Learning

1.       I instinctively stick my hand into the shower to see if it has warmed up yet. Of course it hasn’t. It take a breath and step under the stream of water, letting the spray wash over me. Quickly grabbing at the soap, I rub the bar over the goose bumps on my arms and legs. You’d think in a jungle you wouldn’t need warm water, but I’ve found cold water does the same thing to me here as it does in the States: goose bumps and very fast shower!

The weeks have ticked by and as we passed the one month mark, Shama and I discussed hopes and plans for the next eight months. We had the opportunity to hike to Emrang one weekend and stay overnight. It’s a beautiful place and I can’t wait to be able to move there (though I’ll miss the other missionaries we’ve bonded with!). We are waiting on our house to be finished before we can move. At the rate its going it might be a while, but we aren’t stressing: it’s in God’s hands and we’ve still got quite a bit of language to learn!

I’ve seen four snakes since I’ve been here. That is four too many for me! Two of them we killed, but the other two were on the trail and so I just watched them slither by. Two were definitely poisonous, I don’t know about the others.

I’ve been practicing doing assessments in the clinic with a cheat sheet to read questions from. The Palawano are extremely patient with me as I stumble through the questions! Most of the time I can understand their responses enough so I know what question to read next J.

Though we get plenty of hiking in (there is nowhere here that is flat: even their reference to where they are going centers around “dut diya” (up trail) and “dut napan” (down trail). I have been wishing I could don a pair of tennis shoes and go for a run down a long road. Sadly, their isn’t very likely to happen for several reasons: 1) no road, 2) we wear only skirts and the thought of flapping along in one isn’t that great, 3) people would think we are crazy to expend that amount of energy for no apparent reason.

Each morning, we awake to the sound of roosters. They continue to serenade me as I have worship and we get ready for the day. In the evening, a multitude of bugs set up full symphonic orchestra and sing us to sleep. The sounds of cars, motors, or airplanes are just a memory. A shout is about the loudest thing around.

While the shower is still cold, the roosters wake me up at 4am, and the trail is always up hill, I feel very blessed to be among the Palawano people. God has many lessons for me here and I pray that in some small way I may be a blessing to those I come in contact with.