I think I need to write a few light-hearted things down so that if you read this, you will know that things are not all serious and terrible and desperate. We actually have even a somewhat “normal” life here at times. We get up in the morning, cook, eat, do our work (which is a lot of language study for me), homeschool, and often have a lot of fun with the tribal people. We go swimming in the river with them and visit at their houses or at ours. They will always have some kind of interesting story to tell, either about spirits, ancestors, or a simple walk through the jungle. Animism penetrates everything about the way they think here.
The tribal people love to have fun and make jokes. A lot of times their jokes are very integrated with their culture, so you have to understand their culture to understand their humor. For example, one time I was talking to someone about the mythical ancestors of the different animals of the forest. Every animal has some kind of mythical ancestor, which they say is its grandfather. So they told me some stories about the grandfather of the monkey, and the grandfather of the python, and others. The grandfather of the python is who they say went through the land and carved out all the hills and valleys.
So I was asking about the different grandfathers of the different animals and listening to the stories. I was sitting in one of the tribal people’s homes as we were talking, and I asked who the grandfather of the skunk was. This lady looked at me, and said, “Egsa (that means cousin), he’s sitting right there,” and she pointed at her husband sitting next to me! Well, everyone laughed at that, including the one being pointed at, because they all knew what that meant!
That is just one of the ways we have fun with the tribal people.
Even in somewhat scary situations, we can often find something to laugh about. Consider the following. Yesterday morning I woke up to find a snake in the middle of the kitchen. Don’t worry, it was not one of the very poisonous kinds. Yet nevertheless, it was a snake, first thing in the morning. I held the dog and sat there staring at it. For some reason I couldn’t think of what to do. Probably because I had just woken up and was still a bit sleepy. Remember that time when I had to pour boiling water on the snake that was hiding in a crack in the wall? Well, that was the only thing I could think of. But I figured the snake wouldn’t wait around for me to boil water to pour it over him! Hmm.
Suddenly like a light shining in the darkness came a voice out of the silence, breaking through with magnificent thought and reason. It was Ginny. “Would you like me to hand you your machete?” Wow! I wonder how long I would have sat there staring at the snake if she hadn’t prompted me! So I took the machete, chopped off the snake’s head, and end of snake!
The tribal people never chop off a snake’s head. They think that if you chop it off and throw it out into the jungle, the next time you cook rice, the snake’s head will magically appear in your rice pot, jump out, and bite you on the neck! So naturally I want to challenge this assumption (gently of course), and so I took the snake with the severed head over to the tribal people’s home next door and showed it to them. I asked them what kind of snake it was. “Sawa manok,” they said (which means chicken snake). Later I came by and I told them I had thrown the snake and its head out into the jungle. There was a pause as they stared at me uncomfortably. So I asked, “Do you think the head will appear in my rice pot and jump out and bite me on the neck?” That broke the tension, and they all fell over laughing!
The reason they laugh at that is because they know it is a silly idea, but they still believe it enough to not chop off a snake’s head. They have no basis for thinking that the snake’s head might not reappear, but they are still scared that it might.
So, score 1 for the challenge, done gently and in love.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Monday, May 2, 2011
It happened again
"I, the LORD, have called You in righteousness, and will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles..." Isaiah 42:6
Making God central to our ministry
I have been reading a lot lately from scripture and in other places about making God completely and totally central to our ministry. As I look back and reflect on our time in ministry from when I first left my engineering job in New Mexico, there have been times I have totally focused on God, and other times that I have been a whole lot more focused on myself. During those times that God has been central and we were walking by faith, stepping out and trusting Him to go before us, our fellowship with the Father has been the sweetest. This work that we are doing, to bring the Gospel to people who not only don’t know God, but who regularly serve demonic forces, cannot be done in our power. Other times when I served my own ideas (instead of the Lord’s) stand out as times of spiritual failure.
I will recount the great things God has done in our lives. He sold our house in a miraculous way, provided for the funds to get us through our training, found my lost keys just off the highway in Utah :), guided us to an interest in the Philippines, and led us to a tribal location that did not yet have the Gospel. Here we are now, and we are pressing forward, guided by His Spirit, and your prayers. I am convinced that nothing in this world happens that is not somehow connected to God’s greater plan for the world.
What I am about to write may be a little disturbing to some who read this, and completely unbelievable to others (also it is probably not suitable to be read to children). Be that as it may – I write about what we see and pray that God gets the glory. The Palawano here do not know Christ yet and have centuries of animistic darkness holding them down. We believe that by your prayers and ours God will soon lead them out of that darkness into His glorious light…
It happened again
We heard that the young girl was getting married, and finally figured out that was the reason so many people were around. Every day for the past week there were kids out in front of our house playing soccer, volleyball, and badminton. Our porch was always full of people wanting to look at pictures. They especially like looking at pictures of themselves. :)
So then last night, they all started to go to bed in the house right next door feeling happy and contented. All was right with the world. It was dark with no moon, so people would be asleep early. Then it happened. All of a sudden there were screams, yelling, banging, crashing around. Screams of terror. “Keep him away!” “Help!” “Hold him down!” People jumping out of the windows of the house, off the porch, escaping through holes in the floor, and running in every direction just to get away. Some came running up to our house, holding especially their little kids.
Egsa, it’s Tabung again! He’s nemulpug! The bad spirit has him! He is trying to kill the children! Many of us were bitten by him!
I looked and there was his little brother, a boy of about 13 years old. He showed me his arm where he was bitten hard. There was a huge bruise.
So then the conversation follows as I try and find out more information.
Where is he now – did he run off into the jungle?
No, he is still in the house.
Is someone holding him?
Yes, there are 2 or 3 guys holding him, but they are not strong enough to hold him down. There are still children in the house in the room on the side, but they can’t get out. Can we stay in your storage shed, Egsa? He can’t get us there.
Well there is gasoline in there. I will have to move it. Let me go check on Tabung first.
I walked over to the house and went up on the porch, and there I saw him. He looked similar to the last time he had this affliction, only a bit worse this time. His eyes were wide open, and he was making a growling sound. He was crouched like a tiger ready to spring, facing the door of the room where the remaining children were being held for their protection. There were about 3 guys holding him down. I called his name. “Tabung!” No response – he was totally focused on the door. As he started to make a move for the door, the guys holding him held harder and called for one of the adults to start moving the children out of the room and out of the house. I looked at his face – it was the face of someone being controlled by something more powerful than himself. It was the face of evil. This is not the Tabung that I know and talk with every day.
Some of the men from the other side of the village came to help hold him down. By this time I had moved the gasoline out of our storage shed so the mothers could hide their children in there. We got everyone settled. I went back to our house to pray. Ginny and Abby had been praying already. So we all 3 prayed together. “Lord, we pray that you protect the people here from evil. We trust in your protection over our house and our family. We pray for the children here to be kept safe and the people to be delivered from fear. We pray especially for Tabung, that you will deliver him from this demonic presence that seems to affect him from time to time.”
Things were now settled for a bit – there were men guarding Tabung and holding him down during his fits, and the women and children were all hidden in various places in the village. Then suddenly we heard more commotion from the house. Shouts. The men running out of the house with their flashlights. I went out to talk with them. Sure enough, it turned out, he had broken their hold (7 of them holding him down) and had run off into the jungle. Nobody had any idea where he had gone. When he has this madness come upon him, he seems to have multiple times the normal strength of a man.
Well, as it turned out, he did come back in his right mind an hour or so later in the evening and went to his grandparents’ house. He told the people there to make sure that they kept the children away from him in case his malady returned. He didn’t know what had happened, but he had some idea. The children were taken away, but the men stayed with him all night. In the morning, he was physically fine, though emotionally spent.
The difference between this time that Tabung was sick and the first time, when we treated him for cerebral malaria, is that this time he has not been sick or physically weak during the day. In fact, he has been one of my main guys for a particular project I have been working on at our clinic, and has been able to work hard every day without a problem. During the day he is a perfectly normal guy. However on some nights he seems to have this type of madness come upon him. Before, he showed definite symptoms of another sickness in addition to the madness. This time, there is only the sporadic madness with no accompanying symptoms. When I talked to him the morning after, he said that he did not remember anything, but that he is beginning to feel separated from his own people now (as in they are scared of him and want to make sure they are sleeping somewhere far away).
As we thought and prayed about it, several things came to mind. First, we know there is an Enemy that wants to keep these people from hearing the Gospel. If we fail to recognize evil, we are sure to be defeated by it. We know that the teaching of the Gospel is coming soon, so this is an attempt by that enemy to keep the people in darkness, where they have remained for hundreds of years. Secondly, it seems that part of the strategy of the enemy may be to bring out the Gospel teaching prematurely, before the people are ready. If we bring out the Gospel teaching before the people have an understanding of sin, this gives an opportunity for cults to come in and usurp the authority over new life in the church. This has happened in many places, and we seek to avoid it by wisdom.
