\The past few days have been somewhat slow, mainly due to the weather. On Thursday we had everything prepared to paint our basketball court and had begun marking lines on the concrete when it began to rain. It rained quite hard for several hours thus making it impossible to paint. We had decided to find a cab and head to a local mall to get some lunch, find some bolts as we were two short on the rims and essentially kill time. After a few hours at the mall, we headed back to check out the concrete. It was still wet but we decided to go ahead and finish marking all the lines. It’s about a 3 mile drive from the Arthur Center to our Condo, some of which is along a main road. We decided to just start walking and flag down a taxi along the way. We saw three taxi’s, all of which had people in them. It was a long, hot walk that took about 45 minutes through the various curves and hills back home.
Having all the lines marked out, we got right to work taping and painting lines Friday morning. We went to an amazing Chinese restaurant for lunch and got Starbucks after that. During that time it began to rain incredibly hard for about an hour which caused us to worry about our paint sticking. Saturday morning we finally got to see all of our work pay off. The paint stuck and still looked great.
The church has basketball from 8am to 10am Saturday mornings, usually they have to rent a court each week, but having our court finished, they can now play for free as long as they want. There were about 30 or 40 young kids playing around and a few high school kids that showed up. They had a lot of fun playing on their new court. It rained again shortly thereafter for most of the day. We spent the day relaxing at the condo, reading and sleeping. We ate supper with the Clintons and made a few calls to the US.
Today we went to church, which managed to be even more confusing than last week. 7 days ago the worship songs were in English, so we could at least participate there, but this week they were all in their native language…so we pretty much just stood in the back and clapped. I think pastor Better was giving us a hard time about something cause at one point everyone looked at us and laughed…we just smiled.
It started raining about 4 this afternoon…it is now almost 11 and still sprinkling. This morning our pool was about 4 inches below full…now it is overflowing! This evening we went to two Filipino pro basketball games. The first teams to play were the Burger King Whoppers and the Realtors. We decided that our FHSU men’s basketball team could have beat either team. It was still an interesting experience. We got there a little late so we couldn’t get three courtside seats in a row. Had we been able to, they would have cost a whole 12 American dollars.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Some very different days!!
It has been a cultural last few days!!
On Sunday we went to the Arthur Center, where we are currently working, for church. We were unable to understand the majority of it as it was in the native language of the Philippines, Tagolog. After church we went to a big mall and spent the day looking around and shopping. This was not an ordinary mall, not much has been ordinary in this country, they had stores which sold real items, and there were stands that sold, as the Filipinos put it, imitation items. You could by clothes, jewelry, things for you home, souvenirs, and lots of imitation items such as shoes, purses, sunglasses, and cologne/perfume.
On Monday we ran into some more issues, as we are now calling it along with all of the other missionaries here, “the culture.” We were planning on working on the basketball court. Once we got to the Arthur Center our plans changed, it’s all in God’s plans. The cement that we had used to secure the basketball hoops was still damp, thus we were unable to work on them. We then spent the rest of the day with another full time missionary, we have been doing some things with and that we will specifically work with later on in the trip, Dave Clinton. We went out to where he works, it is away from the city up in the mountains a little ways. From where we are staying it is about a 45 minute drive. This area is called Tanza, Dave has done a lot of work to support these people. These people are very poor and do not have much. While we were there we scouted out and made plans for the projects that we will be doing. The feeding program was getting ready to start while we were there, we easily saw over 50 kids waiting with bowls, cups, or containers to get a meal. The area was very rough and dirty. The water supply for this area was from a natural well in the ground and from a spring up the mountain. At the time we where there, the natural well was actually out of water, they usually have to wait 4 or more hours to get water again if it is out. All around the well there were buckets and more buckets of people within the village who where waiting to get water. Can you imagine not having water or having to wait for water to go on with your day? We need water to eat, to clean, to shower, to go to the bathroom, but there is none so your day stops until there is more water. Some homes had hundreds of feet of house running from the spring up the mountain to there homes so that they could have access to water. At the natural well and by the side of small creek we saw hundreds of packets of soap, you could tell that this was the showering area, as we were leaving we saw a young girl getting ready to shower. We also went and saw a church that was built in the 1760’s!
