Thursday, August 18, 2005

The Youth "Fellowship" in a Village

I went up to the province of Nueva Vizcaya again recently. I had a great time because I went with some Filipino friends to a praise and fellowship night (they call it a “fellowship”) in a small mountain village. To get there, we had to ride out into the countryside on a jeepney, and then hike up a mountain for about an hour. The place we stayed didn't have electricity or even an outhouse, and I slept on a wooden bed without padding. For our dinner, I think they butchered two little white chickens, cut them into small pieces, put them into pots (along with their heads) with some vegetables and broth, and put the pots over a fire (I made sure to get one of the heads, but couldn’t seem to eat it because it was too tough). It’s very typical for the Kalanguya people to eat boiled meat and vegetables with broth and a little salt (of course, this is always eaten with rice). The praise/fellowship time lasted for several hours. I think it was close to midnight by the time it was over. In the morning, we had a 5:30-6-30 “devotion” service. As soon as that was over, we hiked back down the mountain.

We waited here in the town of Bamgang for the first jeepney to Aritao, the place where the "fellowship" was held.




We waited for another jeepney here-notice the signs on the “comfort rooms” are simply “he” and “she.”

heading into the countryside on a jeepney

Here I am with some of my Filipino friends and a group of students on the road up the mountain.

We passed this house on our way up to the village.

Some village people use caribou to pull this type of cart.

We passes some women carrying baskets on their back as we hiked up the mountain.

We carried a couple of live chickens up with us for our dinner.

hiking up to the mountain-there wasn't much of a trail toward the end

This is where the "fellowship" was held.

When we got to the place, we sat around outside and snacked on fresh baby coconut and some other things.

They can wash dishes here because they have running water coming in through hoses.

This is how they cooked our dinner.

Here is the dining room.

This is what we ate for dinner.

This is the church that the "fellowship" was held in.

The "Fellowship"

I took this during the early morning devotion service.

This is inside of the house that I stayed in.

This is the wooden bed that I slept on.

This is the family that hosted the "fellowship"