So instead of attempting to exorcise the demonic spirit right now, we ask for your prayers over him, us, and our families. God is doing a work in the hearts of the Palawanos right now, but they are not ready yet. We are plowing the ground, preparing the field for planting the seed. There is more than just this one incident affecting them. 3 weeks ago there were multiple people who were affected by this same type of spirit in one night, and they all had to be held down to keep from going after the children. Though this has not been a common type of malady in the past, it now seems to be increasing in frequency.
There are other things happening as well right now. The government program of financial assistance to the Palawanos for putting their kids in school has people concerned. They were very happy to get the money when it was offered. Now that the start of school is getting closer, they are realizing that putting their kids in a school 3 hours away is not going to be easy, and they are constantly talking about what they are going to do when school begins again in a couple of weeks.
So again, we are making a call to prayer. Prayer for the Palawanos to be drawn to Christ, drawn away from the darkness that has enveloped them for centuries. Prayer that they will question the teachings of the ancestors, understand their sinfulness before God, and look for a way of deliverance. We also call you to pray for us and our families. Pray for our team to be united in our work and fellowship. Pray that us and our kids will be protected from the attacks of the enemy, will be kept safe, and will remain faithful in trusting our loving Father.
Update May 2, 2011
Last night everyone in the village tried to sneak off to the houses up on the mountain so that they wouldn’t have to sleep near him. I talked to one of the dads, and he was very concerned that Tabung would kill one of his children. When they were out on the airstrip trying to sneak off, Tabung saw them all and went to join them. These are, after all, all his extended family – aunts, uncles, cousins. He is 18 years old and naturally feels a need to be with the people he knows and loves. So they ended up sleeping in the houses near us again, with several men sleeping close to Tabung to guard him in case he woke up in a fit of madness. Thankfully, nothing happened.
Making God central to our ministry
I have been reading a lot lately from scripture and in other places about making God completely and totally central to our ministry. As I look back and reflect on our time in ministry from when I first left my engineering job in New Mexico, there have been times I have totally focused on God, and other times that I have been a whole lot more focused on myself. During those times that God has been central and we were walking by faith, stepping out and trusting Him to go before us, our fellowship with the Father has been the sweetest. This work that we are doing, to bring the Gospel to people who not only don’t know God, but who regularly serve demonic forces, cannot be done in our power. Other times when I served my own ideas (instead of the Lord’s) stand out as times of spiritual failure.
I will recount the great things God has done in our lives. He sold our house in a miraculous way, provided for the funds to get us through our training, found my lost keys just off the highway in Utah :), guided us to an interest in the Philippines, and led us to a tribal location that did not yet have the Gospel. Here we are now, and we are pressing forward, guided by His Spirit, and your prayers. I am convinced that nothing in this world happens that is not somehow connected to God’s greater plan for the world.
What I am about to write may be a little disturbing to some who read this, and completely unbelievable to others (also it is probably not suitable to be read to children). Be that as it may – I write about what we see and pray that God gets the glory. The Palawano here do not know Christ yet and have centuries of animistic darkness holding them down. We believe that by your prayers and ours God will soon lead them out of that darkness into His glorious light…
It happened again
We heard that the young girl was getting married, and finally figured out that was the reason so many people were around. Every day for the past week there were kids out in front of our house playing soccer, volleyball, and badminton. Our porch was always full of people wanting to look at pictures. They especially like looking at pictures of themselves. :)
So then last night, they all started to go to bed in the house right next door feeling happy and contented. All was right with the world. It was dark with no moon, so people would be asleep early. Then it happened. All of a sudden there were screams, yelling, banging, crashing around. Screams of terror. “Keep him away!” “Help!” “Hold him down!” People jumping out of the windows of the house, off the porch, escaping through holes in the floor, and running in every direction just to get away. Some came running up to our house, holding especially their little kids.
Egsa, it’s Tabung again! He’s nemulpug! The bad spirit has him! He is trying to kill the children! Many of us were bitten by him!
I looked and there was his little brother, a boy of about 13 years old. He showed me his arm where he was bitten hard. There was a huge bruise.
So then the conversation follows as I try and find out more information.
Where is he now – did he run off into the jungle?
No, he is still in the house.
Is someone holding him?
Yes, there are 2 or 3 guys holding him, but they are not strong enough to hold him down. There are still children in the house in the room on the side, but they can’t get out. Can we stay in your storage shed, Egsa? He can’t get us there.
Well there is gasoline in there. I will have to move it. Let me go check on Tabung first.
I walked over to the house and went up on the porch, and there I saw him. He looked similar to the last time he had this affliction, only a bit worse this time. His eyes were wide open, and he was making a growling sound. He was crouched like a tiger ready to spring, facing the door of the room where the remaining children were being held for their protection. There were about 3 guys holding him down. I called his name. “Tabung!” No response – he was totally focused on the door. As he started to make a move for the door, the guys holding him held harder and called for one of the adults to start moving the children out of the room and out of the house. I looked at his face – it was the face of someone being controlled by something more powerful than himself. It was the face of evil. This is not the Tabung that I know and talk with every day.
Some of the men from the other side of the village came to help hold him down. By this time I had moved the gasoline out of our storage shed so the mothers could hide their children in there. We got everyone settled. I went back to our house to pray. Ginny and Abby had been praying already. So we all 3 prayed together. “Lord, we pray that you protect the people here from evil. We trust in your protection over our house and our family. We pray for the children here to be kept safe and the people to be delivered from fear. We pray especially for Tabung, that you will deliver him from this demonic presence that seems to affect him from time to time.”
Things were now settled for a bit – there were men guarding Tabung and holding him down during his fits, and the women and children were all hidden in various places in the village. Then suddenly we heard more commotion from the house. Shouts. The men running out of the house with their flashlights. I went out to talk with them. Sure enough, it turned out, he had broken their hold (7 of them holding him down) and had run off into the jungle. Nobody had any idea where he had gone. When he has this madness come upon him, he seems to have multiple times the normal strength of a man.
Well, as it turned out, he did come back in his right mind an hour or so later in the evening and went to his grandparents’ house. He told the people there to make sure that they kept the children away from him in case his malady returned. He didn’t know what had happened, but he had some idea. The children were taken away, but the men stayed with him all night. In the morning, he was physically fine, though emotionally spent.
The difference between this time that Tabung was sick and the first time, when we treated him for cerebral malaria, is that this time he has not been sick or physically weak during the day. In fact, he has been one of my main guys for a particular project I have been working on at our clinic, and has been able to work hard every day without a problem. During the day he is a perfectly normal guy. However on some nights he seems to have this type of madness come upon him. Before, he showed definite symptoms of another sickness in addition to the madness. This time, there is only the sporadic madness with no accompanying symptoms. When I talked to him the morning after, he said that he did not remember anything, but that he is beginning to feel separated from his own people now (as in they are scared of him and want to make sure they are sleeping somewhere far away).
As we thought and prayed about it, several things came to mind. First, we know there is an Enemy that wants to keep these people from hearing the Gospel. If we fail to recognize evil, we are sure to be defeated by it. We know that the teaching of the Gospel is coming soon, so this is an attempt by that enemy to keep the people in darkness, where they have remained for hundreds of years. Secondly, it seems that part of the strategy of the enemy may be to bring out the Gospel teaching prematurely, before the people are ready. If we bring out the Gospel teaching before the people have an understanding of sin, this gives an opportunity for cults to come in and usurp the authority over new life in the church. This has happened in many places, and we seek to avoid it by wisdom.
So instead of attempting to exorcise the demonic spirit right now, we ask for your prayers over him, us, and our families. God is doing a work in the hearts of the Palawanos right now, but they are not ready yet. We are plowing the ground, preparing the field for planting the seed. There is more than just this one incident affecting them. 3 weeks ago there were multiple people who were affected by this same type of spirit in one night, and they all had to be held down to keep from going after the children. Though this has not been a common type of malady in the past, it now seems to be increasing in frequency.
There are other things happening as well right now. The government program of financial assistance to the Palawanos for putting their kids in school has people concerned. They were very happy to get the money when it was offered. Now that the start of school is getting closer, they are realizing that putting their kids in a school 3 hours away is not going to be easy, and they are constantly talking about what they are going to do when school begins again in a couple of weeks.
So again, we are making a call to prayer. Prayer for the Palawanos to be drawn to Christ, drawn away from the darkness that has enveloped them for centuries. Prayer that they will question the teachings of the ancestors, understand their sinfulness before God, and look for a way of deliverance. We also call you to pray for us and our families. Pray for our team to be united in our work and fellowship. Pray that us and our kids will be protected from the attacks of the enemy, will be kept safe, and will remain faithful in trusting our loving Father.
