Pics to Ponder by Mair

The Ati children, who have no toys, make  play houses out of sticks and rocks.  Note the cooking fire. They create games wherever they go.  Including one game that looks like baseball and is played with a flip flop and a stick.

I love the honesty of this poster!

One day we went cliff jumping.  The Gaults did not jump off this high, but we did all jump off one of the lower cliffs.  I just included this pic of our friend because I thought it was fun.

I guess liability is an issue in the Philippines as well. :)

When we go to our weekly feeding site at one of the local villages I do basic first aid, mostly cleaning small wounds, treating with topical antibiotic cream and covering with bandaids.  Recently a parent brought her little toddler to me to clean this wound.  It was a severe burn on the boys foot that was infected.  I could not even attempt to touch it as obviously it was beyond the scope of my ability to treat.  With the mission's help she was encouraged (strongly) to take her child to the doctor.  Next feeding I will look for this child to monitor his foot.  Imagine your child having this burn and you not having the resources to help him.

The qualification of a woman being 5'4" to get a waitressing job basically eliminates most Filipina women!

Read these prerequisites carefully.  Just what do you do for a job here if you are a short married women over the age of 30?  My Filipino friends were amazed when I told them that postings like this would be illegal in Canada. Also note that to be a cashier they are requiring a four year degree/diploma. Not many can afford this level of education.

Read the bottles carefully.  In the Philippines it is very difficult to find a skin cream that does not have a whitening agent in it.  (Even deodorants have whitening cream to make underarms white!) Being white is considered beautiful.  My Filipina friends cannot believe it when I tell them that in Canada there are creams to make our skin brown.  Why aren't any of us happy with who God made us to be?

This has got to be one of my favourite pictures yet.  I was in Manila keeping an ill friend company as she sought medical treatment.  There was a McDonalds across the road from the hospital.  Even though both of us would rarely go into McDonalds at home, we just had to go when we had the chance.  It felt like home. (Okay, I know that thought is very disturbing, and could be analyzed further... but I don't have time to pursue it right now!)  Anyway, as we walked in the door, this is what we saw.  An armed guard, standing beside Ronald, checking his cell. I had to snap a picture, before he saw me. The combination of innocence, danger, and Western influence, so like home, but so not like home, struck a very strong cord in me. You can bet that the next thing this guy did was open the door for us and greet us with a big smile and a friendly "Hello!".  This is so the Philippines.

See all these children, dressed in yellow, as far as the eye can see?  This is a group of grade one students about to do a Christmas dance at a local public school event. These children have very little money, but parents will go into debt to have their children participate in these school events.  They are a very important part of the culture.  This is one class.  Look again.  One class, one teacher.  Can you imagine?

Last Christmas there was a product on sale at Chapters.  It was called "Instant Snow in a Can... Just add Water"  I brought it from home, kept it hidden and brought it out for my kids on Christmas Eve.  It felt and looked just like warm snow.  It smelled like nasty toxic chemicals... but come on, you can't have 35 degree heat and good smelling snow!

I don't know if you can see this... but it is the edge of a beautiful infinity pool at a local resort.  To the right, amongst the trees is a rather nice, small Filipino community. Each house could have 5 to 8 people living in it. The community is surrounded on all sides by resorts.  This is a common picture on Boracay.

Malcolm and I at church Christmas Day, 2011... my 44th birthday.  This little guy is one of our friend's baby. I just want to put him in my pocket.  We adore him!  (And his whole family!)

A fun picture from the beach.  According to some Australian tourists we met, more people are killed by falling coconuts in a year than lightening.  I'm not sure if that is a global stat or not??   I mean, what about all those campers in Northern Ontario...  not a coconut in sight!

All over the island they advertise "Blind Massage"... I have yet to discover what this means.  Are they literally blind? Is this considered an advantage because they can't see our back fat?  I'm so confused!

Not the best picture quality, but a record all the same.  This is a sand castle on the beach.  Some of the local children make them daily, with the date, and you can give them a bit of money and have your picture taken with it.  Very industrious I say.  (This one had been deserted for the night... perhaps because the "m" in Merry was shot.  More likely because it was raining... most Filipinos hate the rain! )  We thought it was a cool castle and a good record of how we spend Christmas night.

I had to show you this. (This is not our pool or anything, just a local resort pool.) It was so cool the day after Christmas, I wore hoodie.  I couldn't believe with the breeze and clouds that I was actually cold.  When I looked up the temp from the day I was shocked to learn it was in the mid 20s!!  I guess I am now officially a Filipina!

