Initial Survey Report

I thought you all may enjoy an initial report from Steve's brief survey down to Bicol. We hope to do a more in-depth one later once we are able to discuss his findings in more detail. Thank you for praying for them this past week; they arrived home tonight safely with a lot of stories to tell. Most of the time down there was spent talking with and visiting people. They spent quite a bit of time with local pastors, seeing how we can partner with them to reach the Agta people. They also spent a lot of time visiting different Agta groups (there are about 170 groups settled throughout the region) and talking with their chieftains about the possibility of us coming there.

We still don't know yet for sure where will be most strategic to locate, but a few options are rising to the top. We will most likely be in a town very much like this one below, very near to the most beautiful and volatile volcano in the region. There are many active ones in Bicol, but Mt. Mayon goes off about once every 5 years (some say 8). Last one was in 2001 - and it is certainly seems due now. It was giving many signs of readiness while Steve was down there. I just hope it goes before we move there, then it will hopefully be quiet for a while... Steve, on the other hand, wants to be there to see it go.

Here is another pic of Mt. Mayon. Steve is standing with Roland, a local pastor here in Lipa who accompanied them on their trip. He is also the husband of Jen's Tagalog teacher.

It is an absolutely gorgeous place - the prettiest Steve has ever seen. It is a peninsula only about 15 miles wide at its widest point, so there are LOTS of picturesque beaches. It is beautiful, but also very much in need of Christ. Please continue to pray with us for the people in Bicol - particularly the Agtas.

First, I want to thank all of you who dropped me a little note after our last post. It was an encouragement to know that there are people out there reading our posts who care about us. It is easy to feel alone and forgotten on this side of the world. So - please drop us a little note as often as you think of it. Even just those 1-liners are an encouragement. You can either make a comment on a post (it's GREAT to get feedback) or email us at sjmhagen@juno.com .

Secondly, Steve's trip to Bicol is going well. He has "texted" (the popular and economic mode of communication here) both evenings he has been gone so far. He is overwhelmed at the vast amount of info they are gathering, and it sparks many more questions. I am just as anxious as you to hear all about it when he gets back. :)

Third, I thought you may enjoy some random pics. The first one is of a basket vendor who came through our neighborhood recently. We bought a hammock/swing from him that the kids are enjoying in the back yard. The other pics are from a trip we took to a nearby resort with the medical team that was here a while ago. First, we all rode on a carabao (water buffalo) cart. Lunch was served at the foot of a waterfall - literally. The water was about calf-deep, and the food was delicious. After lunch, the kids enjoyed playing in the waterfall with one of the young guys who came with the team.

First Trip to Bicol - Please Pray!

Steve leaves tomorrow morning early (March 20) for our first survey trip down to Bicol, the area where we will be locating once we complete language study. It is a short trip this time (4 days), but we are praying to start getting some answers about where will be most strategic to locate and what will be the best strategy for reaching this people group as they pose some unusual challenges. We will get into all that later, and we will hopefully have pics for you once he gets back (our camera is broke so he is going to try to borrow one). In the meantime, please pray for safety, health (despite potentially questionable food/water situations), and that he would be able to accomplish a lot on this preliminary survey. A co-worker here and a national pastor will accompany him. Please pray also for me and the kids as we hold down the fort here. Thanks for your prayers, and could you do me a favor? If you are reading this (even if it is after his trip), could you post a comment to this blog or send me an email (sjmhagen@juno.com) to let me know? I am beginning to doubt how many people are actually keeping up with our blog - if this isn't working, then I will need to figure out another way to keep you informed. Thanks!

Ben's Birthday

Our little whirlwind of activity turned 2 yesterday! As I think back on his rocky beginnings in the hospital, I praise God again for this crazy little guy. We love him so much!

We ordered a plain cake from a bakery nearby, and added our own personal little touch. Since "car" is one of his few words, it only seemed appropriate to make this a car birthday.

Here's the car multi-level garage from the grandparents. He LOVED it and squealed with excitement most of the afternoon (until his sister tried to take it apart and broke it into pieces - we are hoping to be able to go to a nearby city to buy him another one tomorrow).
Daddy's balloon art is always a favorite activity.
A very happy and chocolatey birthday boy!

Christmas in March

We had Christmas in March yesterday when FOUR packages arrived from friends in the States. The Mothers of Preschoolers group from our church in Missouri sent us a big box full of goodies, and some new friends (I don't know that we have even officially met yet) from a partner church in Kansas sent us 3 great boxes too. What a blessing and encouragement their thoughtfulness was to us. We have told you that language learning has its "ups and downs", and lately it has been "down" so these couldn't have come at a better time. Thank you all!!!

