I’ve started to write this post more times than I can count. I want to post, to get an update out there, it’s just so difficult to put much of anything into words. Last night I couldn’t fall asleep, my mind racing with all the things and I landed on this. Instead of trying to organize the chaos in my mind, I will answer the questions I get asked most frequently. If you want to ask more questions, feel free. I will answer them!
**I am not sure how the next section will translate into the email that automatically sends from these posts. So if you don’t see expandable questions, open this post in your browser.**
A week from today. Or more precisely 10:21am EST July 18 – 10:05pm PHT July 19.
CMH > DTW > ICN > MNL
Maybe. I think. Will the plane actually go? Is the 5th time the charm?
Instead of starting in Detroit (the terminal I typically fly out of), I save ~$350 by driving to Columbus just to fly to Detroit. I don’t get it. Why should a flight following the SAME EXACT FLIGHTS/PATH but starting at DTW cost that much more? I will never understand.
Mainly because I still have a life in the Philippines.
If you’ve never lived a transitory life it can make this difficult to understand. Think about the best time you’ve had in a situation you knew was not permanent – college, camp, a vacation with friends – figure in bonding quickly and deeply from the shared experience of doing life together day in and day out. You know it’s going to end but that doesn’t stop it from totally sucking when it does. When the time comes you take your pictures, you hug, you say your goodbyes.
This is my life over and over and over again.
Except that in this case I didn’t get any of that last part. No goodbye hugs or photos or tears together. It’s like going home from college for a weekend break and coming back to a new roommate in a different dorm, all new classmates, and a totally new schedule without warning in the middle of semester. It was just a normal weekend how were you supposed to expect everything to just change?
The Philippines is the place I’ve homed longest outside of the 419 aka my childhood home. It is a life of constant transition which is hard, but there are parts of life that do become consistent enough to feel like home. Some significant moments of closure with more than a few dear people may have been taken from me, but my home ripped out from under me and being forced to leave because of visa and covid issues will not be the way my time in the Philippines ends.
Excited is just not the right word.
This is the longest I’ve lived in America in more than 10 years. For the most part, it was nothing like I expected it to be. Spending so much time back in close quarters with my family as all adults was both weird and wonderful. I’m not necessarily ready for that to end.
A wonderful couple who used to be our neighbors offered me a vehicle, so I have had the freedom to go out and about, see friends, and go on adventures.
I get to feed my baby doggie his daily Cheerios. And by baby I mean 13 year little old man. I mustn’t think about that.
I finally have my Missler cousins back in my life. It won’t even be sort of the same from thousands of miles away. No amount of going being the right thing to do is going to make my leaving better.
Going “back” this time is an awful lot like going for the second first time. I must move in to a new place and figure how I fit into someone else’s space. I must completely reorient my life flow (feeding myself, laundry, going to and fro, etc). I may or may not find a new group of friends to spend time with since all of my core group is gone. I have to readjust to work having not done any of it in more than 2 years. I will have all new students, many of whom I don’t know at all or only as a face/name from when they were little and I did yearbook. Not.a.thing. is the same except for the country, the school facilities, and some colleague friends.
Leaving all this for all that.
So, excited? Not really the right word.
However, I know how amazing things can be and hopefully will be again soon. So, I’m going with cautious optimism.
It’s hard to say! With such a huge transition looming, I can barely wrap my head around going, let alone coming back again. But, I hope it will be soon. There is at least one wedding I’d really like to be at in Dec, but I have to get there and get back into the swing as well as see about finances before I can make any sort of decisions about that.
Cadd Theater Manager | HS ExCo & Drama | Activities Coordinator
- Manage meeting space bookings and functions – including but not limited to sound and lighting for meetings, chapels, plays/musicals, concerts, and guest events
- HS Student Executive Council – class period, social events, house events, etc.
- HS Drama classes – Principles of Acting, Theater Workshop, & Advanced Drama
- Manage all the other facilities calendars/bookings
My friends that I lived with are on home assignment for this school year. They are nearing retirement from the Philippines and aren’t sure what the next few years will hold. So rather than find someone to live in their house with me, they decided to house sit when they come back.
