Philippines Purok 5

January-February 16th, 2010
Erik's Blog – Entry # 5

It seems that I'm able to write about one blog per month. At least that is how spread out the other ones have been. So since the last blog I wrote we have had a new group of volunteers come and go.

Apparently time is going by a lot faster than I was expecting it to, because just a few days ago I received an e-mail from my Mom, and in it she mentioned that my trip was already half over! I cannot, and I do not want to, imagine how hard it will be for me to leave this place.

I'm not sure how many people have been notified about my change in plans. First let me tell you what my original plans were.

Originally I had planned to be here in the Philippines till April 1st, and then I was going to fly to Sydney, Australia where I would be volunteering with NTM (New Tribes Missions Australian Headquarters). I had planned to be there for the month of April and from there I was going to visit New Zealand where I was going to be working with the Department of Conservation for about 2 weeks.

Just recently however, I received an e-mail from a man by the name of Grant Wright, staff coordinator at NTM. In it he expressed his sympathy for me and my intentions because he was to inform me that my original plans had been obscured due to the new year! He told me that the company had just made several huge changes due to the new year, and what was once going to be a buzzing campus at the headquarters is now going to be a bit of a ghost town! Originally he had thought that in April I would be able to partake in multiple projects throughout their programs, but now it turns out that no one will even be attending the camp in April!

So after I received this unfortunate news I was a little disappointed, but I know that there is a reason. God is calling me home a little sooner than “I” had planned, but that's not really my decision now is it. Thankfully when I purchased my plane ticket to Australia, I bought insurance with it, so I will be able to get a full refund which will all go towards my new plane ticket home!

Now my plan is to stay here about 2 weeks longer than I had first thought and I will be leaving from Manila on the 27th of April and will be flying into LAX (Cheaper than Chicago) to see Dan and Kristen (Their wedding is set for June 5th!) and then from there heading back to Chicago.

So the past month has gone by incredibly fast! We have had new volunteers, I've gone up to Baguio, and taken a plane. Lot's of new adventures, and some old ones...

So after New years events finally started to settle down we received 4 more volunteers.

Hilda and Jim- A German couple from Canada in their 80's?!?!

Steve- Another British Bloke, and guess what, he is also a Carpenter! (Just like Sir Paul, only cooler)

Amy- Another Australian Lass, very nice personality and ready to get to work!


They were all a great help, even if they were here for only a few weeks. They really enjoyed helping out with all the projects. Mangroves, school building, painting.... they really provided a lot of effort seeing as they were only here for a short amount of time, they wanted to do as much as they could.

They are all gone now and we have another volunteer named Justin Doyle. To my surprise his home town is Glenn Ellyn, IL. Hahahaha. He is one year older than me and is going to be here the rest of my trip! He is signed up with the teaching program with another volunteer organization that is connected with CERV-Philippines, called Meaningful Volunteer. He is teaching English at the elementary school in Cawayan (One of our neighboring Barangays).

When Hilda and Jim were here, we felt a special responsibility to watch over them as they worked, mostly due to their elderly age. We were all worried that each hot sweaty hour out in the blistering sun was taking off a day of their life, but I have to admit, they were a very hard working couple!

Steve seemed like he always had something on his mind. Maybe he was to distracted by thinking about what was going on at home. He was very eager to leave however, which for some reason made me feel a little sad for him. I feel like I've been blessed by having the chance to stay for such a long time. And as time goes by I'm still meeting new people and gaining new experiences! I'm glad Will (my brother) convinced me to stay longer than One Month, even if he only said it so he wouldn't have to see me for a while, haha! (Nagbibiro Lang Ako, “I'm just kidding”).

Amy was here the longest out of the new...ish group. She enjoyed her time to the fullest, and even brought home a ton of souvenirs, but just like all of the volunteers, even me, she had to go back home to her life, job, and responsibilities.

When Justin arrived, I wasn't sure what to think of him. It's funny how situations bring completely different people together. For example, back home if I met Justin, I most likely wouldn't become good friends with him, mostly because we just have two completely different personalities.

I'm really sorry to say that there aren't that many exciting or strange stories to list in this blog, but time is just going by so fast now, and the days are all blurring together. There are several things though that I would like to let you know about in this blog.