On Tuesday we ran into more “the culture.” Once we were able to start working we were able to finish the backboards expect for painting them. After working we were able to go visit a Filipino man who is in his 50s. We got the chance to share our faith with him and talk with him about God. It was an amazing experience, knowing that this is the reason for everything!
On Wednesday once again we ran into “the culture.” We were going to finish up the basketball court but at the Arthur Center there was a timing issue and they were cutting down trees, thus making it difficult for us to paint. We did a little bit of splitting up today. Devin and Trevor went with Dave to do some missionary work, they ran some errands and took care of some of the business that a missionary has to do. I, Drew, went to the Children’s Home, and helped another missionary woman, take a few sick babies to the doctor. This was quiet the experience for me, we sat around for over an hour just waiting for the doctor to show up, and then it was an couple hours waiting for it to be our turn. We were stuck in a small, hot, overcrowded hallway with lots of sick and crying babies. Once we finally got to see the doctor we were only in there for a few minutes.
Over the last week we have met some very incredible people that are giving up everything they have to serve God and these people! They have blessed us and the people of the Philippines. Thank you guys!!
Thank you for all of the prayers! We need them and so do the people of this country!! Please remember them in your prayers!! They are God’s children just as much as any of us!!
God bless!!!
On Sunday we went to the Arthur Center, where we are currently working, for church. We were unable to understand the majority of it as it was in the native language of the Philippines, Tagolog. After church we went to a big mall and spent the day looking around and shopping. This was not an ordinary mall, not much has been ordinary in this country, they had stores which sold real items, and there were stands that sold, as the Filipinos put it, imitation items. You could by clothes, jewelry, things for you home, souvenirs, and lots of imitation items such as shoes, purses, sunglasses, and cologne/perfume.
On Monday we ran into some more issues, as we are now calling it along with all of the other missionaries here, “the culture.” We were planning on working on the basketball court. Once we got to the Arthur Center our plans changed, it’s all in God’s plans. The cement that we had used to secure the basketball hoops was still damp, thus we were unable to work on them. We then spent the rest of the day with another full time missionary, we have been doing some things with and that we will specifically work with later on in the trip, Dave Clinton. We went out to where he works, it is away from the city up in the mountains a little ways. From where we are staying it is about a 45 minute drive. This area is called Tanza, Dave has done a lot of work to support these people. These people are very poor and do not have much. While we were there we scouted out and made plans for the projects that we will be doing. The feeding program was getting ready to start while we were there, we easily saw over 50 kids waiting with bowls, cups, or containers to get a meal. The area was very rough and dirty. The water supply for this area was from a natural well in the ground and from a spring up the mountain. At the time we where there, the natural well was actually out of water, they usually have to wait 4 or more hours to get water again if it is out. All around the well there were buckets and more buckets of people within the village who where waiting to get water. Can you imagine not having water or having to wait for water to go on with your day? We need water to eat, to clean, to shower, to go to the bathroom, but there is none so your day stops until there is more water. Some homes had hundreds of feet of house running from the spring up the mountain to there homes so that they could have access to water. At the natural well and by the side of small creek we saw hundreds of packets of soap, you could tell that this was the showering area, as we were leaving we saw a young girl getting ready to shower. We also went and saw a church that was built in the 1760’s!
On Tuesday we ran into more “the culture.” Once we were able to start working we were able to finish the backboards expect for painting them. After working we were able to go visit a Filipino man who is in his 50s. We got the chance to share our faith with him and talk with him about God. It was an amazing experience, knowing that this is the reason for everything!
On Wednesday once again we ran into “the culture.” We were going to finish up the basketball court but at the Arthur Center there was a timing issue and they were cutting down trees, thus making it difficult for us to paint. We did a little bit of splitting up today. Devin and Trevor went with Dave to do some missionary work, they ran some errands and took care of some of the business that a missionary has to do. I, Drew, went to the Children’s Home, and helped another missionary woman, take a few sick babies to the doctor. This was quiet the experience for me, we sat around for over an hour just waiting for the doctor to show up, and then it was an couple hours waiting for it to be our turn. We were stuck in a small, hot, overcrowded hallway with lots of sick and crying babies. Once we finally got to see the doctor we were only in there for a few minutes.
