Stories from Southern Leyte

On one occasion James Balista and I were in the school’s green van on our way to a wedding in Southern Leyte. It was my first trip to a town past Sogod. We were driving at night and James was the first to spot the bed of an approaching dump truck was loaded with NPA (New People’s Army) insurgents all carrying M-16 rifles was driving towards us. James put his hand on the back of my head and forcefully pushed me into the floorboard of the passengers seat. He said, “Mike its NPA get down.” James feared they might take me hostage. When we arrived at the church there was a large foxhole dug at the rear of the building for the congregation to shelter from firefights between the NPA and the Philippine military.

The wedding was a pleasant event and I enjoyed the feast afterwards. However, I had not yet learned that when eating one small particular squid the crunchy cartilage had to be removed because it was poisonous. My room for the evening was on the second floor of an old wooden house and I slept on a bamboo bed. The owner of the house locked me in the room and the door to the open air window was locked from the outside also! He feared if I looked out the window at night I might be shot. He locked the door fearing that if I got up I might be seen and shot, so he left me a pot on the floor to relieve myself.

As I slept the slats of bamboo (normally quite comfortable) began to feel like iron bars, I had a fever and was sweating profusely. The poison from the squid cartilage (no one noticed I did not remove the cartilage when eating) was hitting me severely. I stood up wanting to open the window door and could not. I attempted to open the room door and could not, so I threw up on the room floor and was to sick to speak so I layed down. I threw up two more times before falling fast asleep. When I awoke in the morning the floor was clean and shiny and I was greeted with smiles and breakfast.

James had figured out that it must have been the squid and asked me if I had removed the cartilage with his big smile and boisterous laugh. I said, “No James I just thought it was crunchy and easy to eat”. I still eat that tasty little squid but these days I pull out that cartilage! Although during my stay in the Philippines while in the military I had learned to like dried fish, eat balute and century egg, I had not been introduced to this tasty but potent lill squid.

On occasion, James and I would travel to Southern Leyte and use the busses. These are full sized passenger busses. As we passed through the mountains there was an area where a mudslide had washed most of the road away. When a bus came to this point and another bus was coming from the opposite direction the first to arrive to the narrow passing went ahead and the other waited. At this point many of us would climb out the window to relieve our bladder behind the nearest tree. The reason for using the window as an exit is because lots of folks were getting off the bus to relieve themself and the bus driver might drive off without you if you took too long. So, when your sitting at the back of the bus, the fastest way in and out was via the window.

The buses also attracted slick pick pockets who worked elaborate schemes to pick pocket a foreigners wallet. For example, a person drops a few coins and behaves as if this is all the money they have. During the commotion the easiest target is the person sitting on the aisle seat with their wallet in their back pocket on the aisle side. In the loud chatter and everyone moving to get out of the way the companion of the one who dropped the coins would releive their target of their money, perhaps put the wallet back too after emptying it. To avoid these kind of encounters I usually sat in the back and carried my money in my shoe.

Meeting Pastor Ray Nemenzo

Pastor Ray Nemenzo and his wife Emerose are delightful people. Like James and his wife Lily, they have become lifetime friends. It was late when James and I arrived in Sogod so we enjoyed a meal and went to bed. We slept on bamboo beds with mosquito nets at a room in the back of the church. There was a large foxhole behind the church here also. That evening it rained and the mosquitos were unstoppable. Jame and I put on our clothes, covered our bodies with the bed sheet and yet the mosquitos kept us awake most of the night. In the morning we were up with the sun to enjoy a wonderful Filipino breakfast. Ray was concerned because the mosquitos had favored me with hundreds of bites including some on my face! Regardless, we went to the river that flowed clear, cold, and swiftly from the mountain. We all took a smooth stone, sat out in the middle of the river where the water was flowing about 18 inches deep and rubbed our bodies clean with the stone.

It was Sunday morning so we dressed for church. I was speaking and wore Filipino style clothes, a barong, black slacks and dress shoes. Ray was my interpreter, side by side we passionately preached to the folks that came down from the mountain for service. After about an hour and a half I was ready to stop. Ray elbowed me in the side and said, “Mike these people came a long way to hear you preach today. We’ve got all day, don’t stop yet”.

On another occasion Ray had me return to be the speaker for the youth camp sponsored by the churches of Southern Leyte. I think this was the trip that I brought my boys along; both Gregg and Michael. Michael was happy to eat balut during the bus ride to So. Leyte. He had bought a couple hot ones at the bus depot in Tacloban on our way out of the city. They were fascinated by the large (16”) Tokay lizard referred to by Filipinos as tuko. Tuko is phonetically closer in sound to the loud cry of the lizard that often goes on throughout the night. Gregg and Michael’s tuko spent the night on the wall near their bunk bed. I don’t know what I was thinking but I took them past military points where fifty caliber machine guns were hidden behind bamboo blinds. I suppose I had made enough trips to Southern Leyte to know how to avoid the NPA.

Ray and I had a joyous time speaking for the youth. Ray was my interpreter and each night the youth would be so moved that they ran in mass to the front with their hands in the air, weeping and calling on God. They also had a ‘Jesus March’ on the streets of the town we were in. Ray and Emerose came to visit Nympha and I in Tacloban, he was very happy to see the growing group of people we had in our Sunday service at Leyte Colleges. On occasion we had around 300 adults and an abundance of children.

Ray had prepared for a crusade type event in the grass field of the school. There was a nice stage with lights and we preached to a good number of people. I really have no idea how many because the lights were focused on the stage, it was dark where the people were and the light was blinding for us on the stage. We did have an altar call and a good response. Prior to the closing of the night I was sitting in one of the chairs on the platform. A large insect kept diving for my head and I would duck and attempt to slap it away. The crowd was laughing, then I hit the insect to the ground and they laughed louder. The insect looked just like a fly only it was the size of a man’s hand. I thought they must have prehistoric flys out here in the jungle areas and stomped it dead with my foot; I was wearing black dress boots, slacks, and a barong.

In later years (2007) I would bring a group of young people on an STM trip to Ray’s church in Cebu where he worked both his church and a ministry to help people who scavenged at the Lapu Lapu dumpsite. It is the same dumpsite that my wife Abbey and I brought meals for the people through the years of 2017 to 2022.

On one of my trips I was walking alone through the Palm trees and Nipa homes when I saw a tall, older man of African heritage. In my naivety I assumed he was an American man. I smiled and said, “Hey man, how are you?” He responded in his thick Samarenyo accent (Samarenyo is the language of the Waray Waray people in Leyte) “I’m going for a walk.” So I asked him where he came from and he told me, “I’m a souvenir of WWII”.

Note: Southern Leyte is in the present (2023) is home to beautiful resorts, white sand beaches, and an abundance of beautiful caves to explore. The Philippines is a tourist friendly nation and foreigners can expect kindness everywhere (as long as you stay away from the seedy places in the cities). These days across the archipelago’s 7,641 islands tourism is a primary business for Filipinos. Its more fun in the Philippines!