“We live in a place where palm trees grow, there is an active volcano, a church with a grass roof, the power goes out and we don’t even flinch, rain means we don’t have dry clothes, and analogies about losing your car keys are irrelevant and replaced with analogies about losing your caribou.”– Sarah Wilson
I spent month 9 at The Legacy Home in the Philippines. This is a list of things I never want to forget…
- The time Pastor was giving a sermon, and there were bats flying around our head.
- The sensation that a bug is crawling on you is real
- The Star-Spangled Banner, the Filipino Anthem, and the Pledge of Allegiance to American, Christian, and Filipino flags is sung/said every day before school started. My favorite morning was when I got to hold little Kim (2 years old) while she placed her hand on heart.
- Every day we said, “Good morning!” to all 20 kids, 7+ adults, and 6 other Racers. Every night we said, “Good night!”
- The “national highway” we used to get home was barely a dirt road.
- Water buffaloes everywhere.
- Spiders equal the kids latest toy. A legitimate afternoon pastime was to go spider hunting and find the big spiders.
- Kimmy getting in her toy car and saying “bye bye” to every person she passed by.
- The day we did mayonnaise treatments in all the girls’ hair to get rid of lice. The whole house smelled of mayonnaise.
- Coffee dates in the afternoons with my teammates.
- Teaching my childhood curriculum to a new generation of kids in a different country.
- Dinah’s excitement every time I’d let her sit in my hammock.
- We had family devotions every morning after breakfast and every evening after dinner.
- The feeling that we belonged to that family from the day we arrived. Getting to have all the little brothers and sisters I never had before.
- The kids ability to know which table went next to go up a get food. We could never figure out the system.
- Two words: rat poison. This was a spicy sauce we would eat at pretty much every meal. Super super spicy!
- Cooking in the kitchen one afternoon with Até Beth and Dinah (10 years old). We were taking too much time so Dawson came in to the kitchen exasperated and said, “We aren’t going to get to eat for 39 years!” It was the running joke for the rest of the month: a long time always equalled 39 years.
- One time at family night, we projected Frozen on the wall. It became a giant sing along with the whole lot of us.
- The days I got to teach the kids all day in the classroom.
- The night we Racers hosted a girls’ night. All the older girls dressed up in their fanciest clothes. We went over to the church, had sparkling grape juice, at cookies and chocolate, and talked about life and love with them. It was so much fun!
- Talent night was a success. In order to get a piece of cake, which was made by Benjho (16 years old), you had to participate. Therefore, everyone did something: singing, dancing, playing the guitar, etc
- Doing the dishes after every meal would take about 4 of us an hour. When my team isn’t there, Até Beth does them all by herself. She cooked for us 3 meals a day, 6 days a week, the whole time we were there. She is super woman.
- Sitting in the front porch in the afternoons.
- Hearing songs sung or played on the guitar throughout the day by the kids to God.
- Teaching the girls to cross stitch just like my mom taught me.
- The smell of the house when Até Beth or Benjho would make something sweet.
- Being called “Até Christina” all day, everyday. (Até is their equivalent to Miss.)
- Getting to talk to the workers, the caretakers, and the family that started Legacy Home. Each of their stories is amazing.
- There house moms would do about 250 pieces of laundry a day.
- Going to the beach with some of my teammates on Saturday. It rained the whole day except the couple hours we were on the beach.
“To live simply in order to simply live.” – Richard Estrella
