A storm for every season…
The most powerful storm in a decade, in terms of wind speed, just passed through Northern Luzon, very far from us here in Palawan, causing a lot of damage. The season right now in the Philippines is tag-bagyo, which means typhoon season. Here is an interesting little word study. In the USA, our word for typhoon is hurricane. So when we arrived in the Philippines we had to start getting used to the word typhoon. Then as we started learning Tagalog, we found out that the word for typhoon in Tagalog was bagyo. As we got a little deeper in the language, we found out that the word bagyo doesn’t exactly mean the same as typhoon, because some people in Manila would call it a bagyo whenever there was any kind of heavy storm, whether or not there was a typhoon looming out there in the Pacific ready to come down on us. If there was no actual typhoon out there, sometimes people would say “It’s not a real bagyo. It’s just strong enough to be like a bagyo.”

When we arrived in the tribe, whenever there was a heavy rain storm, the people would say barat. So I asked my friend what is Tagalog for barat, and he said that it was bagyo. Ok, I thought, either a typhoon or a heavy storm. However, then when I asked how many barat hit this area over the year, they started naming them. Storm of the hen, storm of the chick, storm of the sky-fish, storm of the coconut, storm of the dead tree, crumbling of the pangi leaves. You could almost call a barat a “season” in the English sense because sometimes one may last one and off for up to 3 weeks or longer, but it depends more on the characteristics of the storm than on a particular time of year.

Right now is the barat et buntél, storm of the sky-fish, or season of the sky-fish. The god Asok is chasing a buntél fish up around the river in the sky, and as he tries to spear it, the fish flaps and brings intermittent bursts of rain and wind down on us. He is currently out over the ocean, which means the rains come from that direction, and therefore the river will not flood to any great extent. (If the rains came from up in the mountains instead of down towards the ocean, we would get big floods along with the rain, because the rain in the mountains fills up all the tributaries which then pour into the main river that runs by our place.) As the fish flaps around, it also causes the wind to blow intermittently with the bursts of rain. In the mind of the mountain-dwelling Palawano, this is why the rains are acting like they are right now.

In the outside world, there is a super-typhoon that just passed over the northern end of the country. The Philippines named it “typhoon Juan”, but internationally it had the name “typhoon Megi.” The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, & Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) correctly predicted the landfall in Isabela province (the other international agencies had projected a more northerly course). Authorities evacuated the predicted landfall area, and there were only about 13 fatalities, which is pretty amazing for such a powerful storm (well done to the PAGASA people for their correct assessment). There was however massive damage, with the storm destroying a significant portion of the country’s rice harvest for the year and flattening at least 3 towns up in that area. Down here in Palawan, the storm way up north drew moisture off the South China Sea, blew it over the Palawano territories, giving us intermittent bursts of rain and wind coming in off the ocean. Hence, Asok is chasing his fish.

And all this ties into the use of the word barat. If you ask a Palawano what barat means in Tagalog, he will say bagyo. If you ask a Filipino what bagyo means in English, he will say a typhoon. However, as you can now see, without understanding the cultural implications of the meaning of that word, there can be a lot of misunderstanding on both sides of the conversation. For example, if someone is trying to talk to Palawanos about the impact of a typhoon on northern Luzon through a translator, the Palawanos are thinking about which barat (if it is Asok chasing his fish or the mother hen flapping her wings to bring rain down, etc.), and what the characteristics of it are, while the person talking goes on about a typhoon coming in from the Pacific and slamming into the mountains. The communicator is talking wind and rain, evacuations and damage, while the listeners are wondering if Asok was chasing his fish or the mother hen was flapping her wings to knock heavy rain on the people. So the attempt to communicate misses the mark, because the communicator did not understand how his listeners would interpret what he was saying. That is just another example of why it is important to study the language and the culture when attempting to communicate the Gospel of Christ to a group of people that have not heard before.

Consultant visits, travels, seeing our kids
The last few weeks have been very busy as always. Our consultant came in and gave us some help on language learning. After observing and watching me for a few days, he observed that while my understanding is very high, I am making a lot of mistakes in my speech. So I am tasked to focus on correctness of speech over the next few months. It was really good to get his help.

When the consultant visit for us was over, I accompanied him to another island where some friends of ours are missionaries to a different language group. Together we assisted them in their language studies. Afterwards our kids came in from Manila and we were able to spend a week with them here in the tribe. The tribal people were mostly gone for the week, because many of them had gone upriver for the rice offering of the village there.

It was really good to have our kids here and spend a week with them!  We visited with Maman and Minan (Uncle and Aunty), and some of the other folks that didn’t go upriver.  Maman told the kids stories about the cannibals that used to live in this area, how they had yellow blood and vertical eyes, and how they were chased away by American soldiers with machine guns after World War 2. It was nice to be together, play games, swim in the river, and let the kids relax from school for their October break. We will see them again in December – please be praying that they will continue to work hard and grow in faith, and that we will be able to have good communication with them while we are apart.

We have some prayer requests that we would like to put before you all. One of us took the kids out to Puerto Princesa to put them on the plane back to Manila. She also took Maman out because he has had a problem in the back of his knee, with some kind of swelling making it difficult for him to walk. In this place, if someone cannot walk, they cannot really live because the environment here is so rugged. So here are our prayer requests:
-         That the doctor would be able to quickly determine what is wrong with Maman’s knee, and if it is surgery to be able to take care of the problem quickly so they can come home.
-         That as our partners write the Gospel lessons, the message will be clear and the hearts and minds of the Palawano will be prepared to hear, understand, and believe.
-         That our language study will progress smoothly and quickly, and we will learn to speak more clearly and effectively, as well as deepen our understanding of the language and culture.
-         That our kids in Manila will have a good semester and have happy hearts, pressing on in good faith. Pray that they will both stay safe in their sporting endeavors, especially our oldest as he plays rugby.
-         That our youngest here in the tribe with us will be able to make deeper friendships with some of the tribal kids, and that the tribal kids, in particular girls her age, will come around more often so that she has the opportunity to make friends with them. Also pray that she will pick up more of the language.
-         Our next door neighbor friend when we lived in Manila just passed away very suddenly from a stroke. Please pray for his family. He was not very old, so this was very unexpected. He was always a help to us when we lived in Manila and we are very sad to see him go.

 flooded river

 worms to eat

 family swim

 visitation from space aliens