Left-Bob, Back-a boy, Right-Neza, a sixteen year old girl who spent some time trying to teach me Kalanguya and Tagalog, wondering how I got so tall, and telling me jokes. For example, if your in an elevator and you have to toot, what do you do? The answer is that you ask someone for their cell phone tone, which makes a lot of sense in the Philippines because everyone has a cell phone. Because there are only ten grades in the Philippines (not 12), she just graduated from high school.

Someone up in a tree in the fields of Nansiakan.

near the village

Rice fields by the village. Bob's parents own this land.

Rice fields by the village.

caribou, the national animal of the Philippines

Zoom of a boy, Bong, and I on a rock in the rice fields by the village.

A boy, Bong, and I standing on a rock in the rice fields by the village.

We had some great thunder and rain in the village.

This is one of the outhouses in the village where I stayed. The blue bucket is full of water so that you can fill up the smaller bucket inside when you want to take a shower or flush the toilet. They often tie the door closed so that you can tell when no one is inside.

This is one of the outhouses in the village Kalanguya of Nansiakan. Of course, there's no bathrooms inside of the houses and huts. To flush the toilet, you just pour a small bucket of water into it. To take a shower, fill the blue bucket, and use a small bucket or pitcher to pour water over your head. It actually works so well that many Filipinos, when they go to a place that has a shower, will use buckets instead.

driving back down the mountain on the edge of a cliff

Back in the town of Bambang (the a's are pronounced the same as the a in father). There are always many tricycles on the road.

Bob and Boom at the abandoned resort

abandoned resort in the northern Philippines

Bob and Boom

On the right is Bob. On the left is his friend from undergraduate school who has lukemia and recently had his leg amputated. His aunt owns this abandoned resort. Of course that's me in the middle. We ate adobo, fish, a noodle dish, and rice with our fingers, a common practice in the Philippines. Then we ate a Buko pie, a sticky rice cake made with coconut.

abandoned resort

This is one of the seven waterfalls at the resort. Since we ate with our fingers, we used a bar of soap and washed our hands in the water.

I got to visit the provincial capital for the Neuva Viscaya Festival. These are huts representing the different parts of Nueva Viscaya. The one with the blue tarp in front is Kayapa, which is the region I visited when I went to the village. One of Bob's nieces was working there. The festival lasts for about one week. They used to have a gay beauty pagent, but the Christians protested and had it changed into an evangelistic night.

more huts

Food vendors for the Nueva Viscaya Festival.

This is the church I went to when I was in the northern Philippines and not in the village. It's a Kalanguya church started by migrants from the village.

I often see Bob holding babies and small children, so I took a picture of him holding this little girl at church.

They let me hold her, too, but had a hard time getting her to smile.

This is the missionary, also named Bob, speaking in the church.

This is inside the church. It's kind of hot in there when the wind isn't blowing.

SIL Bagabag

more rice

rice fields

A cow.

These are some pictures that I took near the SIL compound in Bagabag.

This was our last merianda (snack). We had one every morning and one every afternoon. Some Filipinos even have a third snack in the evening.

The missionary couple who did the complete translation had just walked in. You can see them on the left side of this picture.

Here are some of us checking the first complete Bible that's been translated into a Philippino language.

This is the workshop for Mother Tongue Translators to check their translation of I Samuel 16-20. I went there with Bob and his niece (in the back on the left) who are translating for the Kalanguya.

Wandering Around the Philippines

For anyone who might be wondering why I haven't been blogging for several days now, I hopped on a bus last week with a Philipino friend from AGS where I'll be studying and a missionary from America. After 6 1/2 hours on the bus, I fond myself in the town of B. Then we took a trycicle, that's a motorcycle with a passenger thing attached to the side), to a missionary compound where some relatives of my Philipino friend stay. He and two of his nieces are working on finishing a translation of the Bible for their tribe. After several days at the compound, a missionary from Australia (who's last name was given to my friend in an attempt to get the spirits to leave him alone), drove us up a very steep, bumpy mountain road on the side of a cliff. It took two very bumpy hours to get to his village, which was the most beautiful place I have ever seen. After a three day conference, we went bumping back down the mountain. The next day we travelled by jeepneys to the town, and went to the SIL center located there. Now I'm staying in a dormitory with about 12 Philipino Mother Tongue Translators (MTT's) from various tribes who are attending the workshop here in order to check their translation of I Samule 16 to the end of that book. The workshop lasts until May 27. After that, I'll either hang around to see the dedicatin of a new Bible translation, or I'll head back to Manila after visiting a couple other places.

I shot a couple of Jeepney's, a very common mode of transportation here. You can signal that you need a ride by raising your hand toward the street if the Jeepney is going down the street. Then you squish into the back (there are benches lining the wall, and you sit knee to knee in the back). To stop, you say "para".

The local mall (SM) on Sunday. Everyone likes to go to the mall to hang out and unwind because it's air conditioned and there is not much space for parks in Manila.

This is the place where people wait to meet people who get off the plane. One side is where the travelers stand, and the opposite side is where the people coming to meet them stand. The sign above the white van says that that is the place for people with a surname starting with MNO to wait.

Uncle Mark and Aunt Kathy!

Gathering outside for a family picture!

Family Picture!

Here's me with my friend Praise, who is in the middle of working two jobs, taking 18 credits at EWU, and planning her wedding.

My lawyer cousin Stephanie is on the left, Aunt Dixie in the middle (Uncle Gene is her husband), and myslef.

This is Uncle Mark with a cut on his elbow, and my cousin Katherine who is training to be a chef, and is married to Al, who couldn't make it to the party.

Uncle Gene, the one in the center of the couch, rode in on his new Harley Motorcycle!

We also had Lindt truffles, Toblerone Swiss Chocolate with Honey and Almond "Nougat," chocolate flag coins (made in Turkey), and peanuts.

I had my graduation/going away party today(April 30) at my Dad's house in the valley of the Spokane Valley. We had yellow and blue corn chips, homemade salsa, refried beans, jasmine rice, chicken enchladas, carrot-orange juice (I made it with my juicer), and strawberry shortcake on Grandma Nedrow's homemade biscuits. Several of my aunts, uncles, and cousins came from central Washington and the Seattle area. My good friend from high school, Praise, also came.