Pagbag-O (bring change)

I like that i am learning Waray while i am here. It is a lot of fun. people get excited when you try to communicate with them in their own language. I have been trying a couple more traditional Filipino foods. Balute is the baby duck egg that is a specific amount of days old and you eat it. When i ordered it down by the ocean the guy asked... 15,16,17, or 18? I was like... um just one please. then i realized that you choose how old the duck is that you want to eat. HA> So i got the 18 day old duck egg because i figured it would be the most developed. It didn't taste that bad. LIke a really salty boiled egg. But i hate boiled eggs. I also recently tried Cuttlefish. If you don't know what it is you should look it up. They are gross. But had seen pictures before coming here so when it was on the menu i thought it would be funny to try... nope. it was gross. REALLy gross. they have way more suction cups than the squid... and i have a hard time swallowing the squid already. But i got through it. The rain was VERY bad here in Tacloban the past two days. I have some amazing pictures. the roads were flooded and i didn't go out side because the water was above my boots. In my house my room flooded and we had to move everything out and put down towles. but it was the flood that came from the side of the walls again.. not bucket worthy. there was no way to prevent it from going everywhere besides towels on the floor. I have been seeing a lot of mice in my room so i bought a sticky trap yesterday.. there were 3 mice in it this morning. JErry noticed i bought one and bought some more.. when i got home he said he had put more in my room and while i was gone he had caught 8 more. IN MY ROOM. and my room is very tiny. for those of you who have been to my mom and dads... it is a tiny bit bigger than their bathroom. very small. only a bed and small dresser fit. and th door hits the dresser everytime i try to open it. so that is a lot of mice for that small area. But that is ok. Anyway.. i don't have much time and i am getting tired. I hope to hear from all of you. things are getting pretty tough and i could use some encouraging emails.
miss you all..

February 28 9:38pm

It is kind of sunny today.

All of the soda is in glass bottles here. If you don’t stay in the restaurant to drink it they pour it into a bag and stick a straw in it for you. I am explaining this now because I had my first experience of this yesterday. For some reason I had convinced myself from the beginning that it was not sanitary. But Patrick stressed that the restaurant was too full for us to stay and eat and that this was my only choice. So I gave in. It really wasn’t that big of a deal but it was a new experience for me. This coming Monday there is no school because it is Revolution Day or something. I am not sure… they make every excuse I can think of to not have school! But I will be able to finally go on my first excursion since I have been here. I think we are going to see the San Juanico bridge. It connects Leyte and Samar. I am pretty excited about that. It still has not stopped raining. I broke my umbrella in three places and had to buy a new one. Patrick is always saying that I am very careless and he worries about me all the time when I am not with him. He is convinced that I almost get run over like 10 times a day and he is always catching me before I step in something. But I remind him that I am on my own a lot more than I am with him and I have some how managed so far. J So anyway he helped me pick out a new umbrella. I however, don’t believe it will rain much longer so I just wanted a really cheap one. He is big into quality and I frankly… just want something that will keep the rain off my head and clothes. He finally gave in to a cheap one I bought off the street. He explained to me how I have to be careful with it because it will break easy like the last one. I rolled my eyes and thought “good grief I wasn’t born yesterday.” We only got about 10 minutes into our walk to school and I broke the top off the new umbrella from swinging it around and using it as a walking stick. HA. But you don’t NEED the top.. I think it is just for decoration. Needless to say… Patrick still thinks I am careless and I am starting to believe him. I woke up this morning at 2am after going to bed around 9pm. I went to the center and helped fry chicken and make spaghetti for 100 people in Ormoc today. We left at 5 am and had a 3 hour van ride to get there. But I was able to hang out with JP and Liam again. I spent the night at Liam’s and then we came back to Tacloban on Saturday because it was his birthday. I put together a surprise party for him before I left so when we arrived in Tacloban all the volunteers had decorated. It was pretty fun. Tonight is the Grand Finale of Leyte Idol and May, the head volunteer coordinator, got all the volunteers front row tickets. So that is going to be pretty cool. This past weekend I went to Ormoc to work with the street kids. It was amazing and heart breaking all at the same time. We bought them food and brought them gifts of crayons, color books, papers, pencils and several other things they don’t have. Some of them are 9 years old and have never held a pen. Liam was teaching them how to hold a pen! It was pretty devastating yet beautiful at the same time. These are the kids Liam has been working with this past month. He leaves on Wednesday So I am taking the trip to Ormoc again tomorrow and going to work with the street kids along with Liam for his last two days here. The kids are amazing! Another Volunteer arrived last week from Minneapolis. He is 55 years old and HIV positive. His story is pretty interesting.

