The Philippines have been amazing but also really hard. We started out our first three days in Manila with pretty much resort style living at KIM. A pool, fans, beds, spa treatments ($6 massages) and showers. Come to Mindanao and find ourselves sleeping the first night in a shipping container, YES A SHIPPING CONTAINER. Jess and I slept in our Enos, Isaac slept in a tent outside, and Lydia, Dani, Kelsey, and Josh slept on their sleeping pads on the floor. I nearly killed Kelsey with my butt at one point getting out of my hammock, even with Jess helping me jump down. The Enos were hung high enough that one needed some help getting out. Dani and I decided we would set up our tents outside, which was good because it provided for some privacy and cool (but not by much). I don’t think I’ve ever sweat this much in my life.
Saturday we worked on turning the shipping container into more of a home. We bug-proofed as much as we could, set up tents, cleared out a walking area, the boys hung up a nice shade covering. The three Filipino men here helping us/protecting us/working for KIM dug a six-foot hole for a septic tank in a matter of hours. Two days after we arrived we had a toilet with a tarp around it that you pour water down to flush. Talk about awesome! In the middle of a field, a toilet! After getting stung 4 times by something on Monday that hurt like heck, I’m not ready to expose my backside to nature anytime soon.
This is the very early stage of building a facility here like they have in Manila. This home will be for the Street Light ministry kids. They are who we work with in the afternoons during the week. They are all (with the exception of one girl) addicted to sniffing glue/solvent. Referred to as Street Kids because most of them live on the streets even though they have parents, these kids start sniffing to ease hunger pains and are addicted to sniffing. Some of these kids are 5-6 years old. Leah and Megan, former world racers, Second Generation C Squad, have devoted the last two years to learning the language and developing relationship here to make this awesome ministry a reality. They do a great job interacting with the kids and it is so interesting to me to see how they have adapted so much that it is more comfortable for them to speak in Bisaea, the native language, than English. They also have an amazing staff of teachers, who have taught me so much about Mindanao! So all that to say, we are here living on the land they now own to one day transfer their street kids to a home where they can stop sniffing.
On Saturday, Dani and I took lunch back over to Ate Evangeline’s house, the lady who cooks the world’s best fried chicken – no joke. She invited us to sit with her and her family outside of the little street store they run. Although it was awkward, we worked through trying to understand each other. They asked our ages, if we had boyfriends (a very common question), where we are from, and told us we were beautiful. They absolutely LOVE white skin here. White skin = status and wealth. The stores here all have signs advertising skin-whitening products. They find it so funny that we want tan skin. Today we decided we could trade! Anyway, after they had asked all these questions, they asked us if we sang. I tried to think of a song I was comfortable singing and the first song that came to mind was “A Whole New World” from Aladdin. I sang some for them and they loved it haha. I laughed as I thought about it on our walk home, because this place is definitely a whole new world. Rice literally with every meal, sweating 24/7, spiders the size of my face with eyes that glow, flies and ants everywhere, roosters that can climb trees and scare the crap out of you when they jump down at you, taking a bucket shower in the middle of the grove of trees and praying no Filipino children or adults happen to walk by and see a very white woman standing naked there, staring contests with cows who also like to stand in the middle of the road at night, Jess driving (and doing an AWESOME job) in the most crazy traffic I’ve ever been in where there really are no rules of the road other than you blow your horn a lot, roosters that try to out crow each other at all hours of the day and night, dogs that are covered in lice and fleas that I have to throw rocks near to scare them off cause they will do anything to try to get your food, eggs rotting in the container because they have cracked and have maggots oozing from them that get on your arm and you have to use all your strength not to throw up, having people come up to you and ask if they can take pictures with you because you are the only white person they have ever seen, kids playing in the road because it is their playground, stars ablaze at night, huge coconut and banana trees that provide nice shade, sunrises that wake you up because as soon as the sun is up it starts getting hot, mornings with Jesus after that sunrise wakes you up, playing the thankful game as team to keep your attitude in check, furniture built out of pallets, friends you will never forget as long as you live. I could probably go on for another page but you get it – a whole new world.
Although this month is hard and it still is sometimes a struggle trying to be nice and not let the ugly in my soul try to wipe itself on my team, we are learning day by day to survive. This is the world race and we were born for such a time as this. Jesus has us here for a reason. I want to make use of these next 12 days we have here in this country I am in love with already. I want to be Jesus to Ate Evangeline and Mila and Nardmaljen, and Riza and Janessa, Daniella, Joy, Peevee, LynLyn, Angie, MaryAnn, and so many other faces forever carried in my heart. I want Diegle, Carling, and Abdul to see us working hard to serve them as they work hard to build the wall for this ministry site. I’ve seriously never seen three harder workers than these guys. They rest from sundown to sun up and then work hardddddd during the day, with three breaks.
This has also been a great time for our team. There have been rough moments, facing fears, owning up to insecurities, sharing testimonies, and dealing with tough feedback. All of it has made us better people, stronger people, more like the people Jesus envisions us to be. They are already calling me further up and further in with my walk with Jesus just by being my family. I couldn’t imagine doing this with anyone else. I look forward to the next 10 months with them!
Thank you to everyone who has made this possible by praying and financially supporting me. You have already helped touch countless lives and it’s only a week in. Know I am praying for you and keeping you all in my heart. Love you!
