Greetings to all of you from Olongapo! I know I said that posts
would be sporadic at best, and it would appear that I am keeping my
word. Our days have been busy, alternately productive and more
leisurely, depending on the weather.
Productive Progress Update: We have been fixing plumbing issues at the Mercyland property, finding correct fittings for our lines and getting water pressure issues resolved. We are on city water, but we had been experiencing problems with our water getting piped up the mountain. Our pressure would be fine in the early morning hours, and would begin to dwindle to a trickle around 9am. Then we wouldn’t have in the kitchen area until well into the afternoon. At night, however, the pressure would spike and become so great as to cause our lines to burst. Come to find out, they had been installed with the wrong fittings. Though still a work in progress, we are progressing and little by little we have accumulated the correct parts and are installing those. Our pressure is much better now.
Due to the rainy season and the typhoons, our excavated mountain gets reduced to a muddy slope. Our team has been digging drainage systems, directing the flow of water downhill and preventing cave-ins on our stairs. We have also begun to cut stairs into the mountain leading up to the Ehler’s house and beyond theirs, to mine and John’s hut. Forming stairs in the ground, we then pound in pegs of wood and place strips of bamboo to line the stair, filling them in with gravel. This helps cut down on the slipping and sliding as we go up to our homes. Eventually, we will pour concrete for a more permanent fix. That, however, will come later and after we have had a chance to plan out how we are going to lay out the pathways.
All of the neepa huts have been completed, and the guys officially moved out of their tent and into their very own home. They installed a metal ceiling fan with three blades, and it keeps them chilled at night. The huts have withstood the heavy bouts of wind kicked up by the recent typhoons, keeping us dry and sheltered.
Our kitchen is outdoors, an open structure composed of bamboo and a thatched grass roof. We are making it our own, cooking on a double gas burner stove top, washing up dishes in large plastic basins, and drying our dishes on dish racks that Liz constructed herself using wood blocks as a base and nailing strips of bamboo down in vertical strips. We have been amassing plastic Tupperware containers to keep our food dry, something that is not easy to do in an open kitchen in a humid place in the midst of the rainy season. Bit by bit, the kitchen is taking shape and becoming more functional. There is even talk of building a brick oven, something that would not only allow us to bake food, but serve a dual purpose of drying out clothing and towels.
Since we have no washer and dryer, we have been taking our dirty clothes to a laundry shop in town. The lady who runs the business is very good, and charges by the kilo. Our clothing comes back to us smelling wonderfully clean and is even wrapped and folded in thin plastic bags.
Bathing in the river has been out of the question, since the rain has caused the water to swell to almost three times it’s normal size. Our bathing hole is no longer visible. After John Langham was admitted to the hospital, we decided to rent out an apartment in the same complex as the Scott and Vicki and Ian and Rose Penwell. We had been considering it prior to John’s illness. My John had been mulling over it, but he decided that it would be a good place for John Langham to recover and for the rest of the team to shower, use a flushing toilet, and hang out during the weekends. While John may have been a deciding factor, our whole team has enjoyed the benefit of showering, using the Penwell’s WiFi, and spending some Rest & Relaxation time at the apartment. We have leased it for 6 months, and the team members chipped in to help with the expenses. We are very grateful for the showers, even if we don’t have hot water. It feels so good to be clean.
Shopping is a neat experience here. You don’t drive up to Meijer, Wal-Mart, or any of the other well known supermarkets in the States. Down Bennet road, sari-sari’s line the streets, tiny vending stalls usually connected to a home where families set up shop selling canned goods, snacks, sodas, drinks, baked items, fresh fruits and veggies, produce, rice, fish, breads, all varying one from another. Then you can go into town and purchase fresh foods from the markets. The Ehler’s showed us the ‘Old Market,’ as it is called around here, and the vendors there give the best prices for good produce. There are also grocery stores, and in the Subic Bay area outside of Olongapo, there are a few duty free stores that have imported items and resemble Sam’s Club. Here you can find Sun Chips, Velveeta Mac ‘n Cheese, butter, milk, cheese, and other such wonders. There are not many cows here, and dairy products are hard to come by and quite pricey. But oh so good.
John, Liz and I just recently began a tile job at the Mercy In Action temporary clinic. We laid the tile in a roughly 8′ x 10′ room that will be used for women giving labor. We have some before and after pictures that I will upload later, after we grout it this Monday. We finished the second half of the room on Friday, and will return to complete the job after the weekend. It was my first tile job, and though it was not perfect because of the oddity of the room itself, I enjoyed learning how to lay tile. It really bugged John that the room wasn’t square and the floor was uneven, and the ensuing result was a decent tile job, not a perfect one.
