I walked around the city with one of the women who helps set up the Volunteers. It was pretty fun. She showed us where everything was and it was nice to really take a mental image of everything I have been searching for the past two weeks. I was able to get a lot of you the souvenirs I had in mind. Also I found one that is perfect for you Ashley but I didn’t have enough money with me… so I will have to get it tomorrow. I am sure no one else will buy it. I was actually surprised to see such a thing here. While eating supper last night I was greated with a HUGE cockroach. It flew right at me from across the room. It was about half the size of my hand. But pretty big. I swatted it to the ground and stomped on it right away. Tes and Jerry couldn’t believe it. Jerry laughed and kept saying the same thing over and over in waray waray ( so I didn’t understand) Then Tes said that all of the other volunteers have seizers when they see a bug that big but I just killed it. Don’t get me wrong the thing was super disgusting but I would rather have it come at me while I am awake than enter my bed with me! So I thought it would be best to Kill it at that moment. Yes all of that went through my mind as I decided to swat and step on it. What can I say… I’m a fast thinker. Yesterday I was walking down the side walk ( along with a billion other people) and there was a Jeepney stopped waiting for people to get on and another one pulled up too close to it and the side mirrors from both were took off and the glass from both mirrors shattered everywhere. So you can imagine how fast the other jeepney came in. Anyway I was hit by a lot of the mirror but I am unharmed! I was pretty excited to witness it though. Everyone just stood around and the cop at the end of the street corner shook his head and walked the other way. I am not sure what happens in an event like that… and I am not convinced they knew either. It rained all day today but it was kind of refreshing because five days of no rain and everything is super dry. But I guess February has hardly any rain. This morning I was telling Tes about French toast and she said she has never heard of it and wants to try to make it. So I am pretty excited about that for breakfast tomorrow morning. We are going to the bakery at 4 in the morning to get the bread.

There is a one legged man that I pass everyday (sometimes twice) who always asks me to marry him. I just thought you guys would like to picture that. Oh.. and he made is own crutch. Why he only has one… probably because he had to make it and two was out of the question. The thing I have learned in Waray Waray recently is Will you marry me or will you marry my son. They pretend then that they don’t understand English when I explain why I am really here. I am not so much flattered any more.

Today while I was walking on the street with some other Volunteers I noticed one of the kids I interpret for who was NOT in class this morning. I went up to him and yelled at him for not coming to school. He explained that when it rains he doesn’t got to school. HA… this is the Philippines and he doesn’t go to school when it rains. But I just explained to him how important it is for him to be there and that it makes me feel important when he comes. I was able to meet his best friend who is also Deaf. He is not able to come to school because his family doesn’t have enough money and he is Deaf so he doesn’t get first choice even though he is second oldest. He told me the whole story but it was nice to talk to him today.

I woke up this morning to Jerry cutting the “hair” of his Cock for the fight on Sunday. He said he gives it a bath every morning and trims it every other day so it looks the best. I just thought it was funny and I would share.

Also last night another cockroach story… I was going to go to the bathroom and as I was in mid pants down a giant cockroach came from behind the toilet. I almost peed myself because I was unsure if I should pee first or try to kill it. I decided to use the toilet first and then kill it. It seriously took me like ten minutes to kill it. It would NOT die! After I had smashed it all over the bathroom I had to take the bucket and wash it down the shower drain. I had to use the same bucket I “shower” with and “flush” the toilet with. Ahh.. what would I do without that bucket!

I put pictures up on Facebook. I can not do it on here for my blog. Mom and Dad.. you will just have to use Krystal's facebook to get the pictures.

much love...

