..........Anne McKenzie

It was Christmas Eve, 1968, during the fourth month of my year as Exchange Deaconess in the Philippines. My co-worker (Conference Director of Youth Work) and I (Conference Deaconess) started our journey to attend the first of the three district Christmas Institutes for youth, held each year between December 26 and December 31. This one was the farthest away, so we went there first, traveling by bus that afternoon to the home where we joined the pastor and a youth we would accompany to the meeting..

After spending the night, we quickly downed a sweet roll and left at 5:00 a.m. on foot to where we could board a Jeepney to the bus station. The "baby bus" took us to a place where we joined four other passengers in an old car, in order to get the ferry across a body of water before the bus we had to take left at noon. From the ferry we took a horse-drawn cart to the bus station. It was noon and our bus was already full and ready to leave. We were in need of food--and a "comfort room."

The bus driver took pity on us and waited for us to have a meal at the bus station canteen. We hurriedly ate our Christmas menu of two small cubes of fat pork, some rice and the luxury of a Pepsi which had been refrigerated. In the meantime our driver had made space for us on the very dilapidated-looking vehicle. Bus breakdowns were frequent, but this one had no mechanical problems that day.

We rode as far as the bus went, not many kilometers from the village of our destination on the north shore of Mindanao. Our last ride was behind the drivers of four motorcycles. Lina and I received the usual fine hospitality of a family in their home. Our Hostess prepared for us our real Christmas dinner, complete with squid, rice and vegetables. We were more than ready for a good night's rest.

(During my year in the Philippines I spent one or more nights in over one hundred homes, experiencing true Filipino hospitality. What a blessing!)

Back to the "I Remember" Page

Back to the Brooks Howell Home Page