible. The van that picked us up from the airport did not have any at all for the back three rows of seating. Granted, while this may sound harrowing, the driving around here is not very fast because of the huge quantities of traffic. I must admit that here the traffic/crazy drivers are in much greater supply than in Cali. The only rule of the road is this: if you get your nose in there first, the right-of-way is yours. yep.

This trusty Revo took us from the panda bread across town to the second church of the day: CCF, which is a megachurch. Really, it's huge, with 3000 people per service at this one campus, 5 services, and there are about 15 satellites churches. And, to top it all off, the church occupies the top couple of floors of St. Francis Square in Manila, which is like a mall. Apparently this is purposeful, because many Filipinos come to shop at malls on Sundays, so churches try to be either in or near a mall, to draw people in. The pastor spoke a great sermon, about abiding in the word and then being set free, all to the end of becoming a true disciple of Christ. I think they podcast the sermons, if anyone is interested. 

One thing that I noticed about all the malls and areas that we were in today was the prevalence of English. While I knew that most people spoke English coming in, the fact that I was in the mall and did not feel totally out of place was disconcerting. In my head, I knew I was in Asia, but I didn't really feel to much like a fish out of water and sometimes even felt like I was in a US mall, just one where there was a high population of Asians. The one main difference between malls in the US and those here is the amount of workers in each store. I learned that the wage scale is so low, it is cheaper to higher lots of people to watch virtually every isle in the store than it is to deal with a little shoplifting. Also, the turnover rate is high, because if someone is employed with a company for more than 6 months, they have to be given benefits and become near impossible to fire down the line. To get around this, employers hire for periods of one day less than six months, and then the worker is out on their ear looking for other places to work. It is kind of creepy when you are browsing merchandise, minding your own business, and then, when you're not looking, a uniformed girl comes and just stands their staring at you, or decides that she absolutely must straighten the books your are currently looking at. 

After CCF we did hit up Megamall, which is used to be the largest mall, until Mall of Asia was built. We fueled up on some great home-style chinese and filipino food at a noodle place, where we watched a chef pull noodles by hand. This is where I tried pancit, which is basically like chow mein, only different in a few flavors. But it had meat, noodles, cabbage, and a few other veggies, and it was quite good. I did try some new kinds of green vegetables, but I did not get their names (though I think one was kay-kay or something similar). One looked like celery. I enjoyed both, because they were not overcooked nor mushy, and they were all cooked with garlic cloves. I think I would eat most any vegetable if it tasted like garlic, but don't me to that! :) We also had shakes after lunch, and I was the odd guy out at the table with my apple shake, but I just can't seem to like mango fruit.

Mango fruit and rambutan were the two other new fruits I've tried so far. I waited to call final judgement of mangos until I tried real Filipino mangos (I did not like the states' version) but alas, they still did not taste great to me. So, I guess that means more for the rest of my team, as they seem to inhale the fruit. Rambutan, on the other hand, was quite enjoyable, though not very filling. It is a red skinned, white fleshed fruit that is hard to descibe, in regards to taste. It is kind of citrus-y, but not like any typical fruit. You have to eat around a large seed, which you try not to swallow (most of our team did swallow one...) and the flesh is sometimes hard to get off. Oh well, I guess ya'll have to try one someday to really understand the fruit. They come really cheap here, about 40 pesos for a kilo, which is quite a few.  

And that concludes much of what our team did on Sunday, I'll write about the orphanage and school tomorrow, as well as our trip to the 'ruins' that I forgot to mention on yesterday's post!

Which way is up?

In one week, I have been on west coast time, east coast time, and Filipino time (15 hours ahead of west coast time), losing almost a day in between. I am now the proud owner of one tourist visa, the first stamp in my passport is for the Philippines. Long story short, we have been in manila for about 22 hours, and I am so tired, I don't really know which way is up... apparently I am experiencing jet lag - all I know is that I am instructed to not sleep until later tonight. Thus, I am going to type this blog, but any mistakes I blame on the jet lag!