Toni

Hebrews 3:14

"For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ."
I write today with much grief and sorrow pouring out onto this page. Last night there were 36 homes and 50 families involved in a massive fire near my Buranguy. We all saw the fire right away but it took the fire truck half an hour to get there. By that time there was hardly anything left of any of the houses. Much of the houses here are all connected to each other so many were involved. My heart is in deep pain for the families that had nothing and now lost that as well. At the center they put together food and some clothing they could find to help out in anyway they could. I am just in shock and i have no idea what will now happen to those families.
Also while at school today a couple of the Deaf kids were having a really hard time keeping up with the lecture and notes. I tried to explain to the teacher that it is too hard for them to try to write down everything she is drawing on the board and watch me at the same time. She was not too excited about my explaination and said that they are here to learn just like everyone else. I was heart broken when they looked at me said they have been patient for many years so they have learned to deal with it. It is not fair to the Deaf students to miss out on what is being said in the lectures. The teacher puts stuff on the board but the discussion of what is being written is most important with understand what is going on. I cry and plea with God that he will send more people to come and interpret here for these students who deserve the same chance in education as the hearing. I am not sure how to fully explain the desire in my soul to stay here and set something up myself. but i know that is not where I need to be. I have been in prayer and seeking an answer but I know that I must return home at least for a year or two when I am done here in March. I will never forget what is going on here and I surely will not leave this place with nothing set up for these students to receive an education. If anyone hears something else from God for me i would love to hear it. Please pray that I will receive true direction in the next step here. The name of the school is Leyte National High School and it is the biggest in Tacloban city and only one of Two schools in the Philippines to enroll Deaf.
The verse at the beginning was precious to me today because I was getting overwhelmed with being the only one here who is a Christian. Through much questioning and crying over what is going on here I have found myself pressed closer to my God than ever before. It is a feeling that I can not describe. I was getting really bad headaches for a couple days in a row that would only cease when i would fall asleep. The asprin i brought along was not helping at all. Once i realized I had not prayed about it I decided to try that. Within ten minutes my headache was gone i have not gotten another all day. Praise the Lord!
I enjoy all of your emails. The humor makes me smile and wish you were here with me. I miss you all much and can't wait to send pictures.

BOHOL!!!

Bohol was an amazing time! It was well needed. I had only been here for two weeks but it was great to step away from all of it and be with a bunch of tourists. We had to take two buses, four boat trips, a van and a taxi to get us to and from Tacloban to Bohol. It was about 10 hours of traveling time each way. But it was worth it! We were able to see the Tarsier monkeys ( the smallest in the world and they only live on the Island of Bohol) , Chocolate hills ( i took pictues of me trying to lick them), we took a boat up the Loboc river, walked across this crazy hanging bridge made up stripped bamboo... it was a little frightening. Nothing like Blanchard dam before they ruined it. On the other side of the bridge there were fried bananas.. wonderful! I loved them. Also there was a man there that said he could open a coconut with his teeth in 12 seconds. he was not lying! I taped it so you guys can see it too. There was a man made froest taht wasnt that interesting to me but the others liked it. We ate on a 'floating restuarnt' It is a boat/restuarant. It was pretty much just a tourist trap but i guess it was kind of fun. We got to see the Philippines largest Python. The guy(well girl, she/he was a tranny) said it was the biggest in the world but i don't trust his/her word at all. The weather this weekend was perfect. Very sunny and hot. On Sunday morning we went to watch the dolphins ( another tourist trap) We were told on saturday we would be on a specific boat and he said the driver was his best friend bla bla bla... we got there and it was a much smaller boat, and there were two very young boys (no older than 15) running our trip. We thought it was a little sketchy but we all got in anyway. About an hour and a half into the trip to see the dolphins we got close enough to another boat so they could talk. Sure enough... we didn't have enough gas and had to get some from the other boat. so after 10 minutes of trying to get the gas from on boat to the other we finally made it to where the other boats were already seeing the dolphins. We saw them... yes we saw them.... for about two seconds and our driver started driving AWAY from them while the other boats went toward them. Between you and me, i wasnt too excited to see the dolphins anyway. One girl with us HAD to see them so it was good we saw them at least for a second. We then went snorkeling. It was AMAZING. I saw all the fish in the movie Nemo. It was beautiful and the Coral was amazing. I touched everything and got to feed a lot of the fish. We saw a school of some kind of fish... there were thousands and thousands of them. They were big fish too! It made me want an aquarium in my house even more. But now i want it so big that I can swim with them again! :) We were able to get full body massages on the beach. They were one hour and 200 Pisos. ($5). It was great after all the traveling. We went to a butterfly conservatory and that was really neat. We got to let the butterflies fly all around us and i took a lot of pictures. The hotel we stayed in was pretty nice and we got groceries to make supper and breatkfast. It felt so wonderful to actually be cooking again. I miss it a lot. So who wants me to make them a meal first when i get home?? The shower in the hotel was warm... but it was salt water. It was really werid brushing my teeth and washing my hair with salt water. But at least it was warm?? We had oreos and I decided i like them now... only because it is like the only chocolate you can have and not melt everywhere! The beaches in Bohol are white.. i am not sure if i said that... but they are beautiful!
i eat So much fruit here all the time. i love Bananas too now! If anyone was wondering I do wear a skirt everyday still. I like it a lot. It is very refreshing and cool.
Things at school are going well. I am really excited because there is another volunteer coming on February 9th to help in the school. She is from Florida and studying ASL also. It will be so wonderful to sign ASL again with someone! Oh how i miss it.
Jerry, the man i live with has won the cock fight the last two sundays. So that is really exciting. He gets like 600-1000 Pisos when he wins. It is fun to see how proud he is. Hopefully i will get to go to the next one. I have been gone for the past two. I feel like i am missing something but i am not sure what... I can write it next time. I still havn't been able to upload any pictures. I am trying to get it worked out. There is one volunteer here who says he can help me. So we will see how it works out. Hope things are well. Thank you to all who are emailing me. I need it! For those of you who aren't emailing... you better comment on here! :)
love you all

