This trailer is a thing of beauty in the way it is engineered. Jim Verploegen of Billings, Montana went over to Bohol for two weeks to lead the IDEA Philippines welders in building this 30′X8.5′ tilt-bed trailer used for delivering our micro or shed homes to the Cohen Village I home site and other sites. The basic trailer was donated to IDEA by NC Machinery in Seattle as part of a generator set. Jim has built many of these types of tilt-bed trailers back in Montana but he found it quite a challenge trying to find the right kind of metal on the island of Bohol. The IDEA Philippines construction crew is so excited to have this new piece of equipment because all could quickly see lots of application for hauling materials and equipment around.  IDEA would like to thank Jim also for the financial sacrifice in coming over and supporting part of the cost of construction of the trailer.  (the wooden deck has yet to be added in this photo)

Jim & Nita

Dr. Gene Bukowski is a member of IDEA’s board of directors back in Montana.  For many years he has worked closely with Dennis Drake to further the cause of providing hearing aids to IDEA’s deaf children.  It was because of Dr. Gene that Starkey Hearing Foundation was introduced to the work of IDEA in the Philippines eventually culminating in the giveaway of nearly 2000 hearing aids this last November in Bohol.   We were so happy to welcome Dr. Gene here again this March when he came over for 10 days to follow-up on the more than 260 deaf children in the IDEA / DepEd classrooms that were fit with Starkey hearing aids.  In that short time he replaced problem aids, fine-tuned all the aids, and fit aids on kids that had missed out during the Starkey Bohol Mission.  Dr. Gene also able to bring over a new laptop and software for adjusting digital hearing aids and trained Jopeth, IDEA’s nurse,  in the use of this technology.  This equipment is a huge boost and moves IDEA’s Bohol Hearing Aid Center one step closer to being able to truly serve the island of Bohol and provide inexpensive aids to all those who need them.  On behalf of all of IDEA’s deaf children and deaf adults, thank you Dr. Gene and also a big thanks to CBM New Zealand for helping make this technology and training available to us.  CBM is a wonderful non-profit organization serving children and adults with disabilities around the world.  They have been partnering with IDEA Philippines for almost 20 years and continue to play a huge role in the development of our hearing aid program in Bohol as well as almost every other aspect of IDEA’s work in the Philippines.

Dr. Gene is testing the hearing of Walter, a deaf and blind young man who works for IDEA Philippines cleaning outdoor tables, sanding wood in the shop, and washing the IDEA bus..

IDEA’s deaf families have been waiting a long time to finally see this day arrive.  The first four houses are finally being erected on the IDEA purchased one half acre property on the out-skits of Tagbilaran City on the island of Bohol.  The government red tape has been deep.  These micro homes are just starter units for IDEA Philippines deaf and hearing employees, both singles and couples.  The surrounding neighborhood was astounded by the fact that the walls of the homes were put up in one day.  IDEA has arranged that through the PAGIBIG government housing loan program the staff will be able to purchase this little house and 55 square meters of property for $35 per month over 15 years.  Most of the staff are spending more than this now to rent a rooms in pretty sketchy boarding houses.  It is hoped that all the homes in this project, dubbed “Cohen Village I”, will be completed within this year.

It was such a great honor to have Bill Griffin from Billings, Montana come over to Bohol to work with our mostly deaf men construction team.  Bill is a professional builder back in Montana and specifically came to teach the guys about the safe handling of pneumatic nail guns and some short cuts in speed building of these micro homes.  Bill is also one of Dennis Drake’s old buddies from his home town so the two of them got to have some “hang out time”.  Thank you Bill for giving so freely of your time and talents and for making the financial sacrifice of coming over to give IDEA a hand.

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This scene up at Bohol Deaf Academy one evening last week was not staged for the camera.  Dennis Drake just dropped in and found the deaf kids sitting around on the stage and at a couple of tables doing random projects and chatting.  The atmosphere was so very peaceful and so family like that Dennis reported that, ” it kind of took his breath away”.  There were no computers screens flickering, Game Boys or IPods in hand, no TV reality shows droning on but instead peaceful creativity.  There were no adults watching over them to make sure they were doing home work and the kids were really enjoying themselves.  So refreshing.

CESO (Canadian Executive Service Organization)teamed up with IDEA this February to help improve the food and service of IDEA’s various restaurant businesses.  Altogether the two Garden Cafes and Dao Diamond Hotel employ 14 deaf  cooks and bakers.  Some of these cooks have been working with us for almost 30 years and although they are quite proficient, there still is a great need to upgrade their knowledge and to keep our menus fresh in order to continue attracting the customers.  For this reason Dennis Drake put in an application with CESO for two well qualified Canadian chefs to come to Bohol to provide training for our staff.

