Underway in 2016 [2016-01-17]
Hello from the Philippines! We had an extremely smooth trip to Cebu, and all of our luggage made it with us. What a nice change from Tanzania! It is wonderful to be back to our second home in Compostela, and we’ve already been able to connect with some dear friends. Jet lag hasn’t been too bad (yet), and the temperatures are a relatively comfortable mid-80’s. We’re still in cultural transition, trying to calm our crazy American overdrive and get into “Filipino time”, but we’ll get there. Phones and internet are set up, the water pressure is good (so far), and no power outages (yet) so all is well!
For the flight, we ended up checking our two big duffel bags and three large boxes. It was enough that we needed two vehicles to deliver us, so Reneal Board members Priscilla Batty and Justin Thompson came early in the morning Thursday to deliver us to the airport. The boxes held the five servers for the 2016 installations plus some of the “innards” that Neal removes for shipping (hard disks and any large CPU coolers). We were a little concerned when the customs folks in Cebu questioned us about the computers, but they let us pass through when they heard the ultimate destination of the hardware.
Our apartment was beautifully set up before our arrival by our friends Ma’am Merlin, Raul, and Kate, so we are already settled in and working. Yesterday we went through and organized the equipment that we sent last September. We continue to allocate the monitors received from Free Geek (www.freegeek.org), really a WONDERFUL gift with huge impact here where attrition of very old CRT monitors is a major concern. We went shopping this afternoon and picked up a couple of the UPS’s that we’ll need as well as three voltage regulators. This should be enough to get us through the installations at the first two schools. Since all purchases are made with cash here rather than credit cards, I used Xoom.com to send ourselves the cash advance funds for this equipment. One of our local pawnshops is in the Xoom network, so I picked up the cash there. It drew a smile from the man when he asked who had sent me the money, and I answered “ako” (me). That probably doesn’t happen too often!
Jade stopped by yesterday to give us an update on the prep work he has done. We are in fantastic shape, thanks to his efforts! He has already completed the cabling at Consolacion National High School, Tipolo NHS, and Almacen Torrevillas NHS. The cabling isn’t done yet at Tabok NHS, but the new computers have been unboxed and set up. Given that he has been working full-time since early December as a Teacher I at Arcelo Memorial NHS, it is really amazing progress! There are always surprises, of course, but we are so pleased to be starting in this position.
Tomorrow we’ll head in to our “home school”, Compostela National High School. Hard to believe it’s already been almost a decade since our first visit to the principal’s office there! It is always such a joy to see the teachers there, catching up on the news and reminiscing about old times. The campus has changed tremendously and there are lots of new faces, but it always still feels like home. We’ll be delivering some of the Free Geek monitors there and checking up on things to see what needs to be done.
It was actually a year ago today here in Cebu that Neal had a medical issue that necessitated a change in medication, followed by several weeks of dealing with side effects that left him unable to travel. During those difficult days, we didn’t know what the future of Reneal IEO might be. We are thankful to be here a year later, able to continue with our work. And even more, we are so grateful to everyone here in Cebu – especially our fellow Compostelanhons – who supported us throughout that time. We are truly blessed to be a part of this community!