Kementian News. 01-13-08 Edition

 

01-13-08

Howdy folks!

Things are continuing to continue on out here. The weather can't really decide if its rainy season or dry season, stuff keeps needing fixed, the clinic coming along, and is being held up by a lack of materials. Yup, pretty much the normal around here.

I am quite happy to say that my relations with my supervisor have improved dramatically. I ask that you continue to keep this specific issue in prayer as I know that its only through everyone's prayers that it is working out.

Had communion at church yesterday. Its a fair bit different here then back in the States.

For the foot washing service we used whatever buckets, pans, pots, etc that we could find.

The unleavened bread looked like a pancake (about 3" dia) and tasted like fried flour. Quite tough, but entirely edible.

The 'wine' was coconut milk. Again, different, but worked quite well.

Like everywhere else, the kids had a hard time waiting to eat the bread and drink the juice when it was already in their hands. Even saw a few adults 'sampling' before it was time.

With communion, church ran nearly an hour over. This wouldn't be a problem except we were hiking out to Bingbilang and Malis. We finally got on the trail for that just after 1400, and made it out in about 1.5hrs. Told our stories and sang our songs at Bingbilang then loaded up to head over to Malis.

I don't know if I've explained this before, but Bingbilang is basically at the trail head. Malis is about a 20min drive away. All, and yes, I do mean ALL, the kids from Bingbilang just love to climb in the back of the Hilux pickup for the ride to Malis. Yesterday the bed was so full that they all had to stand, no sitting cause there wasn't room. To top this off, there were six of us in the cab where there's only supposed to be five. Just wait, it gets better. At Malis we sang our songs and told our stories, then it was time to find the patient that needed to be taken care of. We were thrilled to find out that the individual was actually at Malis so we wouldn't have to go chasing all over the place to find him. So we loaded up the patient and his three family members (family is required at the hospital as the hospital provides no services besides medical and thats after we bring the meds to them from the pharmacy). Course the sick people go inside the cab so now there's 7 people where there's only supposed to be 5 and now we have three people hanging onto the window frames and standing on the running boards. I wish I'd been able to get a picture of everyone on the truck at once. But I was basically unable to move.

We needed to call back into Kementian to see what we were to do with the patient, so we drove out to the National Highway where the radio would reach into the mountains. While they were talking on the radio all the kids and those of us not involved in the radio conversation stood around and goofed off. Took a few pictures, which prompts everyone else to want a picture of them too. Showed them some juggling, got a picture of me juggling in the middle of the National Highway. And watched a tricycle (its a ~150cc motorcycle with a homemade-sidecar-type-thing attached go by with a carabow in it. Now a carabow is a domesticated water buffalo. These are quite large, about the size of your average cow back home. I'm really not sure how to explain how this thing fit in the tricycle cause it just doesn't seem possible. I don't fit in a tricycle very well, let alone something that big!

I wish I'd had the good sense to take a picture of it. I think I was too busy staring and trying to contemplate how in the world that could actually happen to snap a pic with the camera that was in my hand. Oh well, such is life.

Speaking of pictures, I've been able to get the first couple months worth of pictures sent home. Now if we can persuade my family to quit looking at them long enough to put them online (amidst all the other things they have to do) I'll be able to give y'all a link to them. Don't hold your breath till it happens as my family is pretty swamped. It'll happen, I just don't want to get your hopes up too high.

A wee tidbit of news that has nothing to do with my being here, but something I'm kinda excited about:

I received an email last week telling me that my attempt at completing over 1000miles in less then 24hrs on a motorcycle has been accepted by the Iron Butt Association ( www.ironbutt.org) and I've been admitted into their ranks. Most of you think this is nuts I'm sure, and I would have to agree. Its and idea I'd been toying with for awhile and then the opportunity was forced on me when I needed to get to AFM's training (1200mi from home) and only had a day to do it in. So yeah, I can now say I've done it and I get a few nick nacks to prove it. Now I think I'll pass on doing anything like it again for quite some time.

If any of you are bored enough to go look at the trip report, you can go to http://1talltxn.blogspot.com and look it up there. You'll have to dig past all the Kementian News to find it. Should be under the month of July '07.

Ok, enough rambling from me.

I thank you all for your continued prayers and support. I can't express how much they mean to me.