It’s very common for people to live in other peoples houses short term while they are gone for periods of time on furlough. Generally, if you stay more than a couple of years house sitting gets tedious and you want a place that’s consistent after a while, but it’s a great way to get by for a few years without needing a house full of furniture and appliances.
Now I’ll be living with my friend Sam who has a house already not too far from school in a subdivision called St. Anthony. Sam and I lived together from 2010-2014. I had the opportunity to live closer to school and she was fostering a lot so we went on to live in different places for a while, but we are great friends and I am really grateful for her willingness to allow me to live with her again.
Financial support is always the best way to help. Asking for money is not my favorite, but it’s the truth.
In case you’re new here (welcome), faculty and staff at Faith Academy are not paid by Faith Academy. We receive paychecks through our sending organizations and those paychecks are 100% dependent on donor raised support. So if donors quit donating, the sending agency may be forced to reduce pay.
My agency is called First Love International Ministries and they recommend a single raise $2000 per month to cover living expenses, flights, insurance, retirement, all the things. My monthly support hovers at $200-250 most months with my actual check being around $550/month.
How have I sustained this long? That, my friends, is a great question. I’d love to tell you.
- Mostly, people have been really generous with resources that aren’t money. Where they allowed me to live or helped me with things for next to nothing.
- Gracious 1 time donors have helped to cover some major things.
- When those gift make a month higher, I try to allow my account to build up by only taking a minimal of a paycheck as possible and only reimbursing expenses if I absolutely need to.
- Savings and frugal living. Thankfully the Philippines has a pretty low cost of living (except gas, but where isn’t that expensive?).
However, I’m at the point now where this is not practical much longer. For the last 10 years I have not actually been able to set money aside for the future because my income does not allow for it. Even though it doesn’t seem anywhere near close, I know that it’s already sneaking up on me and I should be better prepared.
Coming back more frequently would be great for keeping connected with family and friends, but it’s not feasible because travel is not cheap.
Insurance is kind of a huge one since the coverage I have is basically like having none.
I have never wanted work to just be about money and if you’ve known me for any length of time, you know for my entire adult life it hasn’t been. At times this has been to my detriment, but I would still prefer that it not be. My work at Faith will only continue to be possible if my support can be brought up to a more reasonable living wage.
I have lost several donors while being back in the US. Even though I have continued to work from here, there is something about being here that makes support wane as if it’s no longer needed. Any monthly amount helps.
If you have questions about this, please let me know!
In no particular order:
- painting like every room in our house, and the shutters, and the garage
- planting all the flowers
- playing in the community theater pit
- picking up Ella from school
- having a car to drive
- mystery wine @ drug mart (if you know you know)
- CEDAR POINT (with or without but better with drink and food passes)
- sweet.potato.fries.
- Zuppaman (look it up, go, enjoy)
- Bern diggity dog
- Depot Pizza
- SPRINKLES BUCKEYE BLAST 4 LYFE
- the sheeptuation room. judge me, idc.
- hanging out with Steph
- Addalyn’s art
- zoom
- cheerios
- ordering things from Amazon
- cottage cheese, dairy products in general
- pretzels & sabra hummus
- the patio
- wanting a hot shower. and not sweating after
- thrift store shopping
- wearing layers
- the return of theater
- hanging out with Sarah
- Island time with Challen
- sleeping with 40 blankets and not sweating
- Chicken Wednesdays
- saying hi to Kenny
- restaurants having unsweet tea
- Russia (the cottage, not the country)
- buddy in his backwards underpants
- coffee coffee coffee
- that one night at Twin Oast
- Tennessee mountains & Michigan City
- riding my bikicle
- spring turning to summer turning to fall
- Christmas jammies
- seeing Justin’s the Little Mermaid
- 818 Greek salads (with chicken, no onion, yes, the feta dressing is fine)
- Washington St nights
Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.