Update May 2, 2011
Last night everyone in the village tried to sneak off to the houses up on the mountain so that they wouldn’t have to sleep near him. I talked to one of the dads, and he was very concerned that Tabung would kill one of his children. When they were out on the airstrip trying to sneak off, Tabung saw them all and went to join them. These are, after all, all his extended family – aunts, uncles, cousins. He is 18 years old and naturally feels a need to be with the people he knows and loves. So they ended up sleeping in the houses near us again, with several men sleeping close to Tabung to guard him in case he woke up in a fit of madness. Thankfully, nothing happened.
This is the spot where they told us someone fought with a spirit, killed it with a machete, and it fell down knocking a hole in the bushes.
Replacing the clinic wall
Repainting the wall on the other side.
The young man and his new bride.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
adjustments to change
April 4, 2011
We have only been back a few days. 3 people have showed symptoms of cerebral malaria. Only 1 of them has come to ask for medicine, and he is better now, though I don’t know yet if he is fully recovered. The people here still believe it is caused by a bad spirit. The human mind gravitates towards searching for a reason, and in the absence of a foundation in the truths of scientific observation, their minds will naturally tend towards the spirit world.
Nuutnuut said he saw a huge person big and dark (meitem, which means black or brown) and hairy. The creature looked at him, and his mind started getting dizzy. Then he started reaching towards people and grabbing them to bite them. This seems to be the common manifestation among the people here. The same thing happened to Selem. We gave them both medicine. Nuutnuut took his, but Selem threw hers up and asked for a different kind. There aren’t any other kinds that we have here. We will see if she gets better or progressively worse. Because they think it is a spirit, they don’t always come get medicine until it is really serious.
At least with Nuutnuut, his mother is wise enough to pursue getting medicine early on. That is what happened, and probably the reason he is well now. Selem is considered intelligent in her culture, as is her husband, as they know the jungle very well. They also do well with relationships with other people, and they do pretty well with us. However, they are not town savvy at all. Once we sent them to town to the dentist’s office, which we have done with many other people, and they couldn’t find it. They sat at the dentist’s house for hours waiting for her to come home, which she never did. They finally left, and he walked around with a toothache for a month or so. I hope that one day I can learn to pull teeth, as this would give them a relief from time to time from the incessant toothaches.
It will be interesting to see how this government program works out. They were told that they all have to build outhouses. They will not use outhouses – they move around too much. Well, Ipaya’s family does have one, and he already uses it because he is from another culture. Also, they don’t move around so much, but stay in the same house year after year. The others, though, they will not use them. They said they are supposed to build them for “visitors” when they come. I wonder who the government plans to send up here to visit on a regular basis.
Giving away handfuls of money has implications in many areas. It is not free money – the people are required to send their kids to school. This is good, because Palawanos are routinely taken advantage of by townspeople. Not all townspeople, of course, as there are plenty of nice people in town. Nevertheless, if they can speak Tagalog and do math, then it will be much easier for them to get along in the downriver culture.
However, giving out handfuls of money, especially in the quantities they are receiving, will require some adjustment in the thinking of those who receive it. Yesterday I was talking to a family who had received some 8500 pesos. They showed me a receipt they had for 200 pesos of goods they bought in town, and they showed me that they only had 1100 pesos left of the 8500. I asked where the other money went, and they said that they had bought 1 sack of rice for 1800 pesos, and some other dry goods for 1400 pesos. The man at the store where they purchased the dry goods, they said, refused to give change or a receipt for the 1400 pesos. Where is the rest of it, I asked. There should be around 5100 pesos remaining. They didn’t know. I wonder what they will do when the government overseer of the program calls them to give an account of the money (they are supposed to have receipts for everything).
The Lord calls us to do this work for His glory and for His sake. Today I will push to try and get some more direct language study in, on top of all my other duties. I look forward to the day when I can communicate clearly.
We have only been back a few days. 3 people have showed symptoms of cerebral malaria. Only 1 of them has come to ask for medicine, and he is better now, though I don’t know yet if he is fully recovered. The people here still believe it is caused by a bad spirit. The human mind gravitates towards searching for a reason, and in the absence of a foundation in the truths of scientific observation, their minds will naturally tend towards the spirit world.
Nuutnuut said he saw a huge person big and dark (meitem, which means black or brown) and hairy. The creature looked at him, and his mind started getting dizzy. Then he started reaching towards people and grabbing them to bite them. This seems to be the common manifestation among the people here. The same thing happened to Selem. We gave them both medicine. Nuutnuut took his, but Selem threw hers up and asked for a different kind. There aren’t any other kinds that we have here. We will see if she gets better or progressively worse. Because they think it is a spirit, they don’t always come get medicine until it is really serious.
At least with Nuutnuut, his mother is wise enough to pursue getting medicine early on. That is what happened, and probably the reason he is well now. Selem is considered intelligent in her culture, as is her husband, as they know the jungle very well. They also do well with relationships with other people, and they do pretty well with us. However, they are not town savvy at all. Once we sent them to town to the dentist’s office, which we have done with many other people, and they couldn’t find it. They sat at the dentist’s house for hours waiting for her to come home, which she never did. They finally left, and he walked around with a toothache for a month or so. I hope that one day I can learn to pull teeth, as this would give them a relief from time to time from the incessant toothaches.
It will be interesting to see how this government program works out. They were told that they all have to build outhouses. They will not use outhouses – they move around too much. Well, Ipaya’s family does have one, and he already uses it because he is from another culture. Also, they don’t move around so much, but stay in the same house year after year. The others, though, they will not use them. They said they are supposed to build them for “visitors” when they come. I wonder who the government plans to send up here to visit on a regular basis.
Giving away handfuls of money has implications in many areas. It is not free money – the people are required to send their kids to school. This is good, because Palawanos are routinely taken advantage of by townspeople. Not all townspeople, of course, as there are plenty of nice people in town. Nevertheless, if they can speak Tagalog and do math, then it will be much easier for them to get along in the downriver culture.
However, giving out handfuls of money, especially in the quantities they are receiving, will require some adjustment in the thinking of those who receive it. Yesterday I was talking to a family who had received some 8500 pesos. They showed me a receipt they had for 200 pesos of goods they bought in town, and they showed me that they only had 1100 pesos left of the 8500. I asked where the other money went, and they said that they had bought 1 sack of rice for 1800 pesos, and some other dry goods for 1400 pesos. The man at the store where they purchased the dry goods, they said, refused to give change or a receipt for the 1400 pesos. Where is the rest of it, I asked. There should be around 5100 pesos remaining. They didn’t know. I wonder what they will do when the government overseer of the program calls them to give an account of the money (they are supposed to have receipts for everything).
The Lord calls us to do this work for His glory and for His sake. Today I will push to try and get some more direct language study in, on top of all my other duties. I look forward to the day when I can communicate clearly.
Friday, April 1, 2011
For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake... Philippians 1:29
Egsa! Nuutnuut is shaking and he is stiff! He is trying to eat us! He just returned from the downriver market and he is really sick! Quick we need medicine! He saw the giant bad person and it is trying to steal his soul! So we heard his mom frantically shouting outside our window last night. We asked if he has a fever, but they forgot to feel his forehead as they were holding him down. It is possible it is an effect of drinking from downriver, or also it could be another case of cerebral malaria. There are many cases of malaria right now because of the incessant rain bringing lots of mosquitoes. This is life among the mountain Palawano. We gave him some medicine for malaria and will continue to monitor things to see how they go.
We live in an area where time might seem like it stands still, yet if you observe carefully you can see how things change and people adjust, albeit at a slower pace than the outside world. We just returned from seeing our kids during their March break from school. In one of our first visits with people here in the tribe, I asked them if they had heard of the major Tsunami in Japan. No, they had not heard about it. I had to describe it to them – an earthquake that caused a really big wave, which wiped out several towns and killed many thousands of people.
Then we talked about the radiation spill in Japan. They have no idea what radiation is, and instead of trying to describe what radiation is and all about atoms and energy, I just told them that a giant machine was damaged by the waves, and it spilled poison out into the ground so that the people cannot return yet.
They have not yet heard about the continuous unrest in the Middle East. Even the one Muslim who lives in our village is only vaguely aware of those problems.
There are a few people from time to time who have radios. If they have a battery so that they can listen to the news in Tagalog, and there happens to be someone there who understands Tagalog, then they can sometimes get an idea of what is going on. Then the news spreads along the jungle grapevine, with quite a number of interesting variations!
To the Palawanos, the biggest thing that is happening right now is that it is raining during dry season. This means that the field that they just cut down in order to plant will not burn. The smart ones will not plant rice this year, because they know that without a burn there will be too many weeds and they will not get any kind of decent harvest. However, there are some who will try to plant rice anyway. For those who do this, they will end up wasting their seed rice. Those who don’t plant rice will clear an area and plant more cassava and sweet potato. Too much cassava over the long term, however, has some negative health effects. So we are thinking about how we are going to help the people through this.