so.. it is still raining

i realize that i already wrote rain in a few titles... but that is what is going on here. A lot of houses are under water and and many have water above my knee. I helped some families yesterday put up shelves to keep their electronics out of the flooding in their houses. My room began to get wet recently. The only problem is that the water is coming from the floor up... so it is not bucket worthy. no way to "catch" the water. I just have towels down and keep my things in a different place. It is ok though. I am not worried about it. The rain will pass. The weather says it will be raining for one more week. It is kind of bumming me out a little. But i bought a rain coat and boots. I wear them almost everyday despite everyones embarrassment of me. I like to stay dry. Things are going smoothly with the organization. The meeting with the president was postponed until next week because there is flooding at the college. The school hasn't had class for a week because of the rain and flooding at the teacher's homes as well as at the school. I have had a little more time to work on things for the Organization. I am going to Ormoc on Friday morning to help out with the Street kids there. Then i am staying the night with another volunteer, Liam. His birthday is on Saturday so we are coming back to Tacloban together and i have planned out a day for him here. I am planning a surprise party for him with the other Volunteers on Sat. night so that should be a lot of fun. But since he is normally in Ormoc i planned a day in Tacloban for him to see everything before he leaves back to Australia in a week. I am trying to take time for myself to stay rested. I had a bad fever and felt really sick yesterday morning. My eyes were really swollen and i felt horrible. the Coordinator of VFV wanted me to go to the doctor. But i told them to wait another hour. So i prayed that I would be healed of whatever was goign on and that i would not be sick anymore. (plus i am not to sure about a hospital here.) Anway... within an hour my eyes had gone down and my fever was completely gone. within two hours my eyes were pretty much back to normal... :) So i was able to go back to evertyhing. PRAISE THE LORD! I guess i won't be bragging about everyone else getting sick instead of me. OK... don't have much time. I will be back in three weeks. I can't believe it! I love you all and miss you much. Keep me in your prayers.

More rain

Everything here is flooded. It is still raining. Many houses are flooded and The water in many places is almost knee high for me. So the boots i bought are not doing much besides weighing me down. :) I am writing a proposal now to the LNU president for using their space as well as seeing if they will start an FSL class as an elective to get the hearing interested and eventually that they would set up an interpreting program for them to get a degree and work in the schools so the Deaf students can learn equally among the hearing. This will take a while but it is worth bringing it up while i finally have her in front of me. That is my long term goal here in the Philippines is to get that set up. I had to buy contact solution the other day because i am running low... it took me a long time to finally find some because not many here wear them. But it was 7$ for the same solution i buy in the US for $3. Because they don't have it anywhere else. So that was a bummer having to buy that. But it was a necessity. Right now there are three poor Filipino boys staring at me through the window and I am trying to ignore them. Ok.. so here is one quick story that doesn't pertain to me... and i am very glad. One of the volunteers had a soggy roof because of all the rain and three cats got ontop and the board caved in on what happend to be his bed. While he was sleeping three of them landed on him and started scratching because they were in the bug net. He started screaming and the homestays came upstairs and chased the cats out. But he was pretty scratched and has to get rabis shots now. I am not very sensitive and couldn't stop laughing when he was telling me and showing me his wounds. He, however did not think it was as funny as I did.
There is a lot more to update but I am too busy with the proposal right now.
much love.

So busy.