The two chefs that volunteer turned out to both be retired award winning professionals who possess amazing amounts of knowledge and even more so, both are seasoned educators having taught for years in prestigious cooking schools in various countries around the word.  We at IDEA felt so fortunate to have been assigned such wonderfully qualified men who had such big hearts and were willing to share their skills with our Deaf.

Chef Bryan with the IDEA Pension House Staff 

Chef Ralph with the Garden Cafe Tagbilaran Staff

Chef Bryan Fordham was assigned in our operation at the IDEA Pension House / Garden Cafe Jagna, Bohol.  Chef Bryan’s specialty is pastries, cakes, and breads but also worked extensively with the manager in helping solve some of the operational problems.  Chef Ralph Graham was assigned in Dao Diamond Hotel and Garden Cafe, Tagbilaran City, Bohol.  His specialties were more on main dishes and sauces.  He also worked extensively with the management on helping them with some of the issues of kitchen operations and menu selections.

It was such a great pleasure having these two men with us for three weeks.  Although they really only scratched the surface in that short time, they really stirred the pot so to speak and got our cooks and bakers looking at new possibilities in types of food and revitalized the IDEA staff.  It was a good thing.

A big thank you to Chef Bryan and Chef Ralph of giving so freely of your time and talents and also to Mr. Matt Navalta (Philippines Country Director for CESO) and the citizens of Canada for making this assignment possible.

Kitchen Crew at Dao	Ralph, Dennis, Bryan	Chef’s Table Tasting
Chef Bryan	See Bohol Sights	Chefs and Snakes

Arnold made base sculpture

Junior and Toni carve details

We recently discovered that one of IDEA’s deaf carpentry employees has an amazing ability at sculpting.  Because our Dao Diamond Hotel has changed its motif to Polynesian it was thought that we needed a Tiki or two around to add to the atmosphere so Arnold the carpenter was given a small photo to go by and asked come up with a 10 foot statue that would be fun for the customer.  Because of the wet weather issues we decided to ask him to make it out of concrete and this is what he is coming up with.  It really is quite an amazing talent.

Junior and Toni, two other IDEA employees, are now busy doing the detailed carving on the fun statue.  This is accomplished by putting a layer of body filler over the concrete base sculpture.  When completed it will look as though it is carved out of wood, weathered, and appear as if it were 200 years old.

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Micro House in Bohol

The economy has always been tough on the island of Bohol.  Although it is improving it is still nearly impossible for the average wage earner to put enough money together to put a down payment on a home or to even qualify for a loan.  Yes, this sounds like the same story all over the world but this is especially true for the Deaf living on this island and elsewhere in the Philippines.

IDEA Philippines employs around 120 deaf adults in its various (EIGPs) Employment / Income Generating Projects and most of them are required to join a government housing loan program.  The challenge has been to come up with a house and property that would fit their budget and ability to make monthly mortgage payments.  We have finally come up with a micro home that fits their incomes.  It is a micro house or can be thought of as a starter home.  The house design has been approved by the government for loans and it seems that the road is now clear to begin mass producing these structures.

The homes are built in our IDEA shop by our deaf carpenters.  We are not able to go down to a Home Depot and buy the lumber.  Instead we have to order the lumber rough cut by chainsaw and then bring it into our shop to mill it down to ship-lap siding and studs.  It is a very labor and equipment intensive effort.  The homes are then either built in knockdown form or totally assembled and delivered to the building site on a trailer or truck.

Thanks to our friend Andy Cohen who has funded this project to honor is father, we are now in the process of setting up the Cohen Village I.  We hope to be able to set up 10 to 15 home on a piece of property already owned by IDEA Philippines.

The deaf kids are were so excited when December 13 rolled around. They knew that was the day that “Mrs. Clause”, Marilou Drake, and her elves, the IDEA Philippines office staff, would be coming to their dormitories with loads of Christmas gifts.

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Marilou

Marilou and her Elves

 Most of the gifts that the team delivered were purchased with money given by the individual sponsors of the students and were specifically shopped for from wish lists sent in by the kids.  Even if the kids didn’t have a sponsor, IDEA made sure that everyone of the children got some nice presents.  There were smiles all around.

Marilou and the Elves also wished the students a Merry Christmas through caroling.  You may wonder how the students could appreciate the singing?  The carols were also interpreted in sign language and many of the students have some residual hearing so could pick up a little of the music.  In addition, all the students got new hearing aids from the Starkey Hearing Foundation just the week before so this was a chance to test them out.  A few of the kids had dramatic improvement and could hear quite a lot of the music.   Even if it wasn’t crystal clear for everyone,  it was the thought that counted.  Everyone had a great time.

The kids will be busy this week making thank you cards.  IDEA as an organization would also like to thank the sponsors for making this a Merry Christmas.

Here are a few photos of the event and also a video.

