Making my way home....slowly!

It has been almost 4 weeks since I left Ruel and it feels a little less painful to now write and even now there are tears in my eyes!! All my fears about how I would feel when the time came were nothing in comparison to how it actually felt. Saying goodbye to those precious children and the great community of friends I had establish has honestly been the hardest thing I have ever had to do in my life. To go for one last time upstairs to the children and knowing this was our final goodbye. Most of them did not know what was happening especially Bertie as he decided to walk the whole length of the room for the first time into my arms for what he didnt know was his last hug. A memory I will treasure and just shows how awesome the God I serve is that He would leave that as a reminder for me! For the older children it was especially hard for them and me. We had spent so much time together and had bonded incredibly and here I was doing what everyone before me had done and abandoning them again. I can still hear Aira's cries as I had to tear myself away. It is still very painful...

Since Ruel I have taken the opportunity of extended time off work to do a bit of visiting. I spent a few days with my aunt in Australia relaxing and recovering (although this is still ongoing!). It was nice to have a suprise visit from my cousin who flew from Cairns especially to see me! It was great to have potatoes again!!! Following on from Oz I went to New Zealand to spend 2 weeks with Jo and Johnny. It was an incredible time with lots of talking, fun and laughter and just what I needed. They are such wonderful people who ministered to me in every way!!! Currently I am in one of my most favourite places with some of my most favourite people....America or to be more precise the Pearson's house!!!! Again another wonderful home with lots of talking, fun and laughter and just what I needed!!!!!

I have spent this time not only visiting friends and family but also preparing myself for returning home. I have had such an amazing and wonderful time, in fact I would say it has been the best time of my life in so many ways. I have never felt more in the will of God and have spent the last 7 months in His classroom. I have learnt and grown immensly that the thought of coming away from that is a little daunting. I know that there will be some adjusting to be done but I know God is with me and He has clearly directed me home...the rest I am not so sure about but I am excited by new opportunities and am preparing for the next part of my life will look like!

Thank you to all who have supported me through this journey. You have been the ones making this possible. I am really looking forward to coming home and seeing you all. See you soon xxxxx

Saying Farewell...

Time flies when you are having fun!!

And boy what fun I have had!!! I cannot believe the time has come for me to say goodbye! It was with such a heavy heart I completed my final week of teaching last week. It has been such a privilege and honour to watch these children grow in their learning. It is only when you get to the end and look back and realise how much you have achieved. To think when I first arrived the kids spoke a small amount of English, cried everytime we had school and seemed to look at me as if I had 2 heads! Now, they not only speak fluent English but also read and write in English too! They started also in the last month to do addition and subtraction, not an easy concept let alone when English is your second language! As for me occasionally they think I still have 2 heads but they have grown to love me as much as I love them, which is a lot!!!!

I wanted to spend the last week at Ruel having fun with the kids and doing lots of fun things! We have planned for this week a trip to a waterfall and a ride on a Karabaw (water buffalo), trip to the beach and Jollibee (Filipino version of McDonalds), face painting, swimming, movies.... trying to cram a lot into just one week but these kids really deserve it! I still don't know how I am going to face it on Saturday when I have to say goodbye and answer them when they ask "how long you go for?" (which they do everytime we go anywhere). Already I have been preparing them (and myself) by explaining that I will be going and it breaks my heart everytime when they tell me how much they love me and want me to stay. I am clinging to the fact that I serve an awesome God who has a plan for me and for them and He will be my strength when the time comes.

It is not only the kids whom I will miss dearly but the amazing and wonderful friends I have made here. Theresa, Jason, Maiya, Ayda, Hannah and new baby Eheler have been an inspiration to my life and taught me so many wonderful things. God truly blessed me with their friendship and I know it will not end here! They have shown me the true heart of community and how we should love and serve one another. You are my heroes! I only hope I can be and do half of the things you have shown me that I too will love and serve in my new community! I will miss you very much!

Well...thats all from Ruel! All I can say it what an honour and a privilege it has been. I am so very thankful to all who have made this journey possible. I am coming home a very different person, having learnt so many new and wonderful things although sometimes painful they have shaped me and moulded me into the person God wants me to be. It has been the most fulfilling and rewarding time in my life and I have never been more happy! Just now excited for the future and what is in store...it is nice for the first time to not have a 'plan' for my life so who knows what might happens next! Looking forward to seeing you and sharing with you when I return in August.

Medical Outreach

Classroom:

For a change it was my turn to be the pupil listening to someone else doing the teaching!! I have just taken part in a 4 day mini medical school here at Ruel. We had some guests from America who were really keen to do some medical training and I was also given the opportunity to take part. We studied the 'Integrated Treatment and Management of Childhood diseases', a course set by the World Health Organisation (WHO). It is a mini medical course which enables me to diagnose and treat childhood disesases and it is specifically aimed at the third world. This qualification now means I can volunteer as a health worker at a health centre anywhere in the 3rd world.

