I am supposed to be writing an article for AFM but unfortunately I am not very inspired to write an article; so I thought I would just write you a letter letting you know what is going on here and maybe in the process it will help to prime the pump and I will get inspired in some way.

It is a hot hazy day today. For a couple years now we have gone without a dry season. It seems that the end of one rainy season overlapped the beginning of the next rainy season. But this year we have broken that habit. We truly have been having an honest-to-goodness dry season.

It is nice to have dry trails but down in the lowlands the heat is sometimes stifling. To add to the discomfort in the lowlands, the Toyota air conditioning has given up the ghost.

Our poor Toyota, that we took such pride in for so long, is falling apart before our eyes. It is not the Toyota's fault; it is amazing that it has soldiered on so long driving these horrible roads. Each year the National Highway gets worse and worse.

We had to replace a brand new tire recently because the steel cords had been completely broken inside of it and they then proceeded to make their way out of the tire by what ever route was the easiest. The tire looked like a porcupine with a bad hair day and the tire place said there was no hope.

The clutch is rattling and banging and I am prepared at any moment for it to go the way of all the world.

A couple weeks ago as I drove along at night the cab suddenly began to fill up with acrid smoke. It was a bit difficult to determine where it was all coming from in the dark. But when it became hard to breathe, we had to stop and find the source. It turned out to be one of those new wonderful fuses that is made out of plastic. Funny thing the fuse didn't blow it just melted the plastic away and was on the verge of bursting into flames when I was finally able to grab it with my leatherman and pull the glowing mass of molten plastic out of the smoldering fuse box and avert the chance to burn our vehicle to a crisp. Now there are no dash lights and no tail lights.

The poor truck is indeed in need of a bunch of tender loving care but it just is not coming.

We are so over worked and over stressed ever since the beginning of 2009 that we feel as if we just rush from one major emergency to the next. The number of patients has escalated to incredible proportions and it seems that there are always several people in the hospital in the lowlands. For the last four months I have spent a vast majority of my time in the lowlands just trying to keep track of the patients and make sure that they are taken care of properly.

In that time we have seen at least three babies die. (These were the ones who made it to the hospital; how many never made it that far is anybodies guess.) In January alone, I am guessing, I was with family for about five days.

Currently Leonda is in the lowlands and I am in Kemantian. She keeps saying that she will come back in the next day or two, but there is always another patient arriving.

This last Friday evening, Brian, one of the SM's staying over in Emrang, had to get another sick baby out and to the hospital. Dwayne and Wendy are off in Manila doing something, so the helicopter is not an option. Brian left Emrang at 5:15 pm and darkness falls at about 6:15. He had finally arrived at the Mekegwa at dusk but it was a couple more hours to Tabud. He had no flashlight, his cell phone battery was dead and his radio battery went dead on the way out. So it was an exciting trip out. I think the kid got to the hospital about 9:00 that evening. It looks like he will pull through.

Anyway, I was thinking that if I made a list of all the things that are weighing us down and demanding our attention, that this might turn into a small book. I am not sure that I want to spend my time doing that. So I will just give a brief rundown of what else is happening.

We have bought property in the lowlands for a lowland base of operations. This is something that should have been done about 8 to 10 years ago but, due to many factors beyond our control, we have been prodded and pushed into doing nothing for an awful long time. In the end, if anything was going to happen, we found that it was totally up to us. I cashed out my retirement account and used that money to purchase the needed property.

Currently that is going through the complex path of getting the paper work all squared away and determine the actual boundaries of the property. In the USA this is a rather simple process. In the RPI it is sort of like trying to find the gold at the end of the rainbow. At first you think that everyone is interested in the boundaries being correct and without error. However as time passes it becomes apparent, that the boundaries are in general a couple meters further in the direction that favors the neighbors. Here if you give in and say, OK no problem go ahead and take a couple more meters. You would think the proper response they would give, would be, “ thank you”. Whoops, sorry wrong answer. The response you will hear ,will be, “No, give me more!”. If folks get the feeling that you are a push over and will not stand up for anything.

