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
.
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.