Chuck and Shannon Talbot Missionaries to the Ga'dang 
After the last attempt to visit the village failed due to too much rain, we arrived in the village this time after dark with quite a crowd of people walking with us. We were only able to drive part way into the village, so from there we needed to hike the rest of the way. We hired two carabao (water buffalo) to haul our supplies for us. With them came many family members to see what these white men were up to. We were exhausted after a trip that morning to a nearby city to try to make arrangements for a load of building materials to be delivered to the village. We needed these things so we could start building one of three houses needed for our team to move in. After talking to many people we realized it wasn’t going to work out to get material in this time. It would have to wait till the next trip. Once in the village, we were all shown to a house that had a family living it. About 12 of us slept in this one room with no open windows to help the air move. 
We woke the next morning a little sore from the hike and the night’s sleep. We started our day with pork pieces, lentils, a broth and rice; we are trying to grow an appetite for these things for breakfast. This day was full of many challenges. As we tried to communicate with the trade language we had learned, we found ourselves feeling very inadequate. We certainly were learning the need to learn their language not just to communicate daily life but also the Gospel message. We spent our day looking at possible house lots, airstrip sites, a source of fresh water and looking at the lumber that had already been cut for our houses. All of this took a lot of talking. We are so blessed to be able to hire a Filipino man that is an experienced carpenter and a believer to work with us and the people as we build these houses. It was amazing how many times we needed him to be able to communicate exactly what we meant so we were not misunderstood. This man speaks English, Tagalog (the trade language we know) and another dialect that is used in the north. This is the language he was able to use to communicate with the Ga’dang people. When trying to communicate across four different languages and cultures it is easy to be misunderstood and miss what is going on around you. Much of our day involved talking about a house that we planned to renovate for Christina (our co-worker.) In the end it was decided that it would be easier to construct a new house for her. What an exhausting day trying to explain what you mean in another language.
At the end of the day we ate supper in the dark and washed up in the river. We ended our day not long after dark in a different house, which had open windows and half as many people in it! 
The next day we woke when the sun came up. We started this day with fish, rice, eggplant, squash and beans, again something new to us. We spent this day looking at more lumber and house lots. We also spent time visiting with the people. By lunch we decided we would be heading out that day for home. Our lunch was a time of getting to know more people as many came to eat with us. It will be a time to remember for years to come.
After lunch we started our journey home which began with a 2 hr hard hike at about 120F, with a hill that just didn’t seem to end. By the time we made it to the top our Filipino friend was carrying his bag and two of ours! 
Then when we were at the vehicle we had used to get us in that far but had to wait half an hour for a man working on the road to switch batteries in his machinery so he could move a big pile of dirt out of the way. Then after just an hour on the road we stopped to get a drink of coke but then we were invited into a Ga’dang house for some coffee. That is some good coffee that they grow in there! By the time we got back on the road again and made it to town, it was dark. We spent the night in the town and left the next morning after visiting with some friends in town and eating gra-ham cake from our favourite restaurant lady. We spent the next night in a city just a few hours away so we could head to the SIL flight center the next morning so we could take a flight over the Ga’dang area and get a good aerial view of the land. We were also able to check out 
some airstrip sites to see if any would work for us. One looks promising but we are not sure about the time and money that it would take to get it in good shape for use. There are plans for a helicopter to come to Luzon for our flight program in summer 2010. This might mean lots of hiking in and out of the village over the next year. After the flight, we drove home to Manila, looking forward very much to seeing our wives and kids. How nice it is to sleep in one’s own bed again.