the beach

I was able to go to the beach yesterday and again today. I went to two different beaches. Yesterday it was pretty crowded and there was a man taping us sun bathing. He was not trying to hide it either. He was standing almost on top of us while we were lying there... he was blocking our sun. It was ridiculous. We had to yell at him three times before he finally stopped taping.
This morning i lost my cell phone. I was super bummed and started praying right away that it was turn up somewhere. I especially need it for tomorrow morning when I go to Bohol. I knew that i had left if on the Jeepney because i had it right after class because i was texting one of the Deaf girls. I knew that it was almost a lost cause because there are SO many different Jeepney's. In the time i have been here i probably have not yet ridden the same one twice. And they all have different signs and can go where ever they want all over Tacloban where ever they think they will prosper most. Jerry ( the man i live with) started texting some of the drivers that he knows and ironically enough the same exact Jeepney that he drove for 6 years is the one that phone was left in. He is good friends with the driver so i was able to get my phone back!!! The Filipinos here told met that if they would have left their phone on the jeepney they would have just stopped looking. But I am blessed!
Today when i went to the beach there were not any people in one spot. it was very nice. Monica (from new zealand) was with me and we were just lying in the sun. I almost fell asleep when there was a shadow over me . I looked up and there were five Filipino girls standing around me smiling. It was kind of cute. But they would not leave us alone. I sat up and they sat all around my towel asking me all kind of questions. It was a little sad for me. Because they think i am the most woderful thing because I am white. When i tell them they are beautiful it is like this lie inside them comes through like they would never hear that word again. It so common around here with the women and girls alike. So we left the beach shortly after that because we couldn't get any sun anyway.
today was good. i will be leaving for Bohol in 7 hours. talk to you later.

this will be short.

yesterday i forgot to tell you a story. I decided to wear shorts to class and tennis shoes because it was pouring rain out. The boys at the school think it is funny to push eachother into me. I can usually see it coming and i hold my balance. Today i wasn't paying full attention because i was signing to Mario and one kid shoved another into me and i fell into a big ditch full of nasty and water. it was great. My legs and hands were covered in sludge. i managed to catch my self enough that my clothes stayed pretty dry. It was sure an event. Mario got really upset and tried to yell at the kids. It was the first time i had heard him try to speak. But i guess it wasn't that big of a deal. I am still alive and i didn't get hurt. they were just high school boys messing around.
I have been able to eat everything that is put in front of me. Even those tiny fish that are just fried and you can still see it as a whole fish. But this morning for breakfast i almost threw up several times in trying to eat what was put in front of me. You would never guess what it was... At 6:00am my mom made us Spaghetti! Also their version of hotdogs was cut up into it. I kid you not it was by the worst thing i have eaten here so far! Spaghetti for breakfast is not funny. gross.
today is sunny and 95degrees. I am meeting Marie-Eve and Audrey soon to go to the beach. I am SO excited! Also i leave for Bohol tomorrow morning at 4am! Pray for a safe trip for the four of us White North Americans! ;)

