Personal Logs For Rick Turske

This page and all of it’s posts will be dedicated to the personal logs for Rick Turske while on the Boracay trip. I will try to update this page every day while on the trip.

7/8/09

Seeing the living conditions in

Manila was eye opening. The houses are made up of tin roofs and what looks like wood. They are built right on top of each other and don’t seem to be very big at all. I would have to say that the tree house we put up would be a luxury apartment for many of the people.

I saw people and kids younger than Geordan or Olivia sitting in the median between roads digging in what appeared to be trash and either sorting it, or looking for something of use.

Then we got to the new airport and you see how nice everything is and how clean it is. You have to wonder how this can be so nice when just up the road a little you have poverty.

The bottle of water I purchased at the airport was less than $1. 35 Piso. That‘s maybe about .75. In the state the same bottle would have been $2-3. Knowing the price would be inflated at any airport, how much would that same bottle be on the street?

I look around and think, these people have no life as we know it in the states. Do they know they have nothing or is this just life here? Surely they see the nice cars go by and the finely dressed people and wonder? I look around at us as Americans dressed in our not so nice clothes and we still outclass most of the people.

It makes me sick thinking about how well we live, and yet we moan and grown when we have to wait or do without. We don’t get what we deserve and we are up in arms. Someone told me the average daily wage here is about 300 paso, 600 if you are skilled labor. That’s about $6 to $12 American a day.

Will seeing this change my behavior? Will I do with less and want less? I doubt it. I might feel guilty for a while, might want less, might even give some away, but in a few months, maybe a year if I’m lucky I’ll revert back into the greedy wanting person I am now.

7/9/09

Got my first good nights sleep. I woke up and have no idea what time it is. Didn’t think about not having a time piece without my cell phone. My computer says it’s 2am, but I don’t think that’s right. I feel like I have slept for a week. Maybe it is 2am and my jet lag just isn’t over yet. Maybe I’ll go back to bed and see if someone comes to get me soon or if I get to sleep longer.

 

Personal Log Saturday The group went snorkeling and island hopping this AM. I decided not to go. I’m not much for snorkeling and I still don’t feel the best. Besides the fact that it’s still raining and I hate to get rained on. I know all of this sounds trivial and most people are thinking, “Are you nuts man?” but if you knew me at all you would say, “Yep figures”.We have completed two days of construction. I have to admit, it’s a lot harder than I thought it would be on the job site. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy doing the work and getting things done, but its hard labor intensive work. I can not imagine the work they did last year. It sounds like they didn’t have a cement mixer so they mixed all the concrete by hand, plus the fact that they were outside in the sun and heat while they were working. Not only are we under cover, but it’s been raining so the heat isn’t that bad. I can not imagine this 150% humidity and the 90 – 100 deg on top of that.The guys (Jon, John, Doug and I) walked to Starbucks this AM. It’s about a 20 minute walk one way from the hotel. You have to really want a cappuccino to walk 20 minutes to get one. While we where there, I paid 95 php to get online for 5 minutes… LOL, the weather has knocked out a lot of the Internet here so I might get some of the blog and my personal site uploaded today or tomorrow. Sorry!I have not been to one of the feeding sites yet, but I’ve been told that they are such a blessing. The kids swarm to Judy, one of our nurses, to get cuts and scrapes taken care of. The balloons are a hit of course along with the candy… what kid doesn’t like candy??? I will get to go to a feeding site on Sunday afternoon. I can’t wait.

I’m really not looking forward to the next week of work. I know that sounds stupid, “Hello, you’re on a mission trip to work”, but the work is so hard. Yes, I’m whining. I’m so used to my cushy life style in the states. If I don’t feel like working there, I can choose not to. Here I have to keep on keeping on. How comfortable have I become in my laziness? It’s funny actually; pay $2800 to fly half way around the world for the privilege of working like DOGS for a week and a half. Most people would think we were absolutely bonkers. Heck, I’ve always thought people that do this are screwballs, but once the Lord puts something like this on your heart, you just have to do it.

Do I regret my decision to come here? By reading this page, you would think so. But I really don’t. What you’ve read is my attempt to be honest with how I feel.

I know that a lot of the Ripen people back home are reading this as well. The people you sent here are great! We have meshed well as a single entity. I personally am not one that warms to strangers easily, and I’ve had no problems getting to know the CA folks at all. I hope you get something from the blog. I’ll try to include as much of them as I can.

Please feel free to leave comments on this page. I’d enjoy encouragement as well as a slap in the face to bring me back to reality. If you have questions, please leave them in a comment and I will try to answer them as soon as I can. With limited internet access, I’m not going to make any promises.

Personal Log Sunday Morning Well, it’s Sunday and we woke up to rain once again. Looks like another all day rain. This one is hard… one of those run from the car to the house and you’re soaked to the bone. The blessing of all the rain is the cool. I think it’s about 80 deg.  Bunch of the guys (Jon, John, Doug, Rick, Kevin) are sitting on the porch and watching it. Just chit chatting about nothing really. We are talking about stuff we see different, like you don’t see anyone warring glasses. Suppose they don’t know they can’t see or do they have no way to correct it? Last night was good; we went to dinner then walked back via the beach. The vendors were out in full force and it was crowded. You could tell it was Saturday night. I got presents for Geo and Oli last night, they are not done yet, but we will be picking them up today. I hope they like them. Oh, we did a Mexican place for dinner. It was good! Hot spicy food for Rick… go figure??!! I guess the snorkeling went really well. I’m kind of kicking my butt for not going, but even as good as it was I doubt I would have had a good time. Just having the time to relax and update the blog was enough for me. It’s 7am now and b-fast isn’t until 8. I’m already hungry. I need a really good cup of coffee. You would think they would have coffee here! I WANT COFFEE! 

