A Tale of Two Tales(Tails)

The First Tale

Palawan is a beautiful island just to the west of our island of Luzon. I imagine it is much the same as all of the Philippines would be if there were not so many of us living here. We were headed to Palawan to sign our working agreement, called a MOA.  We planned the trip to give us some extra days to visit on the island. Pres. Mosquera is the District President in Puerto Princessa and with his wife has a travel agency. They planned our time there and it was great fun - mostly. 

We began on the first day by visiting some places right in Puerto Princssa. The first was an Alligator Farm

Doesn't this look like great living?!

There were some pretty big alligators in the pond. They raised these guys to breeding age and let them go.

This is the picture of the Island from a hill top

We visited on Baker's Hill, a beautiful garden and aviary

Beautiful birds

I found some projects Dad can do with our rocks

In the afternoon we had our meeting with our wheelchair partner, Bahatala. We really like these people. We met a muslim couple there with their small son. The son had just had the last of his casts removed for club feet correction. He will be in a shoe brace for a few years and then he will be perfect. His life will be a completely different one that it would have been. Anyway, here is a picture of the signing and Cecil Socrates, who runs the organization

Then the fun started. We headed north to Sabang beach. We checked into our wonderful hotel and then dressed for the Underground River tour. From Sabang Beach, you take a Banca boat over to a beach, about a 15 minute ride away, then a short hike and your are at the small lake leading into the Underground River..

I have to admit I was a little underwhelmed, not because the cave you travel through is not fantastic, but because you can only see what is illuminated by a 4" flashlight powered by a car battery. My eyes are just no longer very good to see well in low light.  When I came home I put the pictures in Picassa and added fill light and thought, "Wow, is that what we were seeing". It was a complete new trip through the cave.

Best part for me is that I got to get dressed appropriately for a water activity. Bruce to is dressed for such an activity. He hates shorts.

We walked down the beach in the evening. It was just wonderful. The Sheridan was a beautiful hotel and we sat at dinner and I could see the ocean and the hills at the shore and the temperature and humidity were perfect. It was just one of those magic moments. There are very few tourists, the water is just on the cool side of a bathtub. And the beach was pristine beautiful, absolutely no trash.

The following day we left Sabang beach at 7am so we could make it down to Honda Bay to do some Island hopping. (The Mosquesr’s driver had stayed up in Sabang to drive us. Where he slept I do not know.) We traveled around to 3 islands by banca boat. The first was for snorkeling, Starfish Island. It truly had an area covered with starfish. It was just so much fun. Again, the water is just warm enough to be pleasant. I do not do well in cold oceans, I can only manage for a short time, but this water is all day water. Anyway, they have an area marked off because the corals are so shallow and you can just lay on your stomach and kick your feet and see all kinds of absolutely wonderful fish.  We were anxious to see how great the fish were on the next island and were disappoint that the next two islands were good for swimming but not fish watching. I hesitate to say we went snorkeling as we just lay on our stomachs and look at fish. We wished we had spent the whole time on Starfish Island. But by the time we got back to Honda Bay, about 3 in the afternoon, the water and sun had worn us out and we were ready to be finished. We washed up in a salt water shower, changed clothes and got ready to catch an evening plane for home.

I love to snorkel. I had to rent a mask and I had a really hard time keeping water out. But is was shallow enough you could stand down, unfortunately, on the coral. I guess that is why that have roped off a small area for swimming.

The Second Tale

Unfortunately, the story now turns into a different kind of a memory. We got to the airport (it is a very, very small airport) early. The Mosquera’s driver had been with us all this time and we didn’t have anything for him to do so we had him take us to an early dinner and then drop us at the airport at about 5pm. The plane was scheduled for 8:30. It is always at least an hour late and so we waited, and waited and waited. Then at about 10pm they told us that because of “wind” they were canceling the flight. There actually was no wind but we find that the lights often go out or something mechanical goes wrong. Didn’t really matter, there was no flight. We took a tricycle, our first ride on one, back over to our favorite hotel on the island, got a bed and set the alarm for 4 because they told us to be back at the airport at 5. So we arrived at the airport before 5 and the room is already packed with the people waiting to be re-ticketed. Philippine Air was going to bring in a plane big enough to take all the passengers from the night flight and the morning flight. So they need to get all the canceled flight people ticketed before the morning flight people show up. But we stood in the building and waited til 6am before they started re-ticketing. By now all the morning people are there and it is this giant mob of people. We stood in line for over an hour, waited to board for another hour and they did not finish re ticketing and getting people on the plane til 9:30. It was just too absurd!!!!