lots of love
Thursday January 23,2008 11:50am

it has been awhile

The internet has been down here for a couple days and I was in Cebu. So i have a lot to talk about.
Cebu is another Island and it took us about 8 hours total to get there. about 15 of us went from Tacloban. It was the big Festival of the year there. I do have to say it was not much at all. It was raining the whole time and it was very crowded. We woke up on Saturday morning and caught a Jeepney by 4:00am then we got on the bus in Tacloban city to Ormoc. It was a two hour bus (if you can call it that) up the bumpy mountain side. It was pretty intense and uncomfortable. JP sat with me and we bumped heads at least 20 times by accident. The Super cat is a big ferry that we took for another 2 hours across the ocean to get to Cebu. The hotel had a shower with kind of warm water but it was trickling out and hooked up to some kind of heater that didn't really work well. We went to this GIANT club/bar about 10:00 at night until about 5:00 in the morning. It was pretty fun. I danced a lot! there are four other volunteers that don't drink either so that was nice to be around. I didn't feel any pressure. Cebu had cabs instead of Jeepneys. They made you pay by meter. One guy turned off his meter and told us it wasn't working and we had to pay 200 pisos when the same distance there only cost us 100Pisos. So I argued with him until we got out. I paid him 100 Pisos and he got out yelling at us. the other girls wanted to just pay it but I explained to him that we were not going to be taken advantage of and if he really thought that it was 200 piso then he should get his meter fixed. (they have to have license in their window saying they have a working meter and he did!) So we only paid 100piso. I realize it isn't that big of a deal for us 100 piso but when they try to take advantage it isn't ok. that was my point. In Cebu the smells were a little worse than in Tacloban. I can't even begin to describe the smells! Also you always step in the weirdest things too. I don't know exactly what those things are but it was not fun. We finally got to sleep about 5:30 Sunday morning then we got up about 4 hours later to hit the Festival again. they had a huge parade! it was pretty neat but i was too short to take many pictures. we walked a lot. We took the super cat and bus back to Tacloban. One the bus ride back it was dark and JP told us that he would be surprised if we were not hijacked. because there were 6 white people on the one bus. He made it sound real believable even though i knew he was exaggerating i was not able to close my eyes the whole 2 hours of the trip down the mountain in the dark!! There are two girls from Quebec and they speak French .English is their 2nd language and they hardly ever spoke it before they came. They are really neat. When they were talking with me and JP(the irish guy) They had a hard time understanding him so i was interpreting Irish into English for them. It was really funny. They are great. The one girl, Audrey is really wonderful. We get a long great and have been doing everything together. She reminds me a lot of Brittany bye. she is my neighbor here in siriling Sikap so we are together a lot. She leaves a couple days before me so we will be together for a long time. It has been raining everyday. Yesterday everything flooded and the water was above my ankles to walk in!! (Bleh) But i had a great day yesterday. I think it was because i woke up to something amazing! I heard some horrible music from outside my room and as i was getting ready i kept thinking.. this is the worst music i have ever heard. It was SO bad! I walked out of my room and the man of the house was siting on the couch alone singing Karoke! It was Hilarious!! I was not expecting that at all! My rash is gone on my ears and i am feeling great! every once in a while i will not feel the best but it always passes. I think that it is because of the intense smells. I hope everyone at home is having a good time. Let me know what you guys are up to also!
I have not gone to the beach yet because it has been raining! Audrey and I are going to try to go to one beach tomorrow afternoon after our placement. Hopefully it won't be raining. This weekend Audrey, Marie-Eve, Richard (from Ontario) and i are going to Bohol. They have the worlds smallest monkeys there and also the chocolate Hills. they have nice beaches there so I hope that we will get to go there too. We leave early Friday morning (4am again) and we have to take another super cat to get there because it is a different island.
I know there has been a lot more that has happened but I have been on here long enough. So i will let somone else use it. I love you all and miss you much. I appreciate your comments!!
January 22,2008 4:37pm

