Well I went with 6 days notice to the tribes!!
April 1st – 16th 2006.
First of all, thank you to everyone that prayed and thought of me and my family back in Manila.
I left on April 1st at 10pm with a night bus from Manila to Tabuk(in the province of Kalinga). During the night we stopped occasionally for a break. At one point we stopped for an hour because we had come across another bus that had broken down. Our driver decided to help the other bus. He even took parts from our bus to fix the other without success. We ended up taking most of the stranded passengers onto our already overloaded bus. I didn’t sleep much that night mainly because I could not put my seat back into sleeping position because someone was right behind my seat. After 11 hours, 9 am, we arrived on Jan 2nd in Tabuk. It was great seeing all the people again from the medical team that I had trained with in Boise.
Three people had planned to stay overnight in one of the resettlement villages, so I decided to join them. Later in the afternoon we left by jeepney to the village of Pakak. It was just a 15 minute hike from the main road. This town just had electricity installed last month. Before electricity, the village would be at rest by 9pm but now there is even tv! In the evening we saw a large group kids and adults watching a cheesy movie. On the way to Pakak we had picked up “fresh” chicken to give to the pastor there. So, when we walked into Pakak we went straight to his house. We were greeted by him, his wife and the elders from the village. I experienced my first Kalinga coffee with an abundance of sugar that was already added. In the evening we ate at the pastor’s house and heard many stories about life in the past and present. Many years ago he, his family and the Bugnay village they lived in often sacrificed animals to evil spirits, and they were under spiritual oppression. This was done when someone was sick, as they believed that the spirits were upset with them and this was to satisfy the spirits. They lived in constant fear. His wife was demon possessed and often unconscious. In 1987 there was a big earthquake in the Bugnay, so at that time they birthed the new village of Pakak, a But But resettlement village down in the valley. Many also left Bugnay because of persecution and hunger.
Two of the medics had planned to do a dental outreach the next day. One pulled teeth and the other cleaned. I assisted a little just handing them whatever they needed. I observed a dental outreach for the first time.
Later in the day another medic and I left for the But But village named Ileb. We met the rest of the team in Ileb. [Around 20, this included our Filipino director and 5 other interpreters]. The purpose here was a medic outreach focused on ages 5 and under. The WHO (World Health Organization) came up with an international program called IMCI, this is a way to medically classify the child and provide appropriate teaching for the mother or caretaker of the child. This system is very helpful and makes sure that you don’t miss the most obvious and gives guidelines for use of medicines and that we refer the patient to other health authorities where possible and necessary. All the kids were weighed, checked, treated and prayed for and hopefully set on the road to good health!
On April 5th we left for the 9 days of hiking to tribes and for some time of relaxation.
The plan had changed a little as it was not safe going into one of the villages. Apparently someone had killed a pig that was not theirs; they had been seriously fighting over this including some stabbing with a knife.
The first village was Sumadel, area Tinglayan, province of Kalinga. We drove on top of a jeepney for a few hours and then another one for a while to the start of the trail. Just the drive was quite an experience with the fresh Kalinga air [contrary to Manila] and really steep scary drops on this narrow road. We were greeted by a large group of locals to help us carry all the medical supplies and food items. The hike on these trails between magnificent rice fields, steep cliffs, mountains and scorching sun, was about 2 hours into the village. We were welcomed with open arms as special guests. In this town there is a small nursery started by the Anglican Church where they grow small pine trees and coffee to plant into the hillsides. Wherever we went, people wanted to feed us and drink coffee together. Needless to say, we often ate several meals in a row. It would have been an offense to these wonderful people had we said no.
Early the next morning we set up our clinic to start at 8am. We had several stations; check-in where BP and pulse is taken and their chief complaints recorded, weighing station, 2 ICMI, wound treatment, and 2 stations for older people [including one with a Filipino doctor named Francis, who recently became a believer. He came along with us to the first village] and dental station. We treated about 200 people and prayed with each one. There were many with TB and pneumonia, ear problems, arthritis, ulcers, UTI etc…It was such a joy to be able to help these people and pray with them and to learn more about how to treat and diagnose. During the day we were continually fed with rice in many forms: regular rice, red rice, sticky rice, and rice soup. I couldn’t stuff it all and got a little sick of rice!! At the end of the day enjoyed another meal, this time with cabbage, green beans, a little pork and ooh, of course rice.
Later in the evening, the community came all out as they had organized a big, long cultural fest for us. There were speeches and songs of thankfulness, dances with playing gongs and flute and other songs. We were also pulled in to dance and play the gongs, it was so much fun. They also did a special dance with a warrior and a man of peace with a bible. At the end the bible was put down in the middle and the spear put on top, there was peace now. God’s word and a relationship with Christ brought peace to their village. It was very encouraging to see and hear this. Two years ago they were fighting the village next to them over land use and borders. It was really funny that the captain kept telling us: “Our village is safe. There are no terrorists here” Of course their village was the safest.
We also sang a worship song and one person gave a testimony, played violin and guitar. Toward the end of the evening a person stood up and told us that we could not go yet because not everyone was helped. ( We still had several villages to visit and needed medicine for them as well) A good thing was that the captain was on our side. It made us all feel a little uncomfortable and we all looked down to the ground. Before we started clinic we were clear about the maximum amount of people we could help due to our med supplies and also our schedule as we had to continue hiking to the next village. In Sumadel I also had opportunity to share my testimony and faith with 4 people from a cult (Iglesia di Cristo). They don’t believe Jesus is God and need to do all these deeds in their life to have some kind of assurance of salvation. We were able to talk for 3 hours.
