Smile!

When we’re working in the tribe,it’s always nice to be able to sit out on the porch in the evening and visit with people.  They come by to charge their cell phones and flashlights while we’re running the little generator for the lights, etc. inside our house.  Often there are no lack of tribal kids hanging around too.  One of their favourite things is when we get out our cameras and start taking pictures.  They love to look at themselves after the shots are taken. 

 

Bob (a fellow missionary who came to help on our house for a week), Erik and I had a little fun of our own this time around as we were snapping pictures.  They didn’t realise we were in the pictures until we showed them afterwards.  It made for some good laughs.

On a more serious side, we were able to get a lot accomplished this past week:  Christina’s water tank was installed  

The floors in her house were finished being urethaned

We built a bodega (storage shed) under the one corner of our house to put all the supplies and tools as we start working on our house next

We poured a concrete floor in the bodega

As a bonus, we were able to move all the lumber in under the house to keep it dry while we mill it down

In December Erik and I will begin milling my wood to prepare it for building in January.  Please pray that we are able to get it all done without tools, machines, generators etc. breaking down.

By Chuck.

How many girls can we have in one house???!!!

This week I was able to go to Manila to see the OB and do some shopping.  Jessica had planned to go with me but was sick so I went with Christina, who was also sick.  Then I did much of my shopping alone.  Praise the Lord I was able to get everything done.

Monday I went to see the OB and then for an ultrasound.  The technician was very surprised to here that this was my sixth baby, as are most people.  We joked about having 3 of each boys and girls and then she began the scan.  All looked great with the heart and everything else. 

When it came time to look and see if the baby was a girl or boy, this is what we saw.

The lady chuckled and said, “the baby is sitting on its sex organs!!!”  She again continued to look over everything and tried again to look.  But we saw just the same thing.  She showed me how the baby was curled into a ball but that there was more then enough room for it to stretch out.  So I asked if I could poke around, so I did.  I got some good kicks for that.  She then looked again and finally the legs were spread out and as soon as I looked, I knew what we were we having.  The lady said, “you wanted a boy, right?”  I said, “Yes, but that is a girl, right?”  She said, “Yes!”

Wow, what a shocker that was.  I so thought she was a he!!!  But we laugh as every time Chuck and I would talk about the baby, we would end up saying, “she or her!!!”  So I guess our brains already knew what we were having.

On the bright side it is much cheaper to have another little girl.  We have all our stuff from Sophia still.  So we are thankful.

Don’t misunderstand.  We are not sad at all about another little girl.  We love our girls so very much.  Chuck told the boys that now he doesn’t have to change what he calls them. He still has his big boy and his baby boy!!!  Kyle is not so keen on the baby boy title but I think he likes being the youngest boy.

So thank you for your prayers.  Continue to pray for this little girl as she grows inside me.  I will be half way through the pregnancy on Monday.  Wow, it has gone by so fast.

Tribal Treats

Sometimes we tend to forget the simple things God has given us to enjoy eating when we live in a ‘pre-packaged’ society.  Living in the tribe has opened my eyes to some interesting ‘delicacies’ that I would not have otherwise experienced.  Some are very good and delicious, others I will simply say I’ve been there, done that and prefer a Big Mac instead.

One of my favourites is buko, aka fresh coconut.  I even learned how to use a bolo (machete) to open it, once I bought one.  Until then, I had to use my hatchet.  Having said that, I think I’ll always be reliant on getting someone else to cut them down out of the tree for me.  

 

 

When we arrived in the village last time, we decided to ask one of the neighbours about getting some bananas.  We were thinking maybe one stock would be sufficient for our time there.  The next day he showed up with 3 stocks of bananas! I guess he figured we really like them.  We learned to be more specific in what we ask for.

 

 

One of the favourite village past times is to enjoy a cup of local coffee together.  My dad even enjoyed that one.

It is typical here in the Philippines to have some sort of ‘ulam’ (meat) with rice at your meals.  In the tribe, that means not just chicken and pork.  One day, while on the trail our tribal friend killed a cobra.  Needless to say, it didn’t go to waste.  I didn’t end up tasting that one, although I was invited to dinner at his house that night.  I politely passed. Our neighbour, Itang wanted to share her ‘ulam’ with us one day.  It was a nice gesture, and the frog legs didn’t actually taste too bad.  Others advised us not to eat the fresh water shrimp though.  I didn’t complain about it.

 

By Chuck.

Home made toys

Something we saw most of the boys with this time was a home made, bamboo type, spit ball gun!!! They would cut a piece of bamboo just to length to fit inside another piece of bamboo. Then would chew up little pieces of paper and stick it inside and fire!!! We think the boys like it so much because the sound is similar to an air gun.