When we finally got back to the Manila airport, we ran into Sister Ostler just before we left the restricted area. She is the Mission Pres.Wife in the Manila mission.   She was waiting for Brother and Sister Hiatt. They are full time seniors on Palawan and Sister Hiatt had to have an emergency appendectomy on the island. It hadn’t gone well (the best part of the Philippines is NOT their hospitals!!!!!!!!!) and the Hiatts were on the plane with us coming back to Manila. I hadn't noticed them amongst the mob. I headed back in to find them and help. We stayed with them until Sister Ostler could get them into her van. I felt so bad for Sis Hiatt who was obviously in a lot of pain and had had to wait in that incredible mob of people to get on the plane. She spend a week in the St. Lukes in Manila and is still at the mission home.

So, all in all, I guess I can say with Charles Dickens, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”  Truly our "Tale of two Tails". My Grand-kids will have to wait a while to find our the secret of those two "tails".

I took lots of pictures of Palawan. If you are interested in some more I am sharing the web album

HEY, I FORGOT TO PUBLISH MY CHRISTMAS BLOG

When we arrived in October, the Christmas season was already underway. There were carols playing in the airport. We understand the season starts sometime in September. Christmas decorations are everywhere. I especially like the lights they hang from the trees.

Eastwood City (which is really a very giant outdoor mall with lots of tall apartment buildings), is really fun. 

Ever seen the Statue of Liberty with a Philippano face?

And there were fireworks every weekend of the month.

On Christmas eve it has always been Haslem family tradition to have a prime rib dinner. Well my family carried on without us, but we managed. Our office is next to a gated community of the rich folks, so close by are some small stores that cater to them. We bought two steaks and though it was an expensive meal, it made us feel like it was really Christmas eve.

Baggio green beans are almost like the ones in my garden. The potato was special, it was a regular size potato.. And one thing that you can only have here: that is pomelo on the salad, it's like a very large grapefruit but sweeter and  so good!

We enjoyed Christmas Day dinner with our friends the Royos. They are serving as area service missionaries in our office. 

That is Brother and Sister Royo behind Bruce.

Starting at the top we had:Lumpia (egg  roll) shrimp, don't know the next, rice (of course, it's not a meal if there is no rice). sticky rice (a sweet treat, red rice with coconut milk), ham (a special Christmas only treat), stuffed baked fish and my great love, Pancit which is just a noodle in broth with veggies.

The missionaries were there. There are three pair in the Royo's branch. 

Here are the Sisters, Two of them are Samoan

Here are the Elders.

I made cookies. The missionaries were happy to take home the leftovers. Making cookies in my oven is a trick indeed. It is a gas oven with no thermostat of temp control.

And best of all, on Friday we were in the temple acting as the witness couple for two missionary sessions. 

So, all in all, except for missing my family, it was a terrific Christmas

WHAT WE DO

Brent tells us that people ask about how we are and then ask what we do. And so this is a little overview of how are days are generally spent. I have been in the country 5 months and I feel like I am just barely learning how to do this. Our primary role is not to give out wheelchairs, though that is where we spend much of our time. Our most important roll is to find "Partners", groups that are involved with the disabled and would like to join with us in the process in their areas. The church has asked us to try and visit with our partners once a month. I wish we could actually go to all the places each month because they include:

Vigan

Belar

 Dagupan

 Bataan

And Biñan (had to "borrow" one of these pics)

We also have Akap-Pinoy which is just across the street from our office. but we just did a distribution there.