When we first delivered the tile supplies this week, the entire clinic was hushed. I stepped over the threshold, laden with tile, and the ladies inside motioned me to be quiet. A mother was giving birth in one of the labor rooms. And then I heard a beautiful sound. There is nothing quite like the cry of a newborn baby, breathing in air for the first time. My heart jumped within me as I listened to the cries, and it hit me then that this was why we came. In some small way, I felt like I was a part of what had just happened. I did nothing to aid in the baby's delivery, yet I was nevertheless helping by building a foundation for future Filipino babies and mothers. It became very real to me that day. I got to see the tiny baby, sleeping gently as he was cradled in his mother’s arms. Such a sweet, helpless baby, and his mother’s face, though worn, was so happy.
originally posted on June 25, 2011
Productive Progress Update: We have been fixing plumbing issues at the Mercyland property, finding correct fittings for our lines and getting water pressure issues resolved. We are on city water, but we had been experiencing problems with our water getting piped up the mountain. Our pressure would be fine in the early morning hours, and would begin to dwindle to a trickle around 9am. Then we wouldn’t have in the kitchen area until well into the afternoon. At night, however, the pressure would spike and become so great as to cause our lines to burst. Come to find out, they had been installed with the wrong fittings. Though still a work in progress, we are progressing and little by little we have accumulated the correct parts and are installing those. Our pressure is much better now.
Due to the rainy season and the typhoons, our excavated mountain gets reduced to a muddy slope. Our team has been digging drainage systems, directing the flow of water downhill and preventing cave-ins on our stairs. We have also begun to cut stairs into the mountain leading up to the Ehler’s house and beyond theirs, to mine and John’s hut. Forming stairs in the ground, we then pound in pegs of wood and place strips of bamboo to line the stair, filling them in with gravel. This helps cut down on the slipping and sliding as we go up to our homes. Eventually, we will pour concrete for a more permanent fix. That, however, will come later and after we have had a chance to plan out how we are going to lay out the pathways.
All of the neepa huts have been completed, and the guys officially moved out of their tent and into their very own home. They installed a metal ceiling fan with three blades, and it keeps them chilled at night. The huts have withstood the heavy bouts of wind kicked up by the recent typhoons, keeping us dry and sheltered.
Our kitchen is outdoors, an open structure composed of bamboo and a thatched grass roof. We are making it our own, cooking on a double gas burner stove top, washing up dishes in large plastic basins, and drying our dishes on dish racks that Liz constructed herself using wood blocks as a base and nailing strips of bamboo down in vertical strips. We have been amassing plastic Tupperware containers to keep our food dry, something that is not easy to do in an open kitchen in a humid place in the midst of the rainy season. Bit by bit, the kitchen is taking shape and becoming more functional. There is even talk of building a brick oven, something that would not only allow us to bake food, but serve a dual purpose of drying out clothing and towels.
Since we have no washer and dryer, we have been taking our dirty clothes to a laundry shop in town. The lady who runs the business is very good, and charges by the kilo. Our clothing comes back to us smelling wonderfully clean and is even wrapped and folded in thin plastic bags.
Bathing in the river has been out of the question, since the rain has caused the water to swell to almost three times it’s normal size. Our bathing hole is no longer visible. After John Langham was admitted to the hospital, we decided to rent out an apartment in the same complex as the Scott and Vicki and Ian and Rose Penwell. We had been considering it prior to John’s illness. My John had been mulling over it, but he decided that it would be a good place for John Langham to recover and for the rest of the team to shower, use a flushing toilet, and hang out during the weekends. While John may have been a deciding factor, our whole team has enjoyed the benefit of showering, using the Penwell’s WiFi, and spending some Rest & Relaxation time at the apartment. We have leased it for 6 months, and the team members chipped in to help with the expenses. We are very grateful for the showers, even if we don’t have hot water. It feels so good to be clean.
Shopping is a neat experience here. You don’t drive up to Meijer, Wal-Mart, or any of the other well known supermarkets in the States. Down Bennet road, sari-sari’s line the streets, tiny vending stalls usually connected to a home where families set up shop selling canned goods, snacks, sodas, drinks, baked items, fresh fruits and veggies, produce, rice, fish, breads, all varying one from another. Then you can go into town and purchase fresh foods from the markets. The Ehler’s showed us the ‘Old Market,’ as it is called around here, and the vendors there give the best prices for good produce. There are also grocery stores, and in the Subic Bay area outside of Olongapo, there are a few duty free stores that have imported items and resemble Sam’s Club. Here you can find Sun Chips, Velveeta Mac ‘n Cheese, butter, milk, cheese, and other such wonders. There are not many cows here, and dairy products are hard to come by and quite pricey. But oh so good.
John, Liz and I just recently began a tile job at the Mercy In Action temporary clinic. We laid the tile in a roughly 8′ x 10′ room that will be used for women giving labor. We have some before and after pictures that I will upload later, after we grout it this Monday. We finished the second half of the room on Friday, and will return to complete the job after the weekend. It was my first tile job, and though it was not perfect because of the oddity of the room itself, I enjoyed learning how to lay tile. It really bugged John that the room wasn’t square and the floor was uneven, and the ensuing result was a decent tile job, not a perfect one.
When we first delivered the tile supplies this week, the entire clinic was hushed. I stepped over the threshold, laden with tile, and the ladies inside motioned me to be quiet. A mother was giving birth in one of the labor rooms. And then I heard a beautiful sound. There is nothing quite like the cry of a newborn baby, breathing in air for the first time. My heart jumped within me as I listened to the cries, and it hit me then that this was why we came. In some small way, I felt like I was a part of what had just happened. I did nothing to aid in the baby's delivery, yet I was nevertheless helping by building a foundation for future Filipino babies and mothers. It became very real to me that day. I got to see the tiny baby, sleeping gently as he was cradled in his mother’s arms. Such a sweet, helpless baby, and his mother’s face, though worn, was so happy.
originally posted on June 25, 2011
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