It's a Rough Life!

After the stress of getting settled, we took a day trip to the beach 1 1/2 hours away as a family. It was gorgeous, and we had a wonderfully relaxing time together.

All that fun wore us right out. Naptime on the beach in the bahay kubo (nipa hut) we rented for the day to be able to get out of the tropical sun on occasion. Yes, Puppy comes EVERYWHERE with us right now. I guess he'll bring it to college with him someday...

The second trip we took was to bring a volunteer who was visiting to the beach before she returned home - it's a rough ministry, but someone has to do it! We also invited a neighbor family to come with us for the day. Matt and Menchie and their 2 kids, Juan Miguel (Juami) and Gabby joined us. We had a great day of building friendships; please pray with us that this opens opportunities to share Christ with them.

We rented a banka (small boat) for the day, and it took us all around the islands, to different beaches and snorkeling sights. The coral was not the prettiest we have ever seen, but the tropical fish were amazing! They swarmed the boat by the hundreds when you fed them. Steve even tried feeding them while he was in the water - and succeeded in getting bit several times by a large parrot fish. Unfortunately, the one place we stopped ended up having a troop (?) of tiny jellyfish passing through. You can't see them, but you can certainly feel their sting. It doesn't hurt THAT bad - unless you are 5 years old or younger and think the world is ending...

Zach had fun climbing up into the banka and jumping off into the shallow water.
Mikayla is doing GREAT with snorkeling. I'm not guessing there are that many 5-year-olds out there who can snorkel independently. She loves it - but tends to ask about jellyfish before getting in the water now. :)We are so blessed to be able to enjoy this part of God's beautiful creation. Our God is truly a lover of beauty and design.

Our helpers

We have two katulongs or helpers that work for us. Before you panic about how demeaning this is to them and how ridiculously wealthy we must be to afford it, please understand that life here is VERY different than life in the good old USA. First off, everything has to be cooked completely from scratch, laundry is an 2-day affair, and there are no walmarts so shopping takes a LITTLE longer than usual. Also, it is customary to have house help here - not only for the middle class. Virtually every household has someone helping them with some task during the week. To refuse to do so would be rude as we would be refusing someone a chance at legitimate work. Oh - and labor here is dirt cheap. We are paying an excellent salary for the area, and yet are spending just over $30 a week for both girls combined (and the mission is re-imbursing us for the one to provide childcare while we are in language study).

We have a 17-year-old named Mhey (May) who is helping take care of the kids and a 52-year-old grandma named Ate Baby (Ate is an endearing term for "big sister" and is used as a show of respect.) Ate Baby is wonderful and an excellent cook (great Filipino food and learning to cook American as well). Mhey is still young and has a lot to learn (particularly about caring for kids), but she is teachable. The kids are slowly adjusting to these extensions to our family. All 3 are having some issues with questioning their authority, but we are working through it. Zach in particular is having a difficult time with this. Please pray for him - and for us that we would be consistent and also loving.

School Daze

Mikayla and Zach started attending a small elementary school just down the street in our neighborhood. It is very convenient because our helper can walk them down to school and pick them up for us so we can do our language study time. Mikayla is in Kinder, and Zach is in Nursery. Kinder is from 8-10 am every day, and Nursery is from 10 -12. They get to wear uniforms, and they love it. They have been making lots of friends, and we are hoping they will start to learn Tagalog at school too.

There are a few prayer requests related to their school situation. It is a Catholic school - nearly all of them are here - which poses some obvious difficulties. Mikayla actually crossed herself after the prayer at supper the other night! Before you panic TOO much, it turns out she was just showing us what they do at school when they pray. But it did surprise us a little. We are making sure to "debrief" with them often to remind them of the differences and why we believe differently. Please pray for wisdom for us and discernment for their young minds as well. This will not be a long-term solution for their schooling, but it is good for right now.

Another problem we have had is a cultural difference. Here in the Philippines, one of the main ways they control their children is through fear; they frighten them into obeying. Mikayla came home the other day and asked, "Mom, who's the Dark Angel?" Turns out her teacher threatens the class that the Dark Angel will come at night and cut off their ears if they don't listen/behave. We need wisdom in knowing how to best deal with this as well.

This makes the school sound awful, but the kids really do love it and are thrilled to go every day. We may let them finish out the year there (it ends in March) and then try to transfer them elsewhere. We would love to have them in school to help them learn the language and adjust to the culture, but we don't want it to be a detriment either. Please pray with us.

