Life at Lada

Our adventures in the Philippines have taken a slight different course than we had expected.  Because of continued threats on our island we decided that until the situation changes we need to live elsewhere.  NTM has been gracious to allow us to stay at one of their flight bases in an empty house.  We are staying at the southern end of Palawan at Lada.  It is on the road system so we just take a four hour van ride from Puerto Princesa to reach our home. Brooke’s Point is the town very near our place and we can get just about any supplies we need there.  From here we can keep a close watch on what is happening on the island.

Being here at Lada has given us an opportunity to make up a lot of school that the kids had missed during our unexpected break.  We have had such a year of unexpected delays and breaks in our school year.  The kids have taken to the task of completing their school year now that we have settled for now.

The grassy airstrip provides a wonderful place for reading, inspirational writing, and a place to run and play. 

Steve is using the opportunity while we are here to increase his language skills in Tagalog.  He uses a computer course as well as conversing with local people in the market and elsewhere. 

The house here is a little run down, but liveable.  We’ve had to do a few repairs such as replacing the dining room posts and floor supports.  The wood was totally eaten by termites and ants.  Once it was torn apart we couldn't believe it could support any weight at all!  It is so nice to have a sturdy floor in the dining room as it is one of the most frequently used rooms in the house, for meals as well as school.

The kids are always so helpful with chores and easily settle into our normal routine no matter where we are staying!  For each meal I have two helpers-they help with meal preparation as well as doing dishes and cleaning up.  The same team of two will do breakfast for a week and then the crews rotate to helping with a different meal the next week.  Everyone washes their own dishes at each meal!  I love this picture of the kids all lined up ready to do their dishes!!

Alyssum's Birthday

Alyssum turned 9 the beginning of April.  We celebrated with Uncle Randy, Aunt Marla, and cousins Nate, Anna, and Omega, and Uncle Dennis and Aunt Jeanie.  She had a cake decorated with Mentos and butterflies!  It was a fun party for a sweet girl!

More Alaskan Visitors!

We were so thrilled to be welcoming more visitors from our hometown in Alaska!  Dennis and Jeanie's daughter, Jenny, and her daughter, as well as two young ladies from our church, Marissa and Alecia. They were also planning to visit us down in the tribe, but plans were changed for them as well.  So we greeted them at the airport in Puerto Princesa and enjoyed the time with them in the small city!

They also enjoyed a variety of things while on Palawan.  The first being a three day trip into a tribal area.  Ann Marie was invited to go along on this trip...here is the trip from her perspective...

The day is Saturday March 12^th and we were heading for the village of Lumambong, which is located on the northern part of Palawan.  We, Aunt Jeanie, Jenny, Marissa, Alecia, Sela, and I, got up at 3:30 a.m. to get ready for our long day ahead. Our backpacks were packed the night before so we ready for the van that came for us at 4 a.m. The van took us to the terminal to pick up other passengers. We used this time to have an early breakfast of granola and yogurt. The van, which was not very big and the six of us were comfortable in, got packed full of more people. We had a squishy ride up to Roxas. There was a bathroom break and the girls got to experience squatty potties, beggars looking for some money, and vendors trying to sell  their jewelry! We got back on our crowded van for another two hours; the entire van ride was about four hours.

 We finally made it to a small village where a couple of boats were waiting for us. The boats were small; one was no wider than two people hips put together and the other was a little bit bigger but not by much! Most of our luggage was put in the bigger boat with Aunt Jeanie, Jenny, Marissa, and Sela. Alecia and I were in the smaller boat. It was a wavy, wet, and cold ride even though the sun was shining it didn’t warm us up. And we all got sunburn; some were really bad and some not so bad. The big boat had engine problems and they were stuck for a while bobbing up and down in the water. Our boat was quite a ways before our captain noticed and we turned around to give a helping hand. When we arrived they were bailing water from the bottom of their boat. The engine eventually started but they had a couple more breakdowns before they were on their way. The waves were huge and our boat was small so Alecia and I were drenched with salt water. The boat ride is usually one hour but due to our engine problems it took 1 ½ hours.

When we were almost there we passed up a boat that had a family in it going the other way. We didn’t think much about it until we landed and our hostess, Chris Pollock, said that the family had just brought two drowned kids. They asked if Chris could do anything but it was too late. It was a very emotional time for some.

The next day, Sunday, we went to the local church and worshipped with the native Christians. They were very friendly toward us and they were glad we came to visit them. Later, Alecia, Marissa, Jaimee (Chris’ daughter) and I went on the beach to play with some of the kids. Jaimee was our translator so everything worked out well! We also saw a boy with a third degree burn and it was really gross looking!

