Biliran Island
My popularity as a speaker was growing amongst the pastors of Leyte and nearby islands. As I remember most of them equated my ease to stay in their homes and eat their food reminded them of Dwight Palmquist. I never met him, he was a legend amongst the Filipinos. He spent his life, over 47 years in the Philippines and passed away in the Philippines. I considered this attribution to be the highest compliment I could receive.
I was at my home in the development of V&G outside of Tacloban city when Pastor Arthur arrived to invite the American evangelist (me) to his place on Biliran Island where he had a home church. He was a kind and humble man. I was traveling alone regularly by this time. It was fairly easy, catch a bus at the terminal or a jeepnee if the town was not too far away, and let the Pastor know the day and approximate time of my arrival. The final leg on the way to Biliran island required hiring a guy on a motorcycle to take me to Arthur’s place.
Arthur’s house/church sat on the beach and was part of a small fishing village. The wealthiest family in the area owned the larger boat with a motor for transporting the daily catch each morning and included a generator to keep the fish on ice. It was a typical Bangka boat with the bamboo outriggers, just larger than the fishing boats of the families living on the beach front. In the evening Arthur and I went fishing. Arthurs boat was about ten feet long and 30 inches wide at the center. Arthur hung a coleman lantern on the small post erected on his end of the boat. It was a dark night and we were out so far that I could not see a single light from other boats or from the shore line of Biliran. We were not catching an abundance of fish just a few. After the net was thrown and while it was left out in the sea for awhile, we would hook the squid attracted to the light from the coleman lantern. A single line with a hook was all we used to snag the squid and pull them up into the boat.
When we left after midnight and about 4:00 am we began rowing our way back to shore. I could see nothing and thought I was going to see the sun rise and be out in the middle of the sea without any land in sight! Arther kept putting his hand in the water ant telling me which side of the bangka boat to row on. After about an hour I saw a light and felt relieved. The light was leading us right back to the point on the beach from where we had left. As we neared the shore I saw the other boats returning from their nights fishing.
During the day I swam in the ocean the water in the bay was clear and the sand was white. There was a large tree branch out in the bay that the young boys would climb on to dive off into the water. I swam over to chat with them and noticed little brown floating objects in the sea, it was human excrement. Arthur had told me they did not build any comfort rooms (outhouses) but just relieved themselves on the beach in the evening. As I witnessed later that day, some folks couldn’t wait till evening. This failure to dispose of their body waste disturbed me. I shared with Arthur how Moses had commanded some men to build latrines to keep the camp clean because the Lord walked through the camp (jokingly I added that the Lord didn’t want to get his feet dirty). Arthur built the first CR or comfort room up from the beach where the sand gave way to soil.
The next morning I awoke early so I could shower without a scene. My light skin and foreignness attracted a crowd and I wanted to shower without onlookers! The shower area was outside and you wore a short pants to shower in. As I was dousing myself with water I felt eyes staring at me from the tree line of the nearby slope. I spotted a young mestizo boy with curly hair like mine watching me shower. I felt for him, thinking he wonders who his father is, or where he might be, or if he would ever know him. I had to shower quickly the sun was rising and people were starting to move around.
