Friday, July 31, 2009

Another “need” we have!!!

Have you ever thought about how nice it is to have a sink to wash dishes in?  What about a table that you can wipe off?  Did you ever grumble over the amount of dirt on the floor?

I have never been so thankful for a sink to wash dishes in or table that I can wipe the dirt off and I will never complain that the floor is too dirty again!!! (or at least I will wait another week to complain!!!)

This was our kitchen in the village:

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There has no sink, just some sheet metal to set your dishes on.  But it leaked at the front.  So if you leaned into “the sink”, you ended up wet, looking like you didn’t make it to the C.R.!!!  The table had 1 inch gaps between the boards and was rough lumber, thus making it impossible to wipe without chewing up your cloth.  There was no fridge or oven or cupboards to put the dishes away to.  Yes, those are dirt floors too!!!  There was one bench and a lot of buckets to sit on. 

But we were thankful for that table because the first day we were there, there was no table at all.  We were also thankful for the dogs that just wondered in as they pleased.  They kept the floor free from the food the kids dropped thus keeping down the cockroach population.  Although we did have to hang up any garbage bags when we weren’t there as the dogs would pull it all apart!!!! Yuck!!!  We were also thankful for the abundance of banana’s.  They were great!!!

You might be wondering were we slept too.  We slept in the upstairs of this house.  It was one room for all us to share, including Christina.  I forgot to take a picture before we left, so this is how it looked with just Chuck and Erik sleeping up there.  Just picture 2 more beds and a playpen added to the room with mosquitoes nets.

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PS Chuck wired up a couple small fans to a battery to keep the air moving for me and Sophia!!!  What a sweet husband I have.  Erik was able to enjoy them too!!!

Comfort Room—aka C.R.

There are some things in life that us women count as being REAL important.  The first one being a bathroom!!!  After living in the Philippines for more then 3 years you would think that strange, dirty, wet, stinky bathrooms would become normal and “ok.”  But I tell you I still don’t like them. 

Over that last several months an outhouse has been in the works in the village in anticipation of us ladies and children coming in.  But seeing as it was just men in there, it was not high on the priority list.  We arrived in the village with a “house” for going to the bathroom in but no hole and no seat!!!  Come to find out the seat was made but just wasn’t in yet.  So quickly my loving husband got the seat and a saw and cut us a hole, attached the “seat” and voila we had a bathroom.  If you hadn’t noticed, yes that is tape on the tarp and no it didn’t stop the leaks.  When it was raining you really did have a shower!!!

outhouse 1We also used this lovely “comfort room” as a place to bathe.  The last time Christina was in the village she had to bathe in the river or at one of the water pumps.  It is not easy to wash with clothes on and it is also a very muddy climb back to the house.  Makes you not very clean when you get home.

This trip in we had the privilege of having a missionary come along with us to help in the building of our houses.  He is an experienced builder and has helped build houses in the Philippines a number of years ago.

Well, Bob really wanted a nice C.R. to use while in there, seeing as he was going to be in there for a month at a time.  So he decided to put his C.R. on top of Christina’s septic tank.  Problem is Christina’s house is a little ways away from the house us ladies were staying in!!!  So after several days, here is what Bob got to use.

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Now that’s what you call a comfort room!!!

Lord willing next time we are in there that toilet will be in Christina’s house and we won’t even need to go outside to go to the bathroom!!!

By:Shannon

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

A week in the Jungle

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As the fog rolled in we began our first night in the village as a family.  We already had a fun filled day of hiking and visiting with people.

We woke around 4:30 am and gathered last minute items.  At 5:30am the jeepney was here and we loaded tools, 25 pieces of plywood, food and clothes for a week and 9 people inside.  Off we went to spend a week in the jungle with the people we will spend a lifetime with, the Ga’dang people.

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After a 1 hour ride, we unloaded everything and the men began to load our stuff onto 6 sleds and 2 carts that would be hauled by carabao (water buffalo).  The next day 4 more carabao came out to get what we could not take that day.  Plus the plywood was left at a house for another day to be carried in.

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We then began our hike.  It was just about 7:45 am and everyone wanted to be first down the trail.  If only the kids had known what they do now about the trail.  This trail is about 10km from where we are dropped off to the village.  These are rolling hills, so that means lots of ups and downs.  Before long into the hike there is a large, muddy, slippery hill to climb.

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Even the carabao have a hard time getting up the hill with a load on them.  In some places the mud covers almost all of the legs of the carabao.  Thankfully in some places there is a narrow trail along the side to walk on.  Problem is, it is very narrow and slippery!!!

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Once at the top we took a break to catch our breath and have a drink.  Peter, who is helping build our houses in the village, left about 30 min after we did, and soon enough he caught up to us.

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Charlotte was able to enjoy a ride for much of the hike.

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Hala and Eli on the other hand walked the whole way into the village!!!  Good job guys!!!  Kyle hiked most of the way but was able to get a ride on a carabao for the last 1/3 of the trip.  Sophia also got a free ride!!! They all did a great job.

Right away in the village we were able to begin making friends.  Dana often makes fun of the time of day we eat supper, around 5:30pm, I realized soon enough that I would have to change our supper time.  The people tend to come and visit between 4-7 pm.  It’s hard to have supper at 3:30pm and I am too tired to eat at 7:30pm.  What are we going to do????  Many nights the kids ate at our normal time while us adults waited until later to eat; after the work was done, the men were clean and the people had gone home.  Here are some of our visitors.