Our departure day was on Monday, so we got up bright and early again to wait for the jeepney. We all voted against going on the boat again, none of us wanted to get wet and stay wet all day long. We picked up a whole bunch of school kids along the way and dropped them off at school. Their ride was free. Some of our bags smelled like fish because they loaded anchovies with our entire luggage on the top! Smelly bags!! The driver and his apprentices had to change a tire and they did it with all of us still in the jeepney! Our ride was dusty and bumpy but we were sure glad we didn’t go for the boat ride.

The jeepney dropped us off at Roxas and we quickly found a van that will take us down to Puerto Princesa. This was a bigger van and we weren’t quite as cramped as last time. Our ride back was uneventful. Once we reached Puerto we had to find a jeepney that will take us to our last destination and that proved to be a chore. A guy offered to take us on his tricycle cab. So all six of us and our luggage cramped in a tiny cab.  Talk about a tight squeeze!! We made it there slowly but surely with all of belongings still intact!

I’m glad I went with them; it was fun experience with Jenny and the girls. I’m also glad they came to see what we do and where we live. 

After their weekend in the tribe, we spent the rest of the week showing them different things around Puerto Princesa.  Because the New Tribes guest house had previous reservations, we had had to find other accommodations.  Simon and Jinky at Bountiful Harvest offered their place to us and they had enough room for our large group!  While staying there Steve was able to share with Jenny and the girls about the challenge of gardening on our island and the things we have learned about improving the soil for better crops.  We also visited the Butterfly Garden which has many of the butterflies and other crawly creatures we have on our island.  A visit to the beach, tourist shops, and an afternoon at the foot spa were part of the fun!

Our week with them in Puerto Princesa ended when all 14 of us boarded an airplane for Manila!  Jenny and girls had another four days in Manila before they returned to Alaska.  Ann Marie and Ethan enjoyed the teenage rowdy time with Marissa, Alecia, Nathaniel, Anna, and Omega.  Lots of laughter and fun at the mall and at the Weissers!

We are so grateful for the time Jenny, Marissa, Alecia, and Sela shared with us!  Lots of laughter and memories made!  Thank you for coming and encouraging us!

HappyBirthday Ann Marie!

She is 19 and all grown up!  We had a fun birthday celebration with Opa and Oma (Steve's parents), Cedrick, Jeanie, and of course our family!  There is always a party wherever we are all at!

Dinner out at our favorite place in Puerto Princesa, Chicken Inato's!  Barbecued chicken and mango shakes for everyone!

Ann Marie opened her gifts and enjoyed getting things from family here and in Alaska!

The boys had fun earlier in the day making dessert for Ann Marie's birthday!  Cake and cookies were very delicious!

Alaskan Visitors!

We have had our first visitors...family from Alaska!  Steve's parents, Al and Marcia Veldstra, came, along with Cedrick, one of Steve's nephews.  Cedrick is the same age as Tyler and the boys had great times together!

We have been anticipating our first visitors for many months now and of course, had done a lot of work around our house the last two weeks prior to their upcoming arrival (the clay oven being one of those projects).  Steve went to Puerto Princesa a week early so he could buy supplies.  One of the big ticket items was a new generator as we had been getting by with an old one that was barely hanging on...thankfully it made it thru Steve being gone! He also wanted to buy some agriculture supplies since there was a big boat heading down our way.  Amazingly he was able to get all he needed and get it all on the boat within two days of arriving in Puerto!  Then he purchased a motorcycle, got his driver's license, purchased groceries including fresh meat which had to packaged and frozen.  Anyways, a lot of work goes into getting our supplies for what we need on the island.


Steve met his parents and nephew at the airport and they had one day in Puerto before the day long trip down to our home.  The evening before they were to come down...our plans dramatically changed!  Down on the island we were told of a night time roaming group of armed men in our area. Not knowing who they were or of their intent we made the decision to leave the island rather than bring our visitors to the island. So Stacey and the kids prepared the house for leaving, each packed a backpack, and we left early the next morning while it was still dark.  Scary times for all!  We had a very rough ride on the pomboat and were so thankful when land approached.  Steve met us in a rented van and we all rode together for the five hours to Puerto.  


Needless to say we were all very disappointed in the change of plans, but so thankful to be safe and all together.  It took Steve and I several days to regroup and change our thinking for our time with his parents.  Instead of working around our house on agriculture projects and showing them life on our island, we were now playing tourist in Puerto Princesa.  It is a beautiful place to be on vacation, just wasn't quite what we had in mind!  Thankfully the New Tribes guest house in Puerto had two rooms available for the two weeks they were going to be there...so that became our home away from home!