It was a quite a difficult course to take part in as daily we saw pictures and video footage of children in Africa, India and the philippines who were extremely ill and dying. We were trained to look for danger signs and recognise pneumonia, measles, Dengue fever, malaria, malnutrition, dehydration amongst more milder conditions. Over 70% of the deaths in children are caused by one of these treatable and preventable diseases. A figure that completely astounds me as it just would not happen at home. Many of the families simply cannot afford to get their children treated or seen by a doctor! Makes you appreciate our FREE health service. Here if the parents dont have the money for the medicines the child is left to die!

Following our training we put it all into practise and boy was that an experience! We went to a Mangyan village in the mountains. The journey alone was full of adventure and great excitement! There was not enough room for all of us in the Ruel van so it was decided the 'youngies' could go in the back of the yellow van! It was rather small in the back and after 20 minutes of stooping and bashing our heads we decided it would be far easier to stand for the remaining 40 mins! Holding on tightly and watching for the bumps in the road was great fun!!! You may recognise the bridge from the Ruel video I showed many many times! This is the only way to reach the village.

On arrival to the Mangyan village it did not take long for news to spread we were here for medical outreach and soon we had well over a hundred people waiting with their children. We had been taught to fill in charts and prescriptions in the comfort of Ruel House with very little pressure and lots of time. On the field it was a completely different scenario! Conscious of all the people waiting and precious time available you had to get quick! It was such an amazing experience and to think that because we were there lives will have been saved. At the same time it was devastating as some cases we saw we knew that there was not a lot we could do. I felt very helpless - especially as one 4 year old girl severly malnourished stood naked before us with an obvious heart condition. There are no medical services available to help and nothing anyone can do for them. With virtually no money the family are without hope. Makes me so angry and breaks my heart to think what an unjust world we live in.

I shall certainly never forget my experience on medical outreach I am so grateful I have had this chance to add to my skills and hopefully sometime in the future I can use them again!

Bertie Update

Bertie Update:

Hi everyone firstly apologies for not posting recently things have been very crazy here! I have now moved house again (hopefully for the final time!). It has been such a blessing to me. Theresa and Jason are such wonderful people who have been so inspirational to me and taught me so much, even though they don't know it!! 

Just thought would post very quickly some recent photo's of Bertie. He truly has been a testimony to God's love and how His love can overcome all circumstances and change lives! Bertie has put on lots and lots of weight and looks nothing like the poor, malnourished baby that we first saw. He is now crawling and hopefully within the next week or so will be walking too! He is so desperate to be on his feet!! 

Enjoy looking at his journey and remember we serve an awesome God!!

Singapore!

Singapore:

I had the opportunity to go to Singapore for a few days break with Pauline. It was a blessing in two ways! Firstly, it was a nice break to recharge batteries ready for my last 2 months at Ruel. Secondly, I made a mistake when booking my flights which meant I would have to renew my visa in order to stay for one more day! At a cost of £60! To avoid this I could leave the country for just one day and therefore my visa would restart and cover that last day! The flight to Singapore was just $12 US!!! Couldnt pass on that opportunity!!!!

Singapore was such an amazing country and so contrasting to the Philippines! Everywhere was clean, immaculate - no need for my hand gel there! Their main source of income on the island is tourism and we made the most of it! I really would recommend to anyone a visit to Singapore, especially the night zoo and Sentosa Island! 

In addition to the sight seeing I also got the chance to visit Joseph Prince's church, a church of 20,000!! Admittedly, that is over 4 sevices but still the fact was that people were queuing for hours prior to the service just to get a seat in the main auditorium instead of sitting in one of the 3 overflow rooms! Had we not be chance met friends of the people we were staying with we would not have had a seat even though we were there an hour early! God always makes a way!! 

I had read Joseph Prince's book 'Destined to Reign' recommended by my Mum and it was an inspirational book. I learnt a lot through the book about Gods grace and the freedom in which I live. So I was so excited to be able to visit his church and hear him! He spoke again on the topic of grace and it was so encouraging. I really recommend if you haven't read his book read it you will be blessed!

On returning to Ruel I have been back into teaching and starting to prepare for my successor! It is scary to think I am already having to make preparation for my leaving!!! I really missed the children while I was in Singapore so it will be even harder leaving when I know I will not be back at least not for a long while and by then they will be gone!!! We have been learning teen numbers (always a hard one!) and I have been so amazed at how quick they have picked it up! They are not only recognising all numbers to 20 but also now starting to read words and write short captions! We have so much fun everyday having a class of 3 is a dream!!! It is going to be hard to leave and come back! How did I ever cope with 30!!!!! 