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It took until the last day we were in the village for Hala to decide that this girl would be her friend.  They are both 10 years old.  I think they could have a great friendship for years to come.

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Sophia on the other had started making friends right away!!!  The people in the village come to see, touch, smell and listen to everything Sophia did.

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This little girl beside Sophia is our neighbour.  They say she is almost 3 years old. (Sophia is not 2 yrs until October.) She is a very tiny girl.  Her family appears to be the poorest in the village, thus shunned a lot.

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Kyle of course reunited with his old buddies from his last trip in there.  The day before we left he said he was going to miss them.

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Now to the building part of our trip.  The purpose of this trip for Chuck, was to begin putting post up with hopes of getting beams, joists and the floor down by the time his dad comes next week.  So after a week, this is what was done.  Chuck is in there until Friday so we will have to wait and see what he gets done these next few days.

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Over the last several weeks a couple of men collected sand and gravel from the river bed for making the concrete.  We also hauled in 53 bags of cement.  Each bag weighs in at 40 kilo.  They were all carried in by carabao!!!

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The men worked hard mixing and mixing.  There was no lack of workers in there.  Everyday someone new was coming to ask if they could work.  It gets hard to manage to many people so we are working on trying to rotate the men so they all have a chance to make some money.

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Forms were made and put in place. 

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Even Chuck did some work!!!  Just kidding, Chuck did lots of work.  It is much different working in the heat of the tropics.

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It was soon realized that the holes that had been dug were way too big.  We planned to actually only use 25 bags of cement on the post supports and the rest for our septic tank.  After 12 bags were used to pour just 4 out of 20 holes, a new plan was needed.  Large rocks, broken cement block and dirt were added to the sides to help fill in the holes.

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After day 2, they used only 10 bags of cement for 6 holes.  In total they used 39 bags of cement to make those 20 post supports.

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This is the finished product.  The posts will be bolted to the metal straps.

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Then in the afternoon of the day before I left, they began to put up some of the posts.  By the end of the day 6 posts were in place.  Praise the Lord for a good productive week.

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From what I heard last night, all 20 posts are up and they began to look at the wood that was sitting for some time for the beams.  As they cut into them they found out that the wood has become soft and rotten!  This is so sad.  We have had problem after problem with wood in there.  Lately the new wood we had cut has been great with no problems but the old wood has not been so good.  I am not sure what will happen but I think we will need to have them re-cut. Pray that it will all work out.

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Christina’s house is coming along great too.  It is starting to look like a house she could live in now!!!  Lord willing by the time we go in again in late September, we will be all set up in Christina’s house.

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Then our week was over and we were ready to head home for a hot shower and a real table to sit at and eat.  It took just 2 1/2 hrs to hike out and it was very, very muddy and slippery.  I am sore today from the hike!!!

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We were so blessed with having Christina Canapp, our co-worker, go with us in there.  She knew how things were done and was a huge help with the kids.  I couldn’t have done it without her.  Thanks Ti!!!

Saturday, July 18, 2009

A muddy ride!!!

About 10 days ago Chuck had the opportunity to use his new/used motorcycle to go into the village.  It should have taken about 3 hrs to get in there.  But as life goes here in the Philippines, nothing is as simple as that.

Here is Chuck and a fellow missionary, Bob as they left the house here.

100_0992 They left at about 1 pm and Chuck called at about 2pm to let me know they were about to go off the main road on the “other road.”  I expected then to hear from him around 4pm or maybe even 5 pm as Chuck is just learning to ride.  By 6 pm I am getting a little concerned and texting and calling him, but there is no signal where he is.  Finally at 6:30pm Chuck calls to say he is just outside the village, exhausted!!!  The road was much harder to get those dirt bikes through.  Here is a picture of some of the spots in the road.

Picture 006The whole width of the “road” was just muddy.  There were many “sink holes” in the road.

Picture 007After a break and wiping of his brow, Chuck was able to get out and carry on.

The next day they decided to leave the bikes in the village and hike out.  The majority of the hike is on a different trail, that is not passable by bike.  But it was still a long hike out after working so hard to get in there.

You might ask, “Why would they go in there for just one night?”   They were wanting to see how easy it would be to use the bikes to get in and Chuck also wanted to show Bob where he will be staying as he helps us build our house.

This week we head off as a family to the village.  We will take a Jeepney on a 1 hr trip, then we will all do the 2-3 hr hike to the village.  We will stay in one of the houses in the village for our time there.  Lord willing Christina’s house will be finished by the time we go in next and we can stay in it.  By then we can have a real toilet!!!  Right now it will be just an outhouse.

Pray for us as we start building our house.  Pray for safety as a family and pray for provision for all we need to complete our house.  As time goes on we find that things are costing more then we had anticipated.  God is faithful and has provided for most of the expenses we will have.

Last week I did some canning with fellow missionaries that made a special trip way up north just to help me.  Check out this link to their blog for the story of our canning adventure.  There are also pictures of the kids on it too!!!

http://www.jonathanheidibamford.blogspot.com/

Psalm 119:7“I will praise you with an upright heart as I learn your righteous laws.”

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