January Week 3

Week 3 - January 22
Monday - We met in the Conference Room with the Mellor's from SLC who are Water Project Specialists and with Kiwi from Single Drop.  We had our first lunch from 3rd Floor Catering which was Chicken Insala, it's very good food.  We went to our first Family Home Evening, which is the 2nd and 4th Monday of each month.  Potluck for dinner with different missionaries in charge of the program.

 Tuesday - We flew to Iloilo for three days. We were able to stay in a very nice hotel called the Richmonde and then go meet with the area Service Missionaries the Solesta's who are over the ARP program and spend time training the leaders in their ward to facilitate the ARP meetings. The president in the Philippines has declared a war on drugs. In some areas the officials know who the addicts are, they go knock on their doors to inform them it would be best for them to surrender. Once they do that the local government officials try to help provide a recovery program. The government vets these surrenderers and refers the mild cases to our program. There are 3,000 people who have surrendered in Iloilo. We end up with groups of about 60 participants. We have them divided into three groups with 20 participants per group which is still more than we like. When we get in a group discussion it would be preferable to have smaller groups. The group meeting is conducted in Hiligaynon so we don’t understand much of what is being said but you can feel a very sweet spirit coming from these people as you see hope and light enter into their lives. The church will also try to help partner with different organizations to help these participants find meaningful employment.  

Wednesday - We walked around the mall area in Iloilo in the morning.  In the afternoon we met with a Stake President to aorient him on ARP and them attended a group meeting.  We went to a nice dinner afterward with the Group Leaders.

Thursday - We flew home from Iloilo

We saw these dancers outside the Iloilo Airport getting ready for Festival

                

          

         

         

The sights of Iloilo         

Training Group Leaders in Iloilo

ARP Meeting

Group Leaders

 Friday - We went up to Bataan (where the Bataan death march took place) with the Mellor's, Zorn's and Jairus. In Bataan there are some 1,700 people who have surrendered to  the local government.  In order to help these participants with our ARP program we have to meet with the mayor and get a MOA signed ( Memorandum of Agreement).  When we arrived in Bataan the mayor invited us to join her at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new local community facility and the ribbon cutting ceremony. We were treated as honored guests and warmly greeted by the members of the community.  LDS Charities has a good reputation in this area. After our lunch we were able to visit a rehab facility.  They take 50 surrenders at at time for a 30 day rehab program.  They come in hardened but after 30 days most begin to feel a change.  We are hoping to offer a  maintenance program to them through ARPand our job is to help facilitate that.  We then went to the City Hall to discuss possibilities for cllean water projects in communities that need it.    

The rehab center in Dinaluphian uses part of their land to grow a garden.

This is Vert.  He went through the program in October.  He loved it so much he asked if he could stay on and help with rehabilitation .  He told his story about marrying you and getting kicked out of his home.  He and his wife lived in a pig cage for 3 years.  I am sure those circumstances are what led to his drug use.  He wants to stay clean and provide for his family.

  

Outside the rehab center with Jairus

  

One of the rooms at the center.

  

Their dorm room with bunk beds where they sleep.  They spend 30 days in the program before they graduate.

  

Mayor Gila of Dinaluphian

Inspecting the garden at the community rehap facility

Meeting with the City Council to discuss ARP and Water Projects

Saturday -  We met with some friends who drove us   to the branch they attend for the baptism of 8 children up in Marong.  We returned on Sunday with them for church. That’s where we met 4 adorable little girls who just clung to us.  I was able to spend some time teaching Kristine to knit.  She was very good.  I loved listening to her sing in English as I pointed to the words on my i-Pad.  I hope we get to go back.  The little girls asked us if we would take them to Jollibees (it’s like McDonalds).  Hopefully we will be able to do that soon.  

Teaching Kristine to knit

She was a quick learner

 

Kristine is the one I have my hand on.

These girls are cousins and live with their grandmother

January Week 1-2

Greetings from the Philippines

Week 1- 2
January 10

Wednesday We have been in the Philippines for a week and a half.  We left SLC on Monday January 8 and arrived in Manila on Wednesday January 10.  We were greeted by Elder and Sister Stroud who took us under their wings and have coached us through so many things.  We can’t tell you how much we love them and what a great example of friendship and compassion they have shown.

We went immediately into a meeting and started drinking from a fire hose right from the get go.  There is just so much to learn, but even in a week an a half we are getting more comfortable.