These guys are great… I don’t think I have laughed so hard for a while. The things guys come up with are just hilarious. We are now talking about how to make a corn hole game. Here it would be rice hole. Oops, maybe not rice hole, you wouldn’t be able to play it because the rain would swell up the bags. Sand hole maybe hu?

Personal Log Wednesday Morning

We had a nice day Tuesday. The sun was out and it warmed up to about 85. It was absolutely beautiful.

I went to a feeding site in the AM where we had started to build a shelter. It was a nice break from the normal day. When we got there, there was one local Denis that was already getting set for the day of work. After a short conference about what materials we needed to continue, the work started. There were little children around watching us. This is the kind of environment I was assuming I would see here. They didn’t have many clothes on and just looked like poverty. The “houses” were little huts. The huts were smaller than a normal 2 car garage, maybe a 1 car. Some had dirt floors and some actually had a wood floor. It was a good day because I got to interact with local people and the little kids. Communication was a little harder but after explaining something a few times, you can see the light bulb come on and they get it. One little boy was working with us the hole time. Whatever we did, he picked it up right away and started doing it as well. I have to admit, he was a little ornery as well. I think it helped that we had a lady with us this time; he really hung around her and was trying to impress her with his abilities. At least that’s the way I figured it.

 Not a drop of rain until supper time. Then it started raining again. It rained all night and it is still raining now. Looks like another all day rain. I have to admit that I’m discouraged by the rain. I don’t even want to get out of bed. It’s now 7am and normally I would have been up for 2 hours. The only thing that I’m looking forward to today is the coffee at b-fast. It’s now 25 after 7 and b-fast ends at 7:30 so I have to go. Pray for me today, my spirit is down.

 

Personal Log Wednesday Afternoon

Well, the Lord is good. By lunch time the rain had ended and the sun came out. What a difference. Although it started to get a little warm, it was welcome. At lunch we had one of my favorite meals… spaghetti. It was very good. Had some pork on a stick as well, how much better could that get?

As I was getting ready this AM after I lamented, I was thinking about how privet we all were when we first got here. I mean, we all would go into the bathroom to change. Now it’s a little more open. I changed in the room with the front door wide open. I take my pants off on the balcony and toss them on the railing then head into the room. Now mind you, we don’t do that when the ladies are around, which is very infrequent on the second floor. Most of them stay on the first floor where their rooms are. I guess that is a testament of either how comfortable we are with each other, or just with the environment.

I was talking with someone this AM at the site, maybe Rob and I was told that the “vacationy” feeling I get while I’m here is on purpose. The leadership here encourages the relaxing and tourism while serving here. Number one, two weeks is a long time to just work until you drop, and two, the tourism is a huge part of the life for the natives here.

Well, it looks like it is going to rain again this afternoon so I had better get my laptop out of the rain.

 

Personal Log Wednesday Evening

Well, the day started out pretty rough, but it ended well. Since Doug went back to the hotel and some help didn’t show up, I was enlisted for block laying. Now this is something that I have never done, and thought I would never do. I’m not good at making things level and straight and with something like this, if it’s not it sticks out like a soar thumb. I had to keep reminding myself that it didn’t have to be perfect. All the walls will be plastered and they can make up for a lot of mistakes with the plaster.

If you think about it, building this wall is kind of like us. We are not perfect in any sense of the word, but Christ uses us anyway. Then He comes along like the plasterer, and cleans up all the mistakes and crookedness and makes us all nice and straight again. He covers our sins with His blood and makes us perfect before the Lord. I know that I make my share of mistakes, I sin every hour of every day, but Jesus will never run out of the plaster to make me all better. He just knocks off the ruff stuff and smooths me out once again.

For those of you that read my personal blog and prayed for me today, I’m grateful. The day ended up good in spite of the rain. God only gives us what we can handle. My problem is, I forget to lean on Him to help me handle what I myself can not. Through Jesus I can do all things. Even something as simple as putting up with the rain.

 

Well, we are back in Ohio. I’ve never been so glad to be home in all my life. That 13 hr flight is just brutal. All in all, travel on Monday was from 5:30am till 10:30pm. Wow, you say, that’s not bad… well, in Ohio only time, that was 5:30pm Sunday to 10:30pm Monday. That’s 29 hours spent on travel with no sleep. Someone would really have to do some serious silver tongue talking to get me to do that again. Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy my time at Boracay, just not the travel.

I was never so glad to be back in the states. I love my family and missed them dearly. My whole family came to the church with Linda to pick me up. I was so happy to see my little girls and Evan. I was most excited to see my wife Linda. Two weeks without your soul mate is hard. I can tell you the truth, lying and holding her all night long was very satisfying.