archive of June, 2008
Because I stayed up late helping Mack with his project and feeding him and puttering around on my own, I didn’t go to bed anywhere near midnight. And when I awoke, my right shoulder and my knees hurt so much I was disinclined to arise and go to work rebuilding the chapel in Baguio Gold. I hadn’t told anyone that I’d be there, anyway. So tomorrow I should begin working there (if they permit me). »→
Last night Mack and I worked on three posters for him to use in today’s oral report on cell membrane structures and functions in City High. I don’t know what type of cells. Mack said more than once, “That’s the cholesterol,” and I saw a “glycoprotein” label, so I surmised that they’re cells of a type in animals. But I never asked Mack what we were drawing. I just helped. »→
I pray that John and Kim and their sons accomplish all that they desire in their visit to the U.S. that they return safely to the Philippines.
Today Mack came to the house around 3:15 to do the homework that he didn’t come here yesterday to do. Unfortunately he didn’t have poster board, so he and Dominic went to Baguio City to get groceries and cartolina (paper) while I walked to Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church in Turning Point. »→
Today we’ve had rain since I awoke. Perhaps this is the first day of the rainy season. Although Nick is here, we won’t walk up the street in the downpour to get a jeepney ride to Pacdal Circle to go to Holy Mass in Saint Joseph Catholic Church. I don’t understand much of what’s said in English and Tagalog in the “English” Holy Mass, and I can’t sing the hymns in Tagalog. We’ll go to Mass tomorrow. Dominic has been in the city most of the day, which is unusual for him. †
This afternoon I walked down to Baguio Gold Elementary School to ask the new principal, Mr. Nestor Asiong, if he’d like for me to tutor kids in fourth, fifth or sixth grade. Mr. Asiong took-over the school on Monday.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t at the school when I arrived, as was so often the case when I tried to reach his predecessor. The previous principal spent so much of her last week at the district office two miles away, preparing for the change of command. »→
This afternoon, after the rain had abated, I gathered all the recyclables in our flat into a bag, picked up a camera and a package from my mother then hiked up to street level to coast down to Baguio Gold to deliver recyclables and gifts from my mom for my friends down in the valley. »→
Dominic and I have been under the weather Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. At first, Sunday night or Monday morning, I thought I had a pollen allergy. I had been sneezing and blowing my nose on Friday after visiting Baguio Gold in a breeze and Saturday night after I took Nick downhill to home and afterward laid on my back for star-gazing and praying. But Dominic has reported that he’s sick since Sunday. I guess that we got a virus in the city or from one of the youths of Baguio Gold. »→
I’m sorry that I haven’t kept up writing on the weblog. After Saturday evening Mass and dinner with Nick, I came home, checked news on the internet and learned of the ferry capsizing after noon, seven hundred people feared dead and tremendous rainfall, flooding and mudslides in southern Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao. We hadn’t had any rain yet here on Saturday. »→
Typhoon Fengshen crossed central Philippines on Saturday. Here in Benguet Province we didn’t have horrible weather to suggest that a hurricane was lashing the Philippines with rain and causing tremendous flooding. But I read on the Internet of the storm and the calamities that it’s causing. I was saddened. The world has so much suffering, and this nation has seen so much suffering.
The place to be happy is here; The time to be happy is now; The way to be happy is to make others so. ~ John Walker
Weak desires bring weak results, just as a small amount of fire makes a small amount of heat. ~ Napoleon Hill
I received a nice birthday card from Shannon and Miranda. Thanks! It was mailed on June 9 and arrived in Baguio City on June 18. No package has arrived yet, but tomorrow I will go to the city for groceries and supplies, and I’ll look in my mail box again. Thanks again to Joyce and Quin in Lynn Haven for your support for the family in Baguio Gold neighborhood that we’re trying to help. »→
This morning Andy knocked on my door much earlier than I expected, earlier than the time I’d set on my alarm clock. Yesterday we’d agreed to go with Nanay into the city to see a physician in a free clinic. I should have gone to bed earlier! Bleary-eyed, I pulled on a white t-shirt, tan trousers, shoes, slipped my wallet in a pocket, poured some coins in a front pocket, picked up my keys and sunglasses, and headed out without breakfast or caffeine. »→
The best way to raise positive children in a negative world is to have positive parents who love them unconditionally and serve as excellent role models. – Zig Ziglar
Thanks to Quin and Joyce for their donation through Wachovia. We will be able to build another chicken coop, add corrugated sheets of galvanized steel to the roof of the A/V/A family’s home and buy another barrel, for potable water for the kitchen. I will tell the kids tomorrow of their Florida benefactors.
Today I took a jeepney into Baguio City to buy plumbing supplies and student supplies that I didn’t buy last evening after Mass. Seems that every day but Sundays I buy something for the A/V/C/A family in Baguio Gold. »→
Have a blessed Fathers’ Day!
I have had an easy day at home, reading until Nick and Rose came up from Baguio Gold to visit with me and Dominic. After a while, Mack arrived. I showered, shaved and dressed, then we went to Holy Mass in Turning Point.
I enjoyed the scripture readings, hymns and homily which mentioned laboring in the vineyard, evangelizing and serving each other. I felt, as I did in Jamaica, that I am doing what Jesus and the priest exhort us to do. But I’m not saving souls, winning converts as missionaries do. »→