First off, the flight here was the longest that I have ever taken, 10 whole hours for one leg, then another 3.5+ for the second. And I slept a grand total of 4-ish hours over the course of the trip. It was great however to arrive in Manila at the place we are staying right at midnight, so that we could go straight to sleep, and not have to force ourselves to stay awake. No, that would come today :( 

I must stop and make a note here that Asiana Airlines is the best airline I have ever flown with. Ever. Not only did they have smart, identically matching flight attendant outfits, but they also changed twice during the course of the flight! and had the greatest aprons! and hats! We flew in a 777 that was huge - there were two isles, 9 seats across, and no seat "F" in any row. The best part was the food we were given, they really like to feed you. Three ginormous meals in the course of our travels, one of which was steak, potatoes, and veggie meal, and another one consisted of beef stir-fry, but all came with rolls, side dishes, desert, real silverware (not plastic) and the best part: after meal tea. They have delicious tea, better than any US airline's hot tea. They also continually offered us orange juice and water, to keep us hydrated as we flew. It was much appreciated, and I can see why they were voted the best airline. 

After a decent night's rest, we woke up to the sun, heat, cock's crowing, the last bit of rainfall, and lots of people. We are staying in a guest house in an area of Manila called Cuatro, because it runs along the 4th hole of the local golf course. (That's another interesting thing, apparently Seoul and Manila have lots of golf courses!) This house is a part of one of the ministries we are serving with, Kids International Ministry. They help out the local squatter settlement by building homes for some members of the community, building a community center which doubles as a church, as well as running an orphanage the houses 40+ kids, and a elementary school for both the orphanage kids and some select community children. We are not quite sure what we'll be doing come Monday, but we might be tutoring some kids in the schoolhouse. 

After breakfast and a tour of the area were are in and of the ministry buildings, we went to visit Faith Academy, where Charis graduated from. I can't imagine what she was feeling, as I can go back to Riverside Christian (my old school) anytime I want. We explored all of the school, which is more like a whole compound, seeing what was new and changed (at least to Charis' eyes, to me it was all new...)

Not going to lie, I was a little jealous of their new auditorium (nicer than most theatre halls) with purple seats and a fly system that can handle up to 40 flys! They also had new science classrooms. Their prep/stockroom was larger than the one at SPU and well stocked. It was great to see that their school was so well supported, as their mission is to support all the missionaries in the area. The also have a "aquatic center" with a pool that we played in all afternoon. I was instructed to not rest after lunch and to stay active to combat the jet lag. So, stay active we did, but I was exhausted by 8pm. And rest never felt so good.

Much Adventuring

Well, since my last post about MOONFEST, I have read a few more books, made a day trip to San Francisco, volunteered on the USS Hornet during Splashdown 09, made a skirt, baked some delicious garlic-onion-cheese bread, created a poster and worked on my paper some more. And now I have a moment to sit outside, enjoy the weather, and write a bit.

Last weekend was super busy, probably the most so since my first weekend here. Fortunately, I did not have to drive in SF, Mrs. Sayre did all the driving. Since Daniel was out backpacking, we made it a girls day out. First up was a trip to Oakland to the closest Essential Baking Co., as well as to go to Berkley, to check out the campus and a used bookstore the Sayres had heard about.





The bookstore was great, but there was also a high ratio of bookstores to other stores in Berkley. Surprisingly, I walked in and out with zero books in my hand. While in the area, on our way up to campus, we encountered a street fair of sorts, where there were tables lining the sidewalks for a few blocks before hitting the actual school grounds, and people were selling their wares, everything from jewelery to tie-dye tee-shirts to hand thrown pots.











