Made it to Mindanao, Philippines!! Specifically Malaybalay, Mindanao. It’s so unbelievably beautiful here! Manila was more city, houses’ practically packed on top of each other, people everywhere, barely any trees and humidity that makes you suffocate, but here it’s completely opposite. Unbelievably breathtaking mountains, clean air, minimal humidity, but along with it a bazillion bugs.
raining, happens every night
the orphanage
I think I’m still in a little shock, I feel like I’ve time warped to the 1800s or maybe I’m on a set of Swiss Family Robinson…because of the access to trees, most of the structures are bamboo and or concrete block with plaster covering it, unlike Manila where all the structures were hodgepodge trash and metal sheeting.
in town
But on the way to our ministry I saw multiple women washing clothes in the river or babies bathing out of a bucket in their front yard. And tonight Britni, Kat (Davis), and I hand washed dishes in the most Swiss family Robinson get up I’ve ever seen! I’m taking a pic tomorrow to show you! It’s crazy. I can’t describe it. And today we ‘did laundry’ in this half washing machine thing that mostly just shook our clothes and we had a spoon to stir them around. After about 30 minutes we had to drain the water, get a water hose, hose off the clothes, and then wring, then hang. Like I said, I feel like I’ve time warped into the 1800s.
our kitchen area. We have an awesome cook names Roxanne, she is uh-maze-ing
where we do the dishes 🙂
family dinner
But honestly our accommodations are pretty legit minus the no hot water thing. The Britton’s room is the only one that has a hot water filtration box thing in their shower so luckily we’ve been able to use that. Our rooms were built about a year ago and it’s just Britni, Charlene and I in our room, so we have 5 bunk beds and just the 3 of us, so we have a lot of space, and we have a balcony, it’s beautiful in the morn. Very thankful for our accommodations!
kat sweeping
We’re working at an orphanage! It has girls, boys, toddlers, and infants. So the boys and girls have school during the day but come home for lunch around 1130, but the infants are here all day and the toddlers have half day at preschool down the hill and then they come back after lunch. There are 3 house moms who rotate shifts, so basically we’re just helping them out. There is a 4 month old (who right now has had an allergic reaction to medicine so his head looks like Arlie’s(my dog) skin rash, and his belly button is infected, and all his joints like behind his knees and in his elbows has a little skin rash too and on top of all that he has a diaper rash right now. So say a little prayer for baby Xidriobert (sounds like Suh-dree-oh)) So basically the baby is a one person job alone, trying to keep him comfortable. Then there are 3 toddler girls, and about 5 toddler boys. (Toddler is 1-3 years old) Oh, and one of the boys has cerebral palsy. So these house moms who work here have their hands full to say the least.
So we had our first shifts there this afternoon. Britni and I were in charge of the 2p-4p Naptime. Of course, the naptime happened earlier so the kids were waking up when we got there. And kids aren’t very happy when they wake up. Most of them were cranky and crying, so I whipped out all the Lifechurch tricks I knew and even busted out the ‘Big Chief Indian, Beats Upon His Drum’, it was a success.
Anyway, besides the orphanage it looks like we’ll have different ministry opportunities; painting, cooking, a soccer field project, sandbox clean up, organization, jail ministry. So that’ll be a nice change. We’re working with the older kids too once they get home from school. I think our energy with them will come more on the weekends when they’re home.