I pray that this note finds each and every one of you happy and well.

May God bless y'all

Nathan

Kementian News, 12-30-07 Edition

12-30-07 Kementian News

Howdy everyone!

I'm sure you are all wondering what my Christmas was like. To tell you that I need to fill in a few small details.

Wendy's parents came in for a visit last Friday (the 21^st) for their first visit to the project in ten years. Wendy's been quite adamant about them not coming in because she didn't feel comfortable with them hiking the trail. So now that the helicopter is here, they were able to fly in without having to mess with the trail. Watching them hike around the valley here, I totally agree with Wendy's assessment of their hiking ability. They could probably make the trail, but it would be an issue of unnecessary worry.

Normally we are not allowed to even think about entering Wendy's hut (she's a single female and thats wrong on both our social standards and even more wrong in the social standards of the Palawan people) though since her folks have been here and staying with her, we've been allowed to go and visit for meals and various other gatherings.

Leonda George came down with malaria on the 18^th and was in no condition to host a Christmas dinner from then till the 27^th. So our Christmas dinner was provided for us by Wendy's parents.

They really went the extra mile. (Kilometer since I'm in the RPI?) We had rolls, specially carried in from the lowlands, we had stuffing, we had cranberry sauce, we had mashed potatoes and gravy, we had FriChik just about everything thats supposed to be at a proper Adventist Christmas meal. In fact the only thing that I felt was missing from the meal was my grandmother's gluten.

Christmas day itself wasn't really anything spectacular save for the meal. Well, I guess we did get a day off which is an absolutely astounding deal up here. Even our Sabbath's are packed with things from sunrise to sunset. It was nice to have a chance to do whatever I wanted.

Chris, Michelle (A former SM), and Bubit (A Palawan thats off at Mountain View College) were able to hike in on the 24^th to join us for Christmas. We were starting to wonder if we were going to have to launch another Holiday Rescue Mission© when they didn't show up when we expect them. They did make it safely, even with the really slippery trail (The rainy season decided to come back for a visit the first of last week). We are already wondering what kind of Holiday Rescue Mission© we are going to have to mount for Valentines day...

I had a good Christmas, but the pervading fact that I wasn't going to be able to spend it with my family left a permanent shadow over the day. I'll be the first to admit that I was envious of Wendy's parents getting to come for a visit. It helps when they are already here in the RPI, its just too expensive to fly anyone here during the holidays.

As a result of Leonda being sick, we weren't able to get our Internet time in, so I apologize for not getting to everyone's emails in a reasonable time.

I am in need of your continued prayers regarding my relationship and interaction with my supervisor. To say that we clash would be akin to saying that the Empire State building is kinda tall: an incredible understatement. There's a differing of opinion on what the cause of the problem is as well.

I ask that you keep both of us in your prayers as we work to resolve this difference. I am working quite hard to be optimistic that this can be worked out though my gut is telling me that its only going to build and get worse as time goes on.

I pray that each and every one of you had a wonderful Christmas, hopefully surrounded by family and friends.

I also would like to wish you a slightly early HAPPY NEW YEAR! If you'd like to find out what next year's like, give me a call and I'll tell you as I'm about 14hrs ahead of most of you so I'll get there first.

Belated Merry Christmas, early Happy New Year, and I pray that everyone is doing well and enjoying this holiday season

Take care and God bless!

Nathan

Kementian New. 12-16-07 Edition

Kementian News. 12-16-07 Edition

Howdy to everyone!

Things are pretty much going the same as they have been for the last three months. This email marks nearly 13 weeks for me here in the Philippines. Just over 1/3 of the time I'll be here. My, how time does fly.

Rain's slacked off a bit, which has allowed the trails to dry out and be much less treacherous.

My language learning has progressed to some degree. Still not nearly as far as i would like, but thats to be expected. Wouldn't it be nice if we could just 'install' another language as easily as a program can be installed on a computer?

I managed to stick my foot with a saw Wednesday of last week. No, its not dangling by a piece of skin or anything like that, just a small gash between the last two toes on my right foot. I took some pictures of it, but as usual, the Internet doesn't allow me to upload them.

On the bright side, I do have a DVD of pictures en route to the folks, so hopefully a few of the good ones will make it to the Internet from there.