rain

It rained all day today! It made everything very humid but i am glad that i bought an umbrella yesterday because it was pouring in between each of my classes i went to. We had hotdogs for breakfast this morning. they tasted a lot different and Tes couldn't tell me what was in them. but they didn't taste bad. Also i forget to mention in my last blog that McDonalds has take out here. The people here pee where ever they want. When i was walking yesterday in town i saw a woman(probably in her 40s) just squatting on the side of the street peeing. I was surprised! But now i know why it always smells like urine! The mothers are always breast feeding their babies too. sometimes they will have their entire shirt off their shoulders and around their back to have easy access. Everyone here begs me for money everywhere I go as well. My classes are going well and the Deaf are learning that they can no longer depend on the hearing students for answers. They are very smart but have learned that they don't have to do their own work because the teacher doesn't know how to explain anything to them. I told them that now I am here and if they have a question i can ask the teacher and I will interpret for the teacher when they talk. but it went well today. I kept telling them i was proud of them and they are very smart. They thank me all the time for stopping my school to help them understand theirs. I know that this is where I need to be. I have emailed the center in Minneapolis and told them they need to find a replacement immediately for when i leave here. I am looking with the center here to have another girl come as early as February so we will have two interpreters for the Deaf. Right now I can only be at one classroom at a time and It is not fair to the other Deaf so I feel bad. The resources here are low also. The teacher had one box of 16 crayons and she had to break them up into pieces so everyone could have a color for a certain assignment. I was sad about that. Mario is one of my favorite Deaf students. His mother is in Australia. This morning he showed me that he brought an envelope so he can write his mom a letter. It took him two weeks to be able to get an envelope. This afternoon he took it out to write the address and the humidity had already sealed it shut. It was the saddest face I have ever seen! I spent 20 minutes slowly peeling it apart so you can't tell it was already sealed. That was one of the most devastating moments for me. But classes are going well.
I have a rash on both of my ears. I am not sure why. You can not see it but i can feel it and my ears are burning a little bit. Today I am changing my sheets at my home stay because Tes said that might make a difference.
ok... i am going to help teach some classes for the younger kids here at the center. I hope you are all doing well! miss you much!
January 17 Thursday 3:20 pm

McDonalds

I would be lying if i told you that everythign has been great. Yesterday was very tough and i cried a lot. The school where I am interpreting has a special ed class that wanted me to help teach. I didn't want to and was trying to turn the teacher down several times. Finally she asked me if i could for only 20 mins. I agreed. She told me to teach them english and then she left. I was not sure what to do because they were all talking in Waray Waray and I already don't understand them but then you add the mental disorders on top of it. The teacher didn't come back for and hour and 15 minutes. It was horrible! I have no patience for 15 MC Filipinos. Also i came here to be with the Deaf so I had to miss the Sophomore science class to be with the MC kids. I was very upset. I think everything jsut caught up with me. I came back to my placement and I cried a lot. There was a party for on e of the volunteers that left today and I went but I ended up leaving because I cried. There is one volunteer who makes me smile all the time because he is Irish. So anytime he says anything he makes me smile because he has a thick accent. But he talked to me a lot last night about Deaf around the world and it really made me feel better. He is great. But tomorrow he is going to another Island here in the Philippines to volunteer for a month. He has been here for a month already and he will come back to Tacloban for one more month. So at least he is coming back But I am trying to get involved more with things that are going on now that the time change isn't effecting me much anymore. As i said before they us French Sign Language here. As I had prayed and sobbed over to my Jesus it has come pretty fast to me. Today was great with the Deaf kids. I spent about an hour and a half praying and preparing for the day. It went very well. The students in science were able to really learn what the lesson was about. The teacher said taht it is the first time they ahve finished a quiz and gotten every answer correct. I ddin't give them any answers but i made the question very clear to them. I was so proud of them. They learned the Water Cycles today. Everywhere I go the boys sing that stupid song, " You're way too beautiful girl" When i get home I don't ever want to hear that again!!!! After interpreting today i met another volunteer at Mcdonalds. Her name is Monica and she is from New Zealand. We went and looked at the different shops. There is a lot of stuff that is really interesting to me. Also i like to bargin! I rode my first threewheeler yesterday. It is just a motorcylcle with a fancy side car and roof. Also today i rode my first bike. It is the same set up but with a bicycle. It was alot of fun. I liek that the best but it is very slow and costs the same amount of money. It is 25cents american everytime you get on a vehicle. The Mcdonalds here has everything. They ahve chicken wings, breasts, rice, spaghetti, and everything we normally have. But all the meals are at least 1/3 of the size of american mcdonalds. even the soda glasses are very small. Their large is smaller than our small! But that is good. then i won't be eating a lot i guess. it is so hot that i am not very hungry anyway. i drink a lot of water. My homestay buys mineral water for me. It is one of their requirements. OHHH... so everyone here wants to have white skin. They have whitening lotion. like our tanning lotion. they think i am crazy when I explain to them tanning beds and our tanning lotions. It is kind of ironic.
It is wednesday afternoon 4:30. You guys can email me about what is going on. it is nice to hear from home.

