Email Two

Hi everybody,

Aimee:
This week we have spent two days working with CCC, a church that was planted over 20 years ago by a New Zealand GLO team. The church has begun its own kindergarten/elementary shool and we painted murals inside their classrooms as well as ran a children's holiday program. One of the coolest things about these two days was that my Ate Lyn, who lived with my family from the time I was 5 till 12, was with us the whole time. She, along with her husband and two children, live in a house that is directly behind the church and it was her husband's classroom we were painting. Her three year old son told me that the toy sheep we brought fom New Zealand was a dog and that he wanted to drive rubbish trucks when he was bigger. It was wonderful walking with Ate Lyn through the community as she was constantly greeted by children who are students of her husband at the church school as well as her own students at a local elementary school. Ate Lyn's 8 year old daughter prays nightly that her Mom will be given oppertunities to tell her students and their parents about God and they have been encouraged by some parent's requesting that Ate Lyn begins a Bible study with them. Almost all of the parents of her students are scavengers on the many local rubbish dumps which include the infamous Smokey Mountian. To give you an idea, each of the rubbish dumps would be about the size of one of the volcanos we have scattered throughout Auckland. Insane. These days have reminded me of how truely blessed I am to have had so many godly people as influences in my life.

Alice:
on the 29th, which was our first day in the philippines after the long flight, we got on a jeepney and went to the TayTay Market. The first thing I thought when I saw the market place was 'wow, it's HUGE'. The people had their own little shops in every spot that they could find. We divided ourselves into smaller groups and started our own little tour in and around the markets. Alot of the little children were asking for money by holding their fingers out at us, so some of us gave out some pesos to them. The market was full of different kinds of things. clothes, food, fireworks, lollies, shoes, CDs, vegetables and many more. There were so many shops that were similar. Most of the things that they were selling were great with really low prices. The little shops were not in the best condition and I also saw some little children walking around, holding things to sell in a little basket. Despite this, they all greeted us, saying, 'yes, mam' with smile on their faces.

Chris:
Transport has become a twice daily highlight. Transport points are noisy and bustling areas of activity. Our journeys to and from the places we've visited have taken place in a variety of new vehicles. The best of these must be the Jeepney. These are old WWII jeeps that have been modified to transport up to around twenty people in two long bench seats which run the length of the vehicle. What makes these fun (apart from the hectic Flilipino driving!) is the way in which they have been painted out in flamboyant colours and designs. These designs consist of Christian/Catholic sayings, pictures of anything from Jesus and Mary to cartoon characters, all in 80's 'Street Fighter' font style. On top of this they has a variety of louds horns (etc), hood ardornments, flashing lights and other chrome paraphanalia: these must be seen to be believed! Do a google search if you want to see. Overall, transport is crowded, cramped, and warm, but nonetheless we enjoy every ride!

Zara:
I swear I shall try to keep this short. We were told by the people at CCC that they wanted us to do a children's programme only a day before, so obviously we didn't have much time to prepare. We held a meeting the night before, where it was decided that we would sing some songs, tell a story, prepare a memory verse, and then play some games. Half the team would leave after the songs to continue work on the murals, I would tell the story of Tarore and do the memory verse, and Chris would organize the games.The kids programme did, I think, go well, despite everything taking twice as long as it had to be translated into Tagalog so the kids could understand. We all had to speak exceptionally slowly as our Kiwi accent is apparently hard to understand for Filipinos. I was slightly panicky at the sight of the kids' faces as we sang - they stared so seriously at us, I couldn't help but think they must be so confused/bored/wishing they could leave. And then, of course, I had to do the story about Tarore and her Gospel of Luke. I was even more freaked out as they continued to stare blankly at me. If I hadn't had to have the story translated I think I could have really sunk my teeth into it, but as it was I had to read slowly and clearly and kind of boringly so the translator could understand. Fortunately our translator, Daniel, seemed to be able to make the story interesting for the kids. For the memory verse I selected Luke 2:10, after a long and heated discussion with Chris over the merits of Luke 20:30. For the first time I felt that the kids were enjoying themselves, as to do the memory verse I handed some of the kids a piece of paper with one word of the verse written on it (they were all eager to volunteer), and as they recited it back to me some of the kids would hide their piece of paper and sit down. And then, of course, we had the games, and this time you could really tell that the kids were enjoying themselves, the shrieking and laughing being a bit of a giveaway. I must say, Chris did a fantastic job with the games. He taught them Rats and Rabbits, which was somewhat confusing as the Tagalog words for "rat" and "rabbit" are of course different from the English, but it all worked itself out in the end, and ended up catching them out on words like "robot" and "raccoon". There were a few other games which my faulty memory cannot remember the names of, but they were all great fun, and I ended up being mobbed repeatedly by hordes of frantic children. Overall, I have to say that the programme was a bit of a success, even more so because a few street kids turned up.

