RUSHLY DONE IN DISORGANIZATION: OUR FIRST FOUR DAYS ON THE FIELD

After cleaning our missionary apartment and packing for ten hours, after Lenore's 16 dollar anti-wrinkle skin cream was confiscated by Airport Security because she didn't keep it in a clear plastic baggy, after Joshua's AXE body spray was taken because it was not trial size, after my being singled out for a body search conducted in Japan, after 18 hours in flight, after a delay from Japan to Manila due to redundant security checks, four hours of waiting in airports, and four more hours of traveling in a van, we arrived to our church property at. . .

DAY ONE

4 AM and new dogs didn't recognize me and continually barked, some light switches not working, found the carpet in our boys room had been ruined with stains and bleach, all our stowed away clothes had some type of mold and needed to be rewashed, a rat had gotten into our storage shed causing some damage. Our stainless steal sink was ruined with some type of acid cleaner, turned on TV doesn't work,no sign of getting any power, Phone not working so can't call Manila to discuss Visa applications, Cannot set up an internet connection due to our phone not working, Our cell phone also is not working due to unused and expired SIM cards., Turned on my office PC and got a hard drive failure resulting in lost data. A monitor of another PC system remains blurry and cannot be used. Decided I may take it apart and look for any focus knobs, hoping it may resemble the analogs I have adjusted before. Printer Ink cartridges dried up, even a new one in a package was dried up or clogged, can't print. Spent about four hours swapping parts, installing printers, and transferring files to get one functional desktop PC that I can use in my office. Wooden frame of bottom hinge on Bathroom door eaten out with termites and door leading from bathroom to hall cannot be unlocked. Our washing machine also is not working, a neighbor has taken it apart. He later says it's fixed, we pay but discover there is no rinse cycle. A new member gave us two chickens who are roosting and pooping on our washing machine in back. Our food in our refrigerator is not getting cold, and the freezer section is not freezing. Can't find two floppy disks that contained two drivers I needed for Win 98. Power went out twice at night cutting off our needed air conditioner, and we are drinking bottled water because we can't locate our water purifyer.

On the good side, our church had stocked our cabinates and refrigerator (which wasn't working) with food, had some flowers set up for us, had our AC turned on and our bedroom cleaned, and did some other little "welcomes."


DAY TWO

Good AM service, and enjoyed preaching to them but noticed many new faces and saw a boy & girl urinate at separate times in front of the church entrance, Experienced another Power outage, Heard a child playing on our expensive electric church organ and had to intervene, Refrigerator and freezer still not working so pulled out a smaller one from storage and it seems to be working fine. Pulled out and serviced a manual, (must fill and empty water and has no agitator or spinner) Filipino-brand washing machine and set it up to be used Monday. Starting unpacking shipment of PCs and heard rattling sounds coming from inside three CPU cases as if damaged. Another brief power outage, roster keeping Lenore awake at night


DAY THREE

Checked refrigerator and seems to be working, but our Microwave exploded after about 20 seconds of trying to reheat coffee, Uncovered tarp from our car and found low tires, stains on paint, and no gas. Serviced and cleaned car, drove it, but discovered it was leaking power steering fluid and was hard to handle. Went to phone company to call Manila at 11:20 AM but they were closed for lunch early, still cannot get phone fixed, cannot call Manila for Visas or get on line to e-mail, went to an internet cafe to check my e-mail only to discover that they are no longer in business - we now have NO internet access in our town, took our cell phones to a Globe Dealer and got new SIM cards and a load, Went back to phone company but was told Sister Bessy (our Asst Pastor's wife) who opened our account must authorize the change in person to place long distance calls, our Toilet chain just broke and I just fixed it with red yarn, Drove car to a repair shop to have power steering leak fixed, and had Sister Bessy report to the Phone company to enable us to access long distance.


DAY FOUR

Was successful in getting an internet connection but when Lenore tried to accesses a web page the PC shut off. After several attempts of trying to start it up only to have it shut down, I removed the battery (maybe 220 over charged it) and it completed it's start up which enabled me to do some system and registry scans to remove questionable files. It's working now but sometimes the provider password needs to be re-entered. Our washing machine is now fixed (our helper had been turning the knob the wrong way breaking the timing and cycles), our refrigerator is also fixed (by the same neighbor who fixed our washing machine and at a very low price too), and our car has also been repaired and was driven back to us by a mechanic who attended the Sunday AM service I preached. And while Joshua lost his passport (a legal disaster for us) we were able to find it. The bad news is that Lenore and Joshua also lost their tickets to Hong Kong which means we may lose the $650 opportunity to refund them! (these outbound tickets were required by Immigrations but can be refunded once we apply to stay as missionaries). I unpacked and tested about six used PC notebooks and gave one to a visiting national pastor who also asked me to speak in his church which I agreed to. I also ordered two dump trucks of dirt to prepare our lot for our building program, and drew some layouts on a dry erase board to share with the church during our prayer meeting tomorrow. Lenore was unsuccessful in trying to call our son Jonathan in the states because his cell phone has no load to answer her call, and the landline where he is staying has a caller ID which blocked her call. So I e-mailed Jonathan informing him of our attempts. Lenore also located our water purifier and set up all the elements (charcoal, rocks, a ceramic membrane) to enjoy good water in the morning. This time the roster did not keep Lenore awake and we did not detect any power outage.

DAY FIVE

I checked our e-mail, got a letter from Jonathan and called Lenore over to reply.... stay tuned....! Mike Mislan and Family

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