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. 

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. 

The Philippines: Day 4

Sunday, March 2.

This was our first Sunday in Manila and we went to two churches. 

The first church was about 2-3 miles from the Weisser's house, so Seth had us walk to it. This church was a church for the blind. The pastor there works with Resources for the blind. His name is Pastor Ranold and he is such a humble man; he's also blind.

(photo taken by Darcy)

He opened his garage so that the church could have somewhere to meet. They are rapidly out growing the garage but they're content in staying there. The people there have such giving hearts! During debrief someone mentioned that even though the people have really no money it seemed that everyone put something into the offering plate. 

Before we left on our trip this church had asked for us to prepare a song and for two of our teammates to share their testimonies. I was apart of the music group. I sang along with Luke and Charlie. Elizabeth played the keyboard, Vica played her ukulele and Jared played his mandolin. We had prepared the song 10,000 Reasons. 

(photo taken by Darcy)

So after corporate worship was done then we sang our song. I am so glad that I was apart of that song! Something that was amazing to see was when we had been singing for a few second I noticed people eyes were closing. They were already blind and they still had the wanting to worship the Lord even more so they closed their eyes. My uncle said that it could have been their way of bowing before the Lord. I just thought that it was amazing and I almost started crying so I don't think I looked up again. 

After we were done Jared shared his testimony then Vica shared hers. Pastor Ranold translated all of what they shared into Tagalog for us. Once they were finished with their testimonies Pastor Ranold went right into his sermon. He spoke in Tagalog the entire time so I had no idea what he was saying. But I understood that he was thanking the Lord for something because he was continually saying salamat po which means thank you. 

We stayed a little bit after the sermon to interact with the people a little bit, then walked back to the house. 

We changed and drove over to the mall we had been at the day before to eat in the food court and exchange more money. It was quite the experience. I had to choose food and then order it. I think choosing was the most difficult thing. They had so many options and not everything looked the best. I ended going for some pork BBQ with a side of rice. It turned out to be really spicy. But it was good! For desert I had a waffle stick that had Belgium cream in it. It was so good!! It got rid of the spiciness of the pork. 

We left there and went straight to the second church. 

 (photo taken by Luke)

This is Christ's Commission Fellowship. That building that you see is all theirs. Everything is paid and and they don't owe a thing on it. That building can hold 10,000 people. That's pretty crazy!! It's a more Americanized church but it was again awesome to see people worship the Lord. Almost everything was in English, so we are able to understand everything. The sermon was really good. The Pastor was teaching on the Flood. He was telling us how, in almost all the cultures they have a flood like story that has been passed down from generations. He said other things that I have learned here at school and from church. Then he brought up the Chinese symbol for flood and boat. To make up the character for flood the characters water, total, together, earth, eight are used. Then to make up boat the characters vessel, eight and people are used. I just thought that was so amazing!! I had never heard that before! It really enjoyed that. 

After church we got into the car, drove couple of blocks to a market. The way that we entered the market you entered this giant dog market. There were puppies everywhere and grooming places everywhere!! I think that was the most puppies I have ever seen in one area before. And of course me being the dog lover that my mother taught me to be, I wanted to take each one of them home. 

After all of the puppies you walk right into a food court. No health department here! It was here that Seth told us to be back there at a certain time so we could eat and watch a performance. We were shown where the market was and went off in groups! 

This was where I did my first haggling ever and I learned that I stink at it. You want 150 pesos for that? Okay! I was no good. 

Our time was up in the market so we went back to the food court. Seth had ordered food for us and we sat down at a table. The performance that we watched was a culture dance. They went through all the different styles of dance that the Filipinos have had. It was really interesting! 

The food was just as interesting. Seth got us a mixer of stuff. Pork, fish, baby fish that looked like deep fried sardines. Calamari, some sort of salty soup, and of course rice. I actually tried everything and really only liked the rice. 

 (photo taken by Elizabeth)

That was day 4 for us! 