The clinic was dormant while Dwayne took of to Manila to get some stuff done with the Govt there and to pick up a fellow GMI pilot to come look at the project. When Dwayne got back, it was discovered that Jonathan (the other pilot) has a history of home construction so the plywood is down on the floor, the walls are framed and its time to start pulling wire for electrical. This is an amazing amount of progress considering all the delays that were thrown up due to discussions about how the clinic was to be laid out which should have taken place before the construction began.

The Kensuli and Kementian schools had their Christmas plays this past week. They came off quite well and the kids seemed to have fun.

After the programs there was various fun and games for which I served as a bit of a half-time show by doing a little tumbling. (no, I didn't have a wardrobe malfunction) I wish there'd been some grass to tumble on, as the dirt was quite hard and strewn with small rocks. So the folks didn't get a decent sampling of what tumbling is. I was very much wishing for a trampoline, but the thought of carrying it in on that trail quickly expelled that idea from my mind!

Thank you all for your continued prayers and emails, its very much appreciated!

Take care and God bless!

Nathan

Kementian News, 11-25-07 Edition

 

Kementian News, 11-25-07 Edition

Howdy y'all!

Thursday started out like most any other day, with one exception. We were all anticipating the evening meal that Tammy and Leonda were working on.

Work proceeded as normal with a little extra checking of the time to see how much longer till we went down to play games till the food was ready. The weather finally gave us a bit of a break in that it didn't rain all morning, just most of it. There was enough break in the rain that it was decided that if Chris could get free in the lowlands, that Dwayne was going to fly out and pick him and the groceries up. In the end it turned out that Chris had to stay down there and baby-sit a few patients so was unable to come in. The river's were flooded enough that Chris wasn't able to cross them to get the groceries to the trail head for someone to bring them in either. So many substitutions were made in the recipes.

Sometime mid-afternoon, we were informed that we could head down around 1600 to play games.

Getting everything wrapped up took a bit longer then expected so we were just about ready to head down when we got a radio call from Kensuli that there was gentleman there with a large cut in his foot that hadn't quite bleeding in about 36hrs. Somebody needed to go stitch him up.

To get to Kensuli from Kementian, you have to cross the Tamlang (Pronounced Tom-Long) river as well as several smaller creeks. Usually a 30-45min hike down to the river and up the other side to Kensuli. Since Thursday was the first day in about 5 that it hadn't rained all day, these water ways were very flooded. Pastor had tried to get to Kensuli earlier Thursday morning and had to turn back at one of the creeks. The Tamlang has a rope across it so that was passable.

With the injured person in Kensuli needing attention, Dwayne fired up the helicopter. We kept waiting for him to take off, but he kept getting out to look at the tail rotor. Apparently the incessant rain had filled one of the blades with water, making it out of balance. Dwayne was able to get it drained and took off with David, 10min later then anticipated. By now its nearly 1700, it gets too dark to fly by about 1805. The flight is maybe 3min to Kensuli, but stitching takes time.

The rest of us headed down to Pastor's house praying that they'd make it back in time.

About 1810, we heard the helicopter fly over and we jumped on the radio to contact Kensuli to see if David had come back as well (he had said he'd stay if it was needed). We were saddened by the news that David was still in Kensuli.

David is a big fan of food. Thanksgiving has a lot of food. David had been talking about the food for well over the past week and was very eagerly awaiting the meal. This, coupled with the simple fact that we wanted as much of the team together as possible, and that David didn't need to stay the night, but had simply finished about 10min too late to catch a ride back on the helicopter, made us quite sad.

A quick consultation of the problem and it was decided that we should at least try to get him home. Pastor said the creek was passable if a rope was available. So Brandon, Napthali, and myself took a rope and headed out to get David.

Crossing the Tamlang was kinda fun actually, you hold onto the rope and work your way across hand-over-hand while your body is essentially surfing across the top of the current. Not to hard, but your tired from fighting the current once you get to the other side.

Once the three of us had made it across the Tamlang, we set off down the trail. In about 10min hiking we came to the creek (whose name I don't know) with David on the other side. This creek is normally a docile, pretty babling little creek. After all the rain, it was just shy of waist deep and moving very swiftly.