We have been living in temporary housing since we got here but hope to get our lease signed for our apartment today.  We are living in Eastwood Mall in the LeGrand Tower 1 on one side of the mall and will soon be living in the Eastwood Grand Palazzo on a side of the mall, we like better over there where many of our friends are living.  The mall is very comfortable and safe with a lot of American food choices.

The area office that we will be working in is being remodeled so we don’t have our permanent cubicle yet but we will soon.  We were called up to the top floor last week and had a meeting with Elder Allen Haynie and Elder Shayne Bowen of the Seventy.  We met with some other key players in the Humanitarian/Welfare Department and received some additional assignments.

We will be helping with the Pathways Program on Thursdays.  The Beehive manufacturing  is where
 they make maybe 1/2 the garments for the world.  After those workers get off work they come to  class to learn English.  Their chances for better employment increase if they know English.  We have also been asked to help with the optical program.  Lots to learn.

Saturday
January 13 -  The Stroud's took us to the S&R which is like Costco.  They then took us to the Manila/American Cemetery.

Manila American Cemetery

Week 2
 January 15
Monday - We went to Pasig to get fingerprinted (we still don’t have our Visa’s).

 Tuesday - We went to the Women's Bazaar.  The first Tuesday of each month a van full of women ( and sometimes men) go to this Bazaar.  They have a lot of really fun and unique things to buy.
One popular booth is called Kilus.  There are aroung 150 women who make purses and clutch bags from Capri Sun Wrappers.  They go through the trash and sort out the wrappers, take them home and wash them in a big tub and then sew and weave them into beautiful bags.  They also take discarded magazines and tear them into strips, color code them and roll them into beads.  They modge podge the beads and make necklaces and bracelets out of them.  These hard working and creative women are able to make a living with this art
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Wednesday - We went to Mabuhay for the first time.It is like a Ronald McDonald House that the church partner’s with.  LDS Charities seeks out children with club feet and cleft pallets to fix so we can improve the lives of these children and Mabuhay is a great partner.  Every Wednesday a group of Senior Missionaries goes in to provide entertainment for these children for an hour.  We sang songs, did a puppet show, and played balloon volleyball (anyone who knows me knows that was quite a deal for me, I HATE Ballons).  The children just smile and melt your heart.

It takes around 10 months to fix club feet.  These children sit in wheelchairs all day with their legs in casts.  On Thursdays they begin softening the casts to remove by Friday.  The Dr’s.come in and work on straightening their legs and recasting them.  They call it crying Friday because it hurts so bad.  

Playing Volleyball with Baloons and Fly Swatters

Jackie Faith

Berkstron

Thursday - We went to Smoky Mountain, or Tondo.    If you every read the book the Rent Collector it’s a place like that.  A big land fill where people live so they can collect trash and turn it into something they can sell.  The church sponsors a school there called Purple Centers.  They provide rice for the children to eat each day.  We toured the school that is built out of shipping containers.  The children wear navy blue skirts and purple polo shirts.  They just smile and wave, they are so sweet.  There moms make jewelry out of pop can flip rings.  They weave them with emboroiery floos into purses,  belts, and necklaces.    

This river is very polluted, it is located up near the Tondo Dump Site

Students from Purple Centers with their teacher

We then went with a social worker from the school to tour the “neighborhood”.  We had to go with  an escort because it is too dangerous without one.  We walked down the muddy street that were filled with  bottle caps, ground in flip-flops and t-shirts.  The conditions they live in are basically indescribable. We saw people working in very small areas digging through trash for anything to sell, with flies swarming all around.  This went on for block after block, people sticking their heads out and smiling and waving at us.  They know no other way of life, it’s quite heartbreaking.

Looking down through the many streets

Quite a sceen

This went on and on

Friday- We went to an orphanage the church is partners with called Helping Hands.  People just abandon their children and the woman who runs the orphanage try’s to get papers for them so they can be adopted.  She sounds like Mother Teresa to me.  Again, beautiful children with big smiles to tug at your heart.

Gentle Hands Orphanage fun by Charity Graff

Great message all throughout the orphanage

LDS Charities provides rice for these children

Saturday -We went to the island of Corregidor ,it was an all day tour with a lot of WWII history.  It is winter here so we had pleasant weather.

Me with Sister Stinchfield

Corregidor, more than 70 years since the country was ravaged by WW II this island offers stark memories of it's past