Filipino Traffic

Hi everyone. Last week my friend, Steve Oishi, and I went out to take pictures around Davao. One of our main goals was to record traffic. We have had so many of you back home ask us to get some pictures or video of what it is like to drive here. While our video recording ended up being less than par, we did end up with some good pictures of jeepneys (public transportation). Steve recently posted some of these pictures and wrote a humorous blog about the "rules of driving" while here in the Philippines. I hope you enjoy the link. Thanks, Steve!

http://www.followingwheregodleads.blogspot.com

P.S. Steve has also written a very good article about Filipino currency if you are interested. It is below this blog link if you scroll down.

The Filipino Budget

The other day, we had the opportunity to disciple a young couple that had recently graduated from seminary. The husband is interested in planting a church in a needed area near Davao, and the wife is interested in opening her own bakery. Salem and I had this couple over for dinner, and then after dinner were able to sit down with them and work out a rough-draft budget with them. One major characteristic about people living in the Philippines is short-term thinking. Most Filipinos have never even attempted to budget their money. (When you make less than $8/day, you are not thinking about how to save for the future!) We were able to make a monthly budget and make a financial plan of how they could save enough money to make the dreams God has for them become a reality. It will take discipline, yet I think it is possible.

Salem and I were humbled... their combined weekly income was less than $60. We were challenging them to put back about $10/week. I wish I had a camera to catch each of their facial expressions when we worked out a budget that would allow them to do this! They had never thought about what life would be like not to have to live week by week. In fact, they took our figures and cut their budget more. As a couple, they are determined to save more than 25% of their income in order to be able to personally plant a new church in the future. I was inspired that evening, and it made me think about how many times in our lives we have missed God because we have debt; we lack financial goals; or we have been simply interested in getting more instead of giving more.

How many of us would be willing to live smaller so we could give more for God's Kingdom in this next year? How many of us actually sit down and budget to spend less so we can give it to those in need... instead of buying that new couch. How many of us have forfeited God's best, because we are poor stewards of what God has given us? These are questions I was left pondering when they left our house. Please be in prayer for this couple as they seek to honor God. May their example allow God to speak to us.

We have furniture!

I told you a while back that we had decided to order custom-made bamboo furniture for our home. The furniture was to include beds for our family, two couches, and three end-tables. Well it finally arrived the day before yesterday (September 12. The original delivery date was August 21 - we must be adjusting culturally because the furniture actually came sooner than we thought it would.)

This was cultural immersion at its best. We began back in July by getting one of our Filipina friends to take us to the road-side stand where you order the bamboo furniture. We had to make detailed sketches of each piece of furniture including all the dimensions. We found out it is kind of hard to figure out how much of a recline you want in a couch - and how to communicate that. But we did our best.




Our friend, Elsa, was amazing as she was our go between translating not only words, but ideas to the bamboo man. But at the end of the 1 1/2 hour conversation, none of us really knew what we might end up with.

We heard from the bamboo man (via Elsa) a couple of times in the past month and a half - usually to say the rain was holding up things as the bamboo has to dry out before making the furniture.

So Monday afternoon when I got a text saying the furniture was at our neighborhood front gate and would I please come let them in, I was quite surprised - and excited. I drove to the gate and was surprised to find all of our furniture loaded inside a jeepney along with six men (two drivers and four bamboo furniture makers). I'm guessin' that was a long, cramped ride from the mountains! (Once again, I didn't think to take a picture of it all loaded - but imagine a king size bed, a double wide loft bed, a double wide set of bunk beds, two couches, three end tables, and six men crowded into this vehicle - no wonder it needed to cool off once it got to our house!)

The men proceeded to unload everything in our front yard. Then they carried each set of furniture into the house and assembled it. The kids were super excited, and I was too - until I started seeing all the bugs that came in with the furniture. Combine bamboo and "fresh from the mountains" - and you get bugs. So after the furniture was assembled, we washed it down with bleach water and then sprayed it with bug killer. Never done that to furniture before!

We took a quick picture with the bamboo guys - the man on the right is the man we ordered everything from.



