the motherload blog

First of all, it is veeeery hot here. I'm pretty sure there is not a moment when I'm not sweating. It's 100% humidity here and always 80+ degrees. I sweat when I surf and the ocean is the temperature of Ruthie's bath.

Second of all, Philipinos looooove Christmas. When I got off the plane in Manila, they were blasting the Christmas tunes alongside other American favorites like rihanna and T-pain. So glad our entertainment media is positively influencing the entire world....not....

After one night in Manila with Jen (ministry 'co leader' i would say, other leader= husband Derek, which by the way I really admire that they operate basically in partnership/as a team in the whole ministry of Hope for the Island. They both are vital founders and heads of the ministry here) and after already sweating through two shirts we landed in Siargao (pronounced shur i gow = this is the name of the whole island, not to be confused with Surigao/ sur i gow city the main city on this island) and walked off the plane past the 'airport' (one room shack with welcome sign) and hopped in some old guy's van (um pieces of metal held together with rope) for a 1.5 hr drive into the jungle and made it to Hope for the Island! Its so green and so hot/humid its unlike any other experience in my life! I'm expecting Mighty joe young or george of the jungle to come romping out of the trees any second.

As Jen is showing me around the house w/ tin roof and made of coconut wood she takes me to the "CR" or bathroom and shows me how I'm to bathe with a spiget of rain water that pours into a bucket i can pour on myself and how i am to flush the toilet by pouring cups of rain water down the toilet. wow. she also says to "be careful of your dirty laundry b/c the rats like to nibble any little things" yikes. Hope has a basketball court, schoolroom, 1/2 pipe, volleyball court, boys living quarters, girls living quarters, and visitor's cottage. They have gutters everywhere that collect rainwater into barrels that we use for everything.

Hope consists of 8 20-something year old ladies, many of whom grew up in the village and 3 20-something year old guys. It's super cool that they have hired the local people to run the place. The girls are pre-school teachers in the morning, and ministry leaders in the afternoon. Each day there's a Bible study or youth group or something. Two of the guys work on the farm thats a ways a way so they dont come to Hope till the weekend. The other guy is the all around handy man and keeper of the sports equipment. Kids come and hangout here all day long on the weekends and after school on the weekdays. It's super cool b/c its a safe place and fun and encouraging them to love God.

One of my favorite things is to go into the village (next door, like 2 min walk) and hangout with the kids there. I love experiencing a different way of life and seeing the rice and coconut spread out all over the road to dry and the kids playing games wtih colored rubber bands and basket ball. The funniest thing is how these basically shacks are blasting Kesha's Tic Tok and Lady Gaga. Also, a ton of kids have cell phones -granted they're modest nokias that look like they've been through 10 other people but still! It's interesting to see how these things are important to them i guess?

Here if you're a girl over 15 you are an auntie and a guy is cuya. So I'm Auntie Rebecca and I love it. It's so awesome to see how devoted the ladies I live with are to the people of the village. They are so loving and everyone lights up when we walk into town. Lets just say the biggest bummer for me right now is the language barrier. I hate not being able to get to know people because we don't understand eachother. But everybody knows a little english and I'm trying to learn Visaya so we're working at it... ;)

Its super cool how clothes, makeup, things are of little importance here. I think there's one small mirror in the whole house I'm in. People just dont seem to put so much importance on it.

also there are massive bees and black wasps and tiny gnats that suck your blood and GIANT bats. And the geckos chirp all the time and there's a coconut grove next to me where I wandered over w/ one of the girls to ask a guy if we could eat one. He got me a 'botong' young coconut b/c this is a delicacy and it was slimy and sour.... not quite what i expected... yum ;)

I want to say more but I'm afraid this is getting too long so I'll close by saying I'm learning a lot and have a lot of time to think and time to sweat. God is good all the time and it is so beautiful to see how Hope has affected this island and how the people and many kids are starting to grasp how Jesus loves them so much.

Check it next sunday for more!!