They Came

Lapok, is “mud” in the Vasayan language.

Lapok has become a very familiar word to Mary Anne and me as of late. Lapok is not conducive to education especially in the copious quantities we have here. Educating young people is a priority everywhere in the world including in the Bio-os school district which was a real disaster. All the parents and children had seen all the Lapok in and around the school and knew that there needed to be some serious cleanup before the educating of their children would begin again but there was no relief in sight. They were very discouraged and there was no clear signal from the administration on how or when school would start. Mary Anne and I met with the teachers and the principal the previous week and we proposed that Saturday the 7^th would be the date for cleanup, but that day would need to be confirmed in the PTA meeting that was scheduled for Thursday 5^th at 2pm. The principal was less than enthusiastic about participation from the community. We taught him our concept of welfare, the way the church does it, all about self reliance, then looking to family, then helping each other in community--not just a hand out, but a way for folks to all participate. He reminded us that most of these people have just as bad of problems at their own houses and are too busy to help at the school. But we insisted that the community needed to help and then, when the Barungay capt showed up, she said we could count on their help too. If approved on Thursday for Saturday, that would give us only one day to prepare workers, food and organizational support.

The PTA meeting was quite interesting. First, it began with a prayer. Everything begins with prayer here if it has anything to do with school. (Good thing.) The principal spoke first, mind you everything is in Visayan. MA and I understand 10%-20% of what is being said. When we heard “trabaho” and Sabado and the parents all cheered we took that as a yes. (Many of their words originate in Spanish) Oh but it wasn’t over. The district superintendent spoke, we heard shovels and brooms and more agreements from the parents. By now there were about 120 parents crowded in the small hall. Next they asked me to speak. I told them that MA would have to speak with me and it would be English nalong (only). Everyone said it’s ok because they can understand they just can’t speak it. Hmmmm. MA gave her deal about helping and trying to foster the idea of self-reliance and how our friends and family, from young to old people, gave to this worthy cause, because God loves all his children, and some of those children, even far away, want to share that love with the children here, then she sat down. I spoke a bit more about the help we were getting from our family and friends in the US and they cheered for all of you! I threw a few visayan phrases and words in and got a few more cheers. The people really appreciate the help you are giving! Before the PTA meeting closed, the proposed cleanup for Saturday was overwhelmingly approved.We said we would supply the food for lunch for the workers. The rest of the organization was left to the PTA Pres, a branch member here.

We expected 10-15 from the church members to participate, maybe 50 from the barangay of Bio-os, and about 20 missionaries. So we thought maybe 75 people would be there for the Lapok cleanup. On Friday we bought enough food for 150 just in case. Let’s talk about the shopping briefly. There are things you can buy here that are just not available in the states, i.e., dried fish, pork belly and pig head. One of the great things here is that every part of the animal gets used. Nothing is wasted. We purchased rice, chicken, pork, potatoes, onions, etc., and then the work began. A couple of church members were asked to head up the cooking, and a group of Bio-os teachers came to the church to pitch in by peeling and chopping vegetables that night before the event. When it all got bought we figured about 51P per person to eat lunch. Friday morning we were also faced with trying to get the funds here. ATM’s only allow a 10K pisos withdraw per day which is equivalent to about $233.00. And a 200 piso service charge. That wasn’t the way to go. We had heard that a wire remittance was a possibility but after some research, we would need to set up an account here and we would need proof of residence and 2 forms of ID, both of which I did not have. We rent from and pay the church for our rent and our passport is in Manila. Hmmmmm. Taylor and Tanner worked with Wells Fargo to find a better way and when they told us that Wells Fargo had a financial relationship with a nationally syndicated pawn shop we were skeptical to say the least. But it turned out that the pawn shops sell insurance, make loans, transfer money and has a credible relationship with Wells Fargo. So here I am standing in front of the pawn shop in Amlan, waiting for the cash to come in. By the way, we use the filtered water company next to the pawn shop, and had several containers delivered from there for the school. We had our first transmission of funds. It only took one hour to get the first block of funds, $1,000 maximum each transfer at only $7 each transfer. That was a deal! Taylor is now our pawn shop dude and can transfer us money on short notice.

This leads into the next part of the story which is Saturday, the cleanup day. This was truly a day of miracles. First. It rained all night and into the morning. Were we even going to have this project? We prayed for good weather. We drove to the project with our windshield wipers going. At 8 am the rain stopped-- the scheduled time for the project to start. Next, the mission president changed zone interviews to a different day so the missionaries from both zones could attend and help and he committed that he and his wife would be there in work clothes. He really did get dirty. All the missionaries were not afraid to get muddy.