toni.ripplinger@gmail.com

my first day

It is funny that not everyone speaks english but they all can sing it. Filipinos sing ALL the time! I hear Colby Colait and Brittany Spears(the old stuff) alot. There are roosters all over the place that are being raised for cock fights. My homestay is raising one right now and said i can go with when he fights him. They told me the rooster would crow to wake me up but it crowed at least two times everyhour last night. But in spite I think i slept well. The bathroom is like half a toilet and they don't use toilet paper here. To flush you just dump more water down and it clears it out. To shower there is a bucket that is filled with water and there is a smaller bucket inside(the same used to "flush" the toilet. I have to use the smaller bucket to distribute the water. It is freezing cold and will take a little bit to get used to. My family does have a shower but it only works one hour out of the day and not for the entire hour. I don't plan on using it ever because the couple i live with get up and shower in the morning. I guess i am lucky cause the other homestays don't even have a shower head to look at. :) Nobody has mirrors around here. Some stores that sell sunglasses may have a small one but it is usually too dirty to see into. I have one outlet in my room and it already has the american outlet. I am not sure why as this family has had 6 volunteers before me and I am the first from america. There are 14 volunteers right now doign other things through this program here and I am the only American. But they come and go pretty regularily. 1 month seems to be the longest stay but there are two other guys that are staying the same amount as me. They are both from the UK. I have also eaten meat at every meal so far and also some type of fruit. The other volunteers say the never get fruit. Last night i even had some carrots and potatoes. The woman I am living with, Tes, doesn't let me help clean up or make the meal. It is hard to get used to. I gave her the pancake mix and syrup this morning and explained it to her. She thinks it is wonderful and can't wait to try it. She did ask me to help her make that. I told her we can use it to prepare fish also. So she was really excited. Nobody here has alarm clocks either. They just get up. The countertops at my homestay are really low... almost to my hips but not quite (you were right Dad).
Today was my first day going to the School and meeting the kids. I was very surprised upon arrival to find out that they speak French Sign Language.. Not ASL. They are pretty simular but they have some MAJOR differences too. Luckily for me there is one Deaf from Australia that knows both pretty good. He can atleast figure out what i am trying to say most of the time. Two letters of the alphabet are signed differently too and that is hard to adapt to. But i will be interpreting during different classes from 8:00 in the morning until 4 or 5 at night. I have two hours for lunch. I Interpreted my first class after two hours of conversing with this other guy who helped me learn the major differences and i tried to adapt them well into my interpretation. In Filipino classrooms it is VERY loud. there is not a door and the windows are open so you have to noise from outside too. The teacher keeps talking even when all of the kids are talking. So ti was a little hard to hear. Also he would say phrases in Waray Waray at times, which I clearly don't know. So it was a challenge. It is going to be really difficult to get it all inline but I know it will be fast. I already learned A LOT to day and have adjusted well. I just hope i remember ASL when i return home. :) I am the first volunteer at this school so they are just trying to feel it out too. Tomorrow is my first day doign everything on my own. So i will see how that goes. The jeepneys are crazy drivers but nobody gets into accidents. I am planning on going to Cebu this weekend with the other Volunteers for a big Festival. So hopefully that will be a good time for me to get into the swing of things. I have been really standoffish so far and everyone calls me the shy one.(i know right!)
hopefully more tomorrow on how things are going.
much love

So much to say.