The reason for the rain during the dry season, according to the teachings of the ancestors, is that somebody has committed incest. Incest to the Palawanos means more than just brother-sister or parent-child. It can also mean uncle-niece, or certain kinds of first and second cousins (this is what it usually means) involved together. Some first or second cousin marriages are permitted, and others are strictly forbidden, especially if the fathers are of the same bloodline. When a man is joking around too much with a first or second cousin of the same bloodline, an evil spirit might cause him and the girl to start having feelings for each other. So they try to generally avoid being too much of a jokester with the opposite sex. However, it can and does happen, and when it does the gods bring chastisement in the form of rain during the dry season. Right now people are looking around for who committed incest. If they find the guilty parties, the tribal elders will first talk to them to convince them to split up. If the offenders commit the sin again a second time, they are both killed and their bodies split in half and left to dry in the sun to appease the wrath of the gods. However, it has been a long time, they say, since someone has had to be killed because of this particular sin.
Culture change
There are 2 big things happening among the Palawanos right now which have the potential to significantly impact their culture. The first is the intervention of a government welfare program to help the poorest of the poor. The Palawano families who want to participate have to leave their children downriver at school every week, so that they only come home on the weekends, and then they receive government grants of cash. In fact, some people have been given significant amounts of cash – more than they have ever seen. They have been told this will be given out every 3 months or so.
One of the benefits of this program is help for the Palawanos to be able to buy food. This will be especially helpful this year since their rice harvest will be poor on account of too much rain during dry season. Another benefit is that many Palawano children will be attending school downriver, which will help them in the future to be able to communicate in Tagalog. This will enable them to trade more effectively, and help them know how to protect their ancestral homeland.
At the same time, however, we don’t know yet the many other ways this will impact the culture. Will they stop looking for food in the jungle because it is easier to go downriver and buy it? We will have to wait and see. What about the people who chose not to participate because they didn’t want to be separated from their kids? What will they think when their friends come back with loads of cash and always have food? Already there are rumors of one of the government workers that was carrying the cash to a distribution station downriver being murdered and the cash taken. The lessons of history make it easy to imagine the different kinds of things that can happen. This is a big prayer concern we have right now. Some men told me this morning that on account of the murder, they are all preparing their blowguns to be able to defend their homes if some of the bandits try to come up into this area.
The biggest thing up and coming for the mountain Palawanos is the teaching of the Gospel in their language! Our partners have been working on lessons, and we are continuing to study language and culture. Please pray that our minds will continue to be open to learning this language well so that we can communicate the Gospel to them. Please pray also that the Palawanos will soon see that even large grants of money to make their lives easier will not truly meet all their needs. Pray that we will be able to communicate these things in the lessons that we teach.
There are changes from time to time in every culture, because all cultures are in a state of flux. The main challenge we have is to be a witness for Christ in the midst of the change that is happening, and to share truth with the people about God, Christ, and their eternal condition.
Thank you all so much for your prayers for us and the Palawanos as we prepare for teaching the Gospel!
click here to see some more pictures
Egsa! Nuutnuut is shaking and he is stiff! He is trying to eat us! He just returned from the downriver market and he is really sick! Quick we need medicine! He saw the giant bad person and it is trying to steal his soul! So we heard his mom frantically shouting outside our window last night. We asked if he has a fever, but they forgot to feel his forehead as they were holding him down. It is possible it is an effect of drinking from downriver, or also it could be another case of cerebral malaria. There are many cases of malaria right now because of the incessant rain bringing lots of mosquitoes. This is life among the mountain Palawano. We gave him some medicine for malaria and will continue to monitor things to see how they go.
We live in an area where time might seem like it stands still, yet if you observe carefully you can see how things change and people adjust, albeit at a slower pace than the outside world. We just returned from seeing our kids during their March break from school. In one of our first visits with people here in the tribe, I asked them if they had heard of the major Tsunami in Japan. No, they had not heard about it. I had to describe it to them – an earthquake that caused a really big wave, which wiped out several towns and killed many thousands of people.
Then we talked about the radiation spill in Japan. They have no idea what radiation is, and instead of trying to describe what radiation is and all about atoms and energy, I just told them that a giant machine was damaged by the waves, and it spilled poison out into the ground so that the people cannot return yet.
They have not yet heard about the continuous unrest in the Middle East. Even the one Muslim who lives in our village is only vaguely aware of those problems.
There are a few people from time to time who have radios. If they have a battery so that they can listen to the news in Tagalog, and there happens to be someone there who understands Tagalog, then they can sometimes get an idea of what is going on. Then the news spreads along the jungle grapevine, with quite a number of interesting variations!
To the Palawanos, the biggest thing that is happening right now is that it is raining during dry season. This means that the field that they just cut down in order to plant will not burn. The smart ones will not plant rice this year, because they know that without a burn there will be too many weeds and they will not get any kind of decent harvest. However, there are some who will try to plant rice anyway. For those who do this, they will end up wasting their seed rice. Those who don’t plant rice will clear an area and plant more cassava and sweet potato. Too much cassava over the long term, however, has some negative health effects. So we are thinking about how we are going to help the people through this.
The reason for the rain during the dry season, according to the teachings of the ancestors, is that somebody has committed incest. Incest to the Palawanos means more than just brother-sister or parent-child. It can also mean uncle-niece, or certain kinds of first and second cousins (this is what it usually means) involved together. Some first or second cousin marriages are permitted, and others are strictly forbidden, especially if the fathers are of the same bloodline. When a man is joking around too much with a first or second cousin of the same bloodline, an evil spirit might cause him and the girl to start having feelings for each other. So they try to generally avoid being too much of a jokester with the opposite sex. However, it can and does happen, and when it does the gods bring chastisement in the form of rain during the dry season. Right now people are looking around for who committed incest. If they find the guilty parties, the tribal elders will first talk to them to convince them to split up. If the offenders commit the sin again a second time, they are both killed and their bodies split in half and left to dry in the sun to appease the wrath of the gods. However, it has been a long time, they say, since someone has had to be killed because of this particular sin.
Culture change
There are 2 big things happening among the Palawanos right now which have the potential to significantly impact their culture. The first is the intervention of a government welfare program to help the poorest of the poor. The Palawano families who want to participate have to leave their children downriver at school every week, so that they only come home on the weekends, and then they receive government grants of cash. In fact, some people have been given significant amounts of cash – more than they have ever seen. They have been told this will be given out every 3 months or so.
One of the benefits of this program is help for the Palawanos to be able to buy food. This will be especially helpful this year since their rice harvest will be poor on account of too much rain during dry season. Another benefit is that many Palawano children will be attending school downriver, which will help them in the future to be able to communicate in Tagalog. This will enable them to trade more effectively, and help them know how to protect their ancestral homeland.
At the same time, however, we don’t know yet the many other ways this will impact the culture. Will they stop looking for food in the jungle because it is easier to go downriver and buy it? We will have to wait and see. What about the people who chose not to participate because they didn’t want to be separated from their kids? What will they think when their friends come back with loads of cash and always have food? Already there are rumors of one of the government workers that was carrying the cash to a distribution station downriver being murdered and the cash taken. The lessons of history make it easy to imagine the different kinds of things that can happen. This is a big prayer concern we have right now. Some men told me this morning that on account of the murder, they are all preparing their blowguns to be able to defend their homes if some of the bandits try to come up into this area.
The biggest thing up and coming for the mountain Palawanos is the teaching of the Gospel in their language! Our partners have been working on lessons, and we are continuing to study language and culture. Please pray that our minds will continue to be open to learning this language well so that we can communicate the Gospel to them. Please pray also that the Palawanos will soon see that even large grants of money to make their lives easier will not truly meet all their needs. Pray that we will be able to communicate these things in the lessons that we teach.
There are changes from time to time in every culture, because all cultures are in a state of flux. The main challenge we have is to be a witness for Christ in the midst of the change that is happening, and to share truth with the people about God, Christ, and their eternal condition.
Thank you all so much for your prayers for us and the Palawanos as we prepare for teaching the Gospel!
click here to see some more pictures
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| a type of jungle dove, shot for dinner |
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| young father who recently went blind in one eye |
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| kissed by a goat! |
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| monitor lizard for dinner! |
Thursday, February 3, 2011
what its like when you return to the tribe from a long break
post20110203
Here is my journal entry from yesterday and today, after seeing family in Texas over the holidays and having just returned to the tribe. I have changed the names of people and places from my actual journal entry.
2/2/11
Day 1 , Tuesday, 1 week before today - The first day back we entered into our house and the whole thing was covered in mold, from floor to ceiling all over. Every place we stepped there would be mold residue on our feet. We immediately set to work with a mop, filling a bucket with bleach and water and cleaning everything up. It took several hours to mop up the floors, and the bleach water was nasty. While I was mopping, Ginny and Abby were bleaching the walls and cabinets. Raji brought our dog back and told us she was a good dog while we were gone but didn’t eat much dog food. He said she prefers cassava.