So yesterday the water in my burungay was turned off. I guess a few people heard about it on the news about two hours before it happened but of course… my house was not one of them. I never “shower” at night but chose to last night… I was almost done in the “shower” and the water stopped working. I had enough left in the bucket to finish, as well as enough to save to “flush” the toilet for the next day. So I didn’t feel too selfish. But I guess the government decided they needed to prepare for something. I wasn’t sure what that meant. Someone told me today that they are preparing for the effects of the Typhoon! I never realized until today that I don’t really know what a typhoon is. I guess the other province is having a small Typhoon and that is why it has been pouring rain here for the past five days. Normally February is not very rainy. I am ok with the rain though.. I can’t find time for the beach anyway. Yesterday I ran into some complications with the organization I am setting up(E.A.R.N.). The hearing man that is helping us(Romy) really made me feel a little uneasy about him. When I discussed it with Patrick and Nilo they agreed that maybe something isn’t so right. I felt like possibly he didn’t have the right intention. I am not sure. But I have a bad feeling about it. We had a meeting today with VFV(the organization I am here with) and they agreed to partner with my new organization. When I leave they will really be taking it over until I can return and help out more often. I know that I can trust them and they will be taking care of all the mail as well as the accounting and finances. So I am now at ease for when I leave until I can return. I am seriously considering moving here for good in the future. May and Aldos are the head of VFV and they pulled me aside today and told me that I am a natural born Leader. They asked me to partner with them when I go to America. I would be their first and only contact in America. This means when I get home I will advertise their organization as well as my new one I have set up here. I will take the applications myself and review the people who are willing to come and serve. I will be completely in charge of deciding who will come and help with the Deaf but they will deal with the other applications for orphanages, hospitals, ect. I will receive a small commission but most importantly I will be able to have the resources and credibility behind me when promoting the new organization I have started. My hope is that other people will be willing to serve here and the equality between Deaf and hearing will move a lot faster. I have begun to discuss an elective course in FSL to be set up at LNU(Leyte Normal University) and EVSU(Eastern Visayas Sector University) but this takes a lot of time and I can’t go directly to the president. I have been getting used to this because the American in me wants to go straight to the person who can say yes. But that isn’t possible here. However… May has connections with the LNU president and she is going to see if we are able to get a meeting this next Tuesday. It would be great to get the hearing interested in FSL and in the (very far) future I hope to help set up some type of interpreting program so it will be a profession here and the Deaf students will be able to learn equally in the classroom. But that is a project far off. I have been praying a lot about all of this and I have never had more peace in my life than now. I have been so blessed to be a part of all of this. I am now in charge of One organization, soon to start a second when I return home, then I have also become a member of the LCOD(Leyte Christian Organization for the Deaf) I am hoping to become a board member once I return. At the moment I have not enough time to commit to that yet. Although I have helped them write the vision and mission statement. J Things are going great. I love you all. Thanks so much for the emails. Please keep them coming. I know I can’t respond long and I can’t update my blog very often.. but know I am thinking of you all the time. Keep me in your prayers and continue to share what God is doing here with everyone you meet!

My words are not enough

Yesterday I went to the beach with shannon… the new volunteer. It was kind of raining so we just went to sit on the beach for a little bit. Anyway there were two wild cows far away and she thought it was so funny. But I see it all the time. And I grew up on a farm. J anyway.. after like 10 minutes they started coming really close to us and we were the only ones on the beach because it was kind of raining. She got scared and I told her we were fine that they are not going to do anything. And I kid you not I hardly finished my sentence and they started charging at us! ON THE BEACH! She panicked and I yelled at her not to move. I said just stay still. They came SO fast but here was no where to run or find safety.. we were on the beach! They came SO close but they stopped dead in their tracks right before demolishing us. I started laughing so hard I was crying and practically peed myself. Shannon was really scared… ok. I was a little concerned. But they ended up not hurting us and went the other way. I am sure it would have been worse for us to get up and try to out run them. Anway.. it was super funny to me and she said I was crazy for laughing that hard. Liam also said that I was crazy for laughing when we saw this Giant toad.. the biggest toad I have EVER seen… even on T.V. smashed to bits on the road. I thought it was so funny and couldn’t stop laughing but he said it was cruel. J I think Chanda and Krystal took all the compassion for animals and I have none. Ah well.