The Berkley grounds themselves were nice, and included an assortement of building styles. There was some very colonial style halls, as well as very 50's ish buildings. Also, they had this prospective students campaign set up, which consisted of a wall of headshots of students, some with a quote written on them. And the campus is HUGE! There is no way I'd be able to walk to all of my classes if I attended there. We did, however, find this nice gate in the picture, so we stood in front of it as proof that we were there. There was also a group of people swing dancing in the middle of walkway, which was fun to watch.







After driving around the perimeter of the campus, we traveled over the bay bridge, paying our toll, and saw Alcatraz along the way. Though we did not go this time to the island, the Sayres have gone in the past and said it is worth a visit. But our real reason for this outing was to go to Japantown!! I had mentioned that I wanted to go, so go we did. It was really just two malls of sorts, but super fun.











On our way through SF to Japantown, we witnessed a rally, protesting the Iran vote.












When we got to Japantown, there was a store full of pottery, one full of kimonos and other Japanese clothing, lots of restaurants, and this fantastic bookstore where I could have spent all day, even though most of the words were all in Japanese.













One thing I noticed about the texts, is that the spines tended to be white backgrounds with vibrant/neon colored titles. Almost everything was neon pink or green or yellow - it was quite a change from the bookstore we visited in Berkley.














Also in the bookstore, we saw this shirt that captured the essence of SF in the summer in graphic form.

Somehow, though I can't read the Japanese signs, I ended up on the one isle that had pattern books. It seems that at least here, you buy a book with one pattern in the back, but with different variation instructions, complete with great pictures of finished garments. It was quite different from the patterns I buy from JoAnn's. Also, they had a Daiso in the mall, but it was newly opened, and only about one-third the size of the one in Seattle, so I passed by the $1.50 teacups and decided to go when I got back to Seattle.






And then, since it was 3 pm and we hadn't had lunch, we found a spot across from the malls and had some Japanese food for lunch. Though I did not go to far out of my comfort zone, I did try new things. I tried the mizo soup I was served, because I don't think I tried it when our exchange students made it for us (it had green seaweed flakes dancing on top of it), but I like this one, though the meal had a tendency to separate from the broth. :( I did not eat the tofu chunks. And I tried the salad that came with it, as hitherto I had always ignored it or asked for no dressing when my family eats a the Ginkgo Tree in Ellensburg. It also wasn't to terrible, though I could only tolerate bites with light dressing. I also tried the udon soup Mrs. Sayre ordered, but the seaweed flavor was too strong for me. And the tea we were served with our meal was just too green, it tasted a bit like grass. I definitely prefer the Chinese restaurant oolong tea. But my actual meal was fantastic!! It was really good beef teriyaki with sticky rice. There were some other things on my plate, and while I tasted most of them, I didn't eat them completely. But that beef was so delicious! It was flavorful, and filling, and tasty, and not overcooked - just plain delightful.

After we realized how long we'd spent eating, we had to change our plans for the rest of the day. We were going to hit Lombard (that super windy street) and then drive through Chinatown so I could see it and take pictures for my mom, and then go to the garment district, but with the time crunch, we vetoed the former and only traveled to the garment district. However, when we found the address we had gotten from online, the building was just an empty warehouse, newly built, and looking for leasees. So, we ambled down 3rd ave in our car, but upon finding no desirable stores, I looked up Fabric Discounters on my phone, found an adress nearby, and we decided to go there.

Wow. Fabric Discounters had rows upon stacks upon isles of fabric! And while most of it was great fabric and lovely to look at, it was all a bit out of my price range, though discounted it may be. I found some neat yellow and blue fabric in the remnant pile, however, so I did snatch that up, and I am still dreaming up a use for it. I think I'll stick to JoAnn's for now, espically when I have 40% off coupons....

Then we hit 101 and traveled back to San Jose, though we did have to stop at NASA so I could turn the heat off on one of my experiments. It was a super fun day, and someday I will get back to SF to see more of it, but also really want to go back to Japantown!

And all that was just Saturday...check back soon for a post about my fun afloat on the USS Hornet!