The Philippines Part Three

We landed in Cebu City on the Island of Cebu. Kind of like New York, New York. Only a lot less people and I looked tall there :) We went out to the camp ground but had several stops along the way. One stop was here with John. He works with a church here, where the people make bracelets out of rolled up magazine paper and fishing line to help support themselves while they work on raising goats, worms, or
vegetables to support themselves.
The little girl in the center of the picture was 5 and she would take the beads that have already been made and put them on the fishing line to make the bracelet. Her little sister in the corner was helping too, she was around 3 years old. They family would make them and Salvador (the missionary there) would buy them, send them to the U.S. to churches to sell to help raise money for the church in the Philippines and fund raising events they have. Like raising money to visit the Philippines:) No, I'm kidding. Any church needing to raising money for any trips he would encourage them to sell these. [Okay here is my shameless plug, If you have a church event and need to raise money and looking for a good way to do that please leave a comment and I will get you in contact with him] What is interesting it that the church buys these beads even if they do not have anywhere to send them yet. They have to make sure that these people can eat. They are trying to help these people send their kids to school instead of working in the rice fields. I think he is pretty much always sitting on about 10,000 of these beads. Wow.





My memory is a little foggy on this, but if I remember correctly a Mom and Dad with 4 kids live here in this house. They may have had more kids I can't remember. But one of the children has a disability and sits in that wheel chair all day. He can stand with assistance, but walking for him is more like carrying him with his legs touching the ground. The good news is that up until maybe a year ago he did not have that wheel chair. He just laid on the ground all the time. Now he can be outside with his siblings.
The house does have electricity. The mom was watching TV while making beads. A lot of people had TV's over there, even in homes smaller than this. When this picture was taken I was inside getting the tour. That big tall white guy outside is David. They called him Goliath over there. They thought I was a lot closer to the Biblical David's size and he was closer to the O.T. Goliath. So the name stuck. He was called Goliath almost as much as David while there.
Well anyway, the reason he was standing outside is that the floor was so weak that I told him it would be best to not come in. I was a little concerned about my 5'8 self falling through the floor. I believe he is 6 foot 2-4 inches tall. Not Philippino size for sure!
The family did not own this home, they rented it for about $10 a month. With the condition of the wood the house is only going to last a few more years, then they will have to move. The landlords there are not under obligation to fix problems like that. They will just keep renting it until it falls then build something new and charge more for it. Strange.