A family from downriver brought one of the ladies to us this evening, by the name of Lani. She has been throwing up and cannot eat or drink anything, and is showing signs of cerebral malaria. They also told us that it hurt her really bad to urinate. We started her on a course of chloroquine for malaria and paracetamol to knock the fever down. She was able to swallow the medicine without throwing up, and we also gave her some oral rehydration drink to keep her hydrated.
Day 2 – Wednesday – Ginny opened the clinic and spent the morning there, while I continued to straighten and clean things up. The boxes of supplies for the next few months were mostly emptied. After Ginny returned from the clinic, she spent the afternoon cleaning out the main cupboard – emptying everything and removing all the residue of bugs and things that nested in there while we were gone. It was a tremendous amount of work. Ginny also started homeschool with Abby today.
We checked on Lani in the evening, and even though she was able to take her medicine last night, from about mid-day on today she has not been able to keep anything down. The slightest bit of drink was causing her to throw up, so she has not been able to follow up on her 2nd course of treatment for malaria. We sent word out that we may need to have her flown to the hospital. She also has continued to be in pain while urinating, but has not shown signs of dehydration yet. She has not been able to keep down the antibiotics for a possible UTI.
Day 3 – Thursday – In the morning, we checked on Lani again and her condition did not improve overnight, and is now showing signs of dehydration. We called in the airplane to take her to the hospital in Puerto Princesa. Fortunately one of our co-workers is there now and will be able to attend to her needs. We sent her out with her husband and mother. It was a challenge getting them into the airplane, and this took up all morning.
Got a text from the internet technician that he would be flying into Puerto Princesa on Friday. I told him to make sure and take the early 5 am bus from Puerto Princesa because it is a 3 hour walk to our place once the bus drops him off in Egnew.
I hiked down to Dihuba for the afternoon and talked with Pibak and the other folks there about things. I arranged for Dakisiyo to come with me to town on Saturday to pick up the internet tech. I asked about getting wood cut with a chainsaw and he told me that we needed to go to the Baranggay and get a permit, but that it would not be a problem. He said to let him know before I go so that he can come with me.
Day 4 – Friday – I continued working on straightening my office, and Ginny worked on finishing up the last of the boxes and had ladies come in and help bleach the walls and remaining cabinets. It has taken a tremendous amount of work to clean up from the mold.
The word from our partner is that Lani had both malaria and a kidney infection. They put her on an IV and gave her antibiotics as well as malaria medicine. They are saying she will need at least 2 days in the hospital.
In my office I needed to install a new wire for a 110V connection so that I could run off the small 110V inverter instead of the large 220V inverter when I don’t need a lot of power. This took some time to measure and install. I did a small engineering calculation, and plotted the balance current as a function of light bulb wattage on a double power supply system to determine the correct size light bulb to use as a current limiter. That was fun, reminded me of the old days. I also straightened my office here to be able to be ready for when I can start full time language again, even though I know that won’t be for awhile yet.
Day 5 – Saturday – I hiked down with 3 guys from here to meet the internet technician coming off the bus. When we got to Egnew, because the bus was not going to arrive for another hour and a half, we went to Pibak’s house in town, where Dakisiyo and Tibak’s kids stay and go to school. It is a decent little house with a nice arrangement and a large porch. We talked to the neighbors a bit also, and she had me look at her solar panels and batteries to see if I could fix them. Then she told me the batteries were 8 years old, and I told her that is why they don’t work anymore. Batteries never last that long.
The internet technician arrived by bus, and we were able to hike back up to our place. He spent all afternoon and evening troubleshooting the satellite dish, and could not get it to connect at all. He decided the problem must be the modem, and he called his boss and asked them to send another modem. I stayed with him the whole time just in case he needed anything.
Day 6 – Sunday – the internet technician hiked out in the morning to take the early bus back to Puerto Princesa to pick up the new modem. It is Sunday, and normally we would have had a time of fellowship, but we were arranging things at the last minute because the final decision on whether or not the tech was going to go out was not made until this morning. We had to see if leaving the power on the satellite overnight would make it connect, but it did not. The tech had his azimuth aligned correctly, but the satellite still would not connect.
Ginny and Abby and I were able to spend a lot of good time together today. We were able to go swimming at the swimming hole together where the last flood washed out 2 huge nice areas to swim in. It was glorious. After swimming there for some time, some of the tribal people came out with a net and their spear guns to fish. There were a lot of fish. We helped hold the net while they speared fish and caught lots. I was able to grab 2 fish that got caught in the net, and Ginny was able to grab one. It was a great time to be together and enjoy life here. After that fun afternoon, we went home, showered, and then went over to Elise’s for dinner and some singing. We had a very nice time.
We also got word today that the patient, Lani, was discharged from the hospital and would be coming home on the bus tomorrow. Maybe she will be on the same bus as the internet technician.
Day 7 – Monday – I hike out again in the morning to meet the internet technician at the bus again and bring him back. When we arrived at our place, we ate, and then he immediately went to work again. While he was testing things through the afternoon, Elise screamed as she was cleaning out one of her cabinets. There was a big brown snake curled up in it when she opened it. She called Ikli over (he lives right next door), and he and I helped push the snake out to a position where he could kill it with his machete. After he stuck it in the head with the machete, I told him to cut the head completely off. He didn’t want to, because he said that if you cut off a snake’s head, that will make more snakes come to that same area. That is an interesting superstition that I had not heard before. I made a mental note to explore that particular belief more at a later date.
The new modem didn’t work, just like the old one, so we had to lower the satellite dish to the ground and run tests on it down there. The tech decided he wanted to work late into the night, and we didn’t want him working on the roof at night, as it would be dangerous and slippery, so having the dish on the ground would make for much easier troubleshooting. I stayed with him most of the time to be able to help if necessary, although he pretty much did all the work. After about 8 pm, he told me he would just keep on working that night until he got it going, and so I could go home. At about 9:30 Elise called over to us to tell us that he had managed to finally connect to the satellite. It turned out that in our location, there happens to be some other satellite at the exact same azimuth, although a slightly different elevation, and he had been homing in on that one instead of the correct one. Once he and his home office were able to get that cleared up, we were able to get the internet back up and running.
We did not see Lani or her companions on the bus or on the hike, but that was because they took a different bus than the one the tech was on. We probably just missed them.
Day 8 – Tuesday – The tech was up early and re-installing the satellite dish on Elise’s roof so that he could have it all set up and hike out in time to catch the last bus going to Puerto Princesa. He got the connection going, and everything looked good. It took all morning, but he finally managed to be able to leave at about 10:15 am. He had a lot of walking – 4 days in a row walking to or from our place to town, about 3 hours, along with a 7 hour bus ride! He must have been exhausted.
I was finally able to download the 250 emails or so that I had received in the last 2 weeks, and Ginny was able to do the same. We are still sorting through them all.
This afternoon I went up to Ehud for the first time since I had been back. Raji had said he was going to be there, but apparently he was fishing the whole time. I spent a lot of time talking to 3 of the tribal ladies and one of the tribal men in the village before coming home.
Day 9 – Wednesday – today – my first “free” day since we have been back. When I say “free”, I only mean that I didn’t have anything that was pressing with an immediate need today. My plan was to do 2 hours of language review this morning and then press on with my other work, like writing this journal. I have several high priority projects that I have to focus on before I will be able to get back into full time language, but just being here and being around the tribal people gives some good exposure. We had a ton of weeds around the house, way too much for me to be able to clear on my own, so some of the tribal ladies came by to help (for pay of course, which they like). It is important to keep the weeds down around the house in order to prevent snakes from coming into the house.
We received a text message from Sarah’s dorm parents this morning that said Sarah was throwing up and was sick. This is always something that challenges our faith – to be able to know that our kids are being well taken care of while we are away. We do believe they are and are thankful for the dorm parents taking care of their needs. However, it is still a challenge of faith to not be able to be there when your own child is sick. This is one of the sacrifices we make for the Gospel, and so we give it to the Lord.
We have had some time in between the busy-ness to reflect on our future and the things going on here in the tribe. We pray for the continued efforts our partner is making in writing the Gospel lessons, as this is an enormous task and a tremendous responsibility. I have many projects to do in the next few weeks, and I hope I can push through them all quickly in order to be able to get back into language study sooner rather than later. Lord willing, when the time comes to teach the Gospel, my language will be high enough to help communicate understanding to the Palawanos, even if I am not the one doing the actual teaching.
In the afternoon, I dug up some cassava to cook for the dog, and dried out my peanuts that I harvested the first day. I will re-plant the peanuts soon. Then I sat down to write this journal. Wow, now I am finished. It has been a long week. Praise God for his goodness, and may He make Sarah better, and may He still my heart with peace about that.