I am on the move again and this weekend I will be moving house and living with Jason and Theresa, Maiya, Ayda and Hannah, the Canadian family. I am really looking forward to this as I spend most of my time there anyway! They have a great source of Tetley tea!!! At least enough to last for my last 7 weeks! 

Manila A mix of emotions!

I have arrived 'home' from Manila! And what an experience it was! I had previously been to Manila once but only saw part of it - the 'nice' part: the malls, hotels, restaurants etc... My opinion of Manila was slightly distorted and I was often thinking why do people complain and say it is so bad and how nice it is to live out here in the province! However, that was because my orginial version of Manila was not a true reflection of the sheer poverty and overcrowding I witnessed on my second visit!

I was introduced through my church to meet up with a pastor out here who was running a pre-school for the disadvantaged children of Manila. Great! I though a good opportunity to witness the 'real' Manila. His school called City Gates Academy only accepts the poorest of the poor! Their philosophy is that through education children can get themselves out of poverty. Only 1 in 10 children from slum areas will ever complete elementary (Primary) school!! As it is summer vacation there were no classes but I was able to get involved in the selection of new pupils! In order to make sure only those in greatest need receive the education the team at City Gates complete home visits and conduct an assessment. Because their school is so good many people will claim to be poor in order to send their children. What I witnessed was truly heart breaking and then on top of that to have to sit there and assess their 'possessions' just felt so unjust. One of the questions I had to answer was "ratio of family to house" Basically was their house "large, enough, small or none". How could I answer? All of the houses were small!! And yet many times I was circling 'enough' because each person had a space to sleep therefore it was enough! The house in the picture had 2 adults, 7 children and the mother was pregnant. Their house was 'small' and only slighly bigger than my kitchen at home (those of you who have seen it will no it is small!!!!). There was no furniture: bed, table etc... I was sitting on a log to complete the assessment. Inside was a simple wardrobe. So hard to understand and comprehend and that night as the rain was coming in all I could do was think of that poor family. 

I have been thinking a lot about how I will feel when I come home and experiencing 'culture shock' when faced with all our luxuries but Manila provided me with that experience 3 months early! From leaving the slums we went to the mall. Clean, air condition, expensive, bounteous in food! I have never been in a more affluent, clean shopping centre makes ours look small and dirty! From one extreme to another, it was hard to be there. Part of me just wanted to scream and the injustice and the other part recognised comforts of home and so my mind was in constant battle. I am so thankful for Glenn and Nadette they really ministered to me during this time and helped me deal with these conflicts. They also taught me to enjoy Manila too! Hence the Karaoke! They are 2 of the greatest people and we had a lot of laughs - mainly to my expense!!! I now have really seen Manila - the good, the bad and the ugly and these experiences will stay with me forever.

Easter Celebration

Firstly apologies for not updating my blog recently! Things have been very very busy here!! 

Easter here is a big celebration without the commercialism of home. It has been really refreshing and a good way to remind us about what Easter is truly about. No Easter bunny or Easter eggs here! In the Philippines Easter is a national holiday too and they all get Good Friday off. Its one of only 2 days (the other being Christmas Day) where everything is closed: malls, ferries, shops etc... Many Filipino's take the opportunity to spend time with their families and escape the cities for the coast. Being on an island away from Manila a lot of people passed through Calapan, there was a great holiday feeling!! Weather was helpful too lots of sunshine to get everyone in the mood! 

We had a wonderful time together on Easter Sunday. At Ruel we had a huge community meal where all the volunteer staff of Ruel and all the children shared together. We brought all the tables and high chairs outside and enjoyed a huge spread and no rice in sight! See pictures of kids and Bertie enjoying their Easter dinner! Was a typical English/New Zealand/Canadian dinner!! We spent time in the day preparing cooking at least 100 spuds! Well at least it felt that many when peeling! As a very special treat Jason brought back from Manila some ham - impossible to get here in Calapan! It tasted soooooo good! Even the next day in sandwiches and omelette's!!! We also made lots of jellies of all different colours - the children had great fun trying them all! For many it was the first experience of jelly! It was a great evening spending time with friends and family. We have been very lucky past few weeks as Jason and Theresa have had lots of visitors of friends and family. It is always great to meet new people from all over the world! 

Back to 'work' now after the Easter break, I say work but when you are doing what you love every day it really doesn't feel like that! Often find it hard to believe I am actually here doing this! Plan to paint a nice big Hungry Caterpillar this afternoon! Looking forward to it. Next week I head to Manila with the important task of buying new toys for the orphanage I can't wait!!