The Philippines: Days 1-3

I got back safe and sound from the Philippines on the night of Tuesday, March 11. I spent the 12 days prior with my team of nine (Seth our leader, Charlie, Josh, Luke, Jared, Elizabeth, Darcy, Vica and myself), working along side Resources for the Blind. 

Day 1: We got into Manila Saturday morning on March 1. We left Portland, Oregon on Thursday afternoon, February 27. That means we didn't have a Friday. That was a bit crazy to think about.
We travelled from Portland to L.A. and we had a three and a half hour layover there. We were very thankful for that long layover!! Mainly because in order for us to get to our connecting flight to Taipei we had to go out of the airport and go to a completely different and separate building to check into our flight with Eva Airlines. That took us a while because we had to check in nine people; that takes a while. Then we had to go through security again and find our gate. Seth had us running all the way from our gate from Alaska Airlines to the Eva Airlines check in. I think it was just because he knew we were about to be on a 13 hour flight so he wanted us to have some exercise before we were stuck on a plane. But poor Elizabeth, she had hurt her ankle the day before and it hurt for her to walk, let alone run. But she was a trooper and walked as fast as her ankle would allow her.
The L.A. International airport is super nice once you get into the terminal. It's like a mall in there!
We boarded our flight to Taipei and we were able to sit together! That was so nice! We weren't sure if we were going to be able to do that. The Lord was gracious and kind to us in both allowing us to sit next t one another and getting us to Taipei safely!
We arrived in Taipei and had to go threw security there then find our gate. Once we found our gate we realized that we still have about 2 1/2 hours left in our layover. We went off to explore the airport. This airport was like a mall too!! It was crazy nice! My team and I came across a prayer room that was for Muslims, Christians and Buddhists.

Each had their own room and the appropriate things in it in order to pray. In the Christian room they had Bibles and tracks. Some Bibles were marked to leave there but most were there for the taking. I thought that was really cool.
We went back to our gate and some slept until our plane was ready to board, read or wrote in their journals that our leader asked us to keep while we were on the trip. I chose to do all three. I all so had to try to dry my book and my notebook because they had gotten wet on our first flight from my water bottle leaking. So I was under a fan at the airport in Taipei drying one page at a time. I thank the Lord that the book and the notebook were not ruined.
We finally got to board our last flight to Manila! Everyone started to get a bit more excited. The last flight!
Flying into Manila was so pretty!

The flight only took about 2 1/2 hours and once we got into Manila it was a security check and customs; get a stamp on your passport then your in! No one on the team had any trouble getting into the country. We did have to wait the longest time to get our bags though! I was beginning to think that they didn't make it but the Lord is teaching me that I need to have more faith. All of us got our bags and off we went into the hot world of Manila. 

We were picked up by Seth's mom (Mrs. Weisser) and sister (Omega). We all squished into a caravan and drove to their house. 

Traffic is just crazy there. Actually, driving in general is just really scary. It doesn't appear that they like to obey rules. So there are cars just everywhere! Lanes don't really exist and blinkers don't really mean anything. If you want over you go and if someone is in your way or you're going to hit them you just honk your horn. In the Philippines honking your horn isn't always a bad thing. Its just a more efficient way of saying you're there. 

They'll also get as close as they need to. You have no personal space in the Philippines. 

We arrived to the Weisser's house (which is just gorgeous) and just took in the fact that we were in the Philippines.

This was the Weisser's backyard!! Like I said, it's gorgeous there. They also had the cutest Dachshund every and her name is Latte! She was so sweet! 

Seth had us walk to a mall that was maybe 1-2 miles away from the house so we could exchange money and just see where we were. 

The Weisser's live in a subdivision that has a wall around it and at each gate has guards who are there 24/7. The reason is because right outside their nice subdivision are shacks and poverty. That's how it is in the Philippines. The nice houses are right in the middle of all the shacks. That first time walking threw it was so hard. Seeing the people in the state that they were in and smelling that smell. I have tried to figure out how to describe the smell but I have nothing to liken it too. It's worse than anything I have smelt before. And just right down the road is this 4-5 story mall. So strange. 