It is January 13th 8:25 in the morning on Sunday. Surprisingly I am very awake. I havn't slept much but God has been so good to me already.
As soon as i sat in my seat from Minneapolis to Tokyo I knew I was not going to be alone. A great friend wrote me a note to read on the plane and she told me not be lonely at all and spend a lot of time with God. From that moment on I have felt no nervousness or hesitation.
I sat next to a woman named Susan and a man named Dino the whole flight. They are both Filipino and told me everything i needed to know. The first thing they both said almost in sync when I told them where I was going was "Dye your hair!" they were not completely serious but it is a consideration. we will see how the first day goes. So far it isn't my hair but my skin mostly. I was with Dino and Susan the entire time between flights as well. They had me practice my Taglag with them. Dino is from FL and visiting his sick mother and Susan is from TX and her husband's cousin died so she is here for a funeral.
Susan has a sister who works in Customs at the Filipino airport in Manila. One thing i did not know was that my connecting flight from Manila to the Tacloban city was in a different airport. As soon as I gathered my luggage susan's sister had TWO security gaurds take my luggage and they expained to me that she is their superior and they were goign to take care of me. They were very concerned that I was flying alone and with white skin. But it was like having my own body gaurds. Everyone had to open up each peice of luggage and they were digging through eveything. These men just said some stuff in Filipino and i was waved. I walked passed all customs with them. I met susan again where the taxis and buses were waiting. Her sister took us two and the two security men in her 4-runner to the next airport. It was like I was a princess. God placed these people there so I would not get lost. I don't know what i would have done with out them. I at least would have been a little stressed. susan hugged and kissed me goodbye as the security officers came with me. I ddin't even have to get my papers out as they explained i was with them once again. They helped me get my ticket to the Tacloban city and weigh my bags. My bags were 7lbs over but they explained what I was doing and they called me a saint. The men working there congragulated and thanked me and I was not charged a fee.
Once I arrived at the Tacloban city there was NO one there to pick me up. I had to explain to many taxi drivers that I was not a hooker. I didn't see any sign of anyone that looked trustworthy so I started to pray again. In no time a man came to me and I was not nervous of him. He yelled at the other men to get away from me. I explained that I have someone to pick me up and he asked if i was a missionary. I told him what I was doing and he said he talks to God and God answers him too. I had the number to the World endeavors here in the TAC city so he let me use his cell phone to call them. They thought i was arriving tomorrow for some reason. He said he would wait with me until they arrived. He did. and told several people to leave me alone. It was a blessing. In about 20 minutes the woman arrived and now I am here at the center! :) I have met two volunteers so far. One is from Canada and one is from Ireland. God has already done so much. Thank you for praying and please continue!

(Oh yeah... susan and I will be friends for a long time. She has a neice that has gone through the same things as I have but she is on medication because she has severe depression. she asked my why I don't and I told her that I have Jesus instead. She wants me to talk with her neice. Pray for that too. Her name is Amy.)

MUCH LOVE,

Toni

Preperation...Anticipation...Leaving the Nation!

So... it is January 10th 11:47pm. I leave tomorrow morning to board my flight to the Philippines. I have a 20 hour plane ride with a 2 hour layover in Tokyo Japan. I will try to update this and let everyone who cares know how I am doing. I like doing it this way because if you really care you can check yourself instead of me sending you emails to remind you that I am not at home anymore. :)

I finished all my shopping today and I am pretty sure I have everything ready to go! I was told I had a 70lb weight limit on my luggage. I thought I was doing great when i weighed my luggage at home at 51lbs. I then reread my plane ticket information and my second flight only allows 44lbs. So I either have to downsize in the morning or try to fit 7 lbs into a carry on. (not happening!)

There have been several challenges already but WAY more sucesses and I know that I am in the middle of God's will and i hear that is the safest place to be. :)

Any questions just post them or email me at toni.ripplinger@gmail.com
I am not sure how often I will have internet access there but as soon as I do I will post to let you know I have made it!


MUCH LOVE AND I WILL MISS YOU ALL...

Toni