Bagyo 101 (Storm 101)

Kamusta y'all!
 So it sounds like I've pretty much had two of the most exciting weeks you can have on a mission. What with last week's surprise mission conference and this week's super typhoon. Because of the typhoon, we weren't able to work as much as we wanted to. We had a couple days almost completely dedicated to preparing for the storm, and then we spent all Saturday inside. You might think that because we weren't allowed to leave our house that we wouldn't get any missionary work done on Saturday. You would be... almost right, but you would be wrong! Because we had a baptism on Saturday! Sister Tampus and I weren't able to be there, but Sister Karene was baptized, and we got to be there for her confirmation on Sunday. It's kinda crazy that I wasn't at the first baptism of my mission, but a little wind and rain isn't going to stop the work of the Lord.

   The actual typhoon didn't affect us too badly. We got some pretty heavy wind and rain, but it wasn't much worse than other storms I've experienced. Our power was out almost all day Saturday, so we suffered through the heat, but it really wasn't that bad. We were mostly just kinda bored. But we are grateful that our area wasn't affected too badly. A bunch of trees came down, and some homes in our area were pretty damaged. Other parts of our mission experienced much stronger winds and some extreme damage. We're looking forward for this week settling down a bit so we can spend more time working!

  We do walk a lot, but we use public transportation too. Whenever we leave Diffun we ride in vans or “jeeps,” where they pretty much try to squeeze in as many people as possible. It’s fun... and crazy. But we ride tricys(sp?) pretty much everywhere. Sometimes it’s hard to find one, but some days we just go outside and clap our hands and one comes driving down the street. Tricys are pretty much just motorcycles with a one-wheeled cart attached to them. They’re actually pretty fun to ride in, and the drivers go so fast! I would never want to drive here because the drivers are all crazy, but for the most part I trust them to get us where we’re going in one piece. 

   We have a washing machine, but isn’t as high-tech as the ones they have in the US. We spend the first few hours every Monday morning doing laundry. Basically we fill a tub with water and soap, and the machine swirls it around. Then we empty out the soapy water and do it again with just water. Then we put it in the “spinner” which just spins the clothes around really fast to dry them. But they’re usually not completely dry so then we hang them up. But I’m grateful to have the machine, because laundry would take so much longer without it! 

   Overall, life is good. Crazy, hard, but also good. I’ve been starting to understand Tagalog more, especially in lessons. I still don’t understand most of what people are saying, but I can usually get the gist of it. Unless they’re speaking Ilokano… then I don’t get any of it. But most of the people speak Taglish so it’s all good. I’m getting to know more people here, and I’m excited to keep learning.

    Ingat po!

       Sister Harrison

ps. The computer is having problems and won't send any pictures, I'll send them next week!