Chilled

What a wonderfully chilled day in a beautiful place!

After a series of adventure and emotion filled days we decided to make the most of Loboc River Resort to unwind.

We awoke to this view from our balcony, which only got better as the day went on and the tide came in.

A morning swim of course and then a beautiful Filipino breakfast by the water 

(Elijah chose the American breakfast of course).

Elijah couldn’t wait to fish from the jetty, and the hope was for this to provide tonight’s dinner, but unfortunately the fish weren’t so keen – which might have been a good thing as I wasn’t sure what to do it if we actually caught anything!   

I insisted we walk across the picturesque bridge to the village of Loboc – an assortment of various styles and standards of housing, and a lot of roosters (not sure where all the hens have gone).

We were sweltering by the time we returned at 10 am and when I suggested a bike ride the boys didn’t seem that interested, so we adjourned to the beautiful pool and even practised our snorkelling.

Then lunch by the river, where the colourful fish teased us by swimming in full view and then disappearing as soon as we stepped onto the jetty.

By now it was simply too hot to be outside and our skin needed us to have some inside chill time.
Then a kayak on the beautiful river before a resort tour.

Why would go on a the resort tour when you've already been here for 24 hours? To meet the resident monkeys and Cabanao (buffalo), as well as the new wing of the resort which is about to open.

And we rounded our day off wih yet another swim and a delicious dinner by the river .
'What was you high today' I asked? For Hamish it was reading by the river after lunch, for Elijah it was seeing the monkeys, but for me it was having a very relaxing day with my lovely boys. How very blessed I am. 

5 cultural experiences in one day

With no fixed appointment and no long drive to do, we let Hamish have a sleep in – breakfast at 8. Enough time for a leisurely swim beforehand. We cleaned up , checked out and headed to the markets for our first cultural experience.

Culture at the markets? The seafood of course, with the highlights being the still live cuttlefish, the large parrot fish and the woman sawing through the huge tuna fish! If only Coles North Richmond was this interesting!

It was all too much for the shop attendant at this stall (no sign of an adult)

Then to the mall for our second cultural experience. We happened to notice a price in a shop window for an unusual item: ‘unprovoked murder.’ Suspecting another cultural experience, we looked more closely and discovered it was just a list of benefits for a life insurance policy. If only we made things this explicit back home.

And if only we could have Christian songs like 'Blessed be the name of the Lord', and 'In Christ Alone' pumping through our shopping malls on Sunday, plus this great range of clothing and merchandise in the department store - 'Worship Generation - making worship a lifestyle.' Which, it now occurs to me, is exactly what worship is - a lifestyle of giving all that He deserves. 

   

Then back to our Compassion friends for our third cultural experience. I didn’t mention before that as well as the monthly church service for the families of sponsored children, today also happened to be the 3 monthly birthday party celebration. And where to go for a party of one hundred children who have had their birthday this quarter? Jollibee of course! They booked out the largest fast food restaurant party room I have ever seen and held a 2 hour party, complete with oodles of cheesy yum burgers and Jollibee chicken, hyped up party games and dance music, and best of all, Jollibee and his best friend Twirlie.

Despite my best efforts I was roped in to have a photo with Jollibee and Twirlee and the Compassion team.

The children loved the whole thing, and were clearly made to feel very special for their birthdays.

(In case you think that Jollibee is just a Philippines things, 'it's a Jollibee world' and this cultural experience could be coming to you soon. 

What happens at Christmas I hear you say? Sponsors give an extra amount to provide a gift, and the project arranges for all 565 children to go to the mall on the one day and choose their gift. Now that would be a cultural experience!

Of course hype and games and fast food was the ideal preparation for the children to sit through a long church service, but they were surprisingly well behaved. The pastor seemed to speak well from the Bible, at least judging by the lines of English that he interspersed with Filipino, perhaps for our benefit. The service was more liturgical than we are used to, including sung responses and a choir, but perhaps that works well for the mainly Catholic background families who are coming to the service.

I was delighted to speak about our church’s joy in partnering with this church in caring for their children, and they showed the videos that the sponsors had made again. Hamish and Elijah led our song again, which seemed to go down well.

Afterwards we chatted with the Project Director Jessilyn. She started as a book keeper when the project started with 175 children 17 years ago. Her husband works as the captain of an iron ore ship sailing between Australia and Japan for 9 months at a time, then having three months at home.

How did we feel as we drove away from our last Compassion engagement? So thankful to have had the opportunity to get to know the children and the workers, so impressed by the effectiveness of  the work here, and so thankful for our own material and spiritual blessings and the opportunity to be a part of this.