Home Schoolers Retreat

Mikayla and I got to go to a retreat for homeschoolers held a couple hours away at Caliraya resort center. It is a beautiful place, and we had a great time.

There were many different activities, including a giant slip 'n slide. It was made of several massive tarps and went down a large hill into a mud pit. Mikayla (unlike several of the older boys) tried very hard not to get in the mud. She was the only little one who was brave enough to start at the top with with the big kids.
Mikayla also had a blast horseback riding with her new friends, Melisa and Betsy. They got to go on a long ride all around the property.

There was also a great pool, and the kids all went swimming every afternoon - rain or shine (and it was raining more than shining while we were there).

Mikayla had class every morning with the other kindergarteners. They had a blast together. The rest of the kids spent the week doing Iowa testing, but Mikayla won't have to start those until next year.

The kids prepared all week for an outreach on Friday. A group of Filipino kids came and joined them for the morning, and Mikayla loved making her new friend feel welcome and loving on her.

Both Mikayla and I made some good friends during the week, and we will look forward to seeing them again at future meetings.

What we enjoyed most of all though was some Mommy-daughter time. We had lots of fun just hanging out together. We praise our Father for allowing us to have this wonderful time together.

Medical Mission

The following pictures are all from a recent medical mission hosted by our team in our area. People who could otherwise not afford medical and dental care had access to it through this mission, and the good news of Jesus Christ was shared with them as well! We praise the Lord for the volunteers (from the US and locally both) who sacrificially gave of their time and resources to make this possible. Many people were saved, and many Bible Studies started as a result of their week of service. They were able to offer medical, dental, and pharmaceutical services. Jen even got to help translate for the doctor a couple of days!

Mikayla's 6th Birthday

Today was Mikayla's birthday!

We had 16+ kids and nearly as many adults in our back yard for a big party. We started out with a whole bunch of games for the kids. Since the game director and the photographer are the same person - me! - there aren't many pics of the games, but here is one of the water balloon catch.

Most of the guests were friends of the kids' from the neighborhood here. Then their 2 MK friends also joined in the fun.Mikayla with her "barkada". A barkada is a group of kids that run together or hang out together. These girls play together just about everyday - except the other MK because she lives on the other side of town.
Mikayla had some VERY specific requests for the cake. She wanted 1/2 chocolate and 1/2 white cake with chocolate frosting over the whole thing (so that the 1/2 white cake would be a surprise) and red writing and sprinkles and candy. Ate Baby baked the cake, and Mikayla and I worked together to decorate it.
Ben has an ear infection (his 1st since in country!) so he was pretty grumpy at the party, but he still seemed to enjoy the cake and ice cream.
For the most part, the party was an American one - we played games and had cake and ice cream instead of pancit and spaghetti. But we did follow their tradition by not opening the gifts in front of the giver. So AFTER the party, Mikayla got to open all her presents with just our family. She got some cool stuff - including a complete Filipina outfit from Ate Baby and painting equipment from us.

Language Bloopers

After the last post about our language regimen and a typical day, I thought you may enjoy a few stories of mistakes we've made.

There is not just one word for "we" in Tagalog. You have distinguish between whether or not you are including the person to whom you are speaking. For example, if I want to tell my language coach that we should go to the market, I have to use one word for we. If I want to tell our helper that we are going to the market (without her), then I have to use a different. We both really struggle with this one. Our regular coaches have taken to saying good bye and leaving if we use the wrong word for we and exclude them. :)

Steve has tried to introduce me, his wife, and our kids to several new acquaintances. Instead of saying, "This is my wife", he has often said, "This is your wife" to the surprised man.

Oddly enough, I made a language blooper in English recently. They use English words for many things, but sometimes they mean something different than what they mean when we speak English. For example, Mikayla spilled something at the restaurant so I went quickly to the counter and hurriedly asked for a napkin. What I should have asked for was a "tissue". Because what the poor young guy heard was a woman (who was desperately needing something) asking, "Do you have a sanitary pad?"

The other day in language class, Steve was supposed to say, "I drank my coffee." Instead he said, "I peed my coffee."

Wala si Steve = Steve is not here. Wala na si Steve = Steve is not here anymore. Nawala si Steve = Steve got lost. Nawawala si Steve = Steve is lost. As you can guess, these kind of close sentences have caused many bloopers. One that surprised my teacher the most was when Steve was not at the house because he was living in the bukid (see previous post). Instead what I told her was that Steve was not here anymore - which really communicates that he left me for good.