With nothing to tie the rope too on our side, Brandon and I anchored the rope to ourselves and braced against the rocks. Napthali waded out as far as he could and tossed the other end to David. Once the rope was there, it was quite easy and he made it across in no time.

The rest of the trip back is simply a reverse of the trip across save one small detail. David has lost nearly 30lbs since arriving here over a year ago and his shorts are over sized. As a result Pastor had recommended that he remove the shorts to keep them from becoming a sail in the water and pulling him off the rope of the Tamlang. So this he did, leaving him in his boxers. The problem is, boxers have no way of being tightened around the waist and on David's first attempt to cross, it became clear that the boxers weren't going to stay on. Saying that these were a good pair of boxers, he took them off and proceeded to cross. Brandon was on the opposite shore with myself on the home side when David came across. Brandon's headlamp is very bright and while he was laughing at David, he kept looking across the river right at David. This tended to keep David in the spotlight. If it hadn't been for the light, it was more then dark enough to keep everything hidden.

Due to this little streaking experience, I very nearly titled this story "Naked in the Tamlang" :-)

Once we made it back to the George's to sit down and have our wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, it was 2000, yes, we were quite hungry and ate huge portions.

Leonda and Tammy had spent at least the afternoon in the kitchen and had made a veritable feast. I honestly hadn't expected nearly that much food and was pleasantly surprised how many of the items I'm used to seeing at home were on the table. Grandma's gluten wasn't there, though I think I survived without it. I'll just have to eat double next year!

As with any holiday, the most important part is family. Since I'm out here, I was missing family a lot. I was able to talk to the folks on Wednesday morning, which was very nice, but its just not the same as having them there.

I've a great many things to be thankful for this year. Far too many to begin listing here, but the foremost items on my list are these:

A loving God who cares and protects even little ole' me.

And, family and friends who show they care by keeping in touch when its oh so easy to just forget that I'm on the other side of the world missing them terribly.

If you could keep a couple items in prayer for me, I would be greatly appreciative.

First, my learning of the language is far behind schedule. I know a few words and phrases, but I'm not where I should be. This is partly due to weather, schedule, and a few various other things, but the single biggest problem is a mental block. I'm not averse to learning the language, in fact I want to, but something isn't working right. If you'd keep that in prayer.

The other request is a silent. I need prayer for it, but don't want to expound on the details.

I pray this letter finds you all quite stuffed from Thanksgiving, reminded how much you have to be thankful for, and blessed.

Take care and God bless!

Nathan

Kementian News 11-11-07 Edition

 

Howdy everyone!

Hard to believe I've been here on the project for two months now. My, how time does fly.

Things are still going very well. Been staying busy so the past few weeks have been a bit of a blur. Guess Pastor is trying to keep me out of trouble ;-)

Wendy had a birthday on Tuesday. Dwayne brought in a bunch of ice so we could have ice cream for her birthday party that evening. Sadly the ice cream freezer didn't work quite right so we had cold cream. It was very tasty but was lacking in the "ice" part. No worries, I enjoyed it quite nicely over the chocolate cake.

Thursday the hydro-electric generator decided it was going to give up the ghost. After much poking and prodding we decided it was something within the alternator and took it apart to discover that the brushes has pretty much disintegrated. Pastor had a spare set laying around and we were able to put it back together and get it working again in a few hours. Its funny how much we rely on power even out here in the sticks.

I'm at a loss as to what to tell y'all about life here. I suppose I'll give y'all a break from my long diatribes.

If you have any questions about anything out here, drop me a note and I'll do my best to answer it next time around.

Thank you so much for your continued thoughts and prayers.

May God bless each of you and your family and friends

Nathan

Kementian News, 10-28-07 Edition

 

10-28-07

Howdy Y'all,

Things are still going on here. We are coming along pretty well with the new clinic, despite the rain every day. The roof is nearly complete so now the rain will stop and the work on the interior begins.

There'll be two in-patient rooms, a pharmacy, a lab, and a examination room inside. Still have to put a porch on the back, doors, windows and floors in the attic in before its usable.

I've got plenty of pictures of the progress thus far, but I haven't been able to upload them. I'll be sure and let y'all know when I do get them done.

Pastor and Dwayne are seriously looking at a 25 acre tract of land down near Brooke's Point. The intention is to build an airstrip and a base of operations. Right now they are having trouble finding people with the right knowledge to get the transfer worked out legally.

