Mormon Helping Hands

Mormon Helping Hands started in Brazil and can be found around the globe now.  It's a day designated to go out and give service in your area.  Here, in the Philippines, it's called the National Day of Service (but they still use the yellow MHH vests).  We got to be a part of it on Saturday in the Malaya Branch of the Morong District, which is the district that our Branch, Tanay, is part of.   
We started at the crack of dawn because it's summer here and gets so hot and muggy later in the day.  We cleaned the grounds of two different schools in Malaya.
   

The first thing we had to do, because we came unprepared, was purchase the proper kind of brooms.  They're bamboo, tied together at one end.  Ours are green.  I'm not sure if that means they're inferior, but they just said, "don't worry, next year when we do this again, your broom will be brown".   OK. 

They looked fine to me when we bought them, but no, they had to be trimmed.  We could have stood upright when we used them before the trim job. 

 Not so much after. 

We hadn't been at work more than a few minutes, when I heard laughter and someone say, "Elder has been tempted!"  I turned to discover Elder B taking a fruit-break.  I don't know if he found it on the ground or plucked it from a tree, but there he was eating forbidden fruit.  With a silly grin on his face. 

 

We all worked pretty hard out there in that heat.  Most of the time.  Our two Tanay Elders, Gulla and his companion and one of the Malaya Elders - Bishop, and a returned missionary from our branch were pretty entertaining most of the day.  They knew that a flower over one ear meant they were available.  They just couldn't decide which ear that was. 

Our branch had workers of all ages.  And there was a snack-break midway through the morning.  Then the whole group posed for pictures at the end of the day after the school administration had thanked them for their efforts. 

We've talked about this before -- we gathered all our leaves in big bags and we looked around for where to put them to be hauled away.  No hauling.  They just burned them right there.  We had several fires going at the same time all around the area.  It doesn't seem to matter where a fire is built - it only burns what you want it to burn.  Is that because it's so humid here??

As we were finishing up, the Branch President said, "Let's show the Bells Daranak Falls!" and everyone heartily agreed.  So off we went on another adventure.  We piled into a Jeepney - which is something we've wanted to do since we got here - and headed down a crazy old dirt road towards the "Pride of Tanay", according to the signs. 

Along the way, we stopped at some caves the elders were kind of fond of.  I guess it's a favorite P-Day destination.   Wish I had a picture of the irate little lady who came chasing after us after we came out of the caves.  Apparently, we should have paid her to go in.  Elder B to the rescue - 100 pesos pacified her and we continued on our way. 



DOWN ...DOWN ... DOWN

Don't know what we were expecting when we got to the Falls, but there sure were alot of people there!  Lots of inner tubes and crazies jumping from the rocks.  I know some Bell kids who would have been up there with them.  And their dad was pretty unhappy that I stood between him and craziness. 

 

I never quite understood the rocks with the letters H-A-N-E.  It's a favorite term of the people of Tanay, according to our "tour guides", but no one could ever make me understand what the word meant.  It's pronounced Hon-ae.  I said, "use it in a sentence." 

 The president came up with this:  "Hane, I'm home!" 

Don't think so.