wild life

Maybe it was just my imagination. Oh, it was probably just a small breeze coming up through the floor. No, it felt like some type of bug. It was dark outside and I was sitting on the bamboo floor of our hut talking to Allie when I felt a strange movement in my skirt. It’s not all that uncommon to have small bugs find their way into your clothes, but it is disturbing none-the-less. The beam of my headlamp fell on a quite disheartening site when I looked under the edge of my skirt—it was an elupian. An elupian is a centipede that ranges from 3 – 12 inches in length and causes great distress when it stings. I’ve been told that people experience agonizing pain and immense swelling as a result of contact with such a creature, besides the fact that they are extremely resilient to death. I could not move much for fear that the elupian would wiggle its way up my skirt closer to my body, so I calmly yet frantically scrambled (without really moving) to get away from this devilish animal. Relief mixed with distress overwhelmed me when the elupian slithered through the bamboo out of our reach. He was no longer in my skirt, but he was still very close. It wasn’t until over a week later that we sighted an elupian again in our house. It was likely not the same one, but this one did not have such a lucky ending—he lost his life to four angry women who first of all sprayed him with bygone, chopped him with a machete, pounded him with a hammer, and finally set him on fire.    

Life in the jungle of Palawan has been very exciting for the past month and a half. We had a snake on our roof which got valiantly killed with a machete, snakes on the trails, elupians not only in our hut, but also in our bathroom, rats making themselves at home, and much more.  Patients come to the clinic every day to get treated for malaria. Many people come with a cough/cold, machete cuts, and abdominal pain. There are rare times when patients get flown in by the helicopter and we have to keep patients in the clinic for a few nights.

Sweat dripped down our noses as we hiked. That day was more hot and humid than we had yet experienced. Our two guides could have left us in the dust if they wanted to, but we were thankful they didn’t. After the intense 2-hour hike in the burning sun, we finally arrived to the long dreamed of village of Emrang, the place where Allie and I will be spending most of this year. There, on the other side of the helicopter landing, was the little school. Children were hanging their heads out of the school to see us and it seemed like the whole village was there to welcome us newcomers. The ocean rested peacefully to our right and the mountains loomed before us. We finally got to see what we had been dreaming of for months, the place where God led us to commit our lives, the people who God chose us to minister to. 

We are still waiting to go to Emrang. We don’t know how much longer it will be before we get to go there because our house is not finished. We are just trusting in God’s timing and making the most of what we are doing now. We are learning how to deal with the various medical problems that we will encounter and putting forth as much effort as possible to learn the language. Every week we spend 15-20 hours focused solely on learning Pelawan which primarily includes going to people’s homes and trying to communicate with them. I have learned a lot during my first 6 weeks here and can carry on basic conversations comfortably and can understand a good bit if many of the sermons (depending on who is preaching and what they are preaching about). Every day I am reminded though, how much more of the language I have to learn—I am actually very far from knowing much of anything. It is a beautiful language and I love learning it.

Highlights:

·         Swimming in the Tamlang river with the students(it’s quite challenging to swim in a skirt, though)

·          Cooking and eating the native foods

·         Eating rice every day and still enjoying it

·         Learning to bake in a dutch oven

·         Eating peanut butter (what they say about missionaries missing peanut butter is SOOO true! I never knew how much I loved it until I got here.)

·         Sharing one bathroom/shower between 10 people. Keys to success? Cold water and a squat pot.

·         Going to bed just because there is nothing better to do. Somewhere between 8:45 – 9:30 is my usual bedtime.

·         Getting woken up either by the roosters, the cats, or the dogs – not something I enjoy.

·         Identifying people by their clothes (i.e. what’s the boy’s name that wears the green shirt?). Most people only have a couple outfits that they were all the time.

·         Gathering roots, picking vegetables, and working with the natives

·         Reading more than I ever have before and loving it!

·         Getting my first package from home

·         Kids going to the bathroom out the window during church

·         Grocery shopping for 3 months at a time.

This is the view from the school in Emrang where Allie & I will be teaching

 

We fed spaghetti to a couple of the students in Kementian. They really liked it.