Monday in Dumaguete

Our Monday started with a devotion with the staff of LCP.  It was a great time to sing together and talk about God's word before entering the busy part of our day.


We first visited the meat processing facility that had been donated by our friends from Bloomington.  It's a nice livelihood project that is allowing some of the parents to provide extra income for themselves.  It's an excellent idea and much needed in the area.  On a lighter note, you should have seen us all in hairnets and slippers.  I tried desperately to capture Megan on film but alas, I failed.


Megan and I then visited one of the preschool programs in Calindagan with Tate and Coda.  It's quite an experience entering the community to visit the preschool.  In the school, the kids were all so well behaved and so cute.  Tate read them a story and gave them an image from the story to color as well as stickers.  I then handed all the girls new dresses that were made by a friend in Orlando.  The girls were very appreciative although somewhat shy.  They then sang and danced for us.


We then visited the Looc soup kitchen.  This soup kitchen is for the local elementary school students.  They were amazing.  The teacher would rattle off a bible verse location and they would give us the verse.  Along with the soup and rice they were also required to take provided vitamins and brush their teeth.  This was the original soup kitchen project that was established by a volunteer about 10 years ago.  It's a wonderful way to insure nutrition.  Malnutrition is a big issue in many of the communities where LCP works.


After lunch, Megan and I then went to meet the president of Silliman University.  He is a classmate and friend of my brother Brian.  His family and mine go back to the early sixties at Silliman.  I have pictures of myself with his brother Samuel crawling around together as infants.  It was great to catch up and to learn about what Silliman was doing these days.  I learned from him that my mother had actually started the Psychology department as well as the Womens Studies program at Silliman.  My mom sure does seem to always be starting or building something.  It's amazing how many ties my family has to this city.  You mention the Elwood name and many times you will hear the person mention one of us and some connection they have to us.  Just today I met briefly with a person at the agricultural office and he and my sister were classmates.

After we left the president's office, I then took Megan down memory lane as we walked the Silliman campus.  I hope I didn't bore her too much with my reminiscing.  Oh the memories came flooding back.  There was some new but still much remained as I remembered it.  The tennis court now has a hard court was well as the clay I so remember.  The archery area is no longer where it was.  The gym is different but the library and Luce auditorium looked the same.  The divinity school where my dad worked as well as the chapel and church looked the same.  My old high school now has a huge new building in the back where I remember classrooms and A/C in the classrooms.  You have to understand, I lived on that campus and walked/biked around it daily.


I then visited my old house.  Much looked the same although a little worn down.  The nipa hut my dad purchased at a founder's day was still there but no longer used for ferns.  The banana trees are mostly gone.  A building now occupies part of what used to be our side yard.  The tree that we planted on my birthday when I was in six grade is now huge with a great overhang.  Incredible, although I guess it has to be around 35 years old now.

We then ended the day with dinner with a number of the sponsored college students.  Megan was provided with "the opportunity" to ride to dinner with Carmenia & Carmella which she had trouble declining.  Her first trip on a motorcycle was one that had her sandwiched between the other two ladies.  She had fun.  Megan and I then ate with a girl my parents have sponsored for many years.  She is now a in her last year of college.  It was great getting to know her and what she has been doing.

Loss of Convenience

You forget about some of the little things.  The conveniences you take for granted.  Having a hot water faucet in the bathroom as you take an invigorating shower.  Having to unplug the refrigerator to plug in the hair dryer.  Central air when the air unit in your room has a count down timer.  Having to brush your teeth using a cup filled with bottled water instead of just the sink.  

Have you ever tried shaving without a mirror?  The first day I did.  I proceeded to completely massacre one of my sideburns.  I corrected it the next day using one of Megan's little mirrors but they are now much higher than normal.  Oh, let me add, shaving in front of a big mirror with a sink full of hot water.


I left my coffee cup out this morning, mostly empty, and went to shower.  When came back, a family of tiny ants had moved in.  How a hundred ants completely moved in 15 minutes, I don't know.  I'd swear they had houses built, department stores, a large brown swimming pool, etc.  Well, a torrential flood washed it all away.  Sad.  It must have been an act of Phil.


We can laugh about the loss of convenience but many of the kids and people we are working with have never had or in some cases known of these conveniences.  There is much we take for granted.

Sunday, Family day

I still haven't fully adjusted to the time change.  I am starting to go to bed later but for some reason keep waking in the early morning hours of 2-3.  I've been able to read or blog for an hour then fall back asleep until around 5:30AM when the kids in the boys dorm get up.  The sun comes up much earlier and sets much earlier here.  Your daylight is between shortly after 5am and ends shortly after 6pm.