This last one is not really a blooper, but it may give you an idea how intense language study is for us. Last night I sat up in the middle of the night and woke Steve, obviously distressed and disappointed that he was not helping me. I said, "I guess I will just have to go put my pants and look for them." "What?" he answered. "I lost my verbs. I don't know where they are and they are duplicating somewhere. I need to find them right now." He humored me for a while and asked several questions about where I had seen them last and where we should look first. I woke up to him laughing so hard he almost fell out of bed. Peaceful sleep is difficult if not virtually impossible right now. Pray for us - we are both running tired all the time. Could be partly culture stress, but I think a lot of it is just the strain of learning the language and the sleep we are losing in the process.

That being said, we are truly happy and rejoicing that we are finally here, doing exactly what God has called us to do and what we have been training for for so long. And we have learned to laugh at ourselves - often. Thank you for your partnership in keeping us here. We need your prayers and encouragement now more than ever!!!

A Day of Language Study

We have done several posts about various adventures we have had and places we have been able to visit in our down time. But we are not gallavanting around the country ALL the time. We have never told you exactly what it is we do all day.

Steve and I are both in full-time language study. Which means that we are at it for at least 8 hours per day. Steve gets up early every morning to spend time in the Word and study his lessons. After spending time in the Word and getting the kids ready for the day, we both begin class at 8:00 am every morning. We have 2 teachers that come to our home every morning. They are both wonderful Christian ladies who have taught Tagalog for a long time now. We begin class by meeting all together and discussing various topics on Filipino culture.

After discussing culture for 10-20 minutes, we split off for individual class until 10 am. Ate Marie is my teacher, and we meet in Steve and my bedroom. Ate Marie's husband is a pastor at a small local church that we visited last week, and will probably attend there fairly often. Steve has class with Ate Edwina back in the office. Ate Edwina has been teaching Tagalog for 30 years now! Here's a piece of trivia for you - did you know that I have actually lived here in Lipa City before? When my parents were studying Tagalog in 1979 (I was still a baby) we lived here in Lipa. Amazingly, Ate Edwina was one of my parents' teachers back then!

After class ends at 10, we usually work on homework, prepare for our coach session in the afternoon, do emails, or run errands. I often spend some time during this hour instructing our house helpers with what to do that day or how to cook lunch.

At 11:00, I start teaching Mikayla homeschool - also in our bedroom. She is learning fast, and that hour is (usually) one of my favorite in the day. This year, I am only teaching her reading and writing. Next year - once I am further along in language study - we will be able to launch into the exciting world of math as well.

We have lunch together as a family at noon. Then at 1:00, our language coaches arrive and stay until 3:00. Steve and I each have a language coach. Language coaches are different than our teachers because they have no training or experience in teaching Tagalog. They are simply native speakers who are willing to help us out (they do get paid too!). While our teachers stay the same all the time, we are supposed to regularly switch out our language coaches so that we are exposed to a variety of ways of saying things. Steve has male coaches, and I have female ones. Our coaches usually don't speak much (if any) English. So they are usually unable to help with grammar questions, but they are great for practicing what we are learning and for learning new vocab. Here, I am doing just that with my current language helper, Rona. I point to a picture, and she says what is happening. Then I point to another picture, and she says that one. We repeat the process til I have learned as many new words/sentences as my head will hold.

Raphael has been a frequent language coach for Steve. He speaks excellent English and is able to help Steve with cultural questions and grammar ones too. He is only 16 years old, but is top in his class and a primary leader at their small church. Often we just stay in the house and practice with our coaches through conversation, drills, or games. But sometimes we go out and run errands with them or go visiting with them to practice as well.
After class, I exercise for an hour (I spared you the pics for that part of the day!). I either go jogging or swim laps at the nearby community park, do Pilates or jumprope while watching Tagalog TV, or we go to a gym. After that, we both try to spend time hanging out with our neighbors and just chatting with anyone who will chat with us. Here, Steve is fixing the cabinet door while chatting with Walter, one of his language coaches who also works in our yard once a week.
We eat supper as a family at 5ish, then we either play with the kids, run errands, or go visiting as a family until the kids go to bed at 7:30. After that, Steve and I study our lessons then watch Tagalog TV for exposure time to the language until we head to bed at 10ish. Studying language is hard work, and we both find it very difficult to get our brains to shut off after a day of language study. We have found that watching 1 sitcom episode like Everybody Loves Raymond is a great way to get our brains to relax before trying to sleep. Thankfully, we brought several seasons with us, but we are about ready for some new ones - the re-runs are getting old.