2/3/2011
Last night after dinner, Ikli came by and invited me to go out and see a palumak. This is when the river fish are schooling to spawn in a certain shallow area of the river, and the tribal folks take advantage of this by catching lots of them in their nets. So we hiked down to the river. When we got close to the area, we turned off our flashlights and got very quiet. It was a bit precarious, wading through the river in the dark, with only starlight to see by, and trying not to slip on the slippery rocks underneath. We managed to make it there, and Ikli pointed out to me the area where the fish had schooled. There was a lot of thrashing about in the water, so we sat down quietly and he got his net ready. Then, quick as a flash, he jumped into the middle of the school and scooped up a ton of fish! He did this 4 times in order to fill his carrying pouch with fish.
In between scooping fish, we were sitting there on a rock in the middle of the river looking up at the stars. This gave us a chance to talk about the Creator God, and how great and mighty He is to make all those stars, as well as everything else. I asked him what he thought about the lessons he was going through with our partner, and he said he was enjoying them. He asked about why there are so many different languages in the world, and we talked about that some as well. On the way back home he said he had heard about tigers, and he was glad there are no tigers in the jungles here in Palawan. I told him that there probably were in the past, but people probably killed them off. He thought that was a good idea, to kill off all the tigers so that they wouldn’t eat children as well as the other animals that people need to eat. I told him that some people think it is bad to kill tigers, and he couldn’t understand why anyone would want to have living tigers.
Here is my journal entry from yesterday and today, after seeing family in Texas over the holidays and having just returned to the tribe. I have changed the names of people and places from my actual journal entry.
2/2/11
Day 1 , Tuesday, 1 week before today - The first day back we entered into our house and the whole thing was covered in mold, from floor to ceiling all over. Every place we stepped there would be mold residue on our feet. We immediately set to work with a mop, filling a bucket with bleach and water and cleaning everything up. It took several hours to mop up the floors, and the bleach water was nasty. While I was mopping, Ginny and Abby were bleaching the walls and cabinets. Raji brought our dog back and told us she was a good dog while we were gone but didn’t eat much dog food. He said she prefers cassava.
A family from downriver brought one of the ladies to us this evening, by the name of Lani. She has been throwing up and cannot eat or drink anything, and is showing signs of cerebral malaria. They also told us that it hurt her really bad to urinate. We started her on a course of chloroquine for malaria and paracetamol to knock the fever down. She was able to swallow the medicine without throwing up, and we also gave her some oral rehydration drink to keep her hydrated.
Day 2 – Wednesday – Ginny opened the clinic and spent the morning there, while I continued to straighten and clean things up. The boxes of supplies for the next few months were mostly emptied. After Ginny returned from the clinic, she spent the afternoon cleaning out the main cupboard – emptying everything and removing all the residue of bugs and things that nested in there while we were gone. It was a tremendous amount of work. Ginny also started homeschool with Abby today.
We checked on Lani in the evening, and even though she was able to take her medicine last night, from about mid-day on today she has not been able to keep anything down. The slightest bit of drink was causing her to throw up, so she has not been able to follow up on her 2nd course of treatment for malaria. We sent word out that we may need to have her flown to the hospital. She also has continued to be in pain while urinating, but has not shown signs of dehydration yet. She has not been able to keep down the antibiotics for a possible UTI.
Day 3 – Thursday – In the morning, we checked on Lani again and her condition did not improve overnight, and is now showing signs of dehydration. We called in the airplane to take her to the hospital in Puerto Princesa. Fortunately one of our co-workers is there now and will be able to attend to her needs. We sent her out with her husband and mother. It was a challenge getting them into the airplane, and this took up all morning.
Got a text from the internet technician that he would be flying into Puerto Princesa on Friday. I told him to make sure and take the early 5 am bus from Puerto Princesa because it is a 3 hour walk to our place once the bus drops him off in Egnew.
I hiked down to Dihuba for the afternoon and talked with Pibak and the other folks there about things. I arranged for Dakisiyo to come with me to town on Saturday to pick up the internet tech. I asked about getting wood cut with a chainsaw and he told me that we needed to go to the Baranggay and get a permit, but that it would not be a problem. He said to let him know before I go so that he can come with me.
Day 4 – Friday – I continued working on straightening my office, and Ginny worked on finishing up the last of the boxes and had ladies come in and help bleach the walls and remaining cabinets. It has taken a tremendous amount of work to clean up from the mold.
The word from our partner is that Lani had both malaria and a kidney infection. They put her on an IV and gave her antibiotics as well as malaria medicine. They are saying she will need at least 2 days in the hospital.
In my office I needed to install a new wire for a 110V connection so that I could run off the small 110V inverter instead of the large 220V inverter when I don’t need a lot of power. This took some time to measure and install. I did a small engineering calculation, and plotted the balance current as a function of light bulb wattage on a double power supply system to determine the correct size light bulb to use as a current limiter. That was fun, reminded me of the old days. I also straightened my office here to be able to be ready for when I can start full time language again, even though I know that won’t be for awhile yet.
Day 5 – Saturday – I hiked down with 3 guys from here to meet the internet technician coming off the bus. When we got to Egnew, because the bus was not going to arrive for another hour and a half, we went to Pibak’s house in town, where Dakisiyo and Tibak’s kids stay and go to school. It is a decent little house with a nice arrangement and a large porch. We talked to the neighbors a bit also, and she had me look at her solar panels and batteries to see if I could fix them. Then she told me the batteries were 8 years old, and I told her that is why they don’t work anymore. Batteries never last that long.
The internet technician arrived by bus, and we were able to hike back up to our place. He spent all afternoon and evening troubleshooting the satellite dish, and could not get it to connect at all. He decided the problem must be the modem, and he called his boss and asked them to send another modem. I stayed with him the whole time just in case he needed anything.
Day 6 – Sunday – the internet technician hiked out in the morning to take the early bus back to Puerto Princesa to pick up the new modem. It is Sunday, and normally we would have had a time of fellowship, but we were arranging things at the last minute because the final decision on whether or not the tech was going to go out was not made until this morning. We had to see if leaving the power on the satellite overnight would make it connect, but it did not. The tech had his azimuth aligned correctly, but the satellite still would not connect.
Ginny and Abby and I were able to spend a lot of good time together today. We were able to go swimming at the swimming hole together where the last flood washed out 2 huge nice areas to swim in. It was glorious. After swimming there for some time, some of the tribal people came out with a net and their spear guns to fish. There were a lot of fish. We helped hold the net while they speared fish and caught lots. I was able to grab 2 fish that got caught in the net, and Ginny was able to grab one. It was a great time to be together and enjoy life here. After that fun afternoon, we went home, showered, and then went over to Elise’s for dinner and some singing. We had a very nice time.
We also got word today that the patient, Lani, was discharged from the hospital and would be coming home on the bus tomorrow. Maybe she will be on the same bus as the internet technician.
Day 7 – Monday – I hike out again in the morning to meet the internet technician at the bus again and bring him back. When we arrived at our place, we ate, and then he immediately went to work again. While he was testing things through the afternoon, Elise screamed as she was cleaning out one of her cabinets. There was a big brown snake curled up in it when she opened it. She called Ikli over (he lives right next door), and he and I helped push the snake out to a position where he could kill it with his machete. After he stuck it in the head with the machete, I told him to cut the head completely off. He didn’t want to, because he said that if you cut off a snake’s head, that will make more snakes come to that same area. That is an interesting superstition that I had not heard before. I made a mental note to explore that particular belief more at a later date.
The new modem didn’t work, just like the old one, so we had to lower the satellite dish to the ground and run tests on it down there. The tech decided he wanted to work late into the night, and we didn’t want him working on the roof at night, as it would be dangerous and slippery, so having the dish on the ground would make for much easier troubleshooting. I stayed with him most of the time to be able to help if necessary, although he pretty much did all the work. After about 8 pm, he told me he would just keep on working that night until he got it going, and so I could go home. At about 9:30 Elise called over to us to tell us that he had managed to finally connect to the satellite. It turned out that in our location, there happens to be some other satellite at the exact same azimuth, although a slightly different elevation, and he had been homing in on that one instead of the correct one. Once he and his home office were able to get that cleared up, we were able to get the internet back up and running.
We did not see Lani or her companions on the bus or on the hike, but that was because they took a different bus than the one the tech was on. We probably just missed them.
Day 8 – Tuesday – The tech was up early and re-installing the satellite dish on Elise’s roof so that he could have it all set up and hike out in time to catch the last bus going to Puerto Princesa. He got the connection going, and everything looked good. It took all morning, but he finally managed to be able to leave at about 10:15 am. He had a lot of walking – 4 days in a row walking to or from our place to town, about 3 hours, along with a 7 hour bus ride! He must have been exhausted.
I was finally able to download the 250 emails or so that I had received in the last 2 weeks, and Ginny was able to do the same. We are still sorting through them all.
This afternoon I went up to Ehud for the first time since I had been back. Raji had said he was going to be there, but apparently he was fishing the whole time. I spent a lot of time talking to 3 of the tribal ladies and one of the tribal men in the village before coming home.