This is an example of how the acquisition of the English language in the Philippines was impacted by the presence of the American army.  We would say "Please make a line, or get into line."  They say "Please fall in line."  I laugh at school when the children are told to "Fall in line."  It makes me smile.

A very Merry "White Beach" Christmas from the Gault Family!

Red Cross Run

             Hi everyone! This is Kylee! I wanted to tell you about a run that we had last Sunday. It was run by the Philippine Red Cross and was nation wide. Tesha, Dad, and I ran and Mom and Siann walked. It was really fun. Kids ran 3 km and adults ran 5.
           

The kids all lined up and ready.

             We got up at 4 something to run on the beach. Tori gave us First Love International clothes to put on the back of our Million Volunteer shirts. We took a trike (the main way of transportation excluding walking) to the place where we were to meet. There was a big intro for it and a person who works with the Australian Red Cross was there helping run the whole thing. Everyone was wearing the same red shirts which was cool because people from different places were there. Even people just visiting Boracay!
            

               They told all the kids to line up at the starting point. They explained what we had to do. We had to run along the beach 1500 m get an elastic wrist-band from Benjo; (The Red Cross is in the basment of the school so we know Benjo.) then we would turn around and run back.
            

             So the race began. I started by jogging trying to stay on the flat parts. There were markers telling us how far we had gone which I found very encouraging. I was mainly racing two high-school boys. They would speed up, then start walking, then speed up when I got near. I'm not sure if I ended up beating them or not. I turned around at the place where Benjo was, got the band then ran back, still racing the boys. I came near the end and the ribbon was being held up by the Red Cross people. No one was around me but I sped up anyway and ran through the ribbon, went back and ran through it again so they could get a picture, then found out I was 1st for girls 3rd over all. Tesha came 3rd for girls and Dad 1st all of the First Love people. He finished the 5 km in 25 minutes! We were all proud of each other.
            

Tesha running.

Me running.

Mom and friends pretending to run.

           

             After everyone crossed the finish line we got to claim our prizes. They called my name and walked to the front. They told me I won 2 tickets to Ariels Point (a clift jumping place) and a kitesurfing lesson. I was so excited. I have been wanting to kitesurf since we got here. They told me to kiss the mayor so I pretended to kiss him. 

Tesha claiming her prize.

    

Getting teased by host.

               After we got off stage Tesha and I got approached by a newspaper lady. She asked us questions including what school do we go to. We told her Agape School. (what great publicity!) Now people keep telling us we have been on tv. I guess Canadians can get famous even in Boracay! :-)
love Kylee (look below for pictures)

Everyone gathering super early.

Our friend Carla and my sisters waiting.

The First Love people after the run.

My favourite picture. My friend Karen and I feeling eachothers cheek. We want to trade skins.

The kids lining up.

 

Always an Adventure

Always an Adventure by Mair

I had several topics on my mind for my blog this week… but then nature took over and provided one for me.  Yesterday, November 15, as I was teaching mathematics to my grade two students, it started to rain.  Not just rain, pour.  By the time we were walking across the island to go home, the streets and alleys were flooding.   Hotel lobbies and people’s businesses were also flooding.  Since I was so disappointed about not having my camera last time it flooded, I have kept my promise to myself and now carry it everywhere.  So I have pictures of what we walked thorough on the way home.  It is hard to capture the event on still photos, but it gives you an idea.

Around 3:00 pm (school day starts at 7:30 am with a 30 minute lunch, so it is done by 1:30pm) I received a text saying the school was flooding.  Apparently the retaining wall that is above the school backing onto the neighbouring Muslim community gave way and water began pouring into the kindergarten classrooms and other rooms in the building.  Along with water came plenty of bright red mud.  Ugh!  The staff that were still at the school scrambled around trying to lift all the classroom items off the floor and sweep away the water. The construction workers tried sandbagging the retaining wall in an attempt to stop the flow.  It was a bit of a losing battle and several of the classrooms ended up with four inches of muddy water across the floors.  There was no real danger… just mess.  We tried to get back across town to the school to help, but were advised by the mission leadership to stay home as the roads were flooded.

