Monday, October 31, 2011

Kids will be kids....No matter where they grow up!



Since we have arrived, we have had every night booked with the evangelistic meetings going on. Every night we tried to help out as much as we could. Most nights that involved singing for the adult meeting and helping control the kids in the children's program, which was no easy task once the attendance reached 150 children. The adult meetings were doing well in attendance as well and the people were really enjoying the health lectures as well as the sermons. They enjoyed learning simple ways to keep their family healthy.

LeAnne and I did our best to help keep the kids quiet and listening during the children's program...but being a distraction is kinda what we did best. Not intentionally, of course. I blame our white skin and long noses. Most times whenever we showed up we had a group of 20 or more kids surround wherever we sat. So many tickle-fights and "What is your name?"'s going around. But we always made sure to help them learn their bible verses at the end of the night so they could receive a prize. Afterwards we would play games. It is kind of amazing, a lot of the games they would play were variations of games we played growing up. This made it easy for LeAnne to be talked into playing, no matter what the game was!

Some kids thought bugs were more fun to play with than we were....lol.
Where's Waldo?
There they are!
Though going to meetings every night was tiring, we still had a lot of fun. The kids never ending energy made us feel so old, and their ability to learn and recite verses was just as inspiring! It was exciting to see all the kids again, and have them remember me! At the end of the day, I just pray that these kids will remember the stories they've heard about a loving Creator who wants to take them Home!

"Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it."
~Proverbs 22:6



Food, food, food.

When it comes to travel planning, I have been taught to focus on certain things: Getting good deals on flights, where you're staying, how you will get around, how much to pack, and what sight-seeing you want to do there. But in most cases, I kinda forget about food. I'm so excited about the trip itself, that I forget that during the course of my travels...I'm going to have to eat sometime. Now when you go to places like Italy or France you just think to yourself "Oh, I will get my fill in authentic cuisines and cultural favorites". But most of the time, its SUPER expensive to eat out. I know when I went to France I was excited to indulge in the foods of the country...but my bank account was not as excited to do so. I spent most of that trip buying loaves of bread and a jar of marinara sauce...Happy Dinner Time...again...lol. So when it comes to traveling I always have this little "fear" that I either won't enjoy the food or it will be too expensive for me to enjoy.
But here in the Philippines, this is NOT the case. Staying with the Reyes family has been quite the tasty adventure! The last couple weeks we have been SPOILED with some amazing food! Some tasty Filipino dishes and some delicious attempts at Western food, either way it has been awesome! Shielah is a very creative and diverse cook and I think thats what we love the most about her! :)
One day we were sitting in the house and Shielah said, "Do you girls like onion rings?" and we said, "Uh...yes, we do." "Ok, thats what I'll make for lunch then." she said. We were kinda confused, does she mean actual onion rings or is this a Filipino onion ring? But sure enough. She took some onions, cut them into nice round pieces and then made a batter to dip them in. Then after they were covered in batter she fried them. They turned out PERFECT! Better than any frozen-then-deep-fried onion ring I have ever had.
Another time, I had mentioned that I was craving buko salad. A couple days later, Roy and Shielah said, "Hey girls! We have the buko here. Come help us prepare it for the buko salad" Let me explain, Buko is a young coconut. It is still green and has a very large shell. Inside there is water, very sweet and sanitary water, which is also called Buko Juice and the flesh of the coconut is very soft. 
So to prepare a Buko for Buko salad you start by chopping off the top of the coconut and then you can drink the water out of the coconut or you can pour the water into a container to save for later. But of course it is SOOO much more fun to drink the Buko Juice right out of the coconut.
Then once the coconut is empty you chop it in half and use this little shaving tool and a spoon to collect all the flesh inside. Then we would put it into a large bucket to use for our Buko Salad.
The kids even helped us...for about 20 seconds...lol.
Once the Buko is all shaved you add Fruit cocktail and Condensed milk to the large bucket, then you refrigerate it for awhile and Ta-Da! You have Buko Salad (We never said it was a HEALTHY salad....;)  ) LeAnne and I were able to help with the whole process which made it taste even better!