Twenty-six missionaries! From the whole province. Next we had twice the church members come to the project as we expected. Next, we expected about 50-100 people for the Barangay of Bio-os to come, and as I was making a head count around the school the number was at 250 plus. They came with their shovels, brooms, rakes, bags, and muscles and heart. Our next thought was how were were going to feed all of these people? One of the missionaries came to me and told me that our members that were helping us cook were embarrassed because we didn’t have enough food for all the people. I told them “loaves and fishes”. We met with just the cooks and prayed to Heavenly Father to stretch the food so everyone had enough to eat.

Well we had enough food for everyone and there was so much extra that people took food home. We also figured that the cost per person was under 30P per person that is equivalent to about$.72/person.

PTA president accessing a day before the cleanup. Just outside the 1st grade class.













Elder Cropper doing some international banking through the pawn shop--more money than most folks here see in a life time.











Teachers from the school show up in a pedi-cab to help at the church with the cooking












Same group













Church kitchen. That's the head cook in the fore ground. We nicknamed him "Pork Chop". He can literally chop a cooked pig with his meat cleaver down to the snout!










The huge pot of chicken, red peppers and potatoes: it was all cooked out doors.












Head chef, Pork Chop. This man loves food, both the cooking and the eating
















That's our truck: people are streaming in to help.
We felt adamant that the funds you all donated actually go for supplies and tangibles for the kids.
As much as possible, we wanted the work to be volunteer.









The stage when we began. First covered with about 3" of mud. This was where the final cooking of rice and the serving would take place, so we started cleaning here.











Some children found a microscope and began cleaning it. First they had to haul water from the river, a few hundred yards away in bottles and buckets--the school's water is still not working, and the water we brought was for drinking only.
the kids are using toothbrushes salvaged from the first grade classroom mud.









One huge job was to cart away all the sodden book and records. They were so heavy and hugely putrid.












Trying to build up berms to keep water off pathways (some Fillipinos pronounce path, "fat"--that took a while to figure out).
Other folks are digging trenches to channel water away















PTO President in the yellow "Mormon Helping Hands" vest.
Best quote of the day, when asked if he shouldn't have boots on, "I was born in mud, I was raised in mud, I live in mud, I can work barefoot in mud."

























Rice and hog feed bags make very good wheel barrows












These kids contrived a wheel barrow out of I don't even know what.--getting the job done















The assistant to the mission president, down and dirty













The human conveyer belt deposited the trash out to these bikes or motorcycles with side cars who then hauled them I don't know where.












There was 1 power sprayer. They filled it from the river water.













Ya, that's a tempting mud pie to slosh in














Outside the class room when we began.














Making progress














Mostly missionaries working on this "fat" way














Pour water, sweep, haul more water, pour again, sweep some more













You can see the canal dug along the edge.














Washing toys from the classroom














A hungry crew. standing in line for lunch. The Barangy had already provided a snack mid morning--juice, and a roll--but there were a lot of hungry folks, and this was probably the scariest moment of the day. Will it stretch from the 150 we planned for to the 250 who were there? Elder Cropper took the cooks aside and prayed for yet another miracle. There was enough and to spare!!






More and more for lunch.
They kept coming out of the jungle. Who knows how many actually helped, but most did.







President and sister Schmutz and their assistants














Lots of muddy missionaries. Notice the footwear on most of them. They were awesome, but the health missionary for the mission, who warned of disease in the flood mud, would not be happy to see them in chinillas or barefoot.











The cooks, some teachers, the Barangay captain and some of the church members. Ya, that's our crazy branch President in the Saturday night fever pose.










So, it all come together. The work got done, at least enough to start school Monday was the goal.
It is Monday already here, and we don't know if that happened. The big two question marks were the water getting back on, which was a concern, but not a deal breaker--bottled water works for most things--and the repair of the bathrooms. They had a plumber come and the work was less extensive than they'd feared, so it's just a matter of how long to do it.
We are heading right now to deliver more funds.
With your generosity we already paid for paper, pencils, chalk and erasers, plus a gas stove, tank and regulator for cooking for the free lunch program.
The money we give them today will be for teacher devices, like maps, charts and such, desks and chalkboards that were damaged beyond repair, and the materials that were destroyed in the rooms.
That is all we have promised so far, but there are more funds, so today we will talk to them about engineering a new wall to keep flood waters out, and building shelves above the flood mark for books and records. With your gracious, generous gifts, the school is certainly on the mend.