The Philippines: Day 6

Tuesday, March 4.

This was another early morning because of the lack of sleep. 

We were picked up around 7:30 by a RBI worker, Hubert. He was our main driver when we needed one. He drove us to the RBI headquarters were we got a tour of the building and all the organizations does for families here.

             (Photo taken by Darcy)

They have their own braille printer, which has helped them provide Bibles, school books and other kinds of books.

 (Photo taken by Elizabeth)

         (Photo taken by Darcy)

They have a room with some computers that will talk to you and tell you what button you've pressed and what your mouse is over, things like that. They also have this microscope/projector thing where people with low vision can put reading materials under it and even change the color of the picture so they can view it perhaps even more than just enlarging the letters. 

They showed us another room were they have so many books on tapes and also where Hubert, our driver works to put Bibles on solar powered audio devices. 

We were also shown their clinic that they have started and all they are able to provide for the blind. To get to the clinic you have to walk through the preschool they have. We were able to meet the little preschoolers.

(Photo taken by Elizabeth)

The kids were having snack time with their parents when we came. The parents are highly encouraged to be at the school in order that they may learn how to sign as well. 

We were also introduced to some of the kids who along with being blind had some other special needs as well. Their parents were also there feeding them and helping them. 

I thought it was so cool to see the parents being there along side of their kids. So beautiful. 

We left RBI for the grocery store with our driver and an RBI worker. 

We went to the grocery store in order to buy food for the elderly people we were going to visit. We bought so much food! We were able to make up 10 goodie bags of food for the 10 blind elderly residents at the government run home we were going to visit.

To get to the elderly home we drove for about 2 hours through the mountainous part of the Philippines. The home was so beautiful! The elderly are treated with a lot of respect there. We met with the director and heard about what he has done with the place and what his plans are for the future. 

Next, we were taken to the gathering room so we could hand out the goodie bags to the blind residents. We all grabbed a bag and gave it to a resident. I gave mine to this tiny lady. I told her my name in Tagalog and then in English told her that I had a bag filled with food in it. She could barley hold it! I asked for an attendant to help her back to her chair. There is where she was able to understand fully how much she was given. She started crying and kept telling me, "Salamat po" which means thank you. It was such a priceless moment. 

The team tired to spend time with the residents for as long as we could because all the residents at any government run home, needs proof that they don't have any family to take care of them. That means no one ever visits any of them. I was a bitter goodbye for me with them. 

We got back into the car for another hour and a half ride; leaving the little elderly village that was so quaint and quiet.