First I wanted to let everyone know that each day I spend here is truly a blessing, and I am still (as I will always be) thankful to all those who helped me both financially and spiritually! Before I left my Mom told me “Not very many kids your age get a chance to do something like your doing. And if they do, it's usually only for a month or so!”
Like I said in my last blog, I had no idea that I would be doing something like this or going to a place like this. Not in a million years. I feel very honored and blessed to have had this opportunity. It may not have seemed like a smart decision to some of my friends or family members, and to be honest it wasn't a very smart decision, but it was the right one. I may not be financially stable and I may not have a complete education, but that doesn't change the fact that I've had an amazing experience. I know some people will say “It doesn't matter what your doing there, you need to think about your future.”.
I say “The things or events that happen in our life are not nearly as important as what we do with the time that is given to us.” God provided me with the perfect amount of time, with (almost) the perfect amount of money, and with the perfectly abundantly overflowing amount of prayer and support.
I do not doubt for one second that this trip was a mistake.

Okay, so for the last month and a half, I have been busy teaching computer class, painting signs, painting benches, and cleaning up the shoreline in front of the mangroves.
Computer Class-

Even though I never signed up for it, I really do enjoy teaching the kids about computers and how to use them. Yes computers can be bad when someone gets addicted to games or facebook, but they also have very useful applications, such as typing papers, creating documents, presentations, and as I know on a professional level ( :) ) they are great for expanding one's knowledge and joy they may get from producing, editing, and presenting Movies!

I'm finally having the kids complete a project for me, and go figure, for their first project I'm having them make me a movie/presentation. I recently took a week off to give the kids a break, and myself. During my “break” is when I tried coming up with a lesson plan. I have to give teachers credit, because I use to think being a teacher was one of the easiest jobs ever, but boy was I wrong.

Painting-

Just out in front of the building I teach in at Paaralang Elemntarya Ng Sugod (Sugod Elementary School) there are several benches. Paul and I both decided they could use some color, and now they are all finished. We painted a different flag on each of them, representing the different countries that the volunteers have come from, including; The U.S., The U.K., Norway, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.

Mangroves-

The Mangrove project is coming along very nicely. We have between 600 and 700 planted along the shore just north of Sugod, near a place called Baliw. The last few weeks though I haven't had any help, so planting has been put on hold for the time being, and when I do get a chance to visit, I mostly pick up garbage and clean the already planted mangroves. We still have several thousand to plant. Thankfully some of the community members have joined in to help us plant in other locations scattered along the whole bay.

In the near future (March) I am planning on reading up on proper techniques and teaching Mangrove Plantation and Care classes at the Elementary school in Sugod, and the High School and Elementary School in Long Beach. It is very important that the community knows exactly how to plant and watch over these trees, because without them they will lose more than just some pretty looking trees. Unfortunately the students do not currently have a class to teach them about how the trees contribute to their livelihood, or how to properly maintain a healthy mangrove sanctuary.

So that is what has been happening with the work side of my adventure. As for my off time there are several other stories to tell.

One of my best friends Archie left Sugod to finally make his way back to Manila. When I first arrived here back in November I didn't know him, for the very obvious reason that he wasn't here. He works and lives in Manila, but I met him when he came home for Christmas and New Years. I met him about a week or so before Christmas, and from that moment on we have been great friends. I think I mentioned in one of my previous blogs that he was recently engaged to another American volunteer. That relationship ended up not working out, but maybe it was for the best. He was happy I came along when I did though. He met me the day after they broke up.

Sometime in January, Romblon Town celebrated their Festival and I invited Archie to go with me over to the Island. It was very similar to the Long Beach festival, with lots of people in parades, and karaoke, oh and again, endless amounts of food. While we were in Romblon we met Eduard who was staying at his Grandma's house. Paul had invited him to go over, but he didn't have any money, so Paul paid his ferry fair, just like I paid Archie's. Eduard said we could stay at his grandma's, Which I was very thankful for, since all the hotels were fully booked, and the only places left were miles from town. So on Saturday night we stayed at Eduard's Grandma's house.

The next day Archie told me he had some relatives on one of the smaller islands just north of Romblon Island, on and Island called Alad. He asked me if I wanted to go and of course I said yes. Just another place to check off of my places I've been in the world (Philippines, haha).
So that morning we found a small boat that was going to the island and we hitched a ride for 40 pesos for the 3 of us. (I forgot to mention earlier that we met up with another one of our friends from Sugod, Leonard.) Eduard decided to stay in Romblon that night for the festival.

We made our way through the giant waves (To get to Alad, you need to cross a straight, where there are intense winds and strong currents! At one time during the ride, I swore I heard a snapping noise on one of our outriggers....hmm.) Unfortunately, I chose to sit on top of the box that housed the engine, so by the time we arrived to the island, I had a very warm/numb bottom....hmm (:s)

We arrived safely at the far beach of the island, facing the open ocean. It was a very quiet island, and fairly small. There was only one Barangay on the whole island, and it had the same name as the island. The nice thing about Alad was there were no motor vehicles of any kind (except for boats of course). No motorcycles, no trikes, no jeeps or cars, just people walking and bicycles.
We (Archie, Leonard, and I) spent the afternoon just walking around the island. Archie wanted to show me around because this coming April (Lord willing) he will be coming back to visit his family and he wants to take me back to Alad for their festival, which is the first two weeks of April.

