Today marks 2 weeks since we arrived in the Philippines. It was a long journey getting here and has had its challenges already these first 2 weeks. Thank you for keeping us in prayer, we definitely know you all are there to support us. FIRST it is HUMID here, we are constantly sweating and the boys are always reminding us how hot they feel. We are staying in Manila for the first month, my mother will be coming the Philippines on Sept 30 and we will all go to Villasis, Pangasinan in October together. While in Manila we are staying with Victor's uncle (his dad's brother). We have visited 3 urban Gawad Kalinga villages all have there own personalities. We attended the monthly GK Builder's night, they launched the new global website on Sept 1st., you are invited to visit it ( www.gk1world.com) still trying to navigate all the features but apparently when we get better at it we can post pictures and videos to it and you all can follow our villages with us or surf other GK sites. Builders night is where they share stories of all sorts of folks in the movement... the beneficiaries living in the villages, the volunteers, there were some government officials and some entrepreneurs launching products made in the villages or made in support of some villages. There were about 500 people in attendance. We sampled some sugar made from coconut...supposed to be good as a sugar substitute for diabetics and dieters. We saw these bikes made completely our of bamboo called bambikes. Some other products and programs too.
It is truly inspiring to see so many people putting their faith into action creatively. That's the next thing we have learned PEOPLE PRAY all day long for everything and in all they do...just small gestures we have notice where folks just pray in gratitude or thanksgiving or in hopes of some dream. We are trying to practice praying more with the boys, and teaching them more formal prayers since that is what we see the children here doing with their families.
We were advised by seasoned Gk advocates to be patient and to be ready to "unlearn and then learn with an open mind and heart." Help the people we are serving DREAM bigger dreams was another suggestion from a volunteer that was orienting us.
This week we are in the province of Pangasinan visiting 4 of the 5 villages here. We saw the build site for our village "Namnama" (hope village) it is a beautiful lush property already with rice fields, irrigation and fishing pond. It is 2 hectares??? not sure how big that is in acres but it is big enough for about 3 villages at capacity... The build begins tomorrow Sept 8th on the first 5 homes.
We will visit 3 of the established villages in Pangasinan, two in Santa Barbara and one in Dagupan City. We also hope to visit 2 schools recommended for the boys to attend once we are in Villasis in October.
Next week we will get extensive training on community building skills and becoming a care taker team for the village. We will be going to one of the GK farms in Bulacan...it is called Enchanted Farm. Another branch of the GK movement is to create 1000 farms in addition to the villages. So we will be there Sunday Sept 12 to Sept 19th.
Then 2 more weeks in Manila.
We spent this past weekend with my family celebrating my niece's (my cousin's daughter) Debutante ball. Very formal gathering and a whole cultural experience in it self. Victor got to play some saxophone for the crowd and we had an amazing meal and some cake too! Day to day we try to establish routines with the boys, they wake up with the animals. There are lots of dogs and roosters waking us up at 5am , if we are lucky and the boys are tired they will sleep until 6am. We pray, do some chores and have breakfast and then Vic and I do "school" with the boys for about 2 hours... we work on writing, reading and introducing more Tagalog words to them, some math and music every day. Then spent time outside, Desmond likes to collect bugs and do water play. Theo longs for home still daily and watches "english TV" there is a Disney station here that plays all day long.(YUCK) but we know it helps him with his homesickness. Yesterday he was so sad to learn there are no mailboxes at people's houses...he wanted to mail himself home:(
Victor takes Theo and Desmond for daily walks to the local "sari sari" store, it is a neighborhood convenience store with an assortment of items...they found one with ice pops and ice cream so that helps Theo to smile.
Peace and hot sticky hugs from the Philippines
