***The following two blog posts are delayed and were written 3 weeks ago. I returned home the 18th of July.
Also, a few additional pictures I didn’t get to post…
This is Christopher, aka Tupe.
Carlo and me at the Turtle Farm back in June.
Just swinging around with Decery, and Rose Vhill eating her snack.
As my trip comes to a close, I sadly sit here and write my last blog post in disbelief. However, a closing blog post can never adequately capture all of the expressions I wish to portray. I will never forget the Bethany House and all of the beautiful people here. The children have left a mark on my heart and I will never forget them. I am so graciously thankful for the Sisters opening up their home to me, and constantly making me feel a part of the Bethany family. These past 6 weeks at the orphanage are indescribable and will stay with me forever. This experience was filled with emotions. When I first arrived, I was scared. I arrived all alone to live with strangers not knowing a word of Tagalog. Now, as I prepare to leave I feel as if I am leaving family behind. This trip has undoubtedly been challenging, transformative, but most importantly rewarding. Spending the past six weeks with the children of Bethany was a privilege.
I’ll never forget those sunny, carefree afternoons outside playing with the children. I’ll never forget the joy on Paolo’s face when he would tell me about his good grades in school after I helped him study. I’ll never forget the sight of a mass of children running towards me with their arms wide open after they got home from school. I’ll never forget Phillip’s little head popping up in his crib when he heard my voice enter the nursery.
Phillip and me.
Saying good bye to the children was a very difficult farewell. I have a huge pile of letters and drawings from the kids to keep as a remembrance. The night before, the children handed me their letters one by one and then hugged and kissed me good bye. From then on up until my departure the next morning, the waterworks didn’t stop. It made me deeply saddened to see them all cry. In the morning, Sr. Analyn told me to sit on this bench outside and I see the boys and girls picking flowers. Then they form two lines, and one by one they give me their flower and a hug and kiss while every single child was singing “Let It Go” from Frozen. It was the cutest thing and it brought tears to my eyes! As I wrap this sappy blog post up, I want to send my endless thank yous to the Fr. Philip A. Smith Fellowship for making this transforming experience possible. I am so humbled by all of the love and support I received from my family and friends. Thank you to each and every one of you! Until next time, Bethany House Sto. Nino Orphanage! Love you all!
The last group picture before I left for the airport.
Arriving at JFK, I made it home. New York City and Jersey City from the sky.
I’m back! I apologize for the hiatus in blog posts, it has certainly been a busy week. Last Monday, a Sister within the congregation (Dominican Sisters of St. Joseph) had passed away. Sr. Tes, whom I visited a few weeks back, was battling ovarian cancer. Since Bethany has a chapel and is in a central location to all of the other Sisters and family, they decided to have the funeral rites here at the orphanage. Everything started immediately on Monday and there were tons of people constantly coming in and out to pay their respects. The funeral mass and burial was held on Thursday. Until then, it was a busy few days for the Sisters and they were exhausted at the end of the week. It was also tiring for everybody else and the children. We had to stay out of the way and the kids remained inside for those days. However, there was a bright side to this week! A new preschooler was welcomed to the orphanage. His nick name is Rocky and he is 2 years old. He is so adorable and seems very happy here.
On Tuesday, we made a trip to Baguio City!!! It was truly an amazing day with insanely beautiful sites to see. Baguio City is called the Summer Capitol of the Philippines because of its “cool” weather. I put cool in parenthesis because I was sweating the entire time per usual, but apparently it is the coolest in the months of December/January and we were there during its hottest time. We left about 5:30 am and arrived around 10:30 am with a few pit stops. Originally it was just going to be me and the Sisters going on an outing, but Sr. Victoria had the idea to take 5 older children with us to reward them for being responsible and respectful. So, we took Paolo, Carol, Mai, Leslie, and Baby!
