The first part of the week was fairly routine with apartment inspections, repairs and meetings. Then we hit the Road Thursday for a marathon 3 day trip.
Started thusday morning by doing some home teaching in Kalikid with Brother Nulud as our guide and translator. The visits took us into the homes of some faithful members. Everyone wanted to feed us with little chocolate cakes individually wrapped like Hostess ding dongs and also soda.. Coke and Orange.
Then we took a back road for one hour to Gabaldon to miss the traffic. It passes through Fort Magesaysay army reservation and there were a bunch of troops in camouflage sneaking along the road. People spread their rice out on the road to dry. Yes dogs, chickens and motorcycles run over it.
We complete the inspection of the Gabaldon apartment and then went visiting with the missionaries to members and recent converts. First house was thatched roof, dirt floor covered with plastic table clothes for flooring. We were sitting in another partially finished home (concrete block, bamboo lattice windows, cloth doors and dirt floors when a big rain swept by. The rain on the tin roof was so loud that we could barely talk.
Then on to visit another delightful couple, the husband is a furniture maker. I toured his outdoor shop where everything was powered by a single table saw motor. His workmanship was incredible. They live in a Barangay (village) across the river. For years they would ride a trike to the river, pay 20 pecos to ferry across the river in a rubber life raft, then trike to the church. 18 months ago a bridge was built but it washed out a couple months later in a storm. The current bridge we drove across has been standing for about a year.
That night we found a one of a kind resort called Valley Breeze Resort by Gabaldon. The owners started it as a family farm, home and guest house but so many relatives wanted to stay that they turned it into a business. It's off season so we negotiated a great rate for a little villa with dinner and breakfast. The service was incredible, like the Grand America and the facility would be probably rate a 4-5 stars (Filipino stars.) Total cost was about $70. For $10 more we could have had hot water and TV which is a rarity in Philippines. The Owner was a delightful lady. She is an RN and her husband a civil engineer who works in Micronesia most of the time.
Friday we drove to the ocean in Dingalon and checked out a couple a "hotels" in case we decide to stay sometime. We decided we won't stay in Dingalon:) Then inspected the missionary house and took them to lunch. In case you wonder, we are very careful about eating in the public markets and little restaurants. Most, even the public market, have large 5 gallon jugs of purified water for their guests. Not sure about how they clean their plates and silverware however. We also select something that is cooked to order so we get it hot and steaming. Of course that day we had rice for every meal. Typical is rice with crushed garlic on top. We scrape of the garlic and enjoy the rice. What's funny is that there is no soy sauce in sight, only banana catsup.
Then we hurried back up the road to Bongabon. Restrooms are virtually non existent in the rural towns. Everyone uses a bush or tree. So we arranged with the owner at Valley Breeze to let us stop for a pit stop as we passed by.
Bongabon was another amazing experience visiting with the missionaries. One of the stops the mother was home, dirt floors, cloth doors and windows. The street was filled with kids playing after school. Two large Americans cause quite a stir and we must have said hi and shook hands with 50 kids at least. Even having a 2012 corolla had curious kids looking in the windows like it was an auto show. Another visit took us down a small windy alley pasted several families. While we were sitting in a gazebo talking to grandpa, a grandson brought in a calf and tied it to the pole next to us. I'd love to take photos, but it seems inappropriate to photograph their privacy.
Basketball is the only national sport. No football. Not even soccer. There are hoops everywhere in fields and most are home made. This little boy was amazed that I made a lucky shot without knocking off the backboard.
After visiting we ran in a restaurant for dinner with the Missionaries. Within seconds the rain was coming down and blowing sideways. We ate slowly until it subsided as our umbrellas were in the car a block away. Then we started down the street to the car and found the first 60 feet flooded. The highly polluted gutters had overflowed and we had to walk through 5 inches of who knows what to get to the car.
It was super dark, raining and difficult driving. The rural roads are still full of people walking, trikes with no lights and the farm tractors pulling a load home with no lights. So we decided to try a hotel in Palayan. It's a classic landmark for weddings and big events. The floors are polished. Again it was off season and there were 5 people to help us to our room. We were the third guest to register for the night.
Take a look at the photo and first glance it's impressive. But there were somebody elses cloths still in the closet. The old flat screen TV didn't work. They said it had hot water but LouAnn couldn't make it work. I finally found the flash water heater under the sink and turn it on but it was leaking so much that I turned it off. Side note, all bathrooms are "wet bathrooms." There are usually a couple of floor drains and it's expected to always be wet from leaks, bucket showers and toilets that you flush by pour a bucket of water into them. Notice the nice packet of amenities they gave us. Also no toilet seat. They knocked on the door after 10 minutes bringing us a roll of toilet paper. AC hummed pretty bad but took the humidity out of the air
Saturday morning we attended the Bongabon District (like a stake) Primary Birthday activity. LouAnn gave a short speech with Translator. Preschool kids know very little english. Since very few people have cars, the branches arrived in Jeepnees and the entire branch primary along with young women, mothers and babies came as a group in one Jeepnee. Reminds the Dansie Family of the Ford Van that we used to pack full of kids for a ride to primary. The activity was fun. Then we strolled the public market while we waited for the Palayan missionary to return home for their inspection.
So we finally made it home saturday late afternoon and then ran down to Shakeys pizza at the other end of town just before they closed to order 8 pizzas for Monday Morning. We will pickup pizzas at 10:30 am and deliver them to San Jose for a Zone Party. Google says 1 hour and 9 minutes on back roads to miss the traffic.
The first part of the week was 4-5 rain showers a day. The humidity one night was super-satured so that the car windshield had to wipe the condensation constantly instead of the rain. I bucket washed the car saturday night because it was pretty dirty from the dirt roads we took. Since the washing, it has had 4-5 rinses in the rain.
Sunday was just church and Elder Dansie worked on training workshop he's giving on Saturday at a priesthood leaders training.
So we'll see what this week brings.
Mahal Ka Kokita
Elder and Sister Dansie
