After the longest few days of travel in my life, we arrived in the Philippines to kick off month four of the Race. There are so many stories to share about the travel alone, from the freezing cold airport in China where I put socks on my hands and cuddled on the floor to stay warm to the 15 hour flight from LAX where several of my squad mates got sick. However, time is limited, so I’ll get right into things….
Country: Philippines
City: San Mateo
Language: Tagalog
Currency: Piso (46 pisos to $1)
Time difference: 13 hours ahead of EST (I’m totally living in the future!)
Weather: We are really blessed to be nestled in the mountains this month, which tends to provide a nice breeze to cool off things. Temperatures are mainly in the 80’s right now, which is the best we have had yet. The pollution in the cities here is horrible though and just coming in to the city for a day leaves my throat and eyes burning.
Local meal eaten recently: Squash patties made with garlic, ginger and onion and served with sticky rice. Sticky rice is served with such and dinner daily. We are blessed to have a local Filipino man and his wife cooking for us all month. Everything we have had so far has been amazing!
Living Conditions: We are staying at a church camp site located in the mountains of San Mateo. We have rooms with bunk beds again this month (which I continue to be grateful for), located on the second floor of the building. From our balcony is a beautiful view of the mountains, which actually reminds me of Honduras.
This is the property we are staying at this month
Our balcony, where I spend a lot of quiet time
The gorgeous view of the mountains from the balcony
We have a communal bathroom as always, but this month we can actually flush down the toilet paper! It does not always flush correctly, but it is still a nice little luxury. Water conservation is a priority at this site as it is difficult getting water up to this site, so we have to fill buckets with water to use each time we flush the toilets. We have also been asked to shower only when necessary in order to help with this.
Wifi is non-existent where we are, so we have to take a series of Jeepneys (will explain later in this post) roughly an hour+ away in order to go to a mall and get wifi. As such, communication will be very limited this month.
My team ministries: This month is “manistry” month for X squad, so all the men from the squad have formed a temporary team to serve together for the month. As such, they took the remaining women and split us into different teams. So, my team, Sculptor’s Seven, has joined with Unwritten and we are now called Unwavering, at least for this month.
One big part of our ministry here is helping run the camps they hold for local street kids, all boys ranging from 7-18 y/o. Our main contact here, Ryan (spelled much differently than that), goes into different areas nearby and picks up roughly 15 boys at a time (more than that and it becomes too difficult to manage with the small staff) to bring back to our site here. We then hold a 2 day camp (1/2 day Thursday, all day Friday and 1/2 day Saturday) for them where we essentially spend hours playing and hanging out with the boys, loving on them and getting to know them more. We also have worship and devotions each day, sharing the story of Jesus and His power with them, and a number of games and activities. They are provided with showers and new clothes and are fed some amazing and hearty meals. The goal of these camps is simply to get the boys out of the streets for a few days so that they can enjoy fellowship with one another, and with the people here. It is an opportunity to simply love on them and show them there is a hope beyond what they often see day to day. They rotate which boys and areas they go to, but do make regular rounds in the same areas, so many of these boys have been coming on and off for years, which helps create a consistent relationship to build upon.
Since it is December, they are having a Christmas party for all the camps while we are here where they have a talent show, games and give out presents to all of the boys, from hats and candy to hygiene items. Our first group of boys just left this past Saturday and I must say it was hard to say goodbye to them. It was hard knowing they are going right back to their lives alone on the streets, where they will be hungry and fight for everything they have. If you could have seen how fun-loving and happy those boys were, just playing around with us and enjoying treats they seldom have such as popcorn and a movie. They all came in looking quite rough, with dirty feet and clothes, missing teeth and disheveled hair. They would be the kids you might look at on the streets who cause you to hold your purse a little tighter. However, as soon as you start talking to them and playing games with them, it becomes apparent they truly are just young boys who want love and attention like all the rest. Many of them would come up to us and just grab our hands as we walked or lay their heads on us as we sat around the campfire. We jokingly called them the lost boys, from Peter Pan, but it really felt like that as we lived with them for a short while. These boys really touched my heart as they brought the reality of poverty and loneliness home to me.
We will also be doing some other local and street ministries, but I’m not sure what that looks like yet. In addition, the missionaries here have us working on a few small projects at the camp such as painting some chalkboards, filling in dirt where a part of the land is eroding and creating soccer goals for the camps out of PVC pipes and fishing nets. It is super laid back here, which is a breath of fresh air coming out of last month.
Interesting Fact: They have a mini garden and livestock farm on the property here. They have everything from chickens and bunnies to a few pigs. Our first day here, we were informed that the huge python they had caged got loose. He had just recently eaten a whole turkey (yikes!) and they have no idea where he is at now. Let’s hope we are not the ones to find him.
Also, the primary mode of transportation in this area is the Jeepney, which is like a jeep in the front with a long bed that they have covered and put benches in, so that 20 people or so can pile in and ride. Everyone here goes all out decorating the outside and inside of them and many blare loud music as you ride. They are actually quite fun to ride and by far my favorite way to get around so far. It is way better than the chicken buses!
What surprised me: I was a bit surprised by how different the culture here seems to be from what I imagine is more standard with other Asian countries. For example, most Asian countries are associated with quiet, respectful people who value modesty. Here, at least in the parts we have seen, they have music blaring in most stores and markets (often rap and dance music, at that) and the youth tend to dye pieces of their hair bright red. It is more vibrant and noisy than expected, but not in a bad way at all. I was also surprised by how much Spanish is incorporated into the local language.
Off day opportunities: This area offers everything from beautiful beaches (if willing to travel) to mountains and rivers. Just a few minutes hike from our place is an outlook point where you can see mountains for miles and miles. We have not had the chance to explore yet, so I can update you on this part later.
Please consider donating towards my trip as I have $1163 left to raise before the end of December! It would be an awesome Christmas present to wake up fully funded 🙂
Merry Christmas!!!