And as we were feeling these things, we realised that we were now making the transition to simply enjoying this wonderful place for a holiday.

Jessilyn had told us about a python zoo on the way to our next accommodation, and we had a great time there.

Many different pythons and an unusual tour guide 

who threw in a solo performance of a Disney melody just for us. 

Our fifth cultural experience of the day: our next accommodation. Loboc River Resort - a picturesque resort on a pretty river complete with a water buffalo and lots of geckos. At dinner by the river Hamish had the largest bowl of soup I have ever seen.

Then we capped off the day with the firefly cruise - beautiful creatures, though they don't look as good in our pictures ...

Here's a better picture from the cruise ...

Looking forward to exploring tomorrow....

Project 951 & JM

What a fantastic visit to Compassion Project 951 in the middle of Tagbilaran at United Church of Christ of the Philippines.

About 4 years ago our church started a partnership with some churches on this Island through Compassion Australia. About 50 children are now sponsored by members of our church, and 27 of these are at this project. What we didn’t realise until today is that these 27 children are just a fraction of the 565 children who are being sponsored by people from around the world at this particular project. Today we got to meet about 20 of these children for almost 2 hours.

When we arrived at the church and Compassion centre the children were there waiting for us and greeted us warmly with pretty necklaces and a welcome song. A little overwhelmed we quickly got organised and introduced ourselves.

Hamish did a great job teaching a song again, and Elijah was the games master. These activities seemed to work a bit better than yesterday, partly as it was our second time around, and partly as this time it wasn't just with 3-5 year olds who didn't speak English!    

We very much wanted our visit to not just be for us but to come on behalf of all the sponsors of these children, but unfortunately we couldn't fit them in our suitcase - and may have had trouble getting them through customs as well. So instead, many of them had made videos with special messages for their sponsored child. 

The children loved seeing their sponsors, and  receiving the gifts their sponsors had sent with us. It was great fun for me to give these to the children. I did feel a lot like a fat man in a red suit (just can’t remember his name). They patiently waited until everyone had received their gift and had their photo taken, and then there was a great flurry of excitement as they opened them.

We loved getting in amongst them to enjoy their new books, colouring pencils, paints and toys.

The children then showed great skill in writing thank you cards to their sponsors, and then to close, the staff organised them into a circle and asked me to pray for them all. A special moment indeed!

But still the fun continued as Hamish taught the kids a hand clapping game which was very well received.

Finally it was sadly time to say farewell to the children and to be shown around the church. Though the current building isn’t that old, God’s people have been meeting here for 110 years. Last year a whole new education centre of 3 classrooms was funded by a group of Korean sponsors who visit each year. We met Senior Pastor George, the youth Pastor Angelos, and the Conference Pastor (this sounded like a good gig for anyone who likes organising events, but it turns out he doesn't actually pastor conferences. He is the head pastor (= bishop) over the 80 churches on the island.

A very fun and encouraging visit. Looking forward to joining them tomorrow for their monthly service for the families of the sponsored children. Should be around 200 people.

Of course we were not just there to visit on behalf of the sponsors from our church, but to meet our own sponsored child JM. Elijah suggested earlier this year that we sponsor another child and we are so glad to did. JM is a gorgeous little boy who is looking forward to starting school next year. 

It was great to meet him and his mum Mary-Rose at the program, and we then headed out for lunch at the mall. Heaps of room this time in the car – only 6 people and it was 10 minutes on concrete roads. One road could have had three lanes each way – though there wouldn’t have been any point painting the lines on, since everyone would just ignore them anyway!

When we visited Raine yesterday they asked us whether we had Jelly Bean and Choking in Australia. At least that's what I heard. Eventually we worked out that they weren't talking about their latest health scare, but about their fast food restaurants 'Jollibee and Chowking'. 

Elijah had already asked if we could go to Jollibee, so he was excited when it turned out that was where JM and Mary-Rose wanted to go. It has been here in the Philippines even before McDo, and it certainly matches the golden arches for nutritional value and actually filling you up, just with more chicken and rice; but its hugely popular! As a result, fast food it is not - the food came quicker at the restaurant yesterday!

But JM loved the chicken and clearly thought the fries tasted better dipped in coke and pineapple juice.

After lunch we drove to JM’s house. It was not far and we had live directions, which were much better than our friend Google, but the roads in this part of town are very narrow and rocky.

JM lives in a small 2 room house built when his parents were married 4 years ago - concrete floor and thatched walls that still need the inside wood attached to stop the rain coming in. Their wedding photo is the only decoration. An outside fireplace for cooking. The land belongs to Mary-Rose’s mother, so they are surrounded by members of her family. No more than 50 metres away there are large and impressive houses, but most here are very basic.