I can not begin to explain to you the great things that I am able to be a part of here. Today I went to Dulog with a group of Deaf friends. I met a few more Deaf yesterday and a couple again today. It was amazing. I went to the church service this morning that was for the Deaf and these people touched me so much! The pastor(Nilo) started preaching right from the bible about hypocrites. He said that through much prayer and preparation that he felt there was one of the Deaf among them who was not living a moral life and hiding from God during the week only to come and meet the Deaf on Sundays. He explained how he felt God was telling him that this person really only wanted to communicate with other Deaf but had no interest in God at all. He went on to say that this person is still very welcome to come but that they should hang out a lot more during the week and not just on Sundays. One of the Deaf started crying and crying and confessed that it was him. He said he didn’t really believe anything that Pastor was talking about until that moment. He was told God that if he was real he would call him out in front of the others who are the same as he. It was amazing. I cried. Also I cried when I was watching the closing prayer. It was so sincere and you could tell he was Connected to God! It was amazing. After three weeks of no contact with anyone who believed in the same God as me and now I am exposed to these people who trust in Him completely! They began to tell me how they know I am sent here by God and that the things I am doing here have been prayed for for a long time. I told them about my journey to come here and they keep telling me over and over again that God took their prayers and nudged me to come. Because I obeyed things are going to continue to happen. This is all things I have known but it is so great to have the reassurance from others here. AND they are Deaf so that is a bonus for me! The past two days Patrick and I have been together trying to brain storm about the vision and mission statement for LCOD as well as the logos for that and E.A.R.N.-H.I. We have pretty much got it close to done but there is a lot more involved for the brochures, programs, tshirts… a lot of things need to happen yet. But I am confident that all things will continue to go smooth. And Patrick has been very encouraging to me with all of this. I am so blessed to have met him. I am really going to have a hard time when I have to leave here… although I am already planning when I can financially come back. Eveyone here keeps telling me different days that would be best to come. My credit card is not being accepted online(yes mom and dad… my new one) to buy my plane ticket back home so maybe I will end up staying here the rest of my life. Except there is my school loans, car loan, Taxes in April, car and health insurance, I could go on. I will continue to trust in God and all will go well. Brian… I will save all my pictures for you.. don’t give in to facebook my friend. Holli… I havn’t heard from you in awhile.. tell me how you are… mom and dad: get an email account so I don’t have to broadcast when I want to tell you something… Kevin: keep doing well in Basketball. Everyone else.. much love and keep me in touch. I love to hear from home even though I say I want to stay here. I miss you all very much!

These are all the Deaf in the Elementary. I don't interpret for any of them but I get to hang out with them during my time off at the High School.

This is me and patrick teaching the differences in FSL, ASL, and SEE to the children at school. Patrick is the Deaf boy who goes to EVSU(the college here) I am interpreting for him now as well.
sorry i can't turn the picture. I am figuring this out. This is one of the boys involved with Leyte Idol. It is really fun to see live. It is every Sunday night. He was pretty good. :)


hope you are all doing well.

some more news

The other volunteer showed up yesterday. She isn't an interpreter and actually is really nervous about signing in general. She has only taken 3 years of ASL and she doesn't want to interpret. So i am trying to teach her some FSL and hopefully she will pick it up. I am pretty bummed cause i was expecting a lot of help from her. I am very busy now all day long. From early morning until late at night. I have no time for anything. I will probably come home as white as when i left! :) but i am ok with that. As long as i get to keep having an amazing time here with the Deaf kids. I get to go to a fiesta with them on Monday. Also there is a christain organization here called LCOD (leyte Christian Organization for the Deaf) I was asked to be a part of it today even though i am hearing. The Deaf kids said they were all talking about it and they know that I feel the same things they feel and they know i love the Lord. So i agreed to be a part of that Organization. They have a two year anniversary coming in April that i WISH i could be here for but i can't stay that long! I was asked to write the Mission statement for the organization! I am super honored. I will be working on that tomorrow after i go to another meeting. They are meeting from 1 to 4 again. I am so blessed to be a part of this group. We have come up with a name for the other organiztion that I am helping start.
E.A.R.N.- H.I (employment assistance resource network for the Hearing Impaired). We need a logo and a brochure and a bunch of other things for that yet too. Me and patrick will be meeting to set all of that up. Patrick is a part of LCOD also. So i am pretty excited that God has placed these amazing people here to take care of me.
I might not be making much sense cause i am SUPER tired. So i will stop writing now. Much more has happend i feel but i am not sure what else to write.