The house that is our current base of operations is barely sufficient and the neighbors are less then wonderful so getting our own property would be an answer to prayer.

The real question now is if this property is what we are supposed to acquire or if God has something else in mind.

Please pray that this situation will work out.

The weather here has been a pain for the work on the clinic. Sun comes up in a clear sky and creates a nice hot morning. Then anywhere between 1000 and 1300 it starts raining. It could rain for 20min or for 5hrs. The rain and the high humidity (the lowest we've seen is 75%) makes drying clothes quite the challenge. This week it only took 1.5 days to dry the clothes and we were thrilled! We expect the rain to quite just about the time we get the roof finished.

Two weeks ago I opted to hike out to Bingbilang and Malis to assist with Sabbath School (assist as much as much very limited Palawan allows) We finally made it back in around 2000, about 2hrs after dark. That trail is challenging in the daylight, its even more so in the dark and rain!

After that I was planning on going to a close village like Tamlang last week so i could actually get some rest on Sabbath.

Pastor had been out for about 10days and finally made it in last Friday, so when he met me at church last Sabbath, he asked if I could go out to drive the Hilux. Knowing he really dreaded going out and getting stuck there, I agreed.

Lunch and cleanup took longer then expected and we finally hit the trail out about 1330. We made it to Bingbilang at just about 1500. Knowing that Sabbath School at the each location takes at least an hour plus drive time, I was expecting another dark hike.

Turns out there was a person who needed some medical attention there in Bingbilang so that took another 30min.

En route to Malis, Leonda called us on the radio to tell us we had a patient to pickup near Malis and take to the hospital.

By the time we got to Malis it was already past 1630. Leaving there about 1715 we headed off to pickup the patient. Driving down back roads and trying to avoid falling into the irrigation ditches that line the road and following directions in Palawan we finally got there, got him loaded into the truck and headed back to Bingbilang to drop of the truck full of kids. We accomplished that around 1900.

On this trip we found out about another person that needed taken to the hospital but didn't have much info. Acquiring that info took another 45min. Then we were off to find this person.

The road ran out before we got to their village so Sublitu and Naptheli headed off to find her. They made it back to the truck around 2100.

I drove back to Bingbilang to drop Sublitu and Naptheli off so they could hike into the mountains while I took the patients to the hospital and stayed the night in Brooke's.

Arriving at the hospital around 2215, we all marched into the hospital and got them checked in. While the nurses were getting them settled in, i was sent up the street to the pharmacy to collect some IVs an a few other items that i couldn't tell you what they were. And to answer the question, no, the hospital does not have its own pharmacy. It expects family members or those helping with the sick to collect the meds etc.

I finally got back to the house about 2330. Only to discover that I didn't remember the combination to the lock to get inside. Being too late to want to disturb the George's for the combination, I just crashed in the truck. I was tired enough it didn't matter much were I slept.

Woke up about 0600 and started the day off with a call to Kementian to get the code for the door. Got in, got some food and cleaned up the truck.

Ran a few errands and checked on the patients in the hospital, picked up meds for them. Took a family member back to his village to find people to donate 1500cc of blood for one patient and began my hike into Kementian about 1245.

Prior to this, I've only hiked in twice. Once in the day and once at night. Both times following someone. This time I was alone, praying I could remember the way.

Turns out I did remember it and made it to Kementian in 1hr and 25min.

Sometime along in that mess I managed to find a stick sticking off the side of the road that quite neatly took off the passenger mirror and scratched the front fender and door. I checked, but the mirror is not repairable. It'll have to be replaced.

I was kinda worried about being on the trail alone as I wasn't entirely sure of the way nor did i want to do the hike alone. Its always more 'fun' with friends along. Not to mention should i fall on one of the numerous slippery sections of the trail and hurt myself.

In the end, I had a very enjoyable and quite relaxing hike. I took my time, took pictures and had a nearly 90min prayer time going. By the time I got to Kementian, I was in a much better mood and my mind was quite clear.

Sometimes the 'worst' turns out quite good.

Starting to look at putting up the HF rig and discovered that the antenna had an unfortunate meeting with a lawn mower. I haven't strung it out yet to see whether it is salvageable or not. I should have acquired that HF antenna that I was toying with getting before I came over.