Soon after Kyle saw his bamboo spit ball gun, another boy made him one. Then just the next day, Kyle came home with another type of toy. This was a bamboo papaya shooter!!!

Here is a video of Kyle in action.

Are we done yet?

The goal for this last trip into the tribe was to finish up on Christina’s house so we can get moving onto milling the wood for our house next.  But, as it so often goes here, things don’t always go as planned.   Kids get sick, tools break, unexpected visitors come by, etc.  For me, it can be a little frustrating when I’m attempting to accomplish something and it just seems like it’s never going to get done if I don’t stop getting interrupted!  Such was the case this time too.  Then the Lord gently reminded me that HE is really the one in control of our time and nothing comes our way to ‘interrupt’ me unless He allows it.  I was also reminded that it would be foolish to think that it would be all easy, because we are in enemy territory.  Satan doesn’t want the Ga’dang people to hear the message of salvation and getting Christina’s house finished puts us one HUGE step in that direction.  Having her house done allows us as a family to stay in the tribe for much longer periods of time as we continue building the rest of our houses.  Pray for me as I hope to be able to finish next week what I couldn’t last time. 

Having said that, we did get a lot accomplished in the last 3 weeks in the village.  I’m very thankful for Erik’s willingness to be away from his family in order to help me, and for the girls’ being able to lend a hand as they were able to.    We were able to build and install a screen door and all the window screens, and seal up the entire house around where the walls meet the roof.  We also built the upper cabinets for the kitchen, urethaned half the floors and finished up some other little jobs as well. 

I could not have gotten that much done without their help.

By Chuck.

All creatures great and small

Here are some of the critters we came across in the tribe.  It’s amazing to see the beauty and detail God put into each one of them.

 

 

 

Eager to Play

The kids are really making Paradi their home.  Each day they would get up, eat breakfast and get ready for the day and then head out the door until they were called to start their school work. 

The last week we were there, the village kids were on school break but our kids needed to continue to do their school work.  It was very hard for our kids to concentrate as they would hear their names being called throughout the morning.  Most days the village kids would stop by to say hi on their way to school themselves. 

Most of the kids in the two neighbouring villages also know our kids by name.  As we hiked out past one of those villages, we heard a little girl call Charlotte’s name.  Then another little girl saw Sophia and said “Hello Sophia!”  This village is about 45 min hike from our village.  Amazing!!!

We hope you enjoy looking at these pictures of our kids playing with the other kids.

 

My theory is that she is teaching them what to do with Duplo, not taking them away from them!!!

 

They had a great time sharing the umbrella.

 

No matter where our kids went, there was always a following of kids.

The night before we left, it seemed that all the village kids came by to visit.  They played in the dark together until it was time for our kids to go to bed.  There were many hugs and sad goodbye’s.

Amazing what can be fun to play with, so long as you have friends to play with you.

Kyle loved riding carabao every day.  His friend Ariel was in charge of moving the family carabao to different locations to graze.  Kyle was thrilled to go along and help.  He says he is even learning the noises to make to get the carabao to do what he wants.

Eli was eager to take pictures of the kids as he hung out with them.  These are just a few he took.

Luxury

Three weeks ago we as a family, including Christina and Jessica, headed into our village to continue work on Christina’s house.  We wanted to be able to give Chuck as many straight days of work as possible without coming in and out to see us.

The trip began with that wonderful 10 km hilly hike.  We were on the trail before 9 am with 8 carabao hauling our stuff in behind us.  We had to leave some items behind to be brought in the next day as we are having a hard time estimating how many carabao we need.  The next day 3 more carabao came out to get the rest, including our stove!!!

Our co-worker Erik also went in with us for the first 6 days and later returned for a few more days to help out.  What a blessing it was to have the extra hands to get things done.

The first job to get done was to put a finish on the counter top of Christina’s kitchen cabinets.  After the final sanding was done and a couple of coats of urethane, we were given the all clear to start cooking in her house.  As us ladies started to set up the kitchen, Chuck and Erik made us a nice big kitchen table to eat at.

This was all luxury for us.  If you remember last time we cooked and ate in a dark room, with a dirt floor, no sink and on a table that was too small.  It is amazing what can seem so special for some of us.

We also were privileged to have running water, some of the time, if it rained!!!  The first week we had enough rain but then it didn’t rain for 12 days straight.  This meant hauling water to fill up water barrels to use for bathing, cooking, dishes, toilet flushing and filtering for drinking water.  Praise the Lord for strong arms to haul the water to the house.

There is so much to tell of our trip.  We will keep writing more stories and posting more pictures throughout the week.  Keep coming back to check them out.