These are more pics from that first mountain tribe... this little girl really captured my heart. They were all dressed in their finest for visitors, and later after running through the stream she was wearing this dress backward ;)
This is EMMA... when she told me her name I didn't think I had heard right! Jen translated for me to tell her that Chloe has a sister name Emma. This Emma was very shy, but she posed for a picture to show my Emma :) She is the same age as Chloe. Chloe is tall, but Emma is an average/ large size for a Filipino.

As we hiked up the mountain we encountered this woman bathing with her child. The chieftain ad a very rough toilet, but that was the extent of indoor plumbing.
This was the Chieftain's youngest son, Jo-Jo. He seemed especially eager to hear about possible farming techniques and plans.

___________________________________________________________

Hey Everybody...

I have LOTS more pictures and stories to share about our trip -- I am actually trying to upload some photos right now, but the connection isn't quite good enough -- but we have some requests that are fairly pressing and we wanted to pass them along.

In less than one week, we are planning to fly home from half way around the world (an even longer trip than coming, since we have an overnight layover), get home from an airport 3.5 hrs away, reunite with our little girls, have a birthday party for Chloe, pack for Wisconsin, thoroughly clean our house, say our goodbyes to friends and family, visit THE FAMILY one last time, and move back to Wisc. in the middle of the night so Matt can finish training for his new job as a bus driver before school starts. This actually involves a lot more details than it seems, and there's no way we can get it all done on our own! Throw in a tropical storm (not yet a typhoon) here/ along our travel path, some serious jet lag, and the Grandma factor as our girls readjust to our care... and things could get pretty hairy! Oh, and when we left home we had a broken water main (outside, luckily) that was hopefully repaired while we were gone and our family vehicle was being repaired after a motorcycle ran into us. So please petition for our strength and stamina in the next week, as well as for adjustments as we head back to Wisconsin and school.

After meeting the Chieftain and some of his family members, we started our hike up the mountain. We quickly encountered this crew, trying to pull out a large boulder in order to build a new house on this plot. Matt, Steve, and another missionary named Ron jumped in to help tug... to no avail. We did find out later that they successfully pulled it out, though -- we were amazed!

It was a steep climb in places, but not slick. We had a liesurely hike and were rewarded with fantastic views!
This is the chieftain. He was very eager to learn about new farming techniques to improve their yield and his village.
Chloe skipped along the trail, eager to see around the next bend. What an exciting opportunity to see the home of the people we hope to help and experience some of God's most magnificent creations!

In order to get to this particular tribe, we traveled to the town of Buhi and then took a ferry, like the one in the background, across to the island.
Chloe and Mikayla were sleepy but enjoyed the relaxing -- and very gorgeous -- ride!
This old man, who had been the boatmen for the Hagens previously, rode along and made fast friends with Matt and me. Part of his friendliness, I'm sure, was do to the excessive drinking that was apparent at first sniff. He told Matt all about his house, where he fished, etc. He kept giving me a thumbs up. I asked if this was a cultural sign, and Steve said he had never seen it before. I generally try not to recipricate gestures when I am unsure of their meaning, but I think he was just trying to do something American :)

This was once the boat "docked" at the island -- we walked down the little stairs into the water.

This if the Chieftain's grandaughter. I believe her name is Ji-ki-mel. She is an absolute doll. She gets around pretty quickly in this fancy little walker. (It's kind of like the base to a papazon chair with a rag tied in it for a sling. She slides on the smooth concrete floor.) Also, like many kids in the third world, she doesn't wear diapers. I was willing to hold her anyway, but she was a little shy. She gave me plenty of smiles from the safety of her walker!

Dinner

I guess I can't really call this dinner with the Chieftain; it was more dinner at the Chieftain's with everyone in the village trying to peek in to get a glimpse of us weird foreigners. I was a little worried about how Chloe would handle this; I warned her just to take a little and eat whatever she got. The dish above was right next to us, as you can see in the picture below, and she gobbled up the fish! I was a little nervous myself, but by the grace of God my stomach didn't even turn once! Ironically, the only thing Chloe turned her nose up at was the yellow tomatoes ;)

All in a Day's Drive

We have done a LOT of riding and driving in the week we've been here. It seems there's always at least one volcano somewhere in view! We've been on the go to lots of great places, but so much of the beauty has been straight from the road...



Chloe sometimes points out the beautiful scenery -- and it
can be dizzying at times, since every direction holds a breathtaking view, a funny sign, a quaint vision of a little child or a trike loaded with 20 grown men...


I took this shot out the window during one of the few times we were actually clipping along at any notable speed. Every curve brings a new perspective but a similarly gorgeous view!








Jen took me for a bike ride yesterday. It was so gorgeous, but part of the beauty was a storm approaching. We didn't make it far before turning around. The guys had gone to take a tribal lady to the hospital for goiter surgery, (It turned into a full day's adventure, as they ended up having to track down some blood for the surgery, too! ... That's another story...) but when they returned we took Matt with us and ended up seeing the beautiful sunset over the rice fields.
It was worth the mosquito bites (I think... when I mentioned them, Jen immediately told me the incubation time for malaria... I guess it's a pretty practical thing to know around here.) Also, we were introduced to the commonality of vicious dogs at nearly every house. Jen and Matt laughed at me because they picked up rocks and sped through; I approached quietly, hung back, or let the owners call them off. It worked well for me, but I figure that approach can't last forever. I guess if we're going to come here I'll have to become a little more assertive!

Devastation

It's been nine months since Reming (the largest Typhoon in 150 years) hit this region of the Philippines. The devastation that still remains is harrowing. We've seen several areas of major devastation. Whole villages were completely wiped out by landslides and flooding was rampant. Above, you can see one of many examples of a house dug out of the silt. People work hard to dig them out when possible and then continue to live under those conditions. It doesn't seem like the best choice, but in most cases it is the only option they have.
Here is a house that was dug out but sustained some major structural damages.

Part of the position we are considering would involve distributing supplies and helping with relief efforts. Since the area is still reeling from Reming, subsequent typhoons of average size could cause exponentially greater damage than they normally do.
...Another example of a home that continues to be surrounded by settled rock, ash, and debris...