Stranded on the Island...

Okay....so here I am, almost 4 months after returning to the states and I am finally finishing blogging about my Philippines trip. There are two reasons for this: 1) I am sending out thank you letters with links to this blog and I want to finish it for them to read and 2) I am procrastinating on my PChem homework.

The morning after my last blog post, we woke up to the usual rain and wind in Puerto, but it did look like it was not coming down as hard as the previous days, so we were hopeful about our scuba outing. When we scrambled over the rocks and got to the dive shop, we found out that there was a tropical storm headed for the island, and we might not get off it for a few days if we did not leave that morning. While most of us would not protest a few more days of relaxation, we did have one team member who had to catch a flight back to the US on Monday for her job training. We decided that we did need to leave that day, but we were able to work it so that we could still do scuba-ing and snorkling. The dive shop agreed to do only one dive, instead of two, and before we we out, all us kids packed our stuff. This way, Mrs. Jones could gather it all up, check us out of the resort, truck it down to the dock and purchase our tickets back to Manila, all while we were playing in the water.

This plan worked out beautifully, we were dropped off the dive boat at the dock and walked right on to the boat taking us back. All was well - until we got near Manila, that is. All of a sudden, we were pulling up to what looked like a cement retaining wall behind a bunch of houses. This was definitely not Batangas pier. They told us to grab our stuff and get off the boat, herding us all towards a jeepney that would take us away from there. To where, we were not sure. Eventually it was made clear that the driver would take us to a bus station where we could catch a bus back to MegaMall, where it was then just a short FX and trike ride away from home.

You have to understand that the worst part about all of this is how all of us were still in our bathing suits. I at least had shoes on, but Charis was barefoot, and all of us were wet. Cramming all of the boat passengers and our luggage into one jeepney was quite a feat - it was a bit squishy in there - but fortunately no loud music or bright lights during the ride, as the usual jeepney experiance. I don't know how well our battered team would have tolerated that....

On the upside of our unexpected early trip home, we got to go back to one of the megachurches we had visited the first week and fellowship with others, including many of the missionary families we had been introduced to during our stay.

We also got to teach in the school one extra day, which was wonderful. All the kids and teachers were surprised we were back, but let us jump right in to help. Two of my science classes got to look through the microscope that Monday. And yes, there was more blood to be looked at, though this time it was a student who donated hers....

I don't recall if I mentioned this before, but one of the sweetest, most unexpected things the students did for us was make us thank you cards. I have each one and love to remember each student as I reread them. They make me smile - there is one that says, "smile b 4 open!" down the front opening, and many have misspellings ('Olifa' was my favorite), but all reflect their genuine hearts. I am blessed to have known them.

Tuesday was a day I had been waiting for. Divasoria! This is both one of Manila's poorest areas, but also home to the textile market I really wanted to go to. I had been saving all my pesos for this trip! It took us an FX, train, and jeepney ride to get there, which meant that by the end of the trip, we had taken every form of transportation Manila had to offer. The area was very run down - there were multi-story buildings that had been taken over by squatters. It was also very dirty, as there was lots of water in the street and the night market apparently left less-than-pleasant smells for the daytime visitors. At one point in time, we had to jump from pallet to pallet to rock to get across the water in the street to the sidewalk.

We did have a missionary with us who shopped there very frequently, so we did not have to stumble around and try to find everything on our own. Since she shops there so often, she has certain people that she has built a relationship with and will typically buy from. I was introduced to those women and happily bought a few lengths of cloth from each. One woman, her name was Amy, was dressed very professionally for the area and spoke very good english. Probably the best I had heard from a Filipino in Manila. I later found out that she had gone to college in the US and was successfully working on the east coast, when her family called and requested that she come back to the Philippines to help them out by buying and selling cloth in Divasoria. Because of the family-orientated culture of the Filipinos, she came back and since then has sold fabric in the corner of a dark, dirty building.