The HF rigs and antenna tuner are supposed to work, but haven't been tried in years. Gotta get them out and plug them in to see whats what.

Pastor said that he does not have a Philippine license as they didn't seem to care all that much when he brought the equipment in.

I'm tempted to check into getting a Philippine radio license so I can play with making some contacts with an RPI call sign. We shall see how many hoops need jumping through to get that to happen.

I thank you all for your continued thoughts and prayers for this project, everyone here, and myself. They are much appreciated.

I pray God blesses each one of you and all of your families.

Nathan

Kemantian News. 10-14-07 Edition

 

Kemantian News. 10-14-07 Edition

Life continues here in Kemantian. I've been here just over one month. In some aspects its rally flown, and in another regard, its crawled by. Its all good.

In some aspects its just as busy as home, in some other aspects its much slower, and in a few aspects its much busier then home. Its kinda hard to explain.

Let me see if I can describe a typical day here.

Sun comes up around 0545-0600 right now, we are up and about by 0600.

Between 0600 and 0800 we have our personal devotions, shower, fix and eat breakfast, and any other chores that need done. After home where I did all that in half the time, I don't know how I did it.

0800 starts the day officially (unless it was preempted for some urgent reason) Thats when we head out for a couple hours of language learning. Ideally that is, its happened often enough that I've got called off to work on something else that its not an all the time event.

1000 we set off to our various tasks.

This continues till about 1200 when we head back to get something to eat.

By the time you cook something up, eat it, clean up and get headed back out, its typically about an hour or so.

1300-1700 is more taking care of what needs done which seems to be never ending. At present, most of our time has been taken working on the new clinic.

About 1700 we head back and start supper. Again, this takes at least an hour. We usually get somewhat more elaborate with supper so it does take longer.

By 1900 its dark and we are typically free for the evening. Team meeting and a few other things change that but I'm not sure what the official schedule for those are yet.

We usually turn in by about 2100. not much to do beyond that and the roosters like to make sure they now how to crow about 0300... Anybody know how to fry a chicken?

Saturday's are much the same as far as time goes, just what fills the hours differs.

Church starts at 0800 and continues through its various parts till about 1200.

Potluck follows with rarely enough to fill even the kids. So we typically go back and eat something in addition to the potluck.

After church/potluck, everyone splits up and covers a bunch of different villages to hold branch Sabbath Schools. Ranging in distance between 10min and 2hrs hike away from Kemantian.

Yesterday, Brandon and I elected to go to Bingbilang and Malis for Sabbath School. Bingbilang is the village in the lowlands very near the start of the trail. So we the entire way out. Took us about 1hr 45min. We figured we were doing pretty good.

After all the activites down there, we hit the trail back in about 1700. Seeing as its at least a 2hr hike and the sun goes down about 1800 we didn't have much time to hike in the light. With dark coming and the trail being slippery from an earlier rain, we didn't make it back in till nearly 2000. Brandon's sandals were being rather contrary and not holding his feet in a manner to make them useful. Quite a few raw spots and sores later, he was quite fed up with them.

Last time I sent out an email, it contained a story about a particular Tuesday a couple weeks ago. David Aguilar told us his side of the story last week and we were all in awe of what had transpired. I won't spoil it by telling it again here, but keep a lookout for a two-part story in an upcoming AFM Magazine. If you don't receive Frontiers, you can contact AFM and they'll get you setup. http://www.afmonline.org

Dwayne Harris is here from Gospel Ministries International with a Hughes 269-A helicopter to assist the project. He's been a wonderful help, not just with the whirly-bird, but also with the other projects we have around here. We are going to try and get the HF rig setup here in the near future so he can be in touch with several other missions here on the island in case they need help. I know the folks we bumped into in Puerto Princessa from New Tribes would be thrilled to have an emergency out should they need it. Their projects are located just on the other side of the ridge from us. About 4 days hike, but less then a 10 minute flight.

The helicopter has turned whats normally a 2hr hike into a 10min flight at most. We can't use it too much with the cost and lack of availability of AvGas, but its darn handy when it is used.

Dwayne was held up at Manila International Airport because they were out of AvGas, otherwise he would have been here about a month ago.

