I am convinced the rooster is the national alarm clock. Funny thing is, I will miss their voices when I am gone from here. I had banana bread, chorizo, rice and fresh young coconut for breakfast this morning. YUM! Oh and Yum is the only word that Tyler Seth and I share between us. lol He and I spent some time this morning looking at videos and pictures on my surface. I showed him my Moki kitty and he asked to see pictures of the pay loader. Any heavy machine is called a pay loader!!! Tonight I will have adobo for dinner… I already miss my family so much… Do you know what it is like to have your needs anticipated?? Its incredible!
For lunch today we had pork adobo, gaway, sweet potatoes, fresh ripe mango, rice, veggies, rice cake and banana bread… and yet I still think I lost some weight! I took some good sound recordings today of "life" at the Valdenor house. Its always busy here. The WHO (World Health Organization) is here again doing another seminar and it has been raining off and on. I love the rain here! Deluge and then sun… and some cool breezes for a few hours… Mosquitos are not as bad today which is a welcome relief. I hope by sunset the rain will go away - I would like to take pictures of the sunset on the beach…
My very full suitcase!!!
A temporary dock :-)
Taking some black sand home with me :-)
Mommie Anita and I
Poppa Tony, Mommie Anita, Joy (front), Ginalyn(back), Lorna, Mitzi and Tyler Seth
I am the ghost in the back LOL
Me, Poppa Tony and Mommie Anita
Mitzi, Me and Tyler Seth
Final sunset :-)
My beautiful sister :-)
So beautiful
I cannot get over how the water reflects the sky :-)
One of their farm buildings. He says he wants to make concrete blocks here to sell
Row houses - shelters for some survivors of Yolanda
Their water tank
My going away FEAST!!!! yum….
Dinner accomplished!!
Anton, my brother from the Philipines
My firefly tree :-)
The parents of Elma Gacho Greenwood - a generous woman who is assisting in the recovery.
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9:46 pm here - 6:46 am in Seattle.
This is my last night in Balangiga. How do I put it into words? They have me a small going away present - a house - it has been in there family for a very long time. It shows a bunch of people moving the house. Anton says in the old days if your house needed to be moved, your friends, relatives and neighbors would come move it for you. Its perfect!! And it sums up this entire trip. They also held a going away party for me!!! Beautiful….
When I came to the Philippines I had high hopes of talking Poppa Tony into making a house for me. But with the typhoon damage there is no time for art making. Little did I know I would leave with a house, not of his making, but from his heart. This little house carries with it the sense of community that I treasured so much while I visited with my family.
We went to the beach at sunset and walked down to the mangrove, took pictures… walked… tried not to cry. This trip is so emotional - so many years - memories - the background of my life. It has shaped who I am through all of it. Tonight I looked up at the stars. They twinkled back at me and one solo firefly said hello… and goodbye… I know now that my life means something - more than ever! I do not know what life means back home. The quote I love about going back keeps ringing true…
“Because in a sense, it’s the coming back, the return which gives meaning to the going forth. We really don’t know where we’ve been until we’ve come back to where we were. Only, where we were may not be as it was because of who we’ve become. Which is, after all, why we left.” -Northern Exposure
Who will I become? Who am I now? The Te of Piglet was a perfect book to bring with me… the way of the very small animal. There is so much that I CAN do!!! I will begin with an art auction and send money here to help the Valdenor family… who in turn, help the community… Where will it go? Anything is possible!! My six impossible things?
1. I am a world traveler
2. My art has meaning
3. My dreams come true
4. My animations touch lives
5. I will help rebuild here
6. Everything is possible
Like the new house I have been gifted, I will help move the rubble here and assist in the repairing.
My dreams, come true…
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