Pelis Nabidad!

Just a quick update for you. The last two months have flown by as Ben has helped prepare one of our planes to fly on another island, hosted two NTM Aviation visitors from the States and renewed his Filipino pilot's license. What does that entail? That's for another time...

On the home front, today is Zack's 6 month birthday. He is almost crawling and is pretty much a happy camper. Ellie is our 'big bad princess' and Ty is determined to make his way as a superhero.

A couple weeks ago, we went to visit the crocodile farm here in our city. Originally started to farm the crocs for their skins, I don't know what they do with them now, but there are sure a lot of them. While I held (tightly) onto this guy, the kiddos touched him. Ellie was the only one who was really game (although, Zack didn't care one way or the other...). Don't worry, this guy's mouth was securely closed and I was fully ready to protect my brood from his ferocious and most probably sedated existence.

We look forward to next week's Christmas celebration. We will be joining some fellow missionaries on Christmas day for a traditional Austrailian Christmas feast, complete with roasted lamb. I've never had that before. There is a first time for everything.

Baa.

We've been having carolers at our house at night here. The cultural expectation here is to give them a treat (or money) for caroling. We are enjoying the experience of it, although we have done so much more amazingly well at having the lights out and being in bed by 9 (or 8). It's very cute, with their Filipino accents, singing Feliz Navidad.

And that's all I have to say for now.

Merry Christmas!

Work and play

What's our day in/day out look like here? Ben is off to work in the morning, often coming back for lunch like this:

Yes, ladies and gentleman, let us tempt you with the delightful tropics, so humid you can slurp the moisture from the air. And, yes, his shirt is soaked from perspiration. I believe his work on this day included working on the airplane at the hangar...This was taken only a short while into the day.

And on the homefront, while daddy toils away in the humid heat, we think of ways to include both entertainment and education (ok, so the education part only happens when I'm involved...). On this particular day, we let it 'snow' in the house, brought by a large amount of old printer paper that the kids found and pulled out. It's the coolest stuff to them. Instead of just one peice of paper, it just kept coming and coming, all attached to the next piece. Maybe the fascination is something akin to the kleenex box for these youngsters. Ah, but I digress...

So, we had snow, able to have snowball fights, make snow angels, and sing snow songs:

And after all that really fun mess, we eat. Sometimes, we even finish the meal:


And at the end of the day, when all is *hopefully* put away, daddy is back from work, tummies are full, and showers are taken, we all sit down to stories before bedtime.



And then...

good night.

October ish

I feel Octoberish today. I don't really know what that means, but I feel it nonetheless.

Many have asked how our friends have been affected up in Manila by all the flooding. Well...

Two of our national coworkers lost everything. One sat on her roof with about 100 neighbors, since her house was the only one left standing. The other sat on her roof (before being rescued) for hours with her children, at one point saying her goodbyes because she thought the end was near.

A couple of our other coworkers had their houses flooded, one's car was underwater, and one family was stuck on their second floor for 2 days because it flooded 7 feet on their 1st floor.

Clean up has begun. It would be a nice thought to think the water came and left. But, Manila is full of dirt and grease and all of that came with the flood water, coating everything it touched. So, besides those who lost everything, those who did not have quite the clean up...

And here on Palawan, we didn't see much of Ketsana. We had some cooler days with clouds.

And it looks like this last typhoon, Pepeng, missed Manila, although it directly hit some of our other missionary locations in northern Luzon.

I've been watching the satellite for over a year now, keeping tabs on weather conditions and what's coming for flight days that Ben has. We'll see what this next storm does, but it looks like it's going to head north, as well.

Next on the list

Today and Wednesday are flight days. That means early mornings and lots of weather monitoring. Today, there is a nice tropical storm in the area, not hitting us directly. It is dragging weather across our island tho. Ben was in the air at 6 this morning to get some folks out of the tribe. Not even halfway there, he ran into a wall of black clouds. There was no getting through, so he turned around and headed back to our city.

Four hours later, the weather looks a bit more cleared up. He is off again, this time he has made it to the tribal location and is on track to make it back home.

There's another storm headed this way. Perhaps it will make it here in time for his next flight? Wouldn't that be just dandy? For him, that means flying around storms, and monitoring his turn around boundaries. For me, that means I stick close to the radio, monitoring his location, checking weather on the internet, calling our halfway location for weather updates, and radio-ing the tribal location for up to date weather. And the return trip to our city entails me running back and forth from the computer to our porch to check local weather conditions and see if the mountains are clear (we have a GREAT view!).

After those two flights, Ben begins a 100 hour inspection on the plane. What does that mean? Not exactly sure what that means for him, but for me, it means a lot less running :)

The 2 Hour Project

This is a typical project for our line of work AND typically how it goes...
A wise missionary once told us, 'plan on 3 things to get done in a day, and if you get 1 done, you've had a successful day.'

Ben needed to fill out a form for the aviation authorities here in the Philippines. A simple, 2 hour job is all it would be. Then, send it off to the big city via LBC.

It was so simple it took almost a week to do.

First thing to go wrong: The form was incomplete. There wasn't enough time to order new forms before the deadline, so Ben decided to make it on the computer.
Second thing to go wrong: The computer crashed. Take it down to the computer repair shop
Third delay: It takes them a day to fix it. And a small chunk of change. Return to hangar to make form.
Fourth delay: All the programs are gone! Return to computer repair shop for help. Files are in new spots. Return with computer to hangar again.
Fifth delay: Word program starts acting funny...or maybe he just doesn't know it well enough yet. After awhile, he finishes the form and fills it out. Go to LBC and wait 1 hour in line to mail document.

And the 2 hour project is done.

In 4 days.

Onto the next one...

For the curious

Having a child in our city isn't a big deal. In fact, the whole city is populated with people. Having a cesarean in this town is also not a big deal. But to a girl from a different culture, it sorta was. This is my story...

I checked in the night before the surgery. We had to go to the ER to do this. I've never been in a Filipino ER before. It had 4 beds with available curtains for privacy. They asked me to sit on one of the beds so they could use the fetal monitor and check the baby. The batteries wouldn't stay in, so one person held the batteries in the monitor and one person found the heartbeat. We got into our deluxe room after a bit and ben and I slept on the couch. The last night with my big belly. I was not upset by this thought.

The following morning, in the wee hours, the nurses popped their heads in the door to encourage me to bathe...over and over again. Then, I was prepped and taken to the OR. Ben saw me to the OR door, where I was met by OR nurse Patty, who is also, in a twist of fate, our dogs' vet. We discussed the fate of our sick puppy on the way in. I was transferred onto the OR table and given a spinal. It made my toes feel tingly. and it numbed me.

Good news indeed.

I was also given something to 'help me relax.' I had the same reaction to it that I did with Ellie. I was a very happy camper. Chit chatting in Tagalog, making bets on the baby's hair color (I believe I owe Nurse Patty a Coke Light), and thinking that they really need to get some music in that room. The surgery apparently when well, Zack was born. I did not get to see him right away. BUT, I did get to see. That was a biggie. My first baby with my new eyes--no need for glasses or contacts. It is so nice to SEE.

I was returned to my room and put into the hospital bed. This, by far, was the best hospital bed I've been in--no bumps or jerks as it goes up and down. Great bed. Horrible mattress. Having to lay flat on your back for 8 hours isn't easy on a hard mattress. I came home bruised. seriously. Zack came to me right away, within a half hour of getting to the room. How do you care for a baby while you are flat on your back? that's why here in the Philippines, every body has a person who stays with them in the hospital. So, Ben held him. Oh, and they don't have baby beds available here. So, we ended up bringing in one of our plastic storage containers and putting zack in there. They thought that was really funny. The nurses all came in to see him tucked away in his plastic tub.

Oh, and Miss San Vicente came to do a 'get well' visit with the patients in the hospital and gave me a rose and a box of brownies...which I couldn't eat.

For the first time in my life, I requested the air conditioner to be turned up to full blast. I didn't realize this. It felt fine to me. But Ben went home and brought back blankets and a quilt for Zack. And he kept covering me up as I lay in bed, only to have me kick the covers off.

Oh, and you know that annoying bit where the nurses come every half hour throughout the night? They do that here, too.

The hospital I went to was a strictly vegetarian fare. So, that meant not only was it Filipino cuisine, it was tofu Filipino cuisine. Filipino food is not bad, but tofu is. really gross. I ate some bran muffin that was donated to the 'get suzy better' cause. Ben did eat some of the food. It did not sit well. In fact, it moved quite quickly. and so did he...

One of the major no-nos of have a CS is do not have a cough. It's bad.

I had a cough.

BUT, the Lord is faithful! Here, they wrap your tummy up in an exercise band after surgery. I don't know why. It was very helpful tho, as I was coughing as soon as I could sit up. The wrap, not the incision, took the brunt of the cough. Which is dandy, because I had that cough for well over a week after returning home.

I was released from the hospital 2 1/2 days after surgery. It was nice to get home, but it sure was warm. and humid. We found out at discharge that the bill was 50% more than we had originally been told it would be. Not good. And here you have to pay your entire bill before you can be discharged. All the running around that Ben did--he's a champ--ended in success and we were home by 10 pm.

As we lay down to sleep that night, comfy in my own *soft* bed, just before drifting off, I heard Ben say:

Good job.

A month of ONE's

The last 6 weeks have been pretty interesting:

One awesome visit from Ben's folks and sisters (Thanks, mum, for the BRAN MUFFINS! They are great post-op!)

One new baby (pictures forthcoming)

One major surgery in a developing country

One subsequent infection to take by the horns and conquer (feels good to conquer that kind of thing)

One night of 4 hours of continuous sleep...oh wait, that hasn't happened yet...

One time in my life when the AC was on full blast and I wasn't cold

One moment of coherent thinking in the midst of sleep deprivation :) (my family appreciated that one moment...)

Cheap ear piercings...

The other night, while all blissfully sleeping, a young boy cried out

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!"

This woke his parents up.

Unbeknownst to them, something had happened. Thinking he was scared and perhaps had pinned his ear under in his sleep, he was given his special blanket and sent back to sleep. And the hall light was turned on.

The next morning, happening to be a flight day, dad was off early. That left mom to greet the kids upon waking up.

The young boy came to give his mommy a hug. His ear was crusted over with blood. hmmm...not normal.

Cleaning the ear, the mom found his upper ear had been completely pierced thru, in what looked like a bite. After consulting and looking, it was determined to be a rat bite.

Facts about rat bites:
Rats rarely carry rabies (bonus)
Most people are bitten by rats in their sleep
Most bites occur between midnight and 6 AM
Mostly children are bitten by rats
While rare, rat bites can cause rat bite fever (clever name)

So, the boy was watched, the family waited. No fever, no infection. Good news, indeed.

The offending rat was caught and taken care of...




And the boy was told he could not have his ear pierced...

Rainy Season

Here's some video clips of our rainy season. We've currently had a low pressure system in the area. Who knew that I would know what in the world that meant! For us, it means that rainy, cloudy weather moves in fast, and sometimes just as fast, moves on. (on a sidenote, it also means it is blissfully cooler for awhile, which is greatly appreciated by this very pregnant woman!)
While trying to get our missionaries supplied and transported, we've encountered lots of weather this week. On Monday, Ben was weathered in a couple hours up north for the night. He was able to get back to Puerto the next morning, come home long enough for a shower and a meal, and then he was off again to fly another day!

Avionics

Two full weeks of installation and two full weeks of paperwork. At the end of the month, we were able to get the inspector down here from Manila to check it all out and he approved it for flying in the Philippines. Yeah! Meaning: We were back online. Double Yeah! We had to cancel and/or postpone two weeks sprinkled with flights because of it.

Here's some pictures of the before and after of one of the airplanes that he and another guy did (Thanks Alvin!)

And now Ben has been flying almost everyday to supply and transport our missionaries in the bush before we take a wee break for the new baby.

Ice Skating in the Phillipines

It can be done!
Not just at the Mall of Asia or Mega Mall in Manila, but in your very own home!
All you need is a tile floor and baby powder. Throw in a couple kids and the game is complete. They can make snow angels, they can slide--all without fear of hypothermia! The kids loves it, come away smelling nice, and you have free entertainment.
For more fun, add the puppy to the mix.

Water Water NO WHERE but still a bill to pay

For 5 weeks now, we have had no city water during the day. From before 7 am till after 2 pm, nothing (interestingly enough, the meter still runs...but that is for another day when I discuss conspiracy theories...). My kids are commonly heard to say, 'we don't have any water, not a drop!'

The first few days of our latest adventure were a surprise and understandably led to some frustrating moments. After all, what do you do when you have no water? Well, I can say more what you don't do: you don't do laundry, you don't wash the chickens' cage, you don't clean the kiddie pool, you don't mop and wipe the mold away, and you don't do dishes.

You DO call the water company. And after the first week, they recognize your voice. After the second week, they give up making up new excuses (my personal favorite was that the power was out and that made the pressure low. Hmmm...sorry, miss, the power is not out. Yes it is. Nope, I'm looking at my light and she's a'blarin' away. Oh, well, not all the power is back on and so the pressure is low. I see). After the 3rd week, they start giving you other numbers to call cuz they are tired of hearing your sweet voice growling into the phone (ma'am, the water pressure is weak, but if you don't have any water by 5 pm, then call this number... 5 PM!!! Are you kidding me!) After the 5th week, 'ma'am, why don't you get a water tank?' Wait a minute, that doesn't fix the problem...well, maybe it fixes their problem. And for the record, what is the problem? Apparently, during dry season, the pressure falls and we are uphill from the main line. This does not explain, however, why the pressure miraculously increases every night...

So, where has this left us? Every night, we fill up our bath tub and throughout the day, bucket by bucket, we use it up--for dishes, for watering the animals, for laundry, for mopping. I thank the Lord for the idea of siphoning water from the tub to our washing machine with a hose. And at night, we use the rest for baths or bucket showers if the water pressure is still not 'strong enough'.

But, lest you think that all my hair is pulled out from this ordeal, let me tell you the happiness that has come thru our "trial":
JOY in flushing my toilet
HAPPINESS in smelling clean...anything
SMUG SATISFACTION in knowing my 4 year old son knows the proper usage of the work 'incompetent" (as that is the best description I have for our current service)
TICKLED when I can give my dogs a bath (they aren't so happy about it, tho)

And thru this unique situation, I have not despaired. I have been irritated. And, honestly, an irritated, uncomfortably large pregnant woman is not a good sight to behold:

Our Easter

Our Easter weekend started off with some visiting friends (which was GREAT!), fellow missionaries with us here in the Philippines. Jason is an airplane mechanic. Ben realized he needed to do the 50 hour inspection on the plane before his next flight this week, so they started in on that. Easter Sunday came, having just finished the inspection, with a call from one of our tribal locations. Two pregnant ladies were in distress. One with a possible condition that was fatal within 6 hours. We ladies quickly made up plates of their Easter dinner (which was good vittles, if I may say so myself), and my friend, Jonie, took it down to the hangar so the guys could eat before they left.

They made it to the tribe, working their way around some weather, and picked up the ladies and their husbands. After safely transporting them to the closest town with a hospital, they came home.


We were able to finish out the day all together at the local beach. How was your Easter?

I was planning on letting the kids hunt easter eggs that afternoon, but we postponed that until Monday. Unfortunately, I did not take into consideration the effects of our present climate on our hardboiled eggs. By Monday, they were SMELLY! we did one hunt and that was it. Next year: Plastic!!!

An Unlikely Couple

Everybody has their story of how they and their spouse hooked up. If you think yours is odd, check this one out…

About 7:30 AM, I was given the weather update for the tribe I was enroute to. About 15 minutes later, I came over the last ridge into the foothills where the quiet little Palawano village sits tucked up against the mountains. I pulled the power back to 15 inches manifold pressure and slowed to 80 knots as I circled overhead to see if the runway was clear. With a slight breeze blowing out of the north, I made my way south of the village to begin the approach. I pulled the power back to 13 inches, put on the first notch of flaps, and pointed the nose down into the tree-filled valley ahead. Following the treeline down toward the river bed, I made my last turn. Seconds from touchdown, the runway finally came into view with the stallhorn just starting to sound. Touching down right at the beginning of the little grass runway, I put on the brakes and came to a stop at the far end of the runway.

Today, I was in this village to pick up a Palawano lady who had a deteriorating medical condition that was beyond what the missionary clinic could handle. As I loaded this lady, her husband, and their youngest girl into the plane, I noticed that her husband did not look like a typical mountain person. He looked more like a person from the coastal area. I asked the missionary about this, and what a story I got…

Her husband of many years is a former Muslim fighter from another area. During one of his raids on a village in years past, he spotted a girl and attacked her, smashing her mouth with the butt of his rifle. He dragged her off into the jungle and she became his prisoner. All these years later, they are still together (as married), in spite of her lack of teeth (which she lost when they first met…). You can imagine my surprise at that story, and I tried to cover it by asking how many kids they now had. The missionary asked the tribal gal, and she answered that she couldn’t

really remember, but there were nine living! Did I mention that she is probably only about 30 years old?

The story doesn’t stop there. After I strapped them in to the airplane, and we taxi-ed to the other end of the runway to take off, I looked back and she had her eyes covered with the barf bag (they are multi-purpose, you know). She didn’t open her eyes once until we were on the ground at the final destination. But, what I did notice, which was very unusual to me, was that her husband was patting her in a comforting way the whole flight. Well, comforting of some sort; he was thumping her chest with his hand. It seemed ironic to me that this man, in particular, would be showing a public display of comfort to his wife. I have flown out many sick tribal people and have never seen that before.

This young mother of nine-plus is scheduled for surgery and, Lord willing, I will be flying her back home soon to recover; but the best part is that maybe this year, she and her husband will be introduced to Jesus.

More on Life

Currently, Ben has a smattering of flights as a number of work teams have come to help out in various tribes. And while it's been HOT, these last couple of days have seen breeze, showers, and brief respites to the heat. It's also made it more interesting to fly.

Ben was flying one visitor into a tribal location. He gave him a heads up ahead of time that the approach to the airstrip there might feel close, but everything was fine. The visitor assured Ben he had been on a number of strips and wasn't at all concerned. After they landed, however, the visitor told Ben, 'Wow! That was cool'. I guess it was a bit more adventurous than he was expecting. I'm glad that my husband is good at his job.

And here I am, at 25 weeks. I squeezed in a trip to the doctor last week to begin the process of learning about having a baby here in our provincial city. I haven't been too keen on being in our little town to have the birth. But, people have babies here all the time, which I reckon is in their favor (the hospitals and doctors, that is).

Also checked out the hospital in town. Interesting cultural tidbit: not only can you check in to a deluxe super duper suite (I called it the presidential suite based on the price), you can also opt for the hallway rate. While I think I could have a number of good Tagalog discussions taking that last option, I think I'll opt for something in the middle. But, pray in this if you will. It's heavy on my heart, and there is no need for it to be, is there? The Good Lord already has it figured out, and He does a lot better figuring than I do...