Back to the process. It begins with an assessor to "assess" the client. Takes 20 minutes or so. Sometimes the Partner does an outreach into "back country" and invites us along. That has taken my Area Service Missionaries to many places. There is a trip coming to the northern most island called Itbayat with Physicians for Peace. I have reserved that trip for Bruce and I. We will see if we actually can get free to go. The assessor takes the assessment form to the Partner. Partner "encodes" or puts in on an excel sheet designed for our computer. Partner emails the sheet to our office. We upload and review. Then we send back to the Partner the approved device notification, lovingly referred to as the "ADN". The computer looks for people who are trying to get a second chair, (when the value of a chair is $150 US it is a good source of income), it checks if we have the chair in stock, among other items. But once the Partner has the ADN they go to the warehouse, (some have their own, manned by one of our service missionaries and stocked by us. Other come into Manila each time) and pick up the chairs.

We like our Service Missionaries to be involved in the distribution of the chairs. It is often done in a big group session. But our service missionaries are most valuable to us as they do "follow up", which is a visit to the client in the following few months to make sure everything has been done right.

These are some of the Area Service Missionaries when we went out to Bataan to do a day of "follow up"

Our job is to sort of oversee that whole process. I am on the computer most days. Bruce is involved with our new project of importing through an in-country corporation. It has taken 6 months so far to try and get it set up. I mentioned the best part: traveling to visit the Partners.  We also run trainings for new assessors. We have a couple of those coming up. I also have taken on the challenge of some training guides for everything we do. Anyone know something about screen recording programs and how to use them?  It seems the best way to teach how to use a computer program.

Now you know more than you ever wanted to know about Humanitarian Wheelchairs in the Philippines.

TRIP TO VIGAN

One of our Partners is the University of the Northern Philippines, situated in the northern portion of the island of Luzon.

 As we are in the process of re signing all of are agreements with partners, we had the opportunity to visit there.  Our friends and co-workers, the Morellos came with us, as Vigan is requesting our help in outfitting a mobile medical clinic. This is basically a small truck fitted with some basic equipment to do medical screening. UNP has a medical, nursing, and orthopedic rehabilitation department. Each student must complete a certain number of service hours in outreach clinics into the rural areas before they receive their degrees.
Our meeting with the University accomplished a lot of good. I can see why it is important for us to be out with the partners frequently. There are things you assume they understand and you find they do not. While we were in all visiting I meet these young ladies just outside the room.

I just love their school uniforms. Each school has a different skirt and they wear white blouses. I think that we should do this in Utah. These girls attend the "Edith Bowen" or laboratory school  of this University

After our meetings, Elder Rosario, who is obviously a member of the church and a teacher at the University and also serving as our liaison with the University, took us on a tour of Vigan. It is an old Spanish town and it was a very interesting place to see

This is the entrance to the University. No, it does not look like an American university but yes, it is a very good school.

We took a boat trip down the river. It was kind of like a  disneyland tour with 6 dioramas on each side explaining the history of Vigan.

 But even though that was silly, we got to see these:

These are fish farms. They have large netted areas out in the river in which they farm fish.

These guys saw me taking a picture and posed for the camera.

We visited the potters shop. I'll bet all of you potters use a Carabao to kneed your clay

They just drive him around and around to soften and blend the clay. I think it also may be responsible for some of the color of the clay.

But every potter recognizes this. The potter said he made 40 pots a day. Note that the wheel is run by foot power.

One of the pictures that I didn't get was the kiln. It was probably 50 yards long, ran up hill and was heated with a wood fire. I just can't imagine how hot it would be in summer - which starts in March - because it was hot during our visit during "winter".

We visited the weavers and of course I had to buy a little cloth. Didn't take a picture of my own so I borrowed this from the internet. I don't know why I bother to take a camera. Someone with a better camera has already taken the picture. 

Vigan is an old Spanish town and are very proud of their Spanish architecture. The pony drawn carts are very typical in any area where there has been a Spanish influence. 

It is great to be able to travel a bit and see the "real" Philippines and not just Manila. But mostly we like doing the Humanitarian Work we have been called to do.