Over the last week we have met some very incredible people that are giving up everything they have to serve God and these people! They have blessed us and the people of the Philippines. Thank you guys!!
Thank you for all of the prayers! We need them and so do the people of this country!! Please remember them in your prayers!! They are God’s children just as much as any of us!!
God bless!!!
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Learning the Culture
Hello all,
The past couple of days have given us a good look at how things are done over here in the Philippines. After spending all day Thursday looking for and purchasing supplies for the basketball goals we are building we showed up at the Arthur Center yesterday morning to see that they had delivered the wrong pipe. We had to spend all morning waiting for them to come back with the correct stuff and take away the wrong. Pastor Better called them when we first got there at 9 and they said they would be there right away. We worked all morning and had to stop for lunch because they still hadn’t showed up. After eating some Kabobs for lunch in a little hole in the wall and returning the correct pipes were still not there. They finally showed up around 1 so we have decided that right away over here really means four hours. This is proving to be a little frustrating but it is something that is part of this culture and something that we are going to have to learn to deal with. Another thing that we will have to get used to is the fact that you can not do anything out of the ordinary. We were shopping the first day and Devin wanted to get just a bag and that was not possible. When we borrowed the welder, it also came with the guy and we couldn’t get just the welder. We were able to talk him into leaving but it took some discussion and additional money.
Today went better though and we were able to get really close to finishing the goals. We mixed 200 kilograms of concrete to pour for the bases of the two goals and we are currently letting that cure before we can put the wood on for the back board and the rims. When those things are finished we will have ourselves some basketball goals and with some painting of a couple of lines, have ourselves a full basketball court to offer the locals.
Today we were able to go with Better to a local place and eat some local food. We all got the pork and rice. The pork was something like a pork stew thing. It had chunks of bone with little meat simmered in some juice. We all got three chunks and maybe a total of ten bites of meat between all 3 of us. It was a good thing that we each got two cups of rice to fill us up and allow us to make it though the day.
God Bless,
Devin, Drew, Trevor
by Trevor
The past couple of days have given us a good look at how things are done over here in the Philippines. After spending all day Thursday looking for and purchasing supplies for the basketball goals we are building we showed up at the Arthur Center yesterday morning to see that they had delivered the wrong pipe. We had to spend all morning waiting for them to come back with the correct stuff and take away the wrong. Pastor Better called them when we first got there at 9 and they said they would be there right away. We worked all morning and had to stop for lunch because they still hadn’t showed up. After eating some Kabobs for lunch in a little hole in the wall and returning the correct pipes were still not there. They finally showed up around 1 so we have decided that right away over here really means four hours. This is proving to be a little frustrating but it is something that is part of this culture and something that we are going to have to learn to deal with. Another thing that we will have to get used to is the fact that you can not do anything out of the ordinary. We were shopping the first day and Devin wanted to get just a bag and that was not possible. When we borrowed the welder, it also came with the guy and we couldn’t get just the welder. We were able to talk him into leaving but it took some discussion and additional money.
Today went better though and we were able to get really close to finishing the goals. We mixed 200 kilograms of concrete to pour for the bases of the two goals and we are currently letting that cure before we can put the wood on for the back board and the rims. When those things are finished we will have ourselves some basketball goals and with some painting of a couple of lines, have ourselves a full basketball court to offer the locals.
Today we were able to go with Better to a local place and eat some local food. We all got the pork and rice. The pork was something like a pork stew thing. It had chunks of bone with little meat simmered in some juice. We all got three chunks and maybe a total of ten bites of meat between all 3 of us. It was a good thing that we each got two cups of rice to fill us up and allow us to make it though the day.
God Bless,
Devin, Drew, Trevor
by Trevor
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Our first few days in our new environment...
Today (Wednesday May 20) we just checked out the mall and BBQ'd with most of the people/families we will be working with at the different projects. It was more of a rest and relax (aka shake jet-lag) day.
The mall is a very interesting place, very loud and lots of people.
All the people (Americans) we will be working with throughout this trip seem really cool. You can definitely see the Philippine influence in their lifestyles and mannerisms, they're so much more calm and laid back. It would be nice to see more people like that in Hays. Besides the humidity, we could easily get used to living here. One of the single guys we are working with says he can easily live for under 1000 a month!
