Beach along Subic Bay
We drove up to Olongapo on Friday, March 14th. It took us just over three hours to get there. We had a very good road for most of the way. It was nice to drive through some open country and it was nice to drive on a 4 lane road for most of the way. There are not a lot of 4 lane roads in the Philippines. The Olongapo-Subic area is where the U.S. navy base was once located and the area looks more modern than most of the country. There are nicer homes there and fewer slum areas than we see anywhere else. We stayed in a fairly nice hotel just off of the highway in Subic Bay. We got there a little after noon because we wanted to look around some. We drove along the shore and got out and took some pictures. It is a pretty nice area although it is on a large bay so you do not see any waves coming into shore.
The beach close to our hotel
We found the nicest hotel listed on the internet and decided to go there to see it and have lunch. It was called the Lighthouse Inn. We decided to walk around the property first and look at the beach area. We walked out to their dock before a security guard came out and told us we would have to leave and that we could only enter through the main doors. He said that it was private property and that the hotel only wanted guests in there and they wanted to keep others out. He showed us the neighboring beach area that wasn't so nice and explained something about not wanting the people from over there to get on the nice property. This is the Philippines and there is a very big difference between those who have and the rest. We went into the hotel and it was very nice even by American standards. We sat down for lunch and the people next to us started asking us questions. It turned out that they worked for the Hotel. One was in the Marketing Department and one was the manager of the restaurant. We told them where we were from and what we were doing there. They were very nice and talked to us for quite a while. They were interested in the PEF program and shared some opinions about the Filipinos and what they needed. They suggested something for lunch and we ordered. The manager came back and talked to us some more during lunch and then when we asked for the check we found that he had given us a 10% discount.
Carabao pulling a cart
We left at about 6:30 am to drive up to Iba. We were not sure exactly how long it would take and we needed to be there for a 9:00 am meeting. The weather was very nice and we could see very well during the morning hours. We saw mountains, rivers, the ocean and lots of Mango trees on our way. The traffic was light so Dale was actually able to look around some. We saw a lot of carabao along the road and several of them pulling carts down the road. We finally got a picture of a carabao pulling one of the carts. We also saw mango trees everywhere and signs advertising a mango festival that had just been held. When we got to the Iba chapel a sister told us that they have the best sweetest mangos in the Philippines there.
Green mangos
We had a little trouble finding the chapel in Iba, but when we did the gate was still locked although we only had to wait for a few minutes to get in. We had plenty of time as we had arrived about 45 minutes early. The District President was there and helped us set up for our meeting. We received a text from Sister Abanggan who was in charge of the training telling us that she would be late and to start without her. We were not sure exactly what to do, so we pulled up a small presentation on Self Reliance Services and started with that. The plan had been that she would take the first 30 minutes and then we would divide into two groups and we would train one group on how to teach the Planning For Success Workshop and Sister Abanggan would train the Self Reliance Committee. When she arrived Dale asked her if she wanted some time and she told him to just go ahead and keep everyone together for our Training. Things never go as planned here but we were not too worried. We presented all of our training and they seemed very interested. We had about 30-40 members there and they have a lot of young single adults and others who could benefit from this. We finished and starting wrapping up. The District President had left a little early and went to the nearby Jollibees to purchase lunch for everyone, including us. We were surprised and pleased by this because we did not have much time to spare before we needed to leave to make the next meeting in Olongapo.
Chapel in Iba
On our way back to Olongapo we saw rice being dried right on the side of the highway. We have seen this happening in many places. It must be the best place they have to dry it.
We stopped at the Olongapo Mission Office and visited with the office couple for a few minutes on our way back to Olongapo. The office, Mission Home, and church building were all together in one fenced in area.
 |
| Olongapo Mission Office |
.jpg) |
| Olongapo Mission Home |
We drove back down to Olongapo, arriving at the chapel around 1:15. The training was to start at 2:00. We met with the ERC service missionaries and they helped us set up for the meeting. They already had the chairs and a table set up in the cultural hall. We met the district president who was just recently called. He was very helpful and explained how he was hoping to reactivate people using the new PEF loan program. He was very positive and excited about everything. We did the training for about 50 people there. Some of them were young people who wanted to know more about the PEF loan program. We handed out materials to those who would be teaching the Planning for Success workshop and also gave materials to the Branch Presidents as well. The district president helped with answering questions in Tagalog at the end of the training. The people here are very excited about the new program and we think we will see many more applicants from this area.
 |
| Dale training |
 |
| Anna training
The drive back to Manila wasn't bad and we got back to our apartment at about 7:30 pm. We had stopped for 20 minutes at a Service Center so the total drive was only about 2 1/2 hours but we were glad to be back.
A statue in a roundabout in Olongapo |
No comments:
Post a Comment