Izak:
At church during one of our merienda's (Afternoon tea, second afternoon tea, appetizer and any other sort of meal inbetween meals) put on by our awesome hosts we got to sample one of the Philippines greatest byproducts, BALUT! It is safe to assume that this was a very "Fear Factor" moment for some. But fortunately Tracy, Alice, Chris and myself all stepped up to the challenge of consuming a duck embryo. Its actually a cool claim to fame, who can say they have consumed an entire duck in two mouthfuls? It seemed a lot more traumatic thinking about the experience than it was in the actual taking part in the disposal of the abortion. First you break a hole in it and sprinkle some salt in, then suck all the juices out. Then you continue to unwrap the dear sweet thing. To be honest it didn’t taste half bad, I thought it tasted like scrambled eggs. While Chris said it tasted like fish. With this considered Phil thought that sounded disgusting. How many people would want to eat scrambled up fish and eggs? Zara flat out refused to try it, and Sarah was a wreck. Eating it made us feel brave and ready to take on anything, but this was short lived as we then watched a four year old eat four more. Ah well. We can still run faster than him so we’re still cool.

Glenis:
On our way back from Commonwealth Community Church we needed to go through the markets and catch a jeepney on the far side. We were escorted by a team from the church as this is an area notorius for crime. The market is by far the largest any of us has ever seen. Thousands and thousands of bright coloured umbrellas and a mass of people around tables and stands of goods. Everyone is trying to sell something. Meat open to flies, fish in all shapes sizes and odors,vegetables of types many not seen in NZ.Fruit of many colors and types,clothing for all ages, jewellry, shoes and all manner of plastic bits and pieces. The path between is very narrow, the ground is uneven and yesterday had turned to mud. Old people were sleeping in hammocks beside stalls. Children are everywhere and many of them begging. The atmosphere and smells will stay with us always. Everywhere we go people stare at us. We have seen very few white faces. When we smile and greet them there is always a smile and we are wished " Happy New Year".

Sarah:
While we were with Ate Lyn and Kuya Angel they took us out to meet some of the people that fellowship at CCC. We piled into another jeepney and went off to Payatas, an area with a HUGE landfill. As we were driving you could see and smell a difference in this area. We'd seen 'poor' people but this area was in another league altogether. The muck seemed to be magnified because of the rain that was steadily falling. We filed down a narrow path into a squatter community around the base of the landfill. I guess I knew things would be bad and it really was. Filthy, smelly. We visited an older lady who attends the church in her small home about 100m from the dump. She spoke no English but was so excited to see us and somehow about 8 plastic chairs appeared for us to sit on. From there we wanted to go up and see the children and the scavengers hunting for things to sell on the dump also known as 'Smokey Mountain'. Security has been tightened up because of exploitation of the kids, and we weren't able to go right up. I was a little disappointed but I think on the whole it was a sensory overload for most people and we were left with a lot to contemplate.

Margaret:
After leaving the Payatas landfill we caught yet anothr jeepney down to the Payatas school which is a state school where Ate Lyn teaches. What an experience that was in such a small area. This school is the smallest in Quezon City with 3000 students in the least amount of space and single storied buildings. Its set in a compound and you enter through an iron gate into a beautifully set out garden and the Christmas decorations up as it is still classed as the festive season here. This school is run in 2 sessions juniors and seniors so all 3000 students are not there at the same time it was still had to imagine 1500 students in this space. The children from the slums attend this school. One of Ate Lyn's classes she has 45 - 50 students. What NZ teacher would accept this? Alot of the desks they are using are what I rememberd that many years ago with the table and bench set attached others are chairs with a small table on the end of the arm rest. Some of the children bring their own chairs while others sit on the floor as there aren't enough for everyone. The rooms are about half the size of the classrooms in NZ with around blackboards and nicely decorated with posters relating to the various subjects. The windows have no glass but bars and outside was another row of chairs under the large eves of the buildings for more students to sit. When we were there it was raining and with the ground so uneven we had to negotiate rather large puddles. I thought how priviledged our students are in NZ.

Phil:
Mr. Jeff Long kindly offered to give the team a ride up to Faith Academy which saved us all a walk in the rain and dark and gave us the all important pass through Faith's strict security. Mr. Vince Burke also took some of the team (I'm including these names for my parent's sake). We went up for New Year's Eve- Faith is situated on a hill just outside the city and acts as a corporate box for the stadium of Manila. I bumped into all sorts of people I knew such as Uncle Tom and Aunt Wendy Ballantyne and the Vaughans and Mangiamellis- all part of the dorm community at my dear old school. My excitement at the chance to wander the school, see all the nooks and crannies special to me, quickly distracted me from the fireworks going on in the city (it was only 10pm or so, I had lots of time to be there for the ridiculous build up for midnight). I found Aimee and Sarah doing the same thing. I joined them and we had the best time exploring all the new buildings and pointing out our old classrooms. The new auditorium at Faith is the most amazing thing I've seen. Its like a contemporary opera house. I haven't been inside yet but I could see the foyer which was about three or four times the size of CCC and it had PILLARS! (and a stained-glass window). Outside is a courtyard grand enough to rival Greenbelt in Makati. We went back to our outlook of the city. Most of the city was obscured by rain mixed with smoke, but we still saw some fantastic fireworks because there are a few wealthy Valley Golf residents who I think like to try to out-do each other (think Symphony in the Park, not excluding the canon-like sounds). The explosions are constant like popping bubble wrap around about 11pm and build up to a loud drum roll to welcome in the New Year. All of this made me very happy and a bit tired.