We're excited for tomorrow, we get to start building a full scale basketball court. There are several college basketball players coming over to play (over 6 foot tall, one is 6’7”). We are playing at least a few Philippine college teams, 16 games in 7 days.
Our condo is nice…nicer than our apartments back home…just A LOT warmer. We have one air conditioner in the bedroom window that we can run at night, but other than that its 85 degrees at 90 percent humidity by 8 AM. Today being at the mall was interesting. We got to look at the complete difference in culture, especially the foods. Their cuisine is amazing. Some of it smells (and we're told tastes) horrible, but we still want to try it. Its interesting to see how much of an American influence there is on the market, especially in electronics.
Thursday May 21
The sun sets about 6 and rises about 5 every day of the year (were only 14 degrees north of the equator) so its hard to get used to that. We woke up about 7. We read, ate and wasted time till 9 when we headed out.
We “worked” today. We spent the entire day looking for supplies for our basketball court. We went to several different malls and shoppes all over the city trying to find a cheap but well built movable basketball goal but couldn't (the other one we were going to mount to the concrete wall). The best deal we found was 20,000 pesos for one movable basketball goal that was designed horribly, so we got to planing stuff out and came up with our own designs and rounded up materials. The final bill for two movable setups was 12,000 pesos and it will a great deal stronger. After we bought rims and hopefully renting some welders, chop saws, drills and wood saws tomorrow, we will get done for under 20,000 pesos for both basketball goals (saving the church about 400 dollars). But we didn't actually build anything today. We ate New York style buffalo wings and got starbucks (which is less than half price over here... I got a large carmel frappuccino for 100 pesos!) So the bulk of the day wasn't exactly a “cultural experience”.
However, after we took a look at the the church and building location, we took a tour of everyday Philippine living conditions. Poverty doesn't even begin to describe their way of life. Shacks built out of scrap wood, fragmented pieces of plastic and small chunks of tin make up the common construction materials. At best it provides a location to their name, a place they can call home; it doesn't provide privacy or shelter even from rain. The forest is so thick in many places, shade isn't a problem. Sewage runs openly down the dirt beaten path and infected, starving dogs crawl all over the place, drinking the inhabitants waste. Their well was only about 3 feet deep; I can only imagine how much sewage easily seeps into what they ingest. And thats only the beginning.
We ended the “work” at 3 PM. We got back to our condo, swam and decided to venture off on our own to really explore our environment in the inner city.
We're really looking forward to tomorrow...when the real work begins and we get to build, get dirty and play with power tools/welders.
Anyway, I think this blog is long enough...theres thousands of details I wish I had time to type, but I don't think you want to read a 2348932 page long blog.
Were keeping all of you in our prayers. Please pray for our mission leaders, and church pastors we are working with; that the work will go smooth and safely. Pray for all those we come into contact with, that they wouldn't see the effort we are putting into our work, but the effort God is putting into us and through us for these people. Pray that we can be tools for God to use, in whatever way he sees best to use us. That we sacrifice comfort and rest if it means doing the work of the lord.
Thank you, to each of you who through prayer made this trip possible. We wouldn't be here without you!
The mall is a very interesting place, very loud and lots of people.
All the people (Americans) we will be working with throughout this trip seem really cool. You can definitely see the Philippine influence in their lifestyles and mannerisms, they're so much more calm and laid back. It would be nice to see more people like that in Hays. Besides the humidity, we could easily get used to living here. One of the single guys we are working with says he can easily live for under 1000 a month!
We're excited for tomorrow, we get to start building a full scale basketball court. There are several college basketball players coming over to play (over 6 foot tall, one is 6’7”). We are playing at least a few Philippine college teams, 16 games in 7 days.
Our condo is nice…nicer than our apartments back home…just A LOT warmer. We have one air conditioner in the bedroom window that we can run at night, but other than that its 85 degrees at 90 percent humidity by 8 AM. Today being at the mall was interesting. We got to look at the complete difference in culture, especially the foods. Their cuisine is amazing. Some of it smells (and we're told tastes) horrible, but we still want to try it. Its interesting to see how much of an American influence there is on the market, especially in electronics.
Thursday May 21
The sun sets about 6 and rises about 5 every day of the year (were only 14 degrees north of the equator) so its hard to get used to that. We woke up about 7. We read, ate and wasted time till 9 when we headed out.