This is very Important!!!!

I apologize for not writing in so long. Also this post is very important. If you normally skim through I would ask that you wait until you have enough time to read this one all the way through in its entirety. The most important thing that I will probably ever be a part of has entered my life in the past week.

Upon my arrival I was interpreting but I was frustrated with the things I saw. I was also surprised at how the Deaf were given NO opportunity. But I have explained that already in the previous posts. I began to pray about how I can be of some other help here. It seemed impossible. Since last Thursday I have met some very phenomenal people that are helping to change this part of the world. I began to talk with some people that shared the vision I had for the Deaf here to get jobs. Over the weekend we started a small organization consisting of Me, A powerful Filipino hearing man who knows no sign but is passionate about helping out the underdog in his country..Romy, a Deaf Christian missionary..Nilo, and a well established Deaf college student..Patrick (the only one here because his family has money). Together we came up with a plan to get the Deaf students who are graduating high school job opportunities. We had a meeting yesterday with the Hotel and Restaurant Management board of Leyte. I wrote up a proposal for the possibility of having a two week training period for the Deaf to become waiters and Waitresses. Here in the Philippines you must be trained to work in a restaurant, they have a course for it at the colleges. I was able to explain why I believe these students can do the job equally as the hearing people. I spoke for awhile convincing them that this is in turn, going to help the well being of the entire country by employing the Deaf. I gave examples of some Deaf in America who are very well off. Patrick was there and explained his life and how he has been really successful in his work. He is going to college here to become an interior Designer and he is AMAZING! I have seen a few of his drawings and he has even won competitions in Manila for some of his work. They were really impressed and they realized when I was voicing for him that he is just as intelligent if not more intelligent than many of the hearing. I was SO happy. They were convinced and they passed my proposal!!!!!!! The only thing is they said they would rather it be 5 consecutive Saturdays instead of two weeks straight. This way the students can be trained Before they graduate and start working right out of high school. They agreed to hire the Deaf as equal among the hearing as long as they complete the training we will be setting up for them. SO… the next step.. I am in the process of writing a letter the the Leyte Normal University president to see if we can use one of their rooms. Also I am requesting that some of the students who are taking classes to manage restaurants volunteer to train the students on the assigned Saturdays. I am not sure if this will go over very well but I know that this is a part of God’s will. And I believe that anything in God’s will… will never lack God’s resources. So I am going all out and asking for the gold! Patrick is nervous because going directly to the president is going to be hard for him. But I know that this is the only option we have right now. We just need facilities and sponsors. The Deaf students do not have enough money to attend the training. I figure it will be about 100 Pesos ($2.50) each Saturday per Deaf student and there are about 15 that want to go through the training. So we will need to find Sponsors for the time. The students agreed that once they are certified they will help pay back the sponsors once they get the jobs. And my dream, the Deaf agreed, is that when they are certified and working they will be the ones to do the training for the next generation who want to work in the hotel and restaurant industry. So far it is going really well. I have no extra time and I can not go to the beach or on any of the excursions with the other Volunteers but I would not have it any other way. I know now why I came. None of us four involved in this new organiztion could have done this on our own… we needed each other. Now something is going to be done. This will be the first time Deaf in this country are able to work outside of a family business. It is a revolution among the Deaf culture here and I have the honor to be a part of it. I almost cry every time I think of the depth of what is happening!!!!!!! AHH… God is amazing and I always knew I was made for more than what I was doing in America! I almost don’t want to come home but I know that I must.