While I had known that prices were cheap there, I was floored when I found out that cotton fabrics were typically 40-45 pesos, or roughly 80-90 cents per yard. CENTS per YARD! Stuff that was typically 5-10 dollars per yard in the states! So what ensued was what I can only term speed-shopping like I've never done before. For a solid hour and a half, I could buy anything and everything that caught my eye. I bought beautiful summer dress material, Amy Butler fabric for my sister and mother, shantung silk for myself and my youngest sister (for a prom dress), even a most unique dark green wool-cashmere blend suiting from England. I would have paid upwards of $40+ per yard in the states for that last fabric, but I bought 4 yards for $12! In fact, prices were so good that I didn't even get to spend all the money I had saved for this excursion, we had to leave before I could trade all my pesos for fabric. Ah well, I am very excited to make special garments from my fabrics!

The next day, we packed our stuff, said goodbye to the kids, took lots of pictures, and finally drove to the airport. We had a red-eye out of Manila to Seoul, taking off right before midnight. We landed in Seoul around 5 am their time, and after getting our bearings and stowing our carry ons, we were off to the city for a quick adventure.

However, I must get back to my homework, I hear it calling for me...so I will post the last of my summer adventures overseas later, when I can get away from all that I must do as a student.

Puerto Two!

This post continues my narration of our trip to Puerto Galera this last weekend. We did to much to fit it all into one post and still be readable!

Waking up to a rainy morning, we ate an early breakfast, and we put on our hiking shoes to finally meet the women who made all the bracelets we sold. The resort we were staying at, Tamaraw Beach, was just a short jaunt to the village by way of a nicely paved road. Uncle Alex, our guide and the man behind Threads of Hope, was recognized and greeted by almost everyone we passed on the way there. He travels to Puerto about twice a month to pick up orders of 20,000+ bracelets. When we arrived at the actual community, we came upon their huge community center/church building that was still in process. It had a floor and a bball court, but no real walls yet. All the women who were expecting to get paid that day were gathered in the building, and we were introduced to them. 

Shortly after being introduced to them, we traveled up a steep, muddy and narrow path to Alona's house. Alona is the woman Uncle Al and Aunt Chris met when on vacation in Puerto and who inspired the ministry of  Threads of Hope. Alona now takes all the orders from Uncle Al and distributes them to the women who make bracelets. Not all women who want to make bracelets for Threads of Hope are able to, as Uncle Al can only buy so many per month. So, Alona makes sure that the women in the community who need money the most get larger orders, and then when women complete orders they bring the bracelets back up to her and drop them off for Uncle Al to pick up. When we traveled up to her house, we were picking up the bracelets that were being bought today. 

As we were reviewing the bracelets and beginning to pack them all up in order to cart them back down the mountain, Alona surprised us by giving our team a bundle of bracelets that she said were a gift to us from the community. She had collected some from each of the women and then gave them to us. There were roughly 100 bracelets, including some flat style bracelets with 'Puerto Galera' written in them, as well as some with beads. We were all incredibly blessed by their generosity.

Walking down the mountain, we arrived back in the ministry center and Uncle Al began to dole out money. It was a very interesting process to watch: At a round table, Uncle Al would sit in the center, with Pastor Al's wife on one side and Alona on the other. Each of the women had record books, and Uncle Al had the money. When each women's name was called, she came up to the table, and Alona said how many bracelets she had made (+dollars) and Pastor Al's wife said how much thread they had received (-dollars) and the left over amount is how much the bracelet maker was finally paid. All in all, the whole process took about 3+ hours for all the women to be paid. 

During the time Uncle Al was buying bracelets, we were meeting and talking with all the women. They all had very diverse and interesting stories, however the overriding theme was one of poverty and struggling to make enough to send their kids to school. One woman had a son in Engineering school (a 5 year program) and another entering a different school as a freshman, and one more who is a senior this year. The senior might have to take a gap year or two in order for the family to afford to send them to school. 

After talking for a while and noticing that the rain had lessened/stopped, we asked if we could help them out by painted part of the bball court upstairs. We had thought that we would just be painting things like lines on the cement court, but no - we literally painted the court floor. They had this white rubbery type of paint that needed to cover the whole court. But, in order to lay down paint, we first needed to sand the cement floor to smooth it over. So, half the team was down on their hands and knees sanding, and the other half was rolling the floor in paint. We applied 3 gallons in 2 hours and covered about a fourth of the court. 