After about four hours in the van, we reached an entrance to humongous mountains and began our one hour climb on zigzag roads to the top! I was fascinated with looking out the window, it was so beautiful I thought that was what we came to see! I’ve never seen anything like it, my poor pictures do not do its justice. We would be driving alongside mini water falls and simultaneously see huge water falls in the distance. The mountains were covered with palm trees, banana trees, pine trees; everything was so tropical! After a while, we started to see colorful houses built into the side of the mountains. I couldn’t stop wondering how these people get to their homes. There were about eleven ‘camps’ where the countryside would stop and there would be a very small village with canteens to stop and buy food at. Eventually, we finished our climb and came to an entire city that was built on top of these enormous mountains. We made it to Baguio City!
A selfie once we made it to the top! Almost there!
Baguio City was literally a city full of ups and downs, swerves and curves. I don’t think I saw one straight road. We first went to the famous Strawberry Farms and got delicious strawberry ice cream and walked around the shops. After, we visited Mother Mary’s Grotto at the top of this one mountain. We climbed 100 steps to place a rose at Mary’s feet. After, we went to Burnham Park where we had a picnic for lunch and then the six of us (five older children and I) went row boating on the large pond! It was so much fun and the kids had a blast. We then made our way to Mine’s View Park with a few stops beforehand for photo ops. Mine’s View Park was basically a cute little village with many tourist shops and food vendors. The main attraction was an observation deck to see the vast mountainous view in the distance. Our last stop was the Ube Jam Factory! Afterwards, we started to head home because of the typhoon that was coming and stopped at KFC for dinner. All in all, it was a wonderful time with great people, and an awesome way to close my stay.
Below, is a picture of the strawberry farms.
Oh yeah! I witnessed a Grade 3 typhoon in the Philippines, Typhoon Glenda. The kids had no school on Tuesday, Wednesday and probably will not have school for the rest of the week. Thank God, nothing major happened here at the orphanage, just a few snapped trees and a couple uprooted ones. The power has gone out and as I write this it has been out for two days now. These past few days I have been showered with remembrance gifts by all of the people here. It truly makes me sad to go. I was even given gifts by two people I’ve only seen twice during my stay! The Sisters also keep giving me so many Pasalubongs (Filipino foods) to bring home to my family, I’m afraid I can’t fit them all in the my suitcase!
Within the past week, two new babies came to the orphanage! JR (Jose Ramone) is 6 months old and has spent the beginning of his life in the hospital, and Gabriel is only 2 weeks old. He will need to go to the hospital to get surgery for cleft lip and palate. Speaking of hospitals, baby Maracar had to be admitted to last Thursday because she has pneumonia. Hopefully, she will be back by tomorrow.
This group photo was taken the last day before Ericko, Arturo, and Melvin left.
This is Carlo. His tummy is so big, I’m convinced it makes him fall over sometimes. He loves to cuddle, too!
On Monday I witnessed one of the best things, an adoption! The Barnes family traveled from Missouri to take home Arturo, Ericko, and Melvin! The whole morning we were anxiously awaiting their arrival. I was getting so excited for them as I watched them pack their belongings and listen to music while waiting for their family to get to Bethany. Their mom, dad, and brother Gerard came for the trip. Gerard is 13 years old and was adopted from the Philippines as well! He was such a cutie, and had a smile on his face the whole time. I learned that the Barnes family has 9 children in total now! They already had 4 adopted children from the Philippines.
The boys were quiet at first, as I cannot imagine what was going through their heads. It was a very overwhelming day for everyone! Their mom and dad were so loving, and they knew all of the right things to say. The twins understand some English, and Melvin just kept smiling. After their visit at Bethany, I accompanied them to visit the boys’ schools to say goodbye to their classmates. Then, they were on their way with their new family. They were going out to eat then going swimming for the rest of the day! They will be in the Philippines visiting for the remainder of the week before they return back to the US. I overheard the mom saying she brought 3 music players for them so they can listen to music on the plane! The boys loved listening to music on the CD player, singing, and playing the guitar. After I first met Mrs. Barnes, our conversation went like this, “Are you adopted from Korea!? Yes! South Korea!? Yes! Through Holt International Agency!? Yes! So you’re a Holt International adoptee?! Yes!” She excitedly explained that one of her sons was adopted through Holt International. When we were saying goodbye in the school parking lot, she gave me a great big hug and said, “I will hug you for your mom because I am sure she misses you a lot.”