We met JM’s father Julius and his sister Julia, plus various members of the family. They generously presented us with some souvenirs as gifts, and as we did for Raine, we were delighted to give JM a photo album of our family, and some other gifts, plus some for the whole family. They were all so excited for JM to show us the bike he received from us through Compassion. We didn’t know what they had arranged for him, so it was a great treat to see it.

Mary-rose completed 1 year of college in business administration, but had to stop because the fees were too expensive. She now dreams of starting a simple shop in her house so that she doesn't have to go away from her children to work. She also shared with us her concerns for good health and safety for her family. We had the great privilege of praying with them all. We will continue to pray these things for the whole family, and that the support of the Compassion Project will help them greatly, including JM in completing all his education.

Sadly saying farewell, we struggled back though the crazy traffic and enjoyed being back at our hotel. I played in the pool with my boys and Elijah and I watched my favourite movie of all time Toy Story 2. I think we would all agree that the highlight of the day and the thing that will stay with us for a long time was being with the children and seeing the difference people from our church and their church are making in the lives of these children and their families. 

Everything about what I have seen about this partnership through Compassion in the last two days has recommended it even more to me – investing in children all the way through to independent adulthood by working through the people of the local church to care for the physical and social and spiritual needs of the children; and all through effective, caring and generous staff and volunteers. How great to see it in person!

Project 959 and Raine

What a day!

Google maps said 1 3/4 hours, our Compassion contact said 2 1/2 hours, but for us it was 3 hours, and it would have been much longer if we hadn't bumped into someone as we were about to walk the final 1 1/2 kilometres as the road was simply too rough - thankfully she told us we were nowhere near the town of Bugang and we should drive back to the nearest town and ask directions. After asking for directions and then confirming with a further 7 people along the way that we were now going the right way, we finally arrived at the Bugang church and Compassion centre; even if you know where you're going, Bugang is at least 20 minutes on a rough dirt road from the nearest town, but has two churches, a primary school and a high school.

I'm so glad we found out last night that we were going to the centre and not just to Raine's home, as about 60 people had gathered to welcome us.

I spoke for a few minutes, managing to get plenty of laughs for my pronunciation of Tagbilaran, and then Hamish led the singing and actions for 'He died upon the cross'

and Elijah led a game with the actions ...

Then it was the kids' turn to perform for us. Gorgeous!

It reminded me a lot of visiting World Vision projects in Bangkok when I was just a little older than Hamish. What a joy to share this now with two of my boys!

The kids headed out to their programs, and we joined with the staff and Raine and his grandmother in the office to be presented with huge fresh coconuts and 'boud boud' - mashed rice and banana wrapped in dried banana leaves. With the right technique, it peels just like a banana. 'Boud boud' is good good!

We looked around the various rooms where the children were engaged in their learning activities, before heading off to Raine's house.  Including the staff there were 7 of us, so it was not 'not so squishy' as we piled into our Kia Piccano hire car and I nervously drove us along a narrow and rough dirt road for about another 20 minutes to Raine's house.

A simple 3 room house with a concrete floor and walls of large blocks and wood.

A lovely garden of flowers and vegetables, next to a small thatched hut in which Raine's great great grandmother used to live; she is still alive but now lives elsewhere.

Electricity to a few lights and power points but a wood fire in the kitchen.

The whole extended family had come over to welcome us, and they served us a syrupy coconut and condensed milk drink. We loved talking with them about their home and their life. We had always wondered why Raine lives with his grandparents, so it was good to find out that both his parents work on the nearby island of Cebu in a call centre - a very common story in the Philippines, where there is not lot of work. I even got to speak to Raine's mum on the phone while we were there, which was a great thrill. Raine himself hardly said a word the whole time but his grandmother assured us that he is very shy. No doubt having strange visitors from across the world would make most 5 year year olds shy! He did seem to really like the pencils and pencil case we gave him though.

Then it was time for lunch together, so we piled back into the car and drove to the nearest restaurant - 40 minutes away in a large coastal centre called Talibon; until we pulled out our map to ask them for directions back to our hotel I hadn't realised we were now on the opposite side of the island to Tagbilaran!

We dropped them off where they could hire a motorbike back home, then headed back ourselves. Exhausted but so very thankful for the opportunity to participate in God's work in this community so far away, and to have had the rare opportunity to experience it.

Two reflections:

The contrast when we arrived back at our 3 star hotel was profound. Running water, tiled floors, real toilets and real beds; even air conditioning and a swimming pool - luxury the likes of which Raine and his family will most likely never see. Why should we have all this?

