Since we were stranded in Puerto Princesa, we made the most of our time back there. We attended our weekly humanitarian meeting where we all present projects and managed to present two. After our meeting, we were picked up by President Baniago, his wife and the service missionary, Sister Duking. They wanted to show us an orphanage. This was a well run orphanage operated by a Baptist from the U.S. They only had nine children here and lots and lots of space to play in the back yard. It was a fun visit, but I don’t think we can make a project for just 9 children.

Before the orphanage, we went to a popular place called Baker’s Hill. It’s a bakeshop/playground/botanical garden. While here, I realized my diarrhea had returned, so I started to wonder if I might have a parasite. I had them take me to a laboratory so I could give a stool sample. Fun, huh! We finally found a place that was still open (a hospital) and Sister Duking was a lifesaver. I couldn’t have done it without her help translating. We then went to the mall to kill time until I could get my results, which were negative to any parasite! Yeah!!! So that was a fun evening activity.

We loved staying at the Carpe Diem for three more nights. If you need to get work done and need a quiet, peaceful, luxurious place to do it, this is the place! Natural light coming in, comfortable bed, so good night’s sleep, and a lovely pool right outside your door. This was a godsend! On Wednesday morning, we drove Brother Mosquera’s van down to Aborlan for the wheelchair provisioning event. This event has been in the works since November! So to see it finally come together and to witness these wonderful souls receiving their devices, some for the first time, was truly a moving experience. I’m not sure I talked about the miracle of getting the wheelchairs shipped over here. As I said, Dave Laureo, who lives in Aborlan and works for the social welfare office, has been working on this project since November. We had a hard time getting the follow-through we needed on our side, but they finally got the final list and the wheelchairs were ready to be shipped out. However, (long story made short here) unless we could find someone to ship them over, they wouldn’t be shipped for many months to come. I mentioned to Mabuhay Deseret about this problem and their employee who set up the vision mission In Balabac, Palawan, said he wondered if the Air Force would have room on their plane, since they were also transporting their medical equipment that same week. Sure enough, they had room on another plane and the wheelchairs were shipped within a few days! Tender mercies, for sure! The assessors weren’t able to be there until July 5, though, so we still had to postpone the event for a week. But it happened!! Finally!!! And truly, the people were so happy. It made me sad, though, that they have had to wait almost their whole lives, some of them. Here are some of the pictures from that day.

After this event, we headed to the next town, Narra, where we had another turnover- this time at an integrated school, which includes elementary up to high school. The principal here is a very friendly, warm and hospitable guy. He had us meet in his office first for a few snacks, then we headed out to the covered court, where there were so many students and teachers! All of the graduating students were there, sitting in bleachers and teachers in chairs on the floor. They started off by the teacher and staff choir singing a song for us. It was really amazing!

Then, one of the principals gave a speech about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He did a lot of research and presented a very wonderful description of our belief in Christ, as well as the misconceptions out there. He talked about how we believe in helping others and following Christ. We were blown away. Then we had our little ribbon cutting ceremony (that seems to be a thing here in Palawan) and another song from the staff (a song of gratitude). It was really such a sweet turnover. Notice the sign they made, though! I guess I am the party!!! We were giving 50 tables, 500 chairs and a generator. There was a snafu with the delivery of the items, so the chairs didn’t actually arrive until about 15 minutes after we left. They did make it though. Afterwards, the principal escorted us to our hotel for the night. He chose a new-ish place right on the beach and the school paid for it! Then he asked what we were doing for dinner and decided they would bring dinner to us. I tell you! This has never happened before. It was such a nice, welcome gesture. We had a lovely walk on the very long beach the next morning, but I think I must have attracted some bugs and got eaten alive. I am still itching three days later!

I forgot to mention our last misadventure in Palawan. We left our beach place around 10 am and drove away up toward Puerto Princesa to catch our flight at 1:50. When we had driven for about an hour, Elder Huff discovered he didn’t have his wallet! It didn’t take him long to figure out that he had left it in a drawer by the bed in our hotel room. ARGHHH! We had no choice but to go back. Which of course, meant we would miss our flight. We talked to our travel office, but since we had already done the online check-in, they couldn’t really rebook us. We had only one option: to go straight to the airline and hope to get a later flight. That’s just what we did and luckily they had two seats on the 8:00 pm flight. That meant we had another few hours to kill.

We were with Brother Mosquera, the owner of the van, so we went to a restaurant and had a nice lunch. While there, he told us his super interesting life story, which needs to be written up! Before he joined the church, he worked for an illegal night club, was put in jail several times, worked in Saudi Arabia and had a mistress there, came back and started up some businesses, but then lost everything when he invested in a gold digging company in Davao, and eventually met up with the missionaries in Puerto Princesa. He just got released as the first counselor to the mission president . He is such an amazing man! So see, we wouldn’t have had this interesting afternoon getting to know him if we had caught our original flight.

After being home for about a half of a day, we packed up again for a little short trip with other humanitarian couples and the top managers that we work with in the Area office. We were joining up with a Catholic Diocese to go up North, in our area, to do a tree planting project. We planted 600 bamboo plants along a dry river bed, so that when the river floods, it will keep its original course and not run rampant. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources had two guys there to give out instructions. The army was also there to keep us safe (?). It was very, very hot and humid, but there were many people there and it went quite well. We just hope the plants get enough rain and get established. Bamboo grows quickly, so if they get a good start, they might make it. It was a long drive there and back, but we enjoyed the company and the planting. I have to say, though, that I was so exhausted when we got home. Maybe a little heat exhaustion, or just plain old exhaustion! We are more than ready to stay put for a few weeks now!