So, today, November 16^th, 2011, school was cancelled and we all gathered at the school, in the sunshine and began the clean-up process.  This was one of the many times when we needed to take our Filipino friends’ lead.  In the Philippines work is often done manually.  In most homes, food is still cooked on open fires, clothes are washed by hand and hung in the sun to dry, building supplies, such as bags of concrete, are carried on people’s backs to the building sites, and flooded rooms are cleaned using brooms made from small twigs, rags, soap and water.  And guess what?  It totally works.

The process was simple.  We got everything we could up off the muddy floor and started pouring water onto the mud and sludge.  Then, working in a line, we “broomed” the water across the room to an open door and swept it out.  We repeated the process until the mud and most of the water was gone. Then we got on our hands and knees and using ripped up cloths as rags, we dried the floor and cleaned the walls.  Finally, when it was safe to use the electrical outlets, we plugged in fans and started the final drying process.  Then came the task of washing all the toys and other items that had been splashed with mud.  At one point someone hooked up a hose, which helped with the spreading of the water.  But then it began to leak, like a geyser.  As the water spewed forth at a great speed, I stood there thinking, “Hmmm… I think we need duct tape or some kind of Home Depot tool, or perhaps…..” and as I was pondering all the items that we didn’t have to solve the problem, one of my Filipina friends grabbed a plastic bag, wrapped it tightly around the leak and fixed the problem.  I never cease to be amazed at the ingenuity of the Filipinos.  It is like the old saying “Necessity is the mother of invention.”  They just know how to “make do”.  Incredible.  

Walking Home from School - the pic just doesn't do it justice!

This is the "After" - can't figure out how to move it where I want it to go!

Fruit market worker trying to clear drain with a broom.

Mair... singing in the rain!

Using bucket and twig broom to clean up

Becca the girl with the big smile!

Enjoying the day... it's all about attitude

Kylee and Cecile hand washing toys. 

The Filipino Fix

The best part of the whole process was, someone had some worship music on his cellphone, which had an external speaker (like I said everyone has a cellphone) so we were able to sing (and gab) while we worked.  It was actually very fun and quite a bonding experience.  The day ended with us washing ourselves off in a beautiful, warm, blue ocean, basking in the hot sunshine.  It doesn’t get better than that.

It's a Small World After All :-)

I have meaning to write this for a few weeks but have been too busy. Fortunately last week the President declared Monday and Tuesday of this week to be national holidays so I had a chance to catch up on a few things :-)

I have a “small world” event to tell. Before we came to the Philippines, we saw the movie Soul Surfer in the theatre. It is a movie about the 13 year old surfer who had her arm bitten off by a shark and yet within a matter of weeks continued her career as a competitive surfer. Her story is known all over the world. It was a great movie, my kids loved it and we highly recommend seeing it if you haven’t yet.(It is now out on DVD) Part of the movie had Bethany Hamilton’s church going on mission trips to Mexico and Thailand and they showed a short clip of a church service in Hawaii. Well, a few weeks ago a mission team from Hawaii arrived in Boracay. They have been financially supporting the mission work here and the building of Agape Boracay Academy and have come multiple times to help with the construction. They are a wonderful group of people that have made a huge difference for the kids here. (We hope to have another visit with them as we make our way back to Canada in late June 2012 - God willing.   :-) )

Interestingly, they are associated with Bethany Hamilton from the movie. The worship team shown in the movie had two of their children in it. The “Hawaiians” brought the movie to show the children here and one of the men got up and spoke afterwards, to help share Bethany’s story and to say that the movie very accurately portrays Bethany’s personality. His son is good friends with Bethany’s brother and Bethany often comes to their house to visit. One of the stories that I like, I think Mair got this out of the book, was that the director got frustrated with Bethany because she kept having him re-shoot scenes. For example, she had them reshoot the church scene because the congregation was sombre during the singing. She said that wasn’t accurate, in her church when people are worshipping they are smiling and vibrant. I am glad she made that change because in my church at home and my church here, when people are singing they are joyful too. Also one of the actresses in the movie did not want the Bible to be shown and kept asking for a cloth to be used to hide it and Bethany refused because she wanted people to understand the importance of her faith and the source of her strength and courage.

In any case, I thought it was cool that we saw a movie with a group of Christians in it that were doing mission service around the world and that that group showed up here. Small world :-)

The following are links to Bethany's website and the website of the church that the mission group attends.

http://bethanyhamilton.com/

http://www.calvarychapelnscf.com/North_Shore_Christian_Fellowship/Welcome.html

p.s. I borrowed the following pictures from their website :-)