The other day, a few members of the Filipino Army came to drop off umbrellas for the girls and raincoats for the boys! Here is Gina, Decere, and Rose Vihll showing off their new umbrellas.
Owen trying to figure out his new raincoat!
JM on his second day of preschool!!!
I’m back again to give an update of what’s been going on in the past week!
In the past two days, I had many new experiences! On Friday, I rode a tricycle for the very first time! One of the security guards owns one to make some extra money. He rode it to work, and took Abigail (the nurse) and me to the village of Tabe to get some fish balls! The village of Tabe was very quiet and cute. There was a basketball hoop where teenagers were playing a pick up game. It was forested and low key, the houses were very tiny and made out of concrete. There were a couple of food stands here and there, people walking down the dirt street. We bought the fish balls at one of the stands. A fish ball is basically a small piece of fish that’s covered in some sort of dough and then you dip them into sweet and sour sauces. I really enjoyed them!
Saturday was a big day! We had visitors come. I learned that visitors come often because many people want to bring the children meals. These visitors were basically a large extended family. There was a family within the extended family that lives in Texas and came to visit the Philippines. They made it a tradition to visit a Filipino orphanage every year that they visit. They were so nice and thoughtful, and it felt so good to speak to people from the US in English! I talked to them for a very long time, and at the end they were all asking me for my Facebook information! They played games and danced with the kids and then ate lunch. Lunch was Jollibee! It is the most popular fast food chain in the Philippines. My first Jollibee experience: a wrapped ball of rice, a beef patty, and some brown gravy.
Later in the day, Sr. Ellen had a meeting in Manila so Sr. Analyn said why not show Emily some of Manila and go to the mall! Wow, it’s very hard for me to put my experience into words. First off, on the way to Manila I saw a huge open truck load of live jam packed pigs on the bypass, aka highway! That was a site I don’t think I ever saw. Manila was not how I expected it to be like. However, it was very, very crowded and a lot was going on. A midst the craziness of all the people, the way of life seemed so simple. I saw a lot of poverty, but everyone seemed content. I saw a group of young boys playing basketball down an alleyway, a crowd of people watching a TV in a bar that went out into the street, open garages with men playing billiards, countless street vendors, stands, shops, little markets, etc. etc. There seemed to be a lot of nook and crannies inside the side streets. The streets were bumpy, people walking wherever they wanted to, and many tricycles and jeeps transporting people. Then, in the middle of this all, there was a great big mall. The mall was insanely crowded. I had such an awesome time just walking around the mall, helping Sr. Analyn shop, and observing my surroundings.
I also came to realize two things in the last two days. One, rosary time with the children was at first my least favorite time of day. The chapel is so hot, the back of the pews are at right angles, and for the younger kids it gets kind of tedious for them….. However, this time grew to be my favorite time of day. Besides meals, it’s a time when the boys and girls come together and we’re all in one place at the same time. Rosary usually occurs at 5:00 pm when every one is home from school, and gives each a chance to wind down, reflect, and enjoy the evening with one another. The children are well behaved (for the most part) and after we finish they all come running over to me to bless me and give me a hug! In the Philippines, we bless those who are older than us as a greeting or farewell for a sign of respect. To bless someone, you take their hand in your palm and place it on your own forehead and say “bless”, The second thing, I realized how much babies change in just two weeks. When I first came, Philip and Dorothy loved their cribs, ages 11 months and 1 year. Now, they are both always on the loose trying to stand and walk on their own!
To wrap things up, a special shoutout to my Daddy, Happy Father’s Day and to all of the other dads out there! I wish I could be with you today.
My Journey in the Philippines 