Mmm! Sooo Good!
A couple days later, Shielah need coconut milk for a lunch time recipe. She went to the market and bought a Nyog, which is an older coconut. The shell of the Nyog is brown and thinner than the Buko, it looks like the coconuts you would see in movies. Inside there is sanitary water, but it has a sour taste and the flesh is hard.
 Like the Buko, you chop the Nyog in two. But then, you take the two halves and you shred them on "the horse". The horse it just a clever name Roy came up with for their shredder, because its a long board with a sharp tool on the end and you sit on top of the board so it won't move. Then you rotate the coconut halves over the blade and it makes shredded coconut. It gives you quite the arm work out. LeAnne and I tried for a little bit but after all our hard work....we had very little to show for it. So Roy finished it up for us. ;)
After the coconut is all shredded, you put it into a bowl with some water and begin to squeeze the coconut. Then you strain out the water into a seperate container and then add more water and repeat the process until the coconut can be squeezed no more. Then Ta-Da you have Coconut milk to mix with any dish to make it taste MORE amazing!

So those are just a few of the amazing things we have had since we've been here. It seems as though EVERY meal time is the opportunity to try something new and delicious. As of now, our only "fear" is not fitting into our pants when we get back home ;)

 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things." ~Matthew 6:31-32 

Haddie FINALLY came near me today!! It was such a happy day!!


Friday, October 28, 2011

A Trip to Palawan Adventist Academy

We were really excited when Sunday came because we were going to the Palawan Adventist Academy to visit Aina. So early Sunday morning, Shielah, E.J., LeAnne and I hopped on a shuttle and started the 1 1/2 hr. drive to Tacrosse.
When we arrived we went to the girls' dorm to find Aina. She was in her dorm room studying and was very excited to see us! We hung out in her dorm room for awhile. The rooms were a lot different than the dorm rooms I stayed in at my Academy. In each room there are 3 bunk-beds, so it is 6 girls to one room. You have to bring your own mattress if you want one, and since most of the students are poor, most just have little straw mats that they sleep on. And then each girl has her own 14inch "closet" in which to keep ALL their stuff (clothes, school supplies, hygiene products). 

Aina shared a room with the other PAMAS sponsored kids. So they were all very dedicated to their studies and enjoyed every day at school because they felt very privileged to go to school there. We brought all our sponsored students some notebooks which were donated by the Green Bay Church. They were very excited to receive the gift!


We found out, Aina is quite the artist. She told a story that she had made a birthday card for one of her friends at school, designing and drawing by hand a beautiful picture on the front and back. And the students Father found it and was incredibly impressed. So he scanned it and sent it to his mother who lived in Canada and she was also so impressed that she inquired if Aina had a sponsor for school because she was interested in sponsoring her. But Aina just thanked her and told her that she already had a sponsor. I was so proud!
After spending some time in the dorm, Aina took us on a tour of the school. It was very fun to explore her campus.
The Cafeteria
The Main Building
First-Year Classroom
The Chapel
Goat stuck in fence....didn't have those at my school...lol.

Boys Dorm
It was really hot that day. On top of the water tower was the
coolest place for these boys to find. :)
A sign displayed inside the classroom. :)
Then Shielah had to take care of some business in the Boys' Dorm so we waited outside there for awhile. We talked to Aina about things...pretty much whatever we both could communicate in Tagalog and English. She showed me her grades and she was actually doing really well in all subjects, except for English. So, I told her she had to come hang out with LeAnne and I for a weekend and she would learn all the English she could ever want.
Me, Aina, and her friend, Becca.
After Shielah was done in the dorm we had lunch and then we said our goodbyes. It was really nice to see Aina again and to see her in school with her friends and everything. I was very proud of how well she adapted. She was talking about going home for Christmas break and Shielah was concerned, thinking she might not come back. But Aina reassured her saying "No, I will be back. I really enjoy my studies and the privilege I've been given to study here. God gave me this opportunity and I'm going to take it!" I'm so proud of that girl!!



"The mind of the prudent acquires knowledge, And the ear of the wise seeks knowledge."
Proverbs 18:15