After it was all assembled, washed, sprayed, etc - we had to draw templates from the back and seat of the couches in order to get cushions made. We should be able to pick those up on Monday and have complete furniture.


(Note the "I love soccer" shirt Nolan is wearing - he is coaching Caleb and Isaac's soccer team. Somehow even here in Davao he gets comandeered into such things :)

In the meantime, the kids are really enjoying the beds as you can see here! I did turn on the lights to take these pictures - but it didn't seem to bother them!

Total cost of custom-furniture - $450 (plus the cost of mattresses / cushions) - Definitely cheaper than the department store!

Love,
-S

Appearances can be deceiving.

I was approached by a street vendor the other day wanting to sell me honey.  Oh, how I wish I would have had my camera with me.  He had a five gallon bucket on his shoulder filled to the top with honey, honeycomb, and bees!  The bees were way to into the honey to notice me, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get some honey.  Of course I had no container with me - but the honey man was prepared.  He opens his bag and pulls out a container and filled it up with fresh from the bukid (country) honey.  It cost me 150 pesos (about $3.50).

Looks may be deceiving, but I promise this is honey!

One of the highlights of my weeks are being a part of the "Tuesday Prenatal Team" where we work with the buntis (pregnant women).  (By the way, prenatal care simply means the care a woman receives while she is pregnant.)  I snapped a shot of a few of these sweet ladies during worship the other morning.

The women begin arriving between 7-8 a.m.  We start with worship and a devotional.  I have been overwhelmed (to the point of tears) several times as these times really remind me how BIG God is!  I don't know these women's stories - but God does.  He knows their whole story.  His heart overflows with love for these ladies, and His heart breaks for the challenges they face. 

This time is followed by a health teaching on a topic related to pregnancy and/or labor/delivery.  We have six topics: nutrition, breastfeeding, family planning, fetal development, labor/delivery, and newborn - that we rotate.  With this schedule a woman should hear all six topics before she has her baby.  This is sometimes a little idealistic as not every woman is able to come to all her appointments or she starts prenatal care late in her pregnancy.  In that case, we do some catch up in the individual appointments which happen after the group time. 

After group time each woman is called into an individual exam.  We have five beds/cubicles so we can see five women at a time.  The prenatal care we offer is similar to the format you would expect in the United States, but the problems we see are quite different.  Our number one problem stems from poor nutrition.  The main food eaten in the Philippines is rice, which is fine unless that is all you can afford.  These women have real problems with anemia (or low iron levels in their blood) which can cause all kinds of pregnancy related problems - and can really cause problems in labor/delivery.  We do our best to counsel women about nutrition and give them inexpensive options to include more protein and iron rich foods in their diet.

The average daily wage here is about $7 a day.  Cost of living is not that different than the United States - in otherwords, groceries, rent, daily items are similar to what you would pay in the States.  So how do you exist on $7 a day?  The result is a much lower "standard of living" - you go without.  You eat rice because it is cheap; you may have a few veggies, but you don't eat meat regularly.

Anyway, back to prenatal appointments - at the end of the exam, we pray for each woman.  I have been impressed by the power of prayer as we really depend on God's intervention when there are no other options.

Now, here are a few quick photos of the kids - cause who doesn't like pics of cute kids! (I'm not biased!)

This is Isaac on his birthday.  They make custom donuts here - we thought that was really cool.  (By the way, his eye is fine - just a little squinty for the picture.)

Here is Caleb at home school.  They were learning about marsupials.  So the kids decided to act like they were marsupials.  Caleb is a kangaroo in case you can't tell.

The kids went to visit the home of one of our Filipina friends.  They (the kids) thought it was awesome that the sleeping space was at the top of this ladder.  They also thought it was really cool that the "bathroom" was outside.

Willow was so excited to finally get to wear braids in her hair.  She loves to show them off!

Well I guess that is enough for now!  It is Sunday morning here, and I will work in the birth room this afternoon.  Pray for lots of safe, healthy babies and mamas.

Love,

Salem