Thursday - Dumaguete

We started our Thursday with a long bumpy ride up to the mountain community of Timbao.  It's amazing that many of these people come to the worship service at LCP each Sunday.  It's a hard trek.

I'm starting to get used to getting flowers everywhere.  I received my largest handful here.  I even received one I dubbed the club.  What a heavy but beautiful flower.  It looks like someone weaved it out of bamboo.

Half of our group taught a preschool while the other half taught a bible study.  The kids are so wonderfully behaved and friendly.  Everyone was very friendly.  They all kept offering me a chair.  I had to stand for a little while after that trek to ease my back.  The rain started then, making the rest of the trip rather interesting.  After the classes we had fruit and some rice cakes.  I of course had budbud again.

We then headed further into the mountains to see the home of one of the sponsored kids.  It was an even rougher journey.  People from the bible study greeted us when we got there.  I guess the walking trails are faster than the roads.  The view, although overcast, was amazing.  You could see down to the ocean.  Only a few trekked up to the house.  It was a rather steep and somewhat slippery.

It took us an hour to get back for a 2PM lunch.  I'm so glad we had the snack.  My back was so glad to hit pavement again.

I then visited the Foundation University agriculture department with Rosalie while Megan went to another preschool.  We talked about what what was currently being done on Negros regarding crops, particularly coffee and cacao production.  There are some initiatives underway to help the local farmers shift to coffee production.  They offered to provide assistance with the program and send me literature regarding requirements for production.  Especially with coffee.

I spoke with Rosalie and another staff member about 2 other possible self sustaining projects that could also provide some local employment.  There is a way to utilize plastic bottles to provide light during the day to the poorer homes.  There is also an American organization that has developed a low cost solar light that could be used at night.  The company is selling discounted marketing kits that can be used to provide jobs to people while providing a low cost, single cost way to eliminate a large portion of the electrical expenses.

That night I got together with old classmates from Silliman High School.  Yes, we are all old now.  Some faces were very recognizable while others not as much.  It was great catching up after 25 years.  It's amazing the different paths we have all taken.  Twenty five years is too long a span.  I definitely don't want to wait another 25 years for a visit.