We attended the worship service here at LCP.  A number of ladies and girls handed each of us flowers.  They have some rather exotic flowers here.  Many of the families traveled here from communities a long distance away just to worship with us.  There were a couple hundred, possibly a thousand people there this morning.  It was an amazing praise and worship service with a singing and dance number, some songs in English others in Cebuano.  Rather different from what Megan and I are used to.  The sermon was in Cebuano and I tried hard to catch words I knew.  We were all then introduced and had to give a few words.  Megan did a great job speaking in front of so many people.  I gave greetings from my parents (Nanay and Tatay) as well as myself.  I let everyone know how much they wished they could be here and tried not to break down in tears.  It was tough.  It's also interesting having to wait for a translator to finish.  In my case it helped significantly considering the knot in my throat.  The service went from 8-10:30 with a Sunday school afterward.  A little longer than what we normally experience in our services.  

We visited the Sunday school for the handclasp kids.  Kids disabled do to deafness, down syndrome, hemophilia, club foot, cerebral palsy, etc.  It was very touching.  We had to speak in front of that group as well.  I let them know how important their kids have always been to Nanay and tried not to break down again.  A girl with down syndrome gave us a solo dance routine.  A group of the deaf girls came up and danced.  A boy with cerebral palsy then sang.  They then showed us how the kids lives had changed since becoming part of LCP.  Kids who had operations to correct cleft pallet and club foot.  They also explained the boy who sang was now in a regular elementary school.

Cute downs baby

Afterward, we took a number of the sponsored children and their families out to eat at McDonald's.  It was a very large McDonald's with a special room we used upstairs.  Rice and chicken are a big part of the Philippine McDonald's menu.  The portion sizes were also much smaller but on the other side, the cost was have of what it would be in the US.  They also don't do free refills here.  So your medium drink is the size of a small with no free refill.  Sigh.

High Heel Shoe Phone

I looked out over the city and saw so many changes.  The movie theaters I used to go to were now shops.  The only theaters are now in the mall.  Dumaguete has a mall?  That's different.  The shops I used go to had either moved or closed and were replaced by other shops.  Another major change are the armed guards everywhere.  The department store we went into checked you for weapons and had patrolling guards.  Even the restaurants had guards.  The gates at Silliman University are kept closed and manned by guards.  And, so much traffic with tons of motorcycles.  Progress for the city?  Yes.  But I do miss the city I grew up in.


I'm going to visit the university tomorrow.  I'm meeting with the president who is an old family friend.  I'm curious to see all the changes on campus.  I also want to look for my old house or where it used to be.

First day in Dumaguete

We started our first full day in Dumaguete in the rain.  It just kept coming down.  I thought this was the dry season.  We visited Bloomington farm.  This is an agricultural livelihood program of LCP.  It was greatly affected by the flooding they had back late last year that killed a number of people and wiped out a few communities that lived near a large river just outside Dumaguete.  It destroyed crops and cropland.  We also visited the river bank and saw much of the damage.  It was disheartening to look at all this empty land that used to hold houses.


I saw a number of fruit trees that I haven't seen in years.  Tall trees full of mango and jackfruit.  The jackfruit tree looks like it's holding large watermelons.  I also saw trees holding guava and papaya.  I am looking forward to sampling more of the fruit.  The mangoes are so sweet.


We then visited the home where the older boys live.  I was with 2 of the teenage boys on the trip.  I guess someone thought I was mature enough to watch over them.  That was probably a mistake.  They decided to play full court basketball, in the rain ... barefoot.  I decided to join them.  It was fun but slippery with the ball many times making strange puddle depressing bounces.  I jogged up and down the court, having fun blocking shots, shooting and making at least one shot.  I was the tallest one out there.  All was great until I dribbled down the court one time, planted my feet to ready for a shot inside the key, and my feet did not plant.  They shot right out and I slammed to the ground hard on my back.  It was then that I decided, you know, this game is probably a mistake.  I threw my back out.  So I decided to join the boys inside playing ping pong.  It was a little painful, but fun, and safer.  We ended this stay with a visit to the clinic.  One of the teenage boys had nasty blisters on his feet and I needed disinfectant on my arm and a ice back for my back.  The rest of the day required tender movements.  Especially getting up and sitting down.


After lunch I and 4 others from our group spoke in front of about 30 sponsored kids who were now in college.  We stressed the importance of college and talked about career choices.  One thing you see in the Philippines that is a little different from the US is that many of the jobs that we look on as lower skilled labor, require a college degree.  Your store clerks, call center reps, restaurant & hotel staff will all have degrees.   There aren't enough jobs so you can be selective in choosing people who have shown that they have intelligence and drive.


