Baguio City, A Lesson Learned, and A Tearful Goodbye

On Monday, Ana and I packed up into a van with the five sisters and four older girls. We left at 5 am for Baguio City- the summer capital of the Philippines. It is called the summer capital because it is cooler in Baguio. The city is held within large mountains. To get to the city, you have to drive up a mountain through windy roads. We passed many natural rain falls and the views of the mountains were breathtaking. We went up one mountain to find that a landslide was blocking the road to Baguio. So, we went all the way back down that mountain and up another. This second mountain was foggy. The fog became so dense at parts that it was hard to see the car in front of us. Visibility was low, but this did not stop our driver from passing a truck in front of us by going into the lane with oncoming traffic! It is safe to say that I said more than one Hail Mary, praying we got up that second mountain safely.

After finally arriving in Baguio, we went to see “The Mansion” which is the summer home of the President of the Philippines.

Next stop was mines view park where we got to dress in traditional Igorot clothing, ride a pink pony, and look at wonderful views of the city. Igorot in Tagalog means “mountaineer”. The Igorot people are a native tribe of people that inhabit the mountains of Luzon.

 

Our next stop was a visit to the sisters of the good shepherd. With the help of college aged students, the sisters make assorted goods. They are known for their strawberry jam and peanut and cashew brittle. I bought so much peanut brittle to share with the staff at Bethany and to bring some home! Wait till you guys at home try it! Hopefully there will still be some left…

 

We visited the famous strawberry farms of Baguio. The strawberries were already harvested by the time we got there, but we got to try some delicious strawberry taho and fresh strawberry ice cream.

Strawberry Taho

 

Our last stop was a grotto to Our Lady of Lourdes that was built by the Jesuits. You have to climb 250 plus steps to reach the top of the grotto. Maybe it was just the sky that day, but the grotto looked as if it was right there in the clouds and the wooden chapel beside the grotto looked just as breathtaking in the clouds.

Walking our way down from the grotto

The whole day was marked by laughter. There wasn’t a time when we were not laughing and joking with each other. Even our sing -a -longs in the long van ride (It takes about 5 hours to get to Baguio) ended in us all laughing. What I loved most about the day was that I had no idea what was going on. Now, let me explain what I mean. I knew we were going to Baguio and I had heard the sisters talk about what we might do there, but I really did not know the plan for the day. I did not know where we were going first or last. I did not know where we were going to eat or what we were going to do about the rain. I really did not know how we were going to make it up that second foggy mountain alive or back down. At one point I tried to find out what the plan for the day was, but the language barrier and God, I think, did not make that possible. I just went with the day, whatever it brought, and I am so happy that I did.

At home, it easy for me to spend a whole day trying to plan the rest of it or trying to plan the next day that I lose the moment I am presently in. I have only been in the Philippines for seven weeks so this may be a stretch, but the people here do not do that. There is something so beautiful about the culture here and it is it’s simplicity. In my time here, I haven’t not seen or heard of any of the sisters getting worried that we are an hour late to a party, which happened often. I haven’t seen one of the staff people stress about the work they needed to get done or a deadline they had to make. In fact, if I needed help with something, they all dropped what they were doing to help me. If food or snacks were ever brought out, everypne stopped what they were doing to eat and chat for a little bit, even if it was there fourth “merienda” of the day.

And it is not just something that I have observed with the adults here, but with the children too. The children leave at 6:45 to get to school for 7:00. One morning, I left my room at 6:30 thinking that most of the children would be ready to go by then. When I walked into the dining area, some of the girls still had not finished breakfast and most were not dressed for school. One little girl, in particular, Rosevhil, was being very slow. Inside my head,  I went into mom mode or panic mode, whatever you want to call it. I went to the girl’s room and helped those who were getting ready, but Rosevhil now was still in the kitchen washing her plate, very thoroughly. No one was rushing her along, saying she was going to be late. I got her uniform together and her shoes so that when she finally did come into the room, she could get dressed quickly and get to the car service. I think she might have washed her plate for seven or ten minutes. Inside, I was again getting frustrated and worried. She was going to be late! When she walked into the room, I handed her her uniform, her shoes, her backpack, her snack and her lunch bag. She looked at me like I was crazy. She was not worried at all. She would get to school, so why rush? And she would be on time, because the bus service wouldn’t leave without her. As I sat on the steps and waved at the bus as the children left for school, I laughed at myself. Rosevhil would have made that bus whether I was there to hand her uniform and backpack or not. She was not worried about it and neither was anyone else. It is amazing and I can’t believe I am going to say this, but life here happens and no one worries or stresses out about it happening. It is the most beautiful thing and it is sad that life at home is not like that for some people. I know, at times, it is not like that for me.

The simplicity of life, the pure joy of just being and enjoy the company of whoever is around is something that I am going to keep with me and remember from my time here in the Philippines.

I will be leaving Bethany in a few hours to start my journey home. It will be a sad day and I am sure there will be many tears on my part. This is definitely not my last visit to the Philippines. I have made a place in my heart for all the children, babies, sisters, nanays, tatays, and all the people I have met here. The Philippines is beautiful and so are it’s people.

Last night, I tried Balut with the sisters. Sr. Analyn describes it as an “aborted chick” and that is exactly what it is. It is a delicacy here in the Philippines and is supposed to be very good for you, but you can only eat one or two eggs, more than that is not good for you.

First you have to sip the “juice” out of the egg

Then you peel back the shell to find the baby chick and the yolk

After dinner, I was surprised with a little gathering of the children. They sang one of their favorite songs to me, “Let it go” from the movie Frozen and they presented me with flowers. “Let it go”. The perfect way to end my stay here in the Philippines because if there is one thing I have learned here it is to “let it go”. Let go of your worries, let go of your fears and anxieties, let it go- whatever it is that you are holding on to. Let it go and give it to Him who can handle all things.

 

 

Love from the Philippines for the very last time,

Gabrielle

Selfie with the boys

Dancing with the girls for some visitors

Christian! I am going to miss swinging with him!