Well you are going to be surrounded by folks ready to steal everything you own. The big challenge is to stand up for your rights but be diplomatic enough that you don't get your self shot. Now let me tell you that is a challenge. So currently we have one neighbor saying they own the right of way to our property. Another neighbor who very kindly went out after we had the property surveyed and he dug up the concrete corner marker and moved it 3 meters further onto our property. He said he was just putting it back where it was supposed to go. Only problem for him is, that what he did is totally illegal here in the RPI but folks here don't seem to worry a whole lot about what is legal and what is not.

I am glad I bought a large piece of property. By the time it is whittled down to sized by all the greedy lowlanders it will be maybe around 10 hectares which still gives us enough room to operate.

We got a lot of flack about buying a large piece of property but it just happened that the property was right in the area that we needed it. We had the option of buying property in town (where we didn't want it ) for a price of about P600,000 for 1/10^th of a hectare or buy this other property near the hospital for P1,200,000 for 11 hectares. I know it takes a lot of math to figure out which was the best deal but after a lot of head scratching it appeared that P120,000 a hectare was cheaper than P6 million a hectare. Unfortunately some folks just couldn't quite grasp the concept of which was cheaper and that was why we ended up buying the property ourselves.

Anyway, someday maybe we can begin to construct a lowland base of operations and staff it with folks who will take care of all the things we are trying to do now by running in and out of the mountains on a constant basis. Come to think of it, it would be sort of nice to spend my time living in the same house where my family is.

We just started a new church in Malis. It all began with the baptism of 4 new church members there. It is a great little church and I visit it as often as possible when I am in the lowlands.

We have folks at Bingbilang pestering us on a regular basis asking when they can get baptized and start a church there. We really like the idea but currently just don't have anybody to go and get that all started up and running.

We have a new school starting in Anibung, the only problem is that our teacher, Isik, has only finished 3^rd grade and he is not much ahead of his students.

Brian is over in Emrang with a fledgling school and clinic there but now that we have greater exposure to the north it means that we are getting more patients from that area which we don't have the man power to take care of.

The school in Kensuli is going very well with Niksun and Sunday teaching there, but a recent campaign has been started by Binu, a penglimi who is one of the Palawanos who has begun to accept the value system of the lowlands and has a reputation for stealing what ever he can get his hands on. Unfortunately, he has taken it upon himself to do all in his power to spread rumors and intimidate students and try in general to force all the students in Kensuli to leave the school.

This last Sunday, Binu happened to come strolling by and sat down by our porch. Of course all his activities are done behind our back and to our face he tries to act innocent. Well I sat down next to him and told him that I had a story to tell. Palawanos usually like stories so he sat and listened. I told him about an individual who did all they could to help others, he gave them free medicine when they got sick, educated them and in general did all in his power to help. In return this individual did all in his power to discredit them and hurt them in any way possible. I asked Binu what should be done to such a person. His answer was typical Palawano: “Who is the person?”

You see in their minds the punishment should be commensurate with the person not with the crime. If it is a powerful person then you look over the offense when it is a poor person then you throw the book at them. I told him it didn't matter who it was but I said there was someone spreading lies about the school at Kensuli and I would appreciate if he would set the record straight. I asked him what he thought of the schoool at kensuli and he fell all over himself saying how it was a good school. When he was done, I told him to go around and tell everyone that and if he ever found the person who was spreading all the lies that he set that person straight.

In parting I said that if there were any problems at the school he should make sure that people come to us to talk about those problems and not just start a bunch of gossip. Binu seemed a little subdued when he left and I called after him to make sure to stop in and see Sunday and let him know how much he appreciated the school. Whether the little talk will help, I don't know. I hope so.

That is a mere scratching of the surface. There are so many thing and so much unfinished business.

Our new clinic is more than half finished but at the moment we have nobody to help finish it.

The new church has been a pile of lumber for the last four years but we have not had a chance to get started building it. We hope that we can build something before the termites finish off all the lumber.

A new shower house for the school is at the moment a pile of hollow blocks but no time to finish it up. The old shower house has fallen down several times and now is a rickety structure covered with a slimy old tarp with a vast array of holes. Someday maybe we can get that done.

The hydroplant is still operating but is currently on its last legs. We need to redesign it and build a new one that will allow for greater power output that will be needed when the new clinic is operational.

