One step at a time...

I have to admit that at one point in my life I thought all those songs they sing in Sunday School were kinda dumb… but this week the lyrics of “One step at a time… only one step at a time… that is the way the Lord will lead you… one step at a time” kept going over and over in my head. There is so much to learn… simple things like… can I burn my trash at any point during the day or are there rules about such things… it’s not like you can just ask the neighbor… the language barrier is frustrating.
This week we’ve accomplished quite a bit, yet seem so far from the goal of just getting things running smoothly! There is still the issue of electricity… which seems we keep taking one step forward and another step backwards… going round and round to this person, that person, getting this document (which were told is the LAST one we need), only to have to go back and get a different document, which we’re told we can’t obtain because we aren’t residents…etc…. all of this of course involves waiting…and a LOT of it… So we are currently just learning how to live w/o electricity… which is fine most of the time… and we have the generator for when we really need a bit of power (course I think Joe spends more time FIXING the generator than we do running it… ) The jeep takes constant maintenance from the thrashing it gets going up/down the mountain and across the river. Water is a new thing… the village has water to it again… but it’s hit/miss… we’ve learned if there is an empty bucket and the water is currently on… THEN FILL IT! No waiting thinking you’ll fill it later cause it might not be on in another 2 seconds!
We’ve had a couple pretty good earthquakes to shake things up a bit… pretty severely damaged the new water tower… right after it was fixed… so another ‘project’. We’ve also had some holy smokes, crazy big storms that blow in super fast and then blow right through! It’s easy to see how big storms can do so much damage in such a small amount of time here! We have no way to close our windows… it’s just screen nailed to a frame… so shutters have been bumped up on the ‘honey do’ list quite quickly.
I could go on and on about the list of projects to do, but you get the picture… every day here is a struggle to survive for the basic necessities… food, lodging, water… no wonder it’s so hard to think about the future!
On the personal level we are doing ok… I think the kids are doing the best out of all of us… for them it’s not too difficult to make friends… course they (and we) are trying to figure out how to deal with it when kids do things we would consider unheard of (both Meghan and Tonia have been peed on by a local little 5 yr old boy)…. Not quite sure how to even approach that one (my advice was to kick him away!.... heck I wouldn’t let someone pee on me!) Other things are more up front and obvious here…. It’s no big deal for a 12 yr old boy to smoke… so Brian asked me about it the other day since his ‘friend’ smokes…. I’m thankful they are still at the age to ask me about it!
Anytime you move to a new area it’s hard… the process of making friends and getting to know people is always hard…. Here it feels like that times 100! We are still in the process of being gawked at and most people are afraid to even try to communicate, even when I speak my best Visaya at them…. I know it will pass… they will get to know us, and us them… but it takes time… There is no internet, no cell service, etc… the only other adult who I can speak free English with is Joe…. Although I am fast becoming close friends with our helper Heide who came with us and speaks a fair amount of English… and she teaches us each day more and more Visaya. We actually found a company here in the Philippines that does satellite internet… apparently it’s pretty decent (as long as you have a constant power supply, which eventually we will have…)… but… it’s also pretty stinkin expensive! It’s about $850 for start up and $120/ month after that…. It’s a tough decision because the access to the internet equals the ability to get assistance/help/etc with patients, questions, emergencies… but the flip side of course is the cost! We’ll see what can be worked out… it’s not high on the ‘priority’ list currently…
Well… it’s getting close to dinner time here and since we have no ability to store meat… we’ve become QUITE imaginative in our meals…. This morning it was left over fettucine sauce mixed with a canned unidentifiable meat, add a bit of spice, make biscuits and viola!!... biscuits and gravy! I’m so thankful for kids who don’t complain (too much) about the new or creative food choices!
Enjoy that steak on the grill… or the hamburger…. I’m planning to enjoy them a LOT when I go to the states in August! Poor Joe… I’ll have to splurge and get him a nice steak for his birthday when I get back! We should have power to run our fridge by then… (knock on wood)! Lol…