Day 9 – Wednesday – today – my first “free” day since we have been back. When I say “free”, I only mean that I didn’t have anything that was pressing with an immediate need today. My plan was to do 2 hours of language review this morning and then press on with my other work, like writing this journal. I have several high priority projects that I have to focus on before I will be able to get back into full time language, but just being here and being around the tribal people gives some good exposure. We had a ton of weeds around the house, way too much for me to be able to clear on my own, so some of the tribal ladies came by to help (for pay of course, which they like). It is important to keep the weeds down around the house in order to prevent snakes from coming into the house.
We received a text message from Sarah’s dorm parents this morning that said Sarah was throwing up and was sick. This is always something that challenges our faith – to be able to know that our kids are being well taken care of while we are away. We do believe they are and are thankful for the dorm parents taking care of their needs. However, it is still a challenge of faith to not be able to be there when your own child is sick. This is one of the sacrifices we make for the Gospel, and so we give it to the Lord.
We have had some time in between the busy-ness to reflect on our future and the things going on here in the tribe. We pray for the continued efforts our partner is making in writing the Gospel lessons, as this is an enormous task and a tremendous responsibility. I have many projects to do in the next few weeks, and I hope I can push through them all quickly in order to be able to get back into language study sooner rather than later. Lord willing, when the time comes to teach the Gospel, my language will be high enough to help communicate understanding to the Palawanos, even if I am not the one doing the actual teaching.
In the afternoon, I dug up some cassava to cook for the dog, and dried out my peanuts that I harvested the first day. I will re-plant the peanuts soon. Then I sat down to write this journal. Wow, now I am finished. It has been a long week. Praise God for his goodness, and may He make Sarah better, and may He still my heart with peace about that.
2/3/2011
Last night after dinner, Ikli came by and invited me to go out and see a palumak. This is when the river fish are schooling to spawn in a certain shallow area of the river, and the tribal folks take advantage of this by catching lots of them in their nets. So we hiked down to the river. When we got close to the area, we turned off our flashlights and got very quiet. It was a bit precarious, wading through the river in the dark, with only starlight to see by, and trying not to slip on the slippery rocks underneath. We managed to make it there, and Ikli pointed out to me the area where the fish had schooled. There was a lot of thrashing about in the water, so we sat down quietly and he got his net ready. Then, quick as a flash, he jumped into the middle of the school and scooped up a ton of fish! He did this 4 times in order to fill his carrying pouch with fish.
In between scooping fish, we were sitting there on a rock in the middle of the river looking up at the stars. This gave us a chance to talk about the Creator God, and how great and mighty He is to make all those stars, as well as everything else. I asked him what he thought about the lessons he was going through with our partner, and he said he was enjoying them. He asked about why there are so many different languages in the world, and we talked about that some as well. On the way back home he said he had heard about tigers, and he was glad there are no tigers in the jungles here in Palawan. I told him that there probably were in the past, but people probably killed them off. He thought that was a good idea, to kill off all the tigers so that they wouldn’t eat children as well as the other animals that people need to eat. I told him that some people think it is bad to kill tigers, and he couldn’t understand why anyone would want to have living tigers.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Update on Tabung's sickness
Now that I have been with the tribal people one night when the patient is having one of his episodes of sickness, I understand more about why they describe it the way they do.
Night before last, about 7 pm (already dark) they came to our house and asked if I could help attend to young Tabung (he is about 20 years old), as he was beginning to have one of his fits of madness. So I went over there, and at first the young man was huddled with his head down, people around him on all sides. He was coherent for the time being. I put my hand on his forehead, and then I noticed – he was burning up.
The funny thing is we had asked them before if he had a fever, and they said no. At first I didn’t understand why they didn’t notice that he was burning up, but now after having watched one of the fits I do. When the fit of madness begins, they are so focused on holding him down they don’t pay much attention to anything else.
Here is what happened. He started to tense up and his eyes got real big and wide. Everyone jumped on him, with 2 or 3 people holding each limb and one person holding his head from behind. He would try and grab and bite at people but was restrained. While people were holding him down, the one who was holding him by the head from behind would yell and spit at what he believed was the spirit affecting the patient. In the corner the older shaman was continuously talking and commanding the spirit affecting the patient to leave.
As I watched, it occurred to me that a high fever with fits of madness in a malaria prone area most likely equals cerebral malaria. So I went back to our house and we looked it up in the book. Sure enough, most of the symptoms matched. So we brought him chloroquine to take. In between his fits of madness he would be coherent enough to talk and take the medicine, so he was able to swallow it down.
As I write this, the chloroquine seems to have had the desired effect, though he is not completely well yet. All the people in the village believe he is better because the shaman chased the bad spirit away with a machete. Please continue to pray for Tabung and the others, because there is a spiritual battle going on for the hearts and minds of the Palawanos.
Blessings in Christ to you all
Night before last, about 7 pm (already dark) they came to our house and asked if I could help attend to young Tabung (he is about 20 years old), as he was beginning to have one of his fits of madness. So I went over there, and at first the young man was huddled with his head down, people around him on all sides. He was coherent for the time being. I put my hand on his forehead, and then I noticed – he was burning up.
The funny thing is we had asked them before if he had a fever, and they said no. At first I didn’t understand why they didn’t notice that he was burning up, but now after having watched one of the fits I do. When the fit of madness begins, they are so focused on holding him down they don’t pay much attention to anything else.
Here is what happened. He started to tense up and his eyes got real big and wide. Everyone jumped on him, with 2 or 3 people holding each limb and one person holding his head from behind. He would try and grab and bite at people but was restrained. While people were holding him down, the one who was holding him by the head from behind would yell and spit at what he believed was the spirit affecting the patient. In the corner the older shaman was continuously talking and commanding the spirit affecting the patient to leave.
As I watched, it occurred to me that a high fever with fits of madness in a malaria prone area most likely equals cerebral malaria. So I went back to our house and we looked it up in the book. Sure enough, most of the symptoms matched. So we brought him chloroquine to take. In between his fits of madness he would be coherent enough to talk and take the medicine, so he was able to swallow it down.
As I write this, the chloroquine seems to have had the desired effect, though he is not completely well yet. All the people in the village believe he is better because the shaman chased the bad spirit away with a machete. Please continue to pray for Tabung and the others, because there is a spiritual battle going on for the hearts and minds of the Palawanos.
Blessings in Christ to you all
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
“My nephew tried to eat my kid last night, we were really scared…”
My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. ~John 10:27-28
In times of uncertainty, fear of the future about the economy, and a concern for the direction the world is growing, there is one thing that we who believe have as a constant source of hope. The Word of God is certain, and God’s promises are sure – a promise of eternal life, joy, and fellowship with Him for those who believe. We also have a promise of protection from evil (as quoted above), though we may go through trials. We can hold to these promises, even if the economy turns sour, or conflict in this world runs its course, or trials come upon us in this life.
The Palawano that are around us do not have any such hope or certainty of eternal life, or protection from evil. This is a short story of an incident that happened in our village last week.
We were just getting ready to settle down for the night when we heard shouting and banging coming from the tribal house on the other side of the path.
Screams. Bang, smash. Yelling. Someone running through the grass. Shouting. Quiet for awhile. Someone leaving the house with a flashlight, heading down the path. 10 minutes later 2 people coming back toward the house with flashlights. More yelling. Shouts. Someone running up and down the hill behind our house with a flashlight, shouting, looking for something. More banging. Then quiet.
So the next morning I got up to investigate. I went over there. Before I had a chance to ask anything, they told me all about it, in very excited voices –
Egsa nemulpug si Tabung kegabi! Megkabi kenye meyaát teaw. Kimputan ye si Lirin, kinaget ye ne tuldo, empeda inagew ko kenye. Ba kaya pe pinegewidan dye kemenaken ko, esta ba embe surungan ye et lumpád beke melegiu! Kela takut kay kegabi.
Roughly translated, that means–
Egsa, Tabung was demonized last night! A bad spirit got close to him. He grabbed Lirin and bit her finger, but I quickly grabbed her back and pulled away. If they hadn’t held down my nephew, I don’t know where he would have gone flying off and running away! We were really scared last night.
As I investigated more of the story, it became clear they were thinking there was some kind of demonic possession involved here. The same thing actually happened to another girl about a week before, but with less violent activity. The symptoms are that at night the person wakes up, but his or her mind is gone. Sometimes a person with this kind of sickness will go around trying to grab people and eat them, and sometimes they will just run away. Sometimes they will do both. They said that the young man this time had seen a giant spirit called a Lenggam, and it took his mind away and was making him attack people. Then he would try to run off into the forest. I talked to the young man in the morning and he was sitting there feeling ok, but he seemed a bit embarrassed because he knew this was happening to him. I asked him if he remembered anything and he said no.