We “worked” today. We spent the entire day looking for supplies for our basketball court. We went to several different malls and shoppes all over the city trying to find a cheap but well built movable basketball goal but couldn't (the other one we were going to mount to the concrete wall). The best deal we found was 20,000 pesos for one movable basketball goal that was designed horribly, so we got to planing stuff out and came up with our own designs and rounded up materials. The final bill for two movable setups was 12,000 pesos and it will a great deal stronger. After we bought rims and hopefully renting some welders, chop saws, drills and wood saws tomorrow, we will get done for under 20,000 pesos for both basketball goals (saving the church about 400 dollars). But we didn't actually build anything today. We ate New York style buffalo wings and got starbucks (which is less than half price over here... I got a large carmel frappuccino for 100 pesos!) So the bulk of the day wasn't exactly a “cultural experience”.
However, after we took a look at the the church and building location, we took a tour of everyday Philippine living conditions. Poverty doesn't even begin to describe their way of life. Shacks built out of scrap wood, fragmented pieces of plastic and small chunks of tin make up the common construction materials. At best it provides a location to their name, a place they can call home; it doesn't provide privacy or shelter even from rain. The forest is so thick in many places, shade isn't a problem. Sewage runs openly down the dirt beaten path and infected, starving dogs crawl all over the place, drinking the inhabitants waste. Their well was only about 3 feet deep; I can only imagine how much sewage easily seeps into what they ingest. And thats only the beginning.
We ended the “work” at 3 PM. We got back to our condo, swam and decided to venture off on our own to really explore our environment in the inner city.
We're really looking forward to tomorrow...when the real work begins and we get to build, get dirty and play with power tools/welders.
Anyway, I think this blog is long enough...theres thousands of details I wish I had time to type, but I don't think you want to read a 2348932 page long blog.
Were keeping all of you in our prayers. Please pray for our mission leaders, and church pastors we are working with; that the work will go smooth and safely. Pray for all those we come into contact with, that they wouldn't see the effort we are putting into our work, but the effort God is putting into us and through us for these people. Pray that we can be tools for God to use, in whatever way he sees best to use us. That we sacrifice comfort and rest if it means doing the work of the lord.
Thank you, to each of you who through prayer made this trip possible. We wouldn't be here without you!
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Hi from Seoul, Korea
Hi everyone,
Just wanted to let you know that we have made it safely so far to Seoul, Korea. It has been a long trip so far. We were at the Denver airport around 6:30am on Monday. From Denver we flew to LAX. Our flight from LAX to Seoul was right around 12 hours long. We were talking and realized that we had not seen the dark for nearly 24 hours(by the time it gets dark it will have been over 24 hrs). Our flight from Seoul to Manila, Philippines leaves here in about 2 hours, it is 6:00pm on the 19th here in Seoul right now.
We had the great joy of starting to eat rice for lots and lots of meals. For lunch we had rice with beef, cuccumbers, pickles, spinach(like substance), and other things we did not know. For supper we had rice and chicken with mushrooms and carrots. We had a really good dessert though!!
We will be using a blog to keep everyone updated for the trip. The blog is:
http://www.3foradifference.blogspot.com/
We will send an email out and let you know when the blog has been updated!!
God bless!!
Devin, Trevor, and Drew
Just wanted to let you know that we have made it safely so far to Seoul, Korea. It has been a long trip so far. We were at the Denver airport around 6:30am on Monday. From Denver we flew to LAX. Our flight from LAX to Seoul was right around 12 hours long. We were talking and realized that we had not seen the dark for nearly 24 hours(by the time it gets dark it will have been over 24 hrs). Our flight from Seoul to Manila, Philippines leaves here in about 2 hours, it is 6:00pm on the 19th here in Seoul right now.
We had the great joy of starting to eat rice for lots and lots of meals. For lunch we had rice with beef, cuccumbers, pickles, spinach(like substance), and other things we did not know. For supper we had rice and chicken with mushrooms and carrots. We had a really good dessert though!!
We will be using a blog to keep everyone updated for the trip. The blog is:
http://www.3foradifference.blogspot.com/
We will send an email out and let you know when the blog has been updated!!
God bless!!
Devin, Trevor, and Drew
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