While we walked there we got a lot of stares and had a lot of people (mostly little kids) saying, "hey Jo!" They call Americans Jo because of the GI Jo's that came to help them with the Spanish. So we were called Jo where ever we went. 

After we exchanged money we walked back to the house and had a great Filipino meal and had our first debrief and devotional of the trip. That was how we ended every night. We would gather together. Have a teammate give a devo and then talk about how the day impacted us. 

That was the first three days. We traveled, skipped a day and got culture shocked.

My Scrambled Thoughts...

I have been debating whether or not to write this and I finally decided that I will.

I have been having a hard time trying to figure out where I fit in. Like, when I went to Washington for my graduation party I didn't feel like I fit in in Washington anymore. Those peoples lives have moved on and I'm not apart of it anymore. As much as it pains me that I'm no longer apart of any of that I just have to get over it. People are going to live their lives even if I'm not there being apart of it.
But I also don't feel like I fit in in Ohio yet. I'm in that awkward stage. You know that stage. Like if you moved churches and you still talked with your friends from the other church and were trying to make friends at the new church but slowly you were losing touch with the old friends. Then you were invited somewhere with the old church! You were super excited but then you had no idea what you were doing with those people cause you had absolutely no idea what they have been doing for the past few months.
Those are some awkward times.
But then you go somewhere with a group from the new church and you again have absolutely no idea what you are doing there because you haven't been in their lives for very long so you don't get any of the inside jokes that they tell. And you can't be apart of the conversation because you have no idea what they are talking about. Later on in the night you find yourself alone, standing awkwardly by yourself, wondering what you are doing there.
Yes, that is how I have been feeling lately.
It's just I would like to fit in and have the kind of friends here in Ohio that I had in Washington. But I don't really think that's going to happen. I'm going to loose touch with a lot of the students here because when this fall comes around I'll not be going to youth group anymore because I'm a graduate and I have to grow up.

The more I write and basically complain about this chapter of my life. I am realizing that I am not trusting in the Lord at all!! It seems like I have been trying so hard to fit in that I forgot that the Lord has me in HIS perfect plan. I will find where I "fit in" eventually; but right now all I need to "worry" about is how my relationship with the Lord is. Am I doing everything to bring Him glory? By this blog post I would say I have not been doing that.

The Bible verse that has been popping into my head recently when I get like this has been:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths. - Proverbs 3:5
I need to trust in Him.   

Graduate!!

                                     Can't you tell that I was and still am excited to be graduated?!
It makes me so very happy and scared to be done! Why am I scared? Because I have no idea what's going to happen in the future. Am I really going to be going to beauty school in a year? Will I pass my GED test? (It would be really embarrassing if I didn't pass that.) Will I still be able to keep my job next fall when I am hopefully attending Aveda and will only be able to work two days out of the week? I don't know! I dislike the unknown so very much! I started to think that people were going to think/look at me as a dumb person for not doing anything right after high school. It has always been my dream to be a beautician! But what if I'm actually not good at hair? Will I have wasted $18,000 on something that I'll never be good at?

I thought all of that while I was waiting for my family to find me after I graduated. I went into this major freak out mode in my head. But this is a test for me to trust the Lord. I have already stated that I hate the unknown so I need to trust in Him if I was peace about the future. I have a very hard time doing that when I've thought that something was going to turn out very differently. But the Lord knows best. He knows what's going to happen with my life. I will follow Him. I will trust in Him with all my heart. 

Senior 2012!

 That will be me!!! Shaking the principal's hand as he says, "Congratulations Olivia." I'll be thinking, "You have no idea you I am but THANK YOU!!!"

I don't know if people understand how excited I am to graduate!!! It's not just because I'm going to be done with high school - that is a big part of it - it's because I get to go down to Pensacola, FL (that is where my school A Beka Academy is located) and walk to receive my diploma!! That is the most exciting thing to me about graduating high school!! If I was living in WA right now I would not have been able to get this AMAZING opportunity! I am very happy to be living in OH right now and that's a big thing for me to say!