I also had the opportunity to pray for a miracle in Jesus name for the couple who have been unable to bear children for 6 years.
Later the following day, we left to the village of Danaoa. We were met in Sumadel by people from Danaoa to help us carry the supplies.
This was by far the most strenuous hike, about 6 hours through rice terraces and mountains. Welcomed again with open arms, were well fed, food and coffee non-stop. The next day at our outreach saw 128 people and we were done at 5.30pm. That evening we had supper at the Baptist pastor’s house. It was nice because they served us sweet potato as appetizer, I took it as the meal. For supper was rice and beans. Before the meal we had some mountain tea…very tasty. After supper we were really tired and ready to go to bed. It was around 9pm by now when we found out that they had slaughtered 2 pigs for us. Well not only for us, actually the whole community came out and put on a party!
It started with the pastor reading some scripture and then several people from our team including myself shared our testimony. At around 10pm the music started, with gongs and dance. Also here just like in Sumadel they made us play the gongs and dance, more for their amusing entertainment seeing these North Americans make fun of themselves. It was great!! By the way the gongs are held by a string and attached to it is either some kind of stick or in some cases a human jaw bone. (See the picture on shutterfly.) We were reassured that this one was not of a victim from the past but that of a family member. Later in the evening they randomly picked out a girl and a boy to come up and sing together to try to match make. So, almost all our team had a turn. Some a little embarrassing, especially when they got sung to like it was the love of their life. I’m glad I got out of it; actually I was in hiding during that! One thing that was really good for me is that I had a picture of my family. Wherever we went almost the first question would be, are you available? Then I would pull out my card and play it.
We didn’t eat until 1.30am on Sunday morning. The whole town was still active, including kids. They had brought out planks to put all the food onto, served in rows of bowls. It was impressive. On Sunday went to the Baptist church at 8.oo am with our whole team… eyes half open. The pastor was wide awake, the few hours of sleep did not seem to bother him. We sang a song with the team as we were asked to. After lunch continued medic work and saw another 50 people. That evening we had family night and had opportunity to pray for each other. The next morning woke up at around 5.30am as the roosters is the village did their job. Had a good breakfast and took of at around 9.30am of to the next village Tulgaoa.
Here also we were met with helpers to carry the supplies. We hiked for about one hour to these beautiful waterfalls and hot springs on the way to Tulgaoa. We spent some time there, but the helpers continued on to the village. As we found out around lunch time, they had also taken our lunch food! We stayed at the house of the police. It also happened to be on the evening of a peace pact meeting. There was a lot of drinking going on. We did some intercessory prayer for this just to make sure peace would remain and that the meeting would be productive. They also slaughtered a pig for us and for those involved with the meeting.
We did not do medic outreach because they had never received any of the communication. This was disappointing but hey next time. It seems like plans here in the Philippines usually change a few times. The next day we hiked for 20 minutes to get to the road up the hill where we took a jeepney ride.
From Tulgaoa, Tinglayan, Bontoc we traveled for about 6 hours to destination Sagada.
This drive was probably the most dangerous with the rough road and steep cliffs. When we first got on we soon had to get off again because the jeepney could not get up the hill. Later it started to rain very heavily so as we sat on top of the jeepney the driver gave us a tarp to hold overtop of the packs and ourselves. When we went through Bontoc it was a really strange feeling to enter a bigger city with food in abundance. We ate lunch there and ate at a table (had not eaten at one) for a while. Also we used cutlery instead of eating with our hands.
We arrived in Sagada at around 5pm. This was the place to recharge and get ready for more tribal work. Not so for me because my time was up and had to get back to Manila. The time here was very relaxing. We saw two waterfalls, caves going down 100 meters, and hanging coffins ( on the side of a cliff). According to a local person 2% of the people here still hang the coffins. To them it has some spiritual significance. Also still 10 years ago dead people would be tied onto a chair in upright position and talked to like they were still alive. They would also hold a cup to put money into. We saw some pictures of this, a little too freaky for my liking. Other pictures we saw in the museum in Bontoc were of the former headhunters, the head or rest of the body of their captives. This was done when they were fighting but also for fun as a game.
On Maundy Thursday, three of us went to the local Episcopal church for the evening service. Before we left I had to go to the bathroom. When I was going, a cockroach showed up and ran his circles on the toilet seat. Before I knew it he actually flew right on me, yes on me!. I had to keep my business short and get rid of this creature. I shook out my pants to make sure it would not stay behind. I did not see it again…..until??? …about ½ an hour later I sit there, straight and quiet in this church. All of the sudden I feel this crawling in my pants, oh boy did I start sweating. I am trying to hit this thing to kill it and keep quiet at the same time. I keep trying and then I see this wet spot showing right through my pants. So, I thought I had it but a few minutes later there he goes again. My friend Joshua sitting beside me is just beside himself trying not to laugh out loud in this sacred place. The girl from our team sitting on my other side was probably wondering what is going on with me hitting myself on my upper leg. I quickly explained to her what I was in battle with. I am ready to walk out but this is not really feeling ok to do so in this place. If this was “The Grove” our home church I would have been running out of there! Anyways I stood up and shook out my pants and there it fell out. I squished it quickly to its final resting place. This is one of those things I will never ever forget!
I took a jeepney back to Bontoc to catch the night bus back to Manila. Here the rest of the team continued for two more weeks of outreaches in the Bugnay.
I arrived at 2am on Easter Sunday, back with my family. What an adventure!
Thanks again for praying me through this adventure.
God was faithful!
Family Ice Cream