School Daze

Mikayla and Zach started attending a small elementary school just down the street in our neighborhood. It is very convenient because our helper can walk them down to school and pick them up for us so we can do our language study time. Mikayla is in Kinder, and Zach is in Nursery. Kinder is from 8-10 am every day, and Nursery is from 10 -12. They get to wear uniforms, and they love it. They have been making lots of friends, and we are hoping they will start to learn Tagalog at school too.

There are a few prayer requests related to their school situation. It is a Catholic school - nearly all of them are here - which poses some obvious difficulties. Mikayla actually crossed herself after the prayer at supper the other night! Before you panic TOO much, it turns out she was just showing us what they do at school when they pray. But it did surprise us a little. We are making sure to "debrief" with them often to remind them of the differences and why we believe differently. Please pray for wisdom for us and discernment for their young minds as well. This will not be a long-term solution for their schooling, but it is good for right now.

Another problem we have had is a cultural difference. Here in the Philippines, one of the main ways they control their children is through fear; they frighten them into obeying. Mikayla came home the other day and asked, "Mom, who's the Dark Angel?" Turns out her teacher threatens the class that the Dark Angel will come at night and cut off their ears if they don't listen/behave. We need wisdom in knowing how to best deal with this as well.

This makes the school sound awful, but the kids really do love it and are thrilled to go every day. We may let them finish out the year there (it ends in March) and then try to transfer them elsewhere. We would love to have them in school to help them learn the language and adjust to the culture, but we don't want it to be a detriment either. Please pray with us.

A Virtual Tour

This particularly lengthy post is for those of you who have been asking what our house looks like. So if you really couldn't care less (and we won't be offended if you don't), then you might want to pass on this one and wait to see our next one because I included LOTS of pictures.

This is the front of our house. You can see the front door (a silver screen door) hiding behind the large hanging plant. The small area inside the gate is a great place for the kids to play when I can't watch them very closely.

This is taken from the same spot, looking to the right. This driveway is where we park our truck, but this is not it. This truck is a loaner while ours is at the shop. This F-150 is HUGE to attempt to navigate through Philippine traffic and narrow roads.This is taken from the front of the house, looking to the left. The plot of land with banana plants is well-maintained and gorgeous. There is a circle drive around the plot that the children love to play on with their friends. There is no outlet on the other side of the drive so our street is a dead-end with very little traffic.

After you come inside the gate and approach the door, there is the coolest wagon-wheel bench and a kid's table and chairs made out of coconut trees.
When you come in the front door, the small foyer has this great window that looks through to the dining room.

To the left of the foyer is the living room. All the furniture in the house is on loan to us while we are in language study. When we finish and are ready to move to our ministry location, we will have to buy our own. Aren't the marble floors gorgeous? Marble is phenomenally cheap here.

The dining area is on the opposite side of the great room. The hallway to the right leads to the office and bedrooms. The small window/bar looks through to the kitchen. The stairs go up to the loft.

Mikayla is showing off the loft above the kitchen. It is a large area with hard wood floors and lots of storage space. It serves as the kids' playroom.

This is taken from the kitchen, looking through the window. You can see the back door to the right that leads to the fenced-in back alley.

While the view from the window over the sink is certainly nothing to brag about, our kitchen is spacious and practical. At the back of the kitchen are the stairs to the loft as well as the door to the "dirty kitchen". No, we have not gotten lazy in our tidiness; this is the term in the Philippines for the second kitchen where "dirtier" tasks are performed and rags, buckets, etc. are kept.
Our "dirty kitchen". The door leads to the gated alley behind our house. This is where we dry our clothes on the clothes line. The kids also play back here sometimes. The small half gate to the right leads to the empty lot behind our house.

This empty lot was completely overgrown by cogan grass and underbrush when we arrived. The owner of the lot said we could use it if we would maintain it. So we hired a guy named Walter to clear it for us, and we are now having him come once a week to maintain it. Steve and he are developing a good friendship. It is a gorgeous lot and great play area for the kids. We also have several different varieties of root crops growing there as well as some fruit trees. Then we planted some pineapples which will take nearly a year to bear fruit.

Our bedroom is just off the kitchen and is HUGE! Jen's office is in the bedroom, and it is here that she studies Tagalog with her teacher every day. There is even room for a craft table! Opposite the bed is Kayla's school area. She and Jen do school every afternoon, and she is doing great! Through the white doors is the bathroom, followed by the closet. The closet door at the back of the closet (where a dress is hanging) actually opens to a secret passageway that leads to the kids' room! They love it, and we all use it regularly.