Please continue to pray for us as we press on with language study. There are times where it is incredibly frustrating and overwhelming. We find we are using a lot of ibuprofen for headaches nowadays. But there are other times when we are very encouraged with how much we can already communicate. We both shared our testimonies at a little church on Sunday. Steve did it nearly all in Tagalog until he got to Spiritual things, and I was able to do the virtually the whole thing in Tagalog with a few helps along the way. That was encouraging, but it also served as a reminder to stick with it because after the service, several came up to ask us spiritual questions, and we were unable to go deeper. Talk about motivation to study harder!

Our supervisor and teachers are very encouraged with the progress that we both are making. They say that we are FAR beyond where the "normal" student is after 2 months of study. Their excitement about our progress encourages us when we get overwhelmed with how much we still don't know. Steve is at about a 2+ out of 10, and I am at about a 3+. We have to be at a "5" before we are released from formal, full-time language study and allowed to move to our ministry location. Of course, we will still have a lot of learning to do at that point, but we will be able to begin ministering to our people group in Bicol then.

You asked for it...

My good friend, Stacy, asked some questions for me to answer in a post so here goes. If any of you have questions or would like to see a certain topic for our blog, let us know!

1. How do your kids keep in contact with their grandparents?
The main way we (and the kids) stay in touch with their grandparents is through Skype. It's this free program you can download, and then you can chat back and forth or talk free (if you have a microphone) to anyone else who is on Skype too. We chat with our families several times a week this way, and the kids usually talk to them once a week or so. Download it too, and we will stay in touch more often!

2. How has the Philippines changed since you last lived there, and what has stayed the same? Manila is still awful, except worse. Still dirty and polluted and crowded beyond belief. The worse part is the dozens of cops at every intersection waiting to catch you doing something "illegal". I counted - no joke - 23 cops at one medium-sized intersection. Conveniently, they don't post signs for what is legal or illegal at any given intersection, they just pull you over and demand your license. We were pulled over after turning left at a small intersection. We looked carefully for signs 1st, but there were none. But there WAS a cop literally crouched down and hiding behind a cement wall. He jumped out in front of us to demand a bribe. Driving there is incredibly stressful - way more so than before. Faith Academy seems the same, except bigger - lots of ongoing building projects. Once you get out of the city, it is as beautiful as ever. Not much has changed in the province that I can tell. It is still relaxed and slow-paced and beautiful. The people are just as friendly and full of smiles as I remembered them to be. I don't know that the poverty is worse, but it has hit me harder this time... I know the need for Christ is the same as it was before, but it seems much bigger this time. Probably because that is why we are here - my focus has changed since I was here last.

3. Have you taken a cultural trip to Jollibee...what did the kids think of it?
We have been to Jollibee, and that is one thing that hasn't changed. Not surprisingly, the kids loved it (they don't have the most discerning palates - Ben ate a live worm recently). We have no plans to return in the near future... (FYI for those who didn't grow up here - Jollibee is a really bad McDonalds knockoff.) There are plenty of restaurants that we do love here - mostly Filipino ones that serve great pancit bihon and pork bbqs.

4. Are you to the point yet with your language studies that you are able to understand Pinoy TV & 'get' Filipino humor?
Do you EVER get to where you can really "get" Filipino humor? And really think it's funny? We're not there yet anyway. We like to tease and be teased by our language coaches and neighbors, but we are a long ways from being able to follow and be amused by humor on TV. Watching Pinoy TV - which we try to do some every day for exposure to the language - is very discouraging because it shows how much we have to learn yet. While we may be doing great in conversational Tagalog, we are a LONG way from being able to really follow Pinoy TV - especially the high-speed ones.

Make a Request!

Is there something you have questions about regarding our life here? What would you like to see a post about? Just let me know by writing a comment on this site or send me an email, and we will see what we can do!

Living in the Bukid

Bukid actually translates as farm, but is usually used to mean "out in the sticks". Steve spent the week living in the bukid at the home of Walter, a language coach and yard worker of ours. Since the usual picture-taker (me) was not there, I'm afraid there aren't many pics of the experience, but there a few for you to see. This is Walter and his sister.

Steve standing in front of their small home. It was actually raining for a lot of the time he was there so they spent a lot of time inside talking. It was great language practice, and Steve made a LOT of progress in the one week there.
He slept on the floor in Walter's room - no bigger than a typical closet - on a little mattress he brought with. The toughest part of the week for him was the headaches he kept getting as a result of their lights (home-made kerosene lantern type things that emit strong fumes) and the large amounts of MSG they use in their cooking. But all in all it was a good experience, and we are both thrilled with the language process he made this week.
Our family is certainly glad to have daddy home now, and we are looking forward to doing some things together this weekend. Daddy and Mikayla are actually out on a date right now as I write this. I hope to get one with him later this weekend - or next - as well. :)