We ended the evening with a dinner with the kids from each of the live in communities.  They all sang and danced for us.  Four of them also gave testimonies as to how LCP/LCW changed their lives. We also sang happy birthday to everyone who had a birthday in the last 3 months.  This included Tatay, my father, whose birthday was July 13, yesterday.  A few of us then called Tatay and sang to him over the phone. It was a touching evening.

Now to bed.  I'm exhausted with a few aches and pains to add to the day.

Dumaguete after 25 years

We arrived in Dumaguete around noon today.  It was fun seeing the different islands from the plane.  Dumaguete has really grown up in the last 25 years.  It looks much more like a big city than when I lived here.  The traffic was constant and full of motorcycles.  It's a sign of progress, a flourishing city, but I miss the old Dumaguete.   It was amazing to see what LCW/LCP has done in the last 25 years.  The year I left is the year the organization was started.  No relationship between the two.  At least I don't think there is.  When I was here last, the organization was known as the Shelter for Homeless Children.  There were 30 former street kids in a dorm.  Now the organization is helping hundreds of people daily.  Wow.  It's amazing what one little woman can do when given the vision.

The journey begins

Well, we had a very interesting start to our trip.  It started pouring down rain on the way to the airport.  At the airport we took the wrong tram (my fault).  I was following a couple with this great travel bag that held flippers and a mask.  Awesome bag, I have never seen any like it.  On the tram, after I found out all about the bag, Megan looked up and mentioned, “Dad, what’s our gate number?”  We were going to the wrong teWell, we had a very interesting start to our trip.  It started pouring down rain on the way to the airport.  At the airport we took the wrong tram (my fault).  I was following a couple with this great travel bag that held flippers and a mask.  Awesome bag, I have never seen any like it.  On the tram, after I found out all about the bag, Megan looked up and mentioned, “Dad, what’s our gate number?”  We were going to the wrong terminal.  At the wrong terminal, lightning struck.  After reversing direction, and giving Megan a tour of the Orlando airport, we correctly found our gate only to find the flight delayed for 30 minutes.  They couldn’t let anyone off/on the planes due to lightning.  When we were finally allowed to board, all the planes were trying to leave at once, creating a traffic jam.  We sat on the tarmac for another 30 minutes.  That got us a little worried about making the connection.

We arrived in Detroit after our connection was already boarding.  Thankfully it was only a few gates down.  We rushed off the plane, rushed to the gate and made the tail end of the boarding.  Most of our party was there waiting for us.  What a big plane.  Megan was amazed to see the stairs leading to the upper deck and the fact that the rows were 10 across.

During the flight, the 2^nd of 4 movies, there was a whole lot of activity occurring about 5 rows in front of us.  They started calling for anyone with medical experience (doctors, nurses, paramedics).  They brought a defibrillator, oxygen and started requesting an insulin tester.  One member of our team, Janice, provided the tester.  Everything settled down after an hour.

You know you’re on a long flight when you sit through a movie marathon.  We watched Hotel Marigold, Journey 2, I bought a zoo and Moneyball.  I’m tired of sitting.  I probably should sleep.  Maybe soon.

It was a bumpy ride with much turbulence.  I found it hard to sleep in that.  Megan did fine. 

We arrived in Nagano, Japan at around 5:30PM.  We didn’t see much considering it was only about a 1.5 hour layover.  Megan did feel a little unsure with so many people bowing to her.

The trip to Manila was relatively uneventful.  It was still quite a bit turbulent.  The movie was fun, “Ghost Protocol. 

We arrived in Manila tired but fine.  We took 3 buses to the hotel.  What a ride.  They appeared to be competing against each other to see who would get to the hotel first as they weaved in and out of traffic.  The hotel room was tiny compared to what we are used to but decent and clean.  I did have an interesting experience with the toilet though.  The toilet had this handle located on the seat so I pressed it down, thinking to flush.  A rod suddenly stuck out and wet my pants.  I then scrambled to shut it off.  In my haste, I pulled the lever up.  A different rod stuck out and started to spray.  Who expected a bidet, not me?

Well, good night.  One short night in Manila before the main part of the trip begins tomorrow.

Almost travel time

Well the bags are packed and we are ready to go ... and I'm trying real hard not to break into song now.  Our preparations are complete.  Boarding passes are printed, passports are ready, chargers are marked for packing.  We are racking our brains to make sure we are not forgetting anything.


We finally told Andrea today that Megan and I are traveling to a different place from her but that she and mama were going to be with Papa & Grandma, Debbie and Evan.  I don't think she fully grasps the significance.


We are both going to miss my dear baby doll very much.  It will be hard not seeing her smile and energetic personality every day.