So...some of the things we did while on "vacation"!!  

Rented a van with a driver to take us to Sabang and the Underground River.  The Underground River is one of the seven wonders of nature.  It is an 8.5km underground river, but you can only take a boat up 4.5km of the river.  The tour took us 1.5km in the cave and up the river.  Very interesting with all the formations inside the cave and the thousands of bats on the ceiling!  We were all wearing hard hats...probably more to protect us from falling bat guano than anything else!  We spent two days in Sabang and the kids enjoyed the beach and surf!  

We also visited the Butterfly Garden...so fun to see the same butterflies that we see down on the island.  So many big, beautiful, colorful butterflies! Another fun feature of the Butterfly Garden is being able to observe a butterfly emerge from a chrysalis.  We got to watch several emerge and unfold their wings to dry and eventually try out their new wings! They also had many other big "bugs"...like scorpions, centipedes, millipedes, and geckos.

Kailee loves the butterflies!

Guess who likes to hold the scorpion?

We took many walks around and through Puerto, swam at a nearby beach, visited a couple agriculture places, went to church, did some touristy shopping, took them to our favorite places to eat, and so much more!

Even though our plans had changed and we were so disappointed over not taking our visitors down to our home...we are so thankful they came to see us and spend the time with us!  We were certainly sad to see them go as we miss all of our family in Alaska!

Clay Oven...by Ann Marie

You’ve probably never experienced the joy and frustration of making a clay oven. It’s a long and never ending chore; well actually, it has to end at some point. Here’s a brief summary of how we made it.

The oven began with the building of the stand where the oven was to sit. Ethan dug the six holes where the posts were to find a resting place. From there the cement was poured into them. While this was going on, we had some big hard wood logs cut for us. They were put up and from there the platform was built. It is really sturdy.

While this was progressing, the clay, white sand, and black sand were collected from their various locations.  Dad hired a group of guys to do the hauling for us. Some went to Kamarisahan to get the clay, a difficult job I was told; Kaha, our neighbor, went to Indalawan to collect white sand; and he gathered the black sand from our beach. So our yard and deck was filled with all these heaps. We found a few unlucky crabs in the white sand. 

With all this paraphernalia we are ready to begin.  A concrete box was built on the platform and a day or so later it was dry. Ethan filled the box with some white sand and walked on it to make it more tightly packed; an inch or so was left. Bricks, which we had bought in Manila ages and ages ago, were laid on the one inch space. We didn’t have enough bricks so Ethan made some more out clay. That sat for some time while Dad did some circular measurements on the bricks.

Finally on Saturday February 12, the fun work began: clay dancing!! We had to mix clay with sand to make a nice mixture. It is a tedious job, and some, like Adams and Alyssum had fun “dancing” on it. Mom and I weren’t there for that first day of work but we were firmly informed that the next day it will be our turn. So on Sunday Uncle Dennis and Aunt Jeanie came over for our little dance party. We got to experience the squishy, soft clay between our toes.

While the clay was being made, Tyler made a sand castle mold out of the white sand. He put some sand on the bricks, add some water, and shaped it up. This went on for quite some time before he had the right shape and size of the mold. There were a few gray clouds overhead so a makeshift roof was made out of a tarp to keep the rain out and our sand castle from collapsing. After that the fun part of putting the clay on the mold began. We had like an assembly line: one was putting clay in a bucket, another hauling it up to the deck, another getting it out of the bucket and putting it on the platform, and still others molding the clay. Before long the first layer was done and it actually looked like it was supposed to! Don’t press too hard or all our work would be futile! After lunch we did some more clay dancing for the second layer. When it was all mixed we applied it to the first layer. Now all we have to do is wait a few days for it dry!

Uncle Dennis came over a few days later and cut a little hole in the clay to get some of the sand out to get a better airflow in there. It worked out well and the oven didn’t collapse. Yeah for us!! He came over the next day and cut a bigger door and this time all the sand came out. Now we can see the inside of our beautiful work! Since we were going to be putting two doors on the oven, the boys and Uncle Dennis added some more clay to form the front door and the smokestack hole. After they were done, the oven was beautified with shells on the front. They add a nice touch to it.

So if you are ever in our neighborhood and want to stop by for a freshly clay oven baked pizza, just drop by at our house. We will be more than happy to serve you. Oh, while you’re at it you could stay for a couple of days to get to know our neighborhood better! You won’t regret it!