Now this island was a little more secluded and remote, so when the locals saw a tall white guy walking around, they all came to see, haha. As we walked around I bought a couple kilos of fish for dinner. Then when we got back to his Aunt's house, we went down towards the beach. Along the beach I noticed there were plenty of abandoned, half demolished homes. We brought a staw mat and a guitar with us to entertain ourselves. We laid the mat down on the bamboo slotted floor of an abandoned Nipa Hut. As we laid for a while and played songs, his Aunt (who speaks no English what-so-ever) brought us some Banana Q's (Banana's that have been fried in melted sugar! Yummm) and a big bottle of R.C. (Yes, Royal Crown Cola). After that we went to another beach on the other side of the island and laid on the beach. Then when It got late we went back to his Aunt and Uncle's house where his Uncle had a big fish to cook for us for dinner! It was a real beautiful fish too, bright yellow and purple.
I really enjoyed spending time on that island with them, and am hoping that he will be able to make it back down here in April, because not only is it Alad's festival but it is also Sugod's Festival!!!

Just this last Sunday I went with one of my Friends, Pinggoy, to a Seminary in Odiongan, on the other side of Tablas Island. One of my good friends, Aljohn, is attending the school and he really wanted me to visit him, and since Pinggoy was going there to take the entrance exam, Aljohn told me to go with him, so I did. Sunday at around lunch time we took a trike into San Agustin, where we caught a Jeepney heading to Odiongan.
Everywhere I go in the Philippines, I see jeepney's with people sitting on the roof, and I kept think to myself “Hmm, that looks so dangerous, but boy does it look fun!” and so when Pinggoy and I got to the Jeepney, we hopped on top! It was quite an experience to be sitting on top of one of those things. The whole inside of the jeep was packed with about 25-30 people, and the roof had about 15-20 of us. It was a long 2 hour trip through the mountains to the other side, but it was a great experience. At one point however, I made a very poor decision, and set my cell phone on my lap unknowingly right before we were to hit a huge bump, and then “Oooooopssss....”

Bye-bye phone....

“Para para para para para!” Yelled out Pinggoy (that means STOP!)

Man oh man was I embarrassed. The man hanging off the back of the jeep jumped off and ran to get my phone, which thankfully wasn't broken. It just bounced a lot and hit a banana tree.

We finally arrived in Odiongan, and stood up to get off, when yet another embarrassing moment hit me. The driver didn't know that there were multiple people getting off, so as we were walking along the roof to the back to jump off, he started driving again! Again people started yelling “Para Para!” and he did as he was told, but I did not have my feet properly placed, so BOOM I fell over, and thankfully there wasn't a person sitting where I fell, instead I landed on a rice bag full of coal, which wasn't to soft, but felt better than the rusty metal bars I'm sure.

We walked over to Pinggoy's Aunt's house for him to get their blessings (For Filipinos, it is a sign of respect to greet your elder's and receive their blessings). His uncle gave us a ride to the Seminary where Aljohn greeted us and showed me around. It was cool to see what a seminary is like in another country and to see how they operate. I've never been to a seminary before, primarily due to the reason that I'm not catholic, haha. It was a very nice area that they had, up on top of a hill overlooking the ocean. Lots of wide open spaces, a beautiful chapel, and a nice Nipa Hut on the side of the hill that we hung out in. We arrived at the Seminary in the afternoon so all we did was attend their holy hour, eat dinner, then we just sat around and talked till we all fell asleep.

The next day was Pinggoy's entrance exam, so we got up early, I attended their morning mass, just to see what it was like, then we had breakfast and then the EXAM! Haha, I just sat in the back of the classroom and fell asleep while he took his two hour test. After the test Aljohn wanted me to see a bunch of pictures from the last week when they had their basketball tournament. So as Aljohn and me looked through all his pictures, they graded Pinggoy's test and we found out that he had passed! So Pinggoy and I played pool (their pool table was a little smaller and instead of balls, it was little flat plastic disks.) while Aljohn took his Philosophy class. Then after he finished we ate lunch and hung out till we leave. Aljohn walked us to the gate where we hopped on a bike that took us to the jeepney terminal. From there we sat on the inside of the jeepney all the way back to Sugod

That is pretty much the extent of the last month, I haven't been terribly busy, but it has been fun regardless. I look forward to the rest of my time, but am dreading the day I must leave, but I have to.

Please keep me in Your Prayers!

Love, Erik Scott Johnson