They say that with this kind of sickness if the person is not treated real soon, they will be carried off by the bad spirit into the jungle and nobody will ever see them again. They actually believe the afflicted person will be picked up like an eagle picks up a snake and carried over the mountains somewhere where he will be eaten. The solution is to get a powerful shaman to remove the sickness. There is a shaman who lives a 2 day hike away, and they say he can see the bad spirits, so he knows how to get exorcise them.
Well, this wasn’t the end. The next night there was a wedding at the village downriver from us. Lots and lots of people went there. The next day when everyone came back, I asked around to find out if anything happened. Sure enough, Tabung had been afflicted again the same way. Only this time it was more powerful. He had grabbed one of the strongest guys in the village and bitten down hard on his hand. Several people grabbed him and forced his jaws open so the other guy could pull his hand out (I saw the bruises later, and he said it hurts). Lots of people were there and witnessed the event. They all said it took about 14 people to hold him down until the sickness passed. When there were only 10 people holding him down, he was too strong for them and got away and ran off into the jungle, but he came back, because the sickness had not yet fully overpowered him. More people grabbed him and held him down until the sickness passed.
So the next day the father took the young man to an albolariyo in town (an albolariyo is a folk healer and is not a tribal person). The father is not Palawano, but is married to one, so I assume that is the reason he went to an albolaryo instead of taking the 2 day trip to another village where the powerful shaman lives. The albolariyo did some kind of rituals to cast away the demon, and afterwards they brought the boy back home. I asked him, and he said he felt the spirit leave when the albolariyo was doing chants over him. As soon as they came back they prepared a pasasalamat, a feast as a thank offering to Empu, which is their name for God. The local shaman explained to me that in a pasasalamat they are only calling on Empu, but in other ceremonies like an umanat, they call on multiple different spirits.
I talked to Tabung after the feast and he said he felt better, but his eyes told me he was still scared. He has bruises and scabs all over his neck from where they had to hold him down.
This boy, or young man, Tabung, is very vulnerable right now. His father practices a religion that teaches that they have a right to abuse Christians, animists, or anyone else who is not of the same religion. His father has also murdered people in the past, but has in the last few years seemingly tried to start living a life settled down and raising his family in peace. Yet there is no peace in that family. Tabung is the 3rd oldest, and both the older 2 siblings have had this same kind of sickness/ spiritual attack on them in the past. We will be teaching the Gospel soon to these people, but we expect the father will forbid anyone in his family from listening to the teaching because it is not of his “superior” religion. Yet the only thing that will deliver them from the darkness they are in is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Please pray for the Palawanos as God prepares their hearts to hear the Gospel for the first time soon. Pray also for our partners as they prepare the Gospel lessons, that they will be clear. Pray that Tabung and their family will be allowed to hear the teaching one day. Pray for protection for Tabung from the evil spirits that seek to do him harm. Pray that the Palawanos will soon be delivered from darkness into the glorious light of Christ. Pray that our language and culture studies will be effective so that we can communicate clearly with the Palawano people.
That is the biggest event from Palawano land recently. We are so thankful for your prayers and support as we continue to look to the Lord and study the Palawano language and culture! May God bless each and every one of you!
Blessings in Christ
click the pictures below to view a larger version in your browser
At the pasasalamat feast to give thanks for deliverance from the demonic spirit (faces are obscured for posting)
Tribal kids are fascinated by my drill press
In times of uncertainty, fear of the future about the economy, and a concern for the direction the world is growing, there is one thing that we who believe have as a constant source of hope. The Word of God is certain, and God’s promises are sure – a promise of eternal life, joy, and fellowship with Him for those who believe. We also have a promise of protection from evil (as quoted above), though we may go through trials. We can hold to these promises, even if the economy turns sour, or conflict in this world runs its course, or trials come upon us in this life.
The Palawano that are around us do not have any such hope or certainty of eternal life, or protection from evil. This is a short story of an incident that happened in our village last week.
We were just getting ready to settle down for the night when we heard shouting and banging coming from the tribal house on the other side of the path.
Screams. Bang, smash. Yelling. Someone running through the grass. Shouting. Quiet for awhile. Someone leaving the house with a flashlight, heading down the path. 10 minutes later 2 people coming back toward the house with flashlights. More yelling. Shouts. Someone running up and down the hill behind our house with a flashlight, shouting, looking for something. More banging. Then quiet.
So the next morning I got up to investigate. I went over there. Before I had a chance to ask anything, they told me all about it, in very excited voices –
Egsa nemulpug si Tabung kegabi! Megkabi kenye meyaát teaw. Kimputan ye si Lirin, kinaget ye ne tuldo, empeda inagew ko kenye. Ba kaya pe pinegewidan dye kemenaken ko, esta ba embe surungan ye et lumpád beke melegiu! Kela takut kay kegabi.
Roughly translated, that means–
Egsa, Tabung was demonized last night! A bad spirit got close to him. He grabbed Lirin and bit her finger, but I quickly grabbed her back and pulled away. If they hadn’t held down my nephew, I don’t know where he would have gone flying off and running away! We were really scared last night.
As I investigated more of the story, it became clear they were thinking there was some kind of demonic possession involved here. The same thing actually happened to another girl about a week before, but with less violent activity. The symptoms are that at night the person wakes up, but his or her mind is gone. Sometimes a person with this kind of sickness will go around trying to grab people and eat them, and sometimes they will just run away. Sometimes they will do both. They said that the young man this time had seen a giant spirit called a Lenggam, and it took his mind away and was making him attack people. Then he would try to run off into the forest. I talked to the young man in the morning and he was sitting there feeling ok, but he seemed a bit embarrassed because he knew this was happening to him. I asked him if he remembered anything and he said no.
They say that with this kind of sickness if the person is not treated real soon, they will be carried off by the bad spirit into the jungle and nobody will ever see them again. They actually believe the afflicted person will be picked up like an eagle picks up a snake and carried over the mountains somewhere where he will be eaten. The solution is to get a powerful shaman to remove the sickness. There is a shaman who lives a 2 day hike away, and they say he can see the bad spirits, so he knows how to get exorcise them.
Well, this wasn’t the end. The next night there was a wedding at the village downriver from us. Lots and lots of people went there. The next day when everyone came back, I asked around to find out if anything happened. Sure enough, Tabung had been afflicted again the same way. Only this time it was more powerful. He had grabbed one of the strongest guys in the village and bitten down hard on his hand. Several people grabbed him and forced his jaws open so the other guy could pull his hand out (I saw the bruises later, and he said it hurts). Lots of people were there and witnessed the event. They all said it took about 14 people to hold him down until the sickness passed. When there were only 10 people holding him down, he was too strong for them and got away and ran off into the jungle, but he came back, because the sickness had not yet fully overpowered him. More people grabbed him and held him down until the sickness passed.
So the next day the father took the young man to an albolariyo in town (an albolariyo is a folk healer and is not a tribal person). The father is not Palawano, but is married to one, so I assume that is the reason he went to an albolaryo instead of taking the 2 day trip to another village where the powerful shaman lives. The albolariyo did some kind of rituals to cast away the demon, and afterwards they brought the boy back home. I asked him, and he said he felt the spirit leave when the albolariyo was doing chants over him. As soon as they came back they prepared a pasasalamat, a feast as a thank offering to Empu, which is their name for God. The local shaman explained to me that in a pasasalamat they are only calling on Empu, but in other ceremonies like an umanat, they call on multiple different spirits.
I talked to Tabung after the feast and he said he felt better, but his eyes told me he was still scared. He has bruises and scabs all over his neck from where they had to hold him down.
This boy, or young man, Tabung, is very vulnerable right now. His father practices a religion that teaches that they have a right to abuse Christians, animists, or anyone else who is not of the same religion. His father has also murdered people in the past, but has in the last few years seemingly tried to start living a life settled down and raising his family in peace. Yet there is no peace in that family. Tabung is the 3rd oldest, and both the older 2 siblings have had this same kind of sickness/ spiritual attack on them in the past. We will be teaching the Gospel soon to these people, but we expect the father will forbid anyone in his family from listening to the teaching because it is not of his “superior” religion. Yet the only thing that will deliver them from the darkness they are in is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Please pray for the Palawanos as God prepares their hearts to hear the Gospel for the first time soon. Pray also for our partners as they prepare the Gospel lessons, that they will be clear. Pray that Tabung and their family will be allowed to hear the teaching one day. Pray for protection for Tabung from the evil spirits that seek to do him harm. Pray that the Palawanos will soon be delivered from darkness into the glorious light of Christ. Pray that our language and culture studies will be effective so that we can communicate clearly with the Palawano people.
That is the biggest event from Palawano land recently. We are so thankful for your prayers and support as we continue to look to the Lord and study the Palawano language and culture! May God bless each and every one of you!
Blessings in Christ
click the pictures below to view a larger version in your browser
At the pasasalamat feast to give thanks for deliverance from the demonic spirit (faces are obscured for posting)
Tribal kids are fascinated by my drill press
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