One other thing… There is one Deaf boy that is GREAT at cutting hair and it is really his passion. He dreams of owning a barber shop one day. He has talked to me about it everyday since I got here. Now that all of this has started I have no fear. I am talking with a man who owns a barber shop here to see if he will allow Genaro to at least “intern” at his barber shop. It is going to take a lot of convincing but he said he is considering allowing him to work there. Please be in prayer for that. It would be a step toward this boys dream! But it is going to take me talking to this man everyday. Which I have been doing and will do everyday until I leave!

I am getting a little tired out at times so you can pray for health and strength for me. Also for all the plans that are being set up to go smoothly and we would all have strength to stand up for this culture that is so looked down upon right now.

I experienced my first Cock fight. It was loud, dirty, and there were like four women including me and Tes. I am not so sure I would go back again on purpose. Although.. it is supposed to be 200 Pesos for sitting Ringside… Tes did a little sweet talking and said because I was a foreigner I should get a good seat to take pictures. We got in for free. I thought it was kind of funny. But it did cost us a lot to get to the place in Fare.

Ok… much love and I will try to update on how everything is going.

Chanda… I bought you a really awesome coach purse here.. but I have been using it the past couple days for these meetings because I have to appear professional with what I have. J I have other stuff for you though.

God is Good

The past two days have been AMAZING! In my recent posts i was explaining how it is kind of difficult being the only Christian here. I have been praying for something to come along so i can be in fellowship with others who strive to serve the same God as I. Two days ago i was able to meet a few more Deaf people from around Tacloban and one was a Deaf man who moved from America (but he is Filipino) and has set up a Deaf devotional group on Sunday's. He is an amazing man of God and told me all about the calling on his life. It was nice to talk to him because ASL was his first language but he know uses FSL all the time. He was a little rusty with ASL as he hasn't used it in 21 years. None the less it was really neat to attend one of his meetings. The Deaf kids i interpret for at school were there along with many others from all around Leyte(the island Tacloban is on) I received a text yesterday asking me to come and interpret at a coffee shop. The man had got my number from the woman who tells me where to interpret at school. So i showed up and much to my surprise he was a very well off Filipino man, hearing, and didn't know any sign language. So i interpreted for the meeting between him and the Deaf girl. After he gave her 50Pesos to get home. (it costs only 6) I was really confused at his intentions so i asked him staight up what his plan was. And why he wanted to help this Deaf girl get a job HERE in the Philippines. I asked him if he knew that it was next to impossible. Then he asked if he could take me to eat for interpreting and we could discuss it then. I was intriged so i aggreed. Here this man was really messed up in the government setting up Illegal gaming corporations. He would get 10,000 pesos a day and would pay of the cops on a regular basis. It was very surprising for me to be hearing these stories first hand. For two hours he explained to me the horrible things he had done and the different times he almost lost his life or took another. He was convicted for many years before he decided to leave the business. He was asked to stay and would recieve 100,000 pesos a day. It was a hard decision but he knew he had to leave. He became a christian and stepped away from all of that. He began a Catering business here and now wants to help the Deaf and Disabled to get jobs. He met a woman who is supposed to help these people but he said she has no compassion for them so he is doing it out of the goodness of his heart. He is not getting paid for this but his heart went out. i was a little surpirsed that there was a woman who already had the job i have been trying to set up here. But now I am teaming with Him and another woman i met the other day who has the same heart as me(Gemma) and we want to get things set up for all the Deaf. we are not sure yet what it will be but there will be some type of program or several programs in the making before i leave. I have the ideas, Romy has the financial and power, and Gemma has the will and heart to help everything get done. These relationships over the past two days have been more than I could have asked for. God is really working here. I am so glad that i am able to be a part of what will change this countries view on the Deaf!!!! I hope that everything can continue to go smooth. But much prayer is needed and appreciated form all of you at home. Pray specifically about this!!! there is much more to say but i am goign to go to the market with Tes soon.
much love