Then, we headed back to the resort, then traveled over to White Beach (a 15min walk) for lunch and a little beachside shopping. Apparently since it is off-season, there were not so many shops and restaurants open, and the one we ate at only had about half the foods that were listed on their menu. 

But the shopping was cheap and fun, I purchased a sundress, some earrings and a gift for my sis there, and all in all spent less than $12. We wandered back to Tamaraw beach, and went for another swim in the ocean, minus the rain this time! We seem to swim in the rain quite frequently around here...

Dinner this night was a fancier affair, as we went next door to a higher-end resort that had excellent food. I might have ordered the fillet mignon... It was a fun experiance and we took lots of photos that evening. It was wonderful to sit outside, where it was warm, yet there was a breeze from the ocean, watching the night fishermen travel out to the water. I also tried a bite of grilled squid at dinner, which kind of tasted like the grizzle on a piece of beef. 

I must admit, one food I am really ready to go home for is potatoes. I miss my potatoes and do believe that it would take a bit of time to get used to eating rice all the time. And yes, we have rice almost every meal, though I've only been served it twice for breakfast. 

Sleep came easily, and we went to bed praying that the next day would dawn calm and sunny, as we were to go snorkeling and scuba diving! However, there were more adventures in store that all began when we got up the next morning....

But that's tomorrow's story!

Puerto, Day One

The last few days have been super fun and super full with lots of changing schedules. I think over the course of our stay in Puerto Galera, we only kept to the orginal plan for half a day...

Day one (Thursday) we left really early in the morning, at 5:15am, to catch a ride to the bus station. Once at the bus station, (after a 45min drive) we hopped on a charter-type bus, which was super cold because of the air conditioning. We drove on that bus for a good 3 hours before arriving at Batangas, which was the pier from which we would catch a banca boat to Puerto Galera. The waves were quite choppy and the boat was moving up and down rapidly and catching a lot of wave. It was not a confidence-inspiring picture, to say the least. When our boat was finally called for boarding, we loaded up and started off. It was okay at the beginning, but got rougher out on the open sea. Sometimes, if the waves were too high, the engine would get cut so we could ride the wave out more gently. Banca boats are about the only form of water transport in the area, as ferries do not go to the island any more, and sailboats are owned privately. After about 1.5 hrs on the rough sea, we finally made it to our port. Then, after a short trip by car over to the resort, we finally checked into our bungalows. 

The bungalows were fantastic. About the 2/3 the length and width of my dorm room last year, our little room held a small armoire, two twin beds, a table and two chairs in the corner underneath a wall-mounted TV. Through the door on the other side of the room was our little CR (that is Filipino for 'bathroom', and it stands for 'Comfort Room'), which had a sink in the middle, toilet on the right, and a shower head on the left. There was definitely no shower curtain, or shower lip, the water and sand just ran down to the corner where the drain was. Effective, but a little strange. About 50ft outside our front porch splashed the ocean on the beach, and halfway there was a bahay kubo (a little hut thing where we can sit) that we used quite frequently.

Also on-site is a relatively inexpensive restaurant where we lunched. I ate garlic rice and fried chicken. Most everyone had mango shakes, except for me, as they are a speciality of the beach (and the Philippines in general). I don't really like mango. After lunch, we all jumped into the ocean and went swimming. And it was raining. It rained almost the whole weekend, but as it was still warm outside and the water was super warm, we didn't mind. Never have I swum so much in the rain as I have here in the last week. After splashing in the waves, half the group walked the beach over to White Beach, which was just 10 minutes away. The other half of us stayed a played a game of scrabble (Alex won, Chris lost, and I was somewhere in the middle) until dinner. 

Dinner was a wonderful affair. Apparently, you can get either Italian or Filipino food on the beach, and there is one particular Italian restaurant on the very end of the beach that has excellent food. It is literally the last building on this stretch of beach, right before the bend where the beach runs out. We had delicious pastas and pizzas, the helpings were huge, and they were in no rush to see us off, so we sat and chatted for a decent couple of hours. It was a 20+ minute walk from where we were staying, and we were in no hurry to get back. Quite a memorable meal.

