Yes, it’s a new year. And the year 2023 is the year of the rabbit which seems to symbolize many different things, but the one I like the most is prosperity, hope and calm (and peace). I think we could all use these more in our lives. In fact, I would go with the hope, calm and peace before I would go with prosperity. Many people here have so little in the way of material goods, but they still smile, they still choose happiness and carry on the best they can. We can take some lessons from them. Also, this week we followed another Chinese New Year tradition. We cleaned our apartment thoroughly. Of course, we were changing apartments and having our old place sprayed for roaches, so we didn’t have much of a choice. It was a lot of work believe it or not! You wouldn’t think it would be that hard to move up a few floors, with our few belongings, but it took a day and we still aren’t quite moved in totally. How does our stuff multiply so quickly? And why do we think we need more than two cans of beans, or two boxes of cereal, or whatever? The stores are very closeby. Old habits from Hawaii, I think. Anyway, it is done and we are grateful we have a nice place to live. Now we have a room with a view (but it scares me to go out on the balcony). We also have ACs that don’t blow right on us as we are sleeping. We did have to give up having a dryer, though. And a few other things. Small kine stuff for sure! Other than moving, we had a breakthrough of sorts! We have been trying to get a meeting with people from National Department of Education for more than 3 months, with no success. Finally one of our welfare managers and us decided to just pay a cold call visit and pray for luck in meeting with someone in the curriculum department. When we first arrived, we had to wait in the security room and they wouldn’t let us in until someone could confirm that it was okay for us to go in. The director of curriculum wasn’t in, but we finally got connected with the assistant director! Hallelujah!! He was such a nice guy and seemed genuinely interested and excited to meet with us and hear what we had to share. We shared a literacy tutoring program that was developed by some education leaders in Mindanao and we also shared a bit about the RACHEL. We are looking forward to some more meetings to come. It was a wonderful morning! After our meeting, Kenneth Lee had to leave us off to find a taxi home, but encouraged us to take a little time and visit the swanky mall that was right close by. We did and found a wonderful produce stand there and some US stores that made me feel like I wasn’t in the Philippines for a minute. It was a nice respite! But then we couldn’t find a taxi, so we had to walk for awhile before we could get a ride back to the office.
It’s Not Christmas Anymore! This past couple of weeks we have seen the Chinese New Year’s decorations up. I had the Mabuhay Deseret House people make Chinese Lanterns, which they enhanced greatly from my pathetic sample. Thank heavens they like to be creative. The teen boys, the men, everyone participated. There weren’t any small children there this week, and not as many residents. I think things will pick up now the holidays are over. Then on Friday, our small dinner group of eight senior missionary couples ate at a nice Chinese restaurant. It was so nice to be seated around a round table so we could talk to everyone. On Saturday, which was also my birthday, we went to a vision screening an hour away from here and spent a very long time there. It was so busy!! When we arrived at 8:30, the high school students were already filling up the covered court. In the afternoon, the older people came. We rotated duties, so it helped the time move along more quickly, but it was exhausting for the 4 couples who helped. I took a little break and took a walk, but managed to get lost until some sister missionaries spotted me and took me back to the school. Thank heavens for tender mercies! We finally arrived home around 7:15 pm (after a stressful drive home) and were too tired to do anything. So it was a different birthday for me, for sure, but it felt good to serve and help people get the vision care they need. The doctors who help out are so amazing. They were still going strong when we left around 5 pm. I don’t know how they do it! One of the doctors told me he has done around 12 or 13 vision screenings with Mabuhay during the last few months! That is a huge sacrifice of time. And they don’t get any payment for this, usually. The older people were especially grateful. Toward the end, we helped with the eye chart screening and the people were so quick to thank us for our time and for helping. And believe me, that had a lot of long waits that afternoon!
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