The Philippines: Day 5

I forgot to say in the last post that Mrs. Weisser fell Sunday afternoon and hurt her knees, arm and a bit of her head. She was on bed rest the entire time we were there. But she was able to walk around a bit by our last day. Seth made us breakfast in the mornings and the house helper Ati Dina would make us dinner. We would do our dishes in the morning and night. I was nice to be able to serve her in that way.

Monday, March 3.


This is the day that my team prepared the most for!

The day started a bit early, especially since I didn't get that much sleep. We left the house for Resources for the Blind at 8. We met our guides/translators who were taking us to schools for the day; Ati Joyce and Pastor Ranold.
Pastor Ranold is the pastor of the blind church that we attended yesterday. Ati Joyce had a guide as well to lead her around the city but I can't remember her name. She was so sweet and kind! I wish I would have paid more attention to her name!
They led us to the bus area and we boarded a bus to take us to our first school.

                        (Photo taken by Darcy)

The bus ride felt like it took forever! Probably because we stopped a lot and it was crowded for a bit on the bus.

                             (Photo taken by Elizabeth)

But we made it to our first school safely.
Our first school was an elementary school. My team had been split up into two groups before going to the Philippines. Each group prepared their own Bible lesson to give to the kids we would be working with. Just a side note, these kids gather together every Monday to meet with Pastor Ranold for a Bible lesson. They LOVE Pastor Ranold! It was great to see the interactions between them all.
Anyway, my group went first. Our lesson was on creation and we made up motions to go with what was created on the a day. Pastor Ranold translated for us and was able to get the kids to be more interactive and to do the motions.

                     (Photo taken by Elizabeth)

There were a few kids that at first that didn't want us to touch them or to do the motions with them but they eventually warmed up and did them. 

Resources for the Blind had taken a portion of our lesson and had it put in braille. So near the end of our lesson we had a couple of the kids read some Bible verses that were on there. It was so cool to see them read the scripture. It's amazing what people have come up with to help disabled people. 

After we were done, we passed out bracelets that I had made for the students. 

It was crazy how those bracelets even came to me. I got them about two days before I left for the Philippines. The bracelet making kit was apart of a care package I had gotten from my boyfriend's mom, Kim. She wasn't sure how I would use them but I realized that since they're made with tiny rubber bands that the texture would be cool to feel for the blind kinds. So I made 45 bracelets and we all passed some out after the lesson. The kids loved them! I was so thankful that the Lord provided something like that! 

After the elementary school we walked over the road.

                                      (Photo taken by Darcy)

 (I can never tell if the road is a highway or not. All the roads have many lanes and always have a crazy amount of cars on them). We then walked through a tiny market to get to where we could board a jeepney.

                                 (Photo taken by me)

We crammed all 12 of us into this car and about 8 more people were in there as well. We rode it for a little while and then traded it for a trike. 

                                (Photo taken by me)

Rode that for a bit; then we finally got to our second school, a high school. 

                                      (Photo taken by Darcy)

This high school is huge!! This is just a portion of the school.

 (Photo taken by Darcy)

So many kids are at this school and they treated us like we were celebrities. Waving to us and calling to us, "Hey Jo!" it was a lot to take in at once.

We were taken to a room where we had to wait for some of the students to still get out of class.

 (Photo taken by Darcy)

Once they were all there we did our creation lesson again. We did it as an entire group because we thought that we only had the creation lesson in braille. I think our team really learned the meaning of team work when we all had to work together to teach this Bible lesson.

 (Photo taken by Seth)

While at this school I learned that being a high school doesn't mean your in-between the ages of 14-18. Some students were 20 and the oldest was 23. I think it may be because of their disability that they're still in school, but I'm really not sure. It was still cool to see how they enjoy hearing the Word and how they wanted to read the verses when we asked. 

 (Photo taken by Darcy)

When we left we got back into a trike and went to lunch. We ate at Jollibees! This is a very well known fast food restaurant in the Philippines. Jolliebee and McDonalds have a on going competition. Its funny you'll see a Jollibee and then a McDonald's across the street with another Jollibee next to it. 

The thing to get at either place is their chicken and rice. 

 (Photo taken by Darcy)

Whenever we went I would usually order chicken and rice. It was pretty good. I ate it like a Filipino would eat it, with a spoon and a fork. You use your spoon to break the meat all off and then you use the fork to push it all on the spoon. It made it easier to eat rice like that. 

We left the Air Conditioned restaurant and walk for a bit to get to another jeepney. We rode the jeepney to the train station. This is where the trip gets crowded. 

Before we got onto the train Seth told us that once the train gets here we are no longer Christians. We are no longer gracious, courteous or kind. We are Filipino's and we are all shoving our way onto this train. I was put into the middle of the group because I told them that I didn't think I could do that. So once the train came and the doors opened we shoved our way onto the train, that was already very crowded. 

 (Photo taken by Elizabeth)

We made the train more crowded and a lot more loud. Filippino's travel in silence. That is definitely not how a group of young adults travel. Especially when in a uncomfortable situation. We rode the train until the very end. We then got onto another trike and went to our third and final school. 

This school is a school just for the visually impaired. Here we met two more RBI workers. We also found out that we had both groups Bible lessons in braille! It was a good thing too because we had our biggest group here! We had a group of elementary and a group of high school students. My group took the elementary students. 

We had a blast with them! We had a bit of time after our lesson to just visit with them. Vica and I talked with these three girls. They were very sweet and when we had given them the bracelets they asked us to tell them what colors were on it. On of the girl's favorite color is pink. Even though she can't see she still have a favorite color. I gave those girls each two bracelets because they loved them so much! One of the three had low vision in one of her eyes so she asked Vica if she could use her camera. Vica gave it to her and the girl went around the room taking picture after picture. I wish I had some of the pictures to show you but they aren't up yet. It was great that she was able to have that bit of fun. Another one of the three girls, her name is Hannah, gave Vica and I her phone number. She asked that if we could figure out a way to text her then we should text her. So sweet! We had such a nice time there. 

 (Photo taken by Seth)

We left there, got onto another trike, said goodbye to Ati Jocye and her guide, got onto the train and this time we got to ride with Pastor Ranold and the two other blind RBI workers in the car that is meant for pregnant women, elderly, people with kids and people with disabilities. It was still crowded but not as much. 

Over all it was a tiring but great day. We got back to the house were Ati Dina had made us a lovely dinner and were we were able to wash all the dirt and filth that the city life stuck to us.