Also note: they don't apparently serve much ice cream in these parts, as when one orders a chocolate shake (for $4!) all you get is blended ice and chocolate powder or sauce, depending on where you order it from. Not to great if you ask me. I was really craving some ice cream, and fortunately in the mall where we catch public transport home, there is a DQ where I have gotten a Blizzard or two...

And after a short team meeting, we ended our evening early, needing a good night's rest for day two, which would include painting a basketball court and meeting all the women who make the bracelets that our team sold these past months. 

Here are some pictures of the day:

Back Early...

Due to and impending storm, we traveled back to Manila today at the last minute from Puerto Galera. Literally we got the last boat back of the day, and then it didn't even take us all the way to where we wanted to go. But more on that story tomorrow, when I have enough sleep in me to write cohesively. Tonight, I am just going to shower and get all the saltwater and sweat off from the day and hit the sack, as they say. 

To tide (no pun intended) you over and whet your appetite, here are some pictures from the trip: 

Offline Again...on a Beach

We are off to another adventure where there is no internet connectivity, so this will be my last post until Sunday evening, or Monday, it depends on how awake I feel after hours of traveling...

This time, however, we are headed to Puerto Galera (or something spelled like that) and will be meeting the women of Threads of Hope! Thanks to everyone who supported that ministry by buying bracelets from us - we'll still have some when we come back if you want more... We'll be both serving and relaxing on the beach, and I'll be snorkeling for the first time! I can't wait and I promise there will be lots of pics when I get back! 

I'll leave you tonight with pictures of my classes that I helped teach this past week and a half at Cuatro Christian School, they are great kids!

400 Paso?

Monday was a day off for the team from working, partially because it was a national holiday and the school we help with was closed for the day. Probably the best part of the day was getting to finally have time to skype with my family and Kali at a decent hour of the day in both time zones. 

We took public transportation all day and that was kinda fun, but also very different from Seattle Metro: the first part of our trip we took trike-like bikes, but these were all pedal pushed by the driver on a bike, and there was only a colorful table umbrella for cover, not the little seater thing. Not all drivers pedal equally as fast, and Alex and Chris' guy was by far the fastest. 

Next we hopped on a ginormous bus that looked like one of the greyhound buses, but inside the seats were squishier and all vinyl covered. We watched a Filipino talk show in Tagalag along the way. We took FXs the rest of the trip, so those were the only real new experiences of the day.

Where did we go? We went to a place called Greenhills, which is like an indoor flea market/swap meet where you can bargain with prices. And the majority of booths were comprised of pearl sellers, embroidery/pashmina sellers, woodcraft sellers, and fake designer bags/watches sellers. It was amazing to see everything, and to see how close each booth was to another. And all the pearls were beautiful! You could buy just strands of pearls, necklaces, bracelets, rings, earrings, and in white, black, or a variety of colors. I bought a few gifts here, but spent relatively little in US dollars because I had a master bargainer, Mrs. Jones, at my side who helped me out. 

Megamall was next, via FX, and we were going there to eat at this restaurant that supposedly had things like balut, crickets, and frog legs, but when we got there, none of that was on the menu! So, we decided to go to a Chinese noodle house, but a different on from last time. My beef and rice came in a bowl that was sort of slanted in shape, and I want some for our house to eat from. Dessert was found elsewhere: I was really craving ice cream, and we had seen a DQ in the mall earlier, but to our dismay, it was not listed on the directory map, so I had to settle for a mama bear sized Arctic Freeze from a place called 'Spike's'. It was still good, but man I was missing the M&M DQ Blizzard. 

By this time it was already 4pm, so we headed back to the guesthouse in Cuatro, ate a super fast dinner and went to help out with devotions and put the orphange kids in bed. Charis, Sarah, Michael and Mrs. Jones snuck off to get manicures, pedicures, and massages for cheap down the street a ways, and Chris, Alex, and I finished off the night with a little bit of Fantasy Football and picture uploading. Which reminds me, here are some pictures of our day:

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: