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.