Animal Kingdom

In the morning of one warm Saturday, Ben spotted a snake in our yard, so he and I had a jolly time hunting it down and terminating its rental contract here. **sidenote*turns out this was a nonpoisonous snake of 4 foot length**
Then, in the afternoon, we had a big gecko take up residence in the kitchen. Again, we permanently terminated his rental contract (boy, he made a ruckus, though).
Then, in the wee hours of the night, Ty cried out cuz he was scared. Turns out the noise he was hearing was an ROUS (Rat of unusual size) in his room, munching away on some stolen treat. Ben chased him around, turning on our bedroom light at 2 am (I was not impressed with that part). But we put a rat trap up the following night. Apparently, said rat was none too bright, because he got caught the very first night the trap was up. I'm not complaining. And, as seems to be the pattern, his rental contract was also terminated.

And we did not get the monkey, sad to say. However, Ben came home with a puppy the other day from one of the tribal locations. Poor little gaffer was a wee bit sad to leave his momma, but he's adjusting well here. It's quite the thing to potty train two at a time (Ellie is the other one, in case there is any confusion on that one). Ty picked the name of Leo, after the character on Little Einsteins. It fits.

Smelly chicken and sugar rice

Back in the Philippines now, adjusting to hot season (hello banana shakes!). We went shopping right after we got back for the essentials, ie rice, and look at what we found:

For those who can't tell (I won't ask why), these bags say 'sugar' but are actually filled with rice. bins and bins of rice filled sugar bags...

And while we were gone, we had 9 of our chickens stolen. Bummer! And we lost one the other day. She died and we tossed our outside our gate, about 30 feet away. Of course, the slight breeze would blow from that location towards our house. And of course, it would be right into the office window, where I am sitting all day today at the radio. So, in lieu of air conditioning, I set up our fan with a blueberry candle burning behind it. It's quite nice. Why, you may ask, don't you just move the bird to some other location. Hmm....two day old bird, tropical decaying process...I don't think so.

Cleaning up

And lest you think that he was all hick, my sweet hubby cleaned up real nice for the wedding, although I caught him talking during the signing of the marriage certificate. tsk, tsk.

Our Canadian Kids

At the end of January/beginning of February, we went to Canada for Ben's brother's wedding, two weeks in northern Canada and one week in the southern part. It was the first time ever for Ellie to hit the snow; the first time Ty would remember. Sledding/snow fun looks like it is in their blood. It was a new thing to see them both all bundled up like marshmallow people, but they loved it. And Ellie only needed a couple times to convince her that snowpants are a must. Below is her "smile for the camera" face.
And Ben was smashing in his winter get up. He was, as he says, very happy to breathe in COLD, CRISP air, as opposed to our normal atmosphere of a humidifier...

And he enjoyed helping his brother on his house and hanging out with the family.

And I got in the action, too. The first day we arrived (after falling over a stationary set of building supplies *blame sleep deprivation*), I went sledding with the youngins on the sledding hill. Very fun. The bump didn't mind the ride, either. Well, until the kids put a jump into the sledding hill. Then, I became a spectator.

The Gingerbread House

Ben's sister created this lovely gingerbread house, with the help of her chillins at Christmas. It's a good thing we got the picture, because the next day, the red from the peppermints had begun to run, covering the door with red juice (I said it made a good Passover door), and the frosting began to sag till it looked like ice cycles. By day two, the wreath above the door lost it's circular shape and by day three, the candies on the trees had oozed their color completely. It made for good snacking, but the heat and humidity of Palawan took their toll.

We all went for a walk to the beach and met our neighbor's pet monkey. The kids loved her. She was scared to death...

And Ellie spent some with her cousin, looking out, fighting, playing, fighting. you get the idea...

The Ferocious Frog

Don't ask how, cuz I don't know. And, honestly, I don't wanna know. BUT, every now and then, we get a frog in our bathroom. The one in the video apparently has some defensive device built in, but after hearing it, i can see why he is at the bottom of the food chain...


yeah, pretty scary...