But on the other hand...
The trip to the compassion centre was an enlightening experience. Children who we would think unhappy, yet so joyful and full of life. Children, having nothing yet having obtained everything they needed. It was an amazing reminder of God's love and care for us. It reminded us of our priorities - these children seemed to us to have so little, but in God's eyes, they have all the riches of the world. These children have the means and opportunity to know and love the real Jesus. Luke 12:22-23 "...Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing." We were reminded by these children that our riches and wealth mean nothing without God.

Looking forward to meeting JM tomorrow, our other sponsored child here in Bohol; plus the morning at his Compassion child centre with about 26 other children that people from our church sponsor there.

Wide-eyed

Elijah and I continued our family tradition of morning walks before breakfast, aided by our jet-lag. An interesting stroll around the local area - locals heading out to work or making the most of the early morning coolness (27 degrees) for tennis, basketball, and a service in the local church.

A whole variety of housing and lots of dogs just wandering around, plus the local primary school where the playground consists of a little bit of concrete and a whole lot of plants growing out of tyres.

Then back for a morning swim before breakfast.

First stop was the Tarsier sanctuary - extraordinary little creatures with big wide eyes and heads that can turn 180 degrees in both directions. No bigger than your fist, they live solitary lives with at least a hectare of land each, coming together only to mate. As they're nocturnal creatures, the guides use their morning walk to find as many as they can so they can show the visitors. We were no more than one metre away from them. Fascinating to see!

It was worth every Peso - 60 per person, which is about $2 AUD (I think they could probably charge tourist 10 times that amount).

Next we went to the Baclayon Catholic church, built out of coral stones carried from the sea by the Jesuits with forced local labour in the 18th century.

The church is very impressive inside with beautiful frescoes on the ceiling depicting stories from the Bible, appropriately mixed with the Pope and some not-so-subtle local history.

In the museum next door we saw many artefacts from the history of the church - a confessional, vestments, candles, even an old hymnal open to what Hamish recognised as a Gregorian chant, and the pages were made out of cow hide! Sorry no photos allowed here.

Then, contrary to plans, I suggested we try the waterfalls down the coast that I had read about in a blog. The view from the road right next to the water was often beautiful, and we were even sometimes able to go 70! Eventually we found our way nearly to the falls when it started to rain and the locals told us we wouldn't be able to drive the final 1.5kms on the slippery road in a car. We hung around for a while and chatted with them, then decided to go back to another fall. They had said this one wasn't as good, but we thought it was amazing, complete with a rope swing!

I wasn't going near that but Hamish was daring enough to try it. I struggled for ages to tie the ropes together and get it up to Hamish, until a young women took pity on me and offered to do it. Sufficiently humbled by my lack of courage and skill, I settled back to enjoy watching Hamish swing on in.

A great shower!

And for those in suspense to hear about the blood drinking monument, we dropped in there on the way back. An impressive monument but it lacked the one crucial ingredient - a plaque that explains it! So we were left to ask our friend Google. Apparently for some reason the locals around these parts didn't know what was good for them and so didn't welcome the Spanish invaders with open arms, and so the Spanish kept moving on, until they found the local chief here. He liked the look of them and received them warmly. In accordance with local custom, to seal their friendship the two leaders mixed some of their blood with some wine and drank. And they lived happily ever after.

(https://www.bohol-philippines.com/blood-compact-site.html)

In accordance with family custom we decided to seal our friendship by drinking some Coke Zeroes (Zero blood and Zero sugar) at the cafe next door while we enjoyed the view.

So we've covered 3 of the sights depicted in our hotel lobby - can you recognise them? Still some to go.

But for some reason they hadn't included the modern shopping mall where we went for dinner and some supplies. What's different about a mall in Tagbilaran?

1) The aerobics session on a busy Thursday night (it was blaring all through dinner, but stopped just before I got may camera out).

2) The supermarket checkouts - more than 30 operating, none of them self-serve. With no credit card payment and a loyalty points program that the cashiers have to hand write for each customer, it was slow.

3) The toilet paper dispenser just outside the toilets (no need to spend a penny, 1 pesos is now the market rate)

Finally back to the hotel to prepare for tomorrow.

Tomorrow?
Tomorrow we are excited to be meeting our Compassion sponsored child, Raine, in a village 2 hours away. We found out tonight that we will not only be visiting him at home and going out for lunch with him, but also first visiting the child centre and running some activities with all the sponsored 3-5 year olds. Good to know before hand!

And we've clarified arrangements for visiting our other sponsored child JM and his child centre on Saturday, plus the church service there on Sunday.

Can't wait!