We discovered that Wendy had a oven that she wasn't using so we hauled it over and tried it out. Its not mom's convection oven, but it works better then nothing! I tried my hand at bread on Wednesday, and it turned out decent. A little dry, and not quite enough time in the oven. Can't complain really as this is the first time I've tried my hand at making bread. I still miss mom's bread immensely, but this will tide me over till I get home.

The weather is such up here that bread doesn't keep for more then about 3-4 days if you are lucky. So prior to this we had bread for the first week we brought from Puerto, after that we were trying to find something to fill the cracks with. Now we can actually have bread as a food and not just a treat.

Rice is the main staple up here. So far I'm not tired of it. We shall see what happens in the next 8 months.

We have been able to keep a nice stock of bananas around. Right now we are waiting on a large batch to ripen so we can eat them. I do love my bananas.

Last Friday, my radio decided to give up its ghost. Its had a habit of locking up and requiring the removal of the battery to get it functional again, but this time when i did that, it didn't come back up. It acts like it fried, but I don't see any evidence of that inside the case. I'm hoping it will resolve itself, but I somehow doubt that its going too. Seems I have a rather expensive paper weight now. Oh well, its served me well for the last 3-4 years, I just would have liked another 10mo out of it. :-)

I do believe thats enough from me.

Thank you all for your continued thoughts and prayers for this project, everyone here, and myself. Its very much appreciated.

May God bless each and everyone of you as well as your entire families.

Nathan

Kementian News, 10-1-07 Edition

 

Kementian News, 10-01-07 Edition

Howdy,

Its sunday and I've been here for just over two weeks. Well, I say I've been here, I spent the last week down in Brooke's Point so count it how you want.

The last week went by in a blur. Attempting to figure out how life works down in Brooke's, and then trying to understand the language down there. I hadn't even got Palawan down and then trying to throw Tagalog on top only made things worse. I did survive for those of you that were wondering...

Most of my time in Brooke's was occupied running around in the truck chasing stuff down for medical patients, picking up folks from Kementian to take to patients, running errands for Pastor (Kent George) working around the house, cleaning the Hilux, maintenance on the Hilux, etc.

Tuesday David Aguilar had gone out to work on a patient that had fallen and cut his had very badly. David took my radio and it had locked up on him so no one was able to talk to him, nor was he able to hear any of us. He was out of touch for nearly 5hrs. Long story short, the patient needed to get to the hospital as the sutures that David had weren't enough to hold the wound closed. Since he was lacking radio contact with us, he was going to have to hike out, the patient was very week due to blood loss, and catch a tricycle for the 20km trip to the hospital.

I'd taken off on the motorcycle to see if I could find him. After dinking around for 1.5hrs, I was able to find David and the patient on the trail. I was able to use the radio that I'd brought with me to reach Brooke's and have a truck come pick them up. Just about this time the sky started to darken up and look like rain. Now rain on a motorcycle doesn't normally bother me. The thing is the bike I was riding was 125cc little thing with no fairing and no windshield, I didn't have a helmet, I was wearing shorts, t-shirt and flip flops. Not exactly the sort of thing you want to wear when the skys about to let you have it.

Pretty soon I'm doing less then 30km/h trying to see ahead of me to dodge the pot holes. Then the bike decided I needed to switch to reserve on the fuel tank and died. So I flipped the valve and kicked it to restart. Nothing. 10min later, still nothing. I'd checked and re-checked everything to be it was right. It was. So after several prayers and a couple more kicks, she finally lit off. I made it back to the intersection of the National Highway, and two other roads that I don't know the name of, and the bike died again. This time it wasn't fuel but water getting between the spark plug and the wire. So I just pushed it the remaining 1km to the house. By the time I got there, I was wet enough that I would have been dryer had I jumped in a pool.

Talking with David, he said that he'd just about given up on everybody and lost faith that he was going to reach us, and he was honestly worried about the welfare of the patient, just when I showed up on the trail. He said had I showed up an 1.5hr earlier it wouldn't have had the impact that it did.

That 1.5hrs that I spent dinking around trying to find the right spot to look for him was by God's plan. Then the bike dying on me helped forced me to get beyond my mechanical abilities and to trust simply in the Lord and Him getting me home. God also blessed me with a smile when I was most frustrated about the bike. I couldn't help but laugh. Here I am sitting on a dead bike that won't start even though I know its mechanically fine, in the pouring rain, and all I can do is laugh.

