PAMAS - December

I arrived at PAMAS in the beginning of December. When I arrived, the Mr. and Mrs. Harris picked me up at the airport. We stayed the night at IAAS, and then drove to the Batangas base where we picked up a 182. We flew from there to the base in Mindanao where we've been staying. Along the flight path there was a volcano that was smoking and a few days later it erupted (I forgot the name).

After we arrived to the base, we had to do the annual on the 182. I helped Mr. Harris with the inspection by taking off the inspection panels and helping replace some parts in the flap mechanism.

Not long after, I went with a group of the Filipino missionaries from Mindanao to a village in the mountains called Natampod. We drove there on Wednesday morning and started work on the house there in the afternoon. We were working on a house for some Farm Stew missionaries that are staying in the village to help teach the villagers clean and healthy living. The frame of the house was already built and sheet metal was on the outside, but there was still more work to do. We put epoxy sealer on the cement in the bathroom, put wood on the walls and painted it, installed piping and some electrical equipment, made the countertop in the kitchen, dug the sewer system, and cut out windows and the door. In the evenings, we had worship with the kids from the village. On Friday morning, we headed back to the base.

Usually, we go to church at the college nearby, Mountain View College (MVC). MVC is a very large church with a lot of people attending. The Sabbath after our trip to Natampod, we went to the SULADs deaf school here in Mindanao. We drove to near the school and then had to walk for 15-20 minutes to get to the school and wade across a river to get there. The church service there was very nice and the kids were very friendly. They would sing and preach in sign language and they gave special music in sign language. In the afternoon, they had another program where they did a bunch of music, singing and playing some instruments I'd never seen before. I'm not sure what they're called, but it is two pipes an octave apart set on a frame, and you shake the frame to make noise. The staff who could here would direct them on when to play the correct note, and even though it was loud it sounded pretty good. We also had some ukuleles donated that we brought and gave to the kids.

Not too long afterwards, we headed to Palawan to visit the people there. When we arrived, they were doing a Christmas program for all the staff and their kids and relatives and some students that stayed there and couldn't go home on the holidays. We got there in time for lunch and they had lots of amazing food. That afternoon, Shawn, the Palawan base director, took us on a tour of a property they had just bought not far from the base. They were working on a road through the rice fields to connect the two properties, but it's been too rainy to get very much done, so they still have another 100m or so to finish. They're planning on building a girl's safehouse on the property and eventually a whole school with academics and trade classes. They also recently got a large donation to finish a church that they had started working on over a year ago but couldn't finish, so that is being built currently.

The next couple days we were there, I helped them with repainting some of the helicopter parts. I worked on sanding down the rotor shaft on the helicopter so it could be repainted and then also helped sand and mask the helicopter blades. That process took a couple of days and I also helped Brendon (the helicopter pilot) clean out the inside of the helicopter and wax it. After a few days in Palawan we left the 182 and took the twin engine back to Mindanao because it had problems with the flaps that needed to be fixed and it needed the annual inspection.

A little while after, I flew with Mr. Harris to Davao while he was working on his visa to get into China and look at some metal bending machines. Besides these things, I've been doing a lot of other things around the base like weed eating, burying the rest of the water pipeline next to the runway and by the house, taking care of the rabbit, and helping Mrs. Harris cook food for things like lunch or the Christmas dinner we had with the missionaries here.

Working on the annual inspection on the 182.

The 182.

A twin engine plane sitting outside the hangar. It's not a priority as we have other planes.

The view from Natampod.

On our way to Natampod.

Sawing boards for the walls.

Digging the sewer tank. We covered it in a cement pad later.

Working on the shower.

The front of the house. Jerry is working on the front door.

The fog. We almost never saw the sun there because we were always in the clouds.

The SDA church and the house right next to it.

Jerry cutting tile for the countertop.

The deaf students signing a song.

Crossing the river to get to SULADs.

The instruments they played.

Traffic in town. (I think this is in Valencia)

The outside of one of the school buildings. This is where we had church and the program.

Mindanao from above.

On our way to Palawan.

The 182 before leaving for Palawan.

On our way to Palawan.

The ocean.

The Christmas party at the Palawan base.

Mindanao mountains.

The clouds.

An atoll we saw on our way to Palawan.

Group photo at the Christmas party.

Group photo.

Me flying on our way to Palawan. I got four hours of high performance training logged.

Me flying to Palawan.

The Palawan airstrip.

The helicopter blades after sanding, cleaning, and masking.

Dwayne putting primer on the blades.

The helicopter after masking.

Dwayne painting the rotor shaft.

Brendon using spray paint on the blades. Surprisingly, it works pretty well!

The airstrip at Palawan.

The twin engine we took back to Mindanao. This was kept at a hangar in a town not far from the base.

Taking off from Palawan.

Palawan landscape.

Flying back to Mindanao. I took my headset off because it gets uncomfortable after a while.

A rainbow we saw.

On our way to Davao.

On our way back to Mindanao.

Christmas dinner at the Mindanao base. Sort of like a Thanksgiving dinner in the States.

Flying to Davao.

MVC church.

The airstrip at Mindanao.

Mindanao base. This shows the hanger, office, and small greenhouse.