As you can see, the kids are all sharing a room for the first time. It has its moments, but it is going well all in all. The pink room is Steve's office and language study room. For those of you who have made it this far on the virtual tour, you have way too much time on your hands. :) No, thank you for your interest in our lives. As you can see from the many pics, we aren't exactly "roughing it" in this house. It is the nicest house we have ever lived in and the nicest vehicle we have ever had. God has truly blessed us. And, as you can see from the pics, we have PLENTY of room for guests... :)

A Cultural Experience

Four days after arriving in country, we drove back up to Manila (yes, we are driving here already - even Jen!) for some orientation and other appointments. While there, we did a lot of shopping to set up our new home. After filling up the bed of our truck with household items, we began to hurry back to the office/guest home because it looked like it was going to rain; and we don't have a topper on our truck. In our haste, we ended up on the wrong road, headed in the opposite direction. Turning around here isn't as simple as it sounds. So I searched the map, figured out where I thought we were and determined a route to get us back on track. So we started following the roads on the map (which is an adventure in itself since none of the roads are marked here). While the roads were plotted correctly on the map, it failed to show that one of the roads we had chosen was taken over every night by a night market. By the time we realized the error of our ways, it was too late to do anything about it. So we inched along through the night market for 2 hours and traveled nearly 1/2 a mile. Since we were surrounded by throngs of people, and not going anywhere, Steve unbuckled so as to keep a better eye on all our stuff in the bed of the truck. After 2 hours of inching along and trying to console 3 hungry, tired kids, traffic suddenly started moving. Steve threw it into gear and hurried to keep up, lest we lose our chance. What he forgot to do was put his seat belt back on. As rampant as crime and corruption is here, it has recently become extremely important to them that everyone buckles up. So we immediately got pulled over (they have several people at each intersection specifically for this purpose). Try though we might to explain the situation, the officer wanted a very large bribe ($50 or 2 weeks' good wage) and threatened to take away our license if we did not pay on the spot. We haggled and stalled and finally said that it was a "company car" and we needed to call our "boss" about what to do. So we called our business manager on the phone and he tried talking to them. When that didn't work, he said he would come down. After 30 minutes, he arrived decked out in his biker gear (he was headed to lead a biker Bible Study); he did not exactly fit the profile of a professional "boss", but we were thankful for his presence. He haggled with them some more (he confirmed that they were only looking for a bribe), and then we waited them out. Eventually they gave Steve's license back, and we went on our way. A trip that should have taken 15 minutes took 3 1/2 hours. Welcome to the Philippines! But we were just thankful to have arrived safely with all our stuff - and our licenses!

Our flight over the big pond

All packed up and ready to go!

We loaded our sixteen 70-pound bags in a borrowed trailer and hooked it up to the church van for the trip to the St. Louis airport for our departure to the Philippines. Our church family gathered to send us off with prayer. Then we drove to St. Louis with both sets of parents on Wednesday, October 26 to catch our flight.

After we arrived at the airport, it took more than 2 hours before we were finished checking in all our luggage. Thankfully, we were able to check it clear through to Manila, and not a single bag was even 1/2 a pound overweight (many were 69.5 pounds, and one was 70 pounds on the dot!) As you can see, Mikayla was already tired of waiting.
Once all our luggage was checked in, we were down to just our carryon luggage - which was still a formidable amount of stuff!

The kids looked cute making one last call.
Mikayla and Zach proved to be excellent travelers. They played well together and slept a fair amount. They enjoyed the personal movie screens on the long flight over the ocean.

Ben, on the other hand, spent most of his time doing exactly what this picture depicts. He had a rough trip. He also experienced a slight diaper malfunction in Chicago O'Hare International Airport that resulted in Steve and myself attempting to discreetly scoop up and dispose of several small treasures scattered throughout the waiting area. It was like a treasure hunt, but the treasure was not the kind typically sought after (with good reason!) Thankfully, I don't think anyone noticed OR stepped in anything.

Ben FINALLY dozed off for a couple hours on the long flight. This still did not allow Mom to get any sleep though because he would start to wake up every 2o minutes or so and had to be soothed back to sleep. He sure looked sweet though.

We finally arrived in the Philippines and made it successfully through immigration, luggage collection (we miraculously received all 16 of our bags! Of course, it wasn't until later that we discovered how much of it had broken enroute...), and customs. We were then greeted by a couple of our colleagues here and went out for lunch. Then we started the 2 hour drive (in our new truck!) down to our new house in Lipa City. Needless to say we were all completely exhausted.

Safely in our new home! We thanked our Father for the safe trip - and for the beds that awaited us! We actually did not have water for the first couple days after our arrival (welcome to the Philippines!), but we haven't had too many problems with that since.