They got the patient to the hospital, got his hand sutured up, got a blood smear for david, confiremed he had malaria, and got him home to bed for some rest.

Everything worked out like it was supposed to. Not according to our plan, but according to God's.

God is still working in each of our lives in a very real manner

I pray that each and everyone of you may experience this as well.

Sunday evening, after the wind had been howling all day, the wind ever so kindly took the ridge cap off of our thatch roof. This allowed a hole about 16ft long and 5in wide to run the width of our hut. With more rain in the wind, we hunted down a tarp and managed to convince it to stay on the roof covering that hole.

I'm told that someone is supposed to be coming up sometime to replace our entier roof. The kicker is, nobody knows when exactly they are coming. So for now we will make do with a tarp and hope the rest of the roof stays put!

God bless

Nathan

Kementian News, 9/21/07 Edition

Howdy all,

 

A little longer on the trip

2hr flight from DFW to Minneapolis where I sat for 6hrs

Then a 12hr flight to Tokyo where we sat for 1hr

Then a 8hr flight down to Manilla. We landed there about 11pm Tuesday local

After making it through immigration, claiming our stuff, and clearing customs, we met and headed to the hotel for the night. We finally hit the sack around 1AM. Only to find that the time difference was to much to really get much sleep.

Rising around 6AM we headed back to the airport to catch a plane to Puerto Princess on Palawan. That was a 50min flight.

 

Wednesday we did a bunch of shopping and hit the hay.

Thursday we got up, picked up a few last items and made the 180km drive down to Brooke's Point. That took about 5hrs. To say the least the roads aren't very nice here.

 

Friday morning we made the hike into KMTN in about 2hrs. Not bad for a couple of newbies. Course we weren't carrying the 50kg loads that some of the locals were either.

 

Things are going quite well. Brandon and I are getting used to the food and the culture. We are beginning to learn the langguage, but we still have a long ways to go in that regard.

The people here, both local and expat, are just great folks.

 

Well, I'm out of time, Y'all take care!

Thank you for your continuted thoughts and prayers

God Bless!

Nathan

I am here

I've made it safely all the way into the village of Kamantien (sp?)

 

I'll try and do a full update later, but no time now.

 

Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers!

Nathan

Well, I'm outta here

Not quite yet, though I do have an official itinerary that has me leaving DFW airport a 0604 AM on Monday morning.
I go from DFW to Minneapolis, MN where I meet Brandon for the flight to Tokyo, Japan. Where we will refuel and make the last leg to Manilla. 2.5hrs to Minneapolis, then its 18.5hrs to Manilla. Good thing I have some books!

My visa/passport arrived in my hands today.
The boxes are acquired so now I can begin figuring out how to stick everything in them
Still got a few more items to acquire, but none of them would be detrimental to the trip, would just be nice to have them.


So this thing is finally about to kick off.

Thank you all for your prayers and donations to support me. Please continue to keep myself and the entire project in your prayers.

God bless!
Nathan
seeryn@gmail.com


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Where I've been

States visited by motorcycle


create your own personalized map of the USA

The Long Way Home. Summary

Since meeting in Louisville, KY, we put just shy of 3,000 miles on the bikes. In that time I learned a few things.

Don't plan so much.
Don't expect as many miles per day
Take more pictures
Repeat as often as possible!

The Long Way Home. Tuesday

Miles: 503
States: MS, LA, TX

Getting up and partaking of the “superstart” breakfast (Krispie Kreams and cereal, what else do you need?) we topped of the tanks and headed West towards home.

Stopping only for food, fuel, and butt-breaks, we made it home around 5PM.
After being gone for 6weeks, I was more then ready to be home!

The Long Way Home. Monday

Miles: 393
States: GA, AL, MS

Leaving this morning around 945 AM EST, we made our way to Birmingham, AL for a visit to the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum. For anyone interested in motorcycles and cars, this is a must see.
Just a few of the vehicles they have can be seen in the pics I took located here.

Continuing on down the road, we stopped in Jackson for the night. We’ll get up and finish the trip home tomorrow.