I suppose I could go on but I think that you get the picture. We still are looking for the day to visit the Taut Duram, but that will be far in the future with things as they are at the moment. We also keep getting continual requests to come and visit the Palawanos in the far North near Quezon. A small adventist church has already been established there among the Palawanos but it is struggling and needs help. We keep promising to come but have been unable to follow through. They keep asking us to please, please come and we keep saying some day we will.

Anyway the day is still hot and heavy. A few clouds have crept over and cut down on the heat. However that means that we will have less power to charge our batteries. With no rain the hydro plant is sitting idle. I just got out of the hospital a couple days ago. When I had enough energy, I hiked back into the mountains. It was a very slow trip. I no longer feel sick, I guess I have kicked the malaria, typhoid and respiratory problems that I had; but I still feel very very tired.

It seems that the hotter it gets the less energy I have. I have been doing all the low energy jobs that need to be done. Like sitting with Replic. He needs a little one-on-one time and since we sort of think the same it is nice to just sit and relax without even needing to talk because we are both on the same wave length.

I do all the little things that nobody else can do, wants to do or detests doing. Like fixing faucets that have no water, unplugging water lines. Fixing radios that do not work. Catching up on finances, sending e-mails. Keeping the troops directed and doing the right tasks. Suggesting that people finish jobs rather than stopping at the 82% point dropping all the tools and never coming back for a second look.

I have even implemented a program, where we are recalling all my tools, They are flowing in from Kensuli, Spoon Village, umas, the low lands, behind various nipa huts, buried in the mud. Many of them are broken, rusted, dented, rotted and worthless but I thought it would be sort of nice to know what had become of all my tools. Some of them are even usable but a lot of things are beyond hope. I need to fix the mower but I have no drill that works so I am trying to figure out how to bore a hole through 1/16^th inch sheet metal with only a bit. Any ideas?

I guess we will be leaving manila on April 26 for the USA. I could not get to Manila to buy the tickets so I did the unforgivable thing and asked AFM to buy the tickets. As I feared the prices are astronomical from that end of the line and we are routed; Manila-Guam-Honolulu-Texas-Memphis-Chattanooga. If I had known that was the way that it was going to work out I think I would have asked for a lay over in Amsterdam,London and Bogota. I guess that is what you call the scenic trip.

I don't have a lot of energy to have made up a lot of plans about what I am planning to do. So I will just go along for the ride and enjoy what ever may happen. Sorry, but we will only be there in the USA for only one month. We were hoping on a 5 month furlough but the judge in charge of Jilin's adoption trial has apparently forgotten that the law of the land says he must render a decision within 90 days. We have now passed 150 days with no word. We told him that speed was of the essence, but here where they can throw around their weight with impunity it seems to be one of the perks to take your time and do things when you feel like it. There is nothing that we know that will speed up the process and if we begin to make unhappy noises it is an almost forgone conclusion that the adoption would be denied. So we try to keep our mouths shut and hope for best.

Sometimes it feels like doing things here is like driving a car and suddenly realizing that that the steering wheel, gas peddle and everything else is not connected to anything. Although you sometimes think that you are running the show I t becomes quite evident that in actuality we have very little control. When you start realizing that, you just have to step back and say, “Hey God, it's your baby, I am way over my head on this one,” and then just entrust it to him, since there really is no other option. To go on thinking that I am running the show would be nothing but foolishness.

So that is a brief history of a very few of the things that have been happening here. I am afraid I have not become inspired and I still have an article that needs to be written for AFM. The evening shadows are now lengthening. The Lilia are no longer screeching at the top of their lungs and the temperature is rather pleasant. Jilin and Bubit are out back pounding rice. I have paid all the workers that came to work today and they have left for home loaded down with groceries so that they will have more than Kumbahang to eat this evening.

Some of the umas dut depeg are beginning to green with the first new rice. The clouds have obscured the mountains beyond the Mekegwa and all is most pleasant. I guess the only thing that would make it all complete would be to have the rest of the family here. I mean all the kids. Not just Bubit and Jilin but all the kids that are almost half a world away. That would indeed be very very nice.

Ma keeps saying that she will be coming into the mountains any day. We are praying that maybe by the end of the week. Miss you all very much.

Love to all, P A