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BOHOL, PHILIPPINES

It has been three years since the last Bohol Deaf Festival.  On December 6 & 7 deaf children and adults from all over the island made their way to the Bohol Deaf Academy for the two days of fun, games, presentations and fellowship.  For many of the youngsters this was the first time for them to actually meet the entire IDEA deaf family.  More that 400 people took part in the festival and despite the occasional rain, everyone had a good time.  A big thank you to Marianne Fisher for once again underwriting this event.  It is this festival that bonds the deaf from all over Bohol into a family and creates a deaf community like none other in the world.  Take a look at this 12 minute video to get an idea of what went on.

Here Are Some Pictures Of The Event

A big thanks to Steve Ocon for being the photographer and for putting together IDEA’s web sites.

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 Starkey Hearing Foundation

and IDEA Philippines Team Up 

To Provide Hearing Aids to Bohol

December six and seven were a whirlwind couple of days at IDEA’s Dao Diamond Hotel in Tagbilaran City, Bohol.   The six member Starkey Hearing Foundation audiology team from the States plus nine audiology student volunteers from the University of Santo Tomas flew into Tagbilaran, Bohol to distribute hearing aids.  The trip to Bohol for them had some drama to it as the airplane they chartered missed the taxiway and buried one airplane wheels three feet into the mud.  Luckily the landing gear did not collapse.  Finding another flight delayed the start of the mission by more than half a day but like real troopers, they hit the ground running and  worked late into the night to fit the crowds of people who were waiting eagerly to receive the gift of  hearing aids.

Along with IDEA Philippines staff, the team was able to fit around 900 people with aids in the short two days.  Bill Austin, the founder of the Starkey Hearing Foundation and owner of Starkey Labs, lead the mission and inspired the team with his super human dedication to serve the patients and his incredible stamina.  The teams worked straight though lunch and dinner without stopping to eat in order to be able to meet the needs of the crowds.  The sacrificial attitude of the IDEA staff and Starkey Mission team was truly awesome!

Bill Austin, Founder of Starkey Hearing Foundation

The two day event was punctuated with literally hundreds and hundreds of  “AHA” moments when either someone began to hear sounds they never had heard before or someone with slowly diminished hearing was restored.  Huge smiles where on peoples faces as they exited the distribution center with their new electronic hearing devices.  Small conclaves of individuals could be seen standing around talking to each other to marvel at the improvement in understanding of speech.  In the case of the sever and profoundly deaf students, they were realizing they could hear car horns or laughter of people around them.  Just being aware of the sounds around they makes there world safer and more enjoyable even if they couldn’t understand speech.   What a special time!

THANK YOU Starkey Hearing Foundation for this amazing gift of hearing for Bohol.  THANK YOU Bill Austin.

There are no evergreen trees on the island of Bohol in the Philippines so having a traditional Christmas tree is out of the question.  This means that every year the kids up at IDEA’s Bohol Deaf Academy “build”a Christmas.  This year they decided to use a native grass and bamboo as the base materials.  The students first built the supporting structure for the tree out of bamboo and then cover it with grass.  This turned out to be a lesson in engineering because their first attempt collapsed in a heap.  As you see, the second attempt is much better.  Even the animals in the manger scene are made from grass.  Good job kids.

from Billings, Montana

transform abandoned building

into a home for deaf children.

Maasin City, Southern Leyte, Philippines, August 21, 2011

Hundreds of deaf children live in isolation in the mountains of Southern Leyte with no chance for an education because of distance and economics.  There is only one practical solution to providing them schooling and that is to bring them down to a Special Education Center and give them a place to live while schooling.  This has been the strategic starting point for an amazing collaborative effort of establishing a dormitory for deaf children in Maasin, Southern Leyte.

The partners in this project are IDEA, Maasin Department of Education, and Faith Chapel of Billings, Montana.  IDEA has provided the road map, coordination and man power, the Department of Education has provided an abandoned building, and Faith Chapel donated $10,000 and sent a team of volunteers to rehab the building.

For the past two years this abandoned building has been used to grow earth worms and produce organic fertilizer.  Although it is a worthwhile project, it was a waste of a very good building.  It was filled to knee high with soil.  On August 9th, a group of 12 Faith Chapel volunteers arrived to take on the challenge of rehabilitating the building.  The first thing they did was to wade into the piles of soil, bag it up and transport it out.  Some of these bags weighed over 100 pounds and this work took place during a rainstorm.  With the roof leaking badly, the soil quickly turned into mud.

IDEA Philippines also sent a team of ten (10) men from its construction group to work side by side with the American volunteers.  Most of the men on the IDEA team are deaf and former students under IDEA’s education program.

The entire roof and ceiling of the building needed to be replaced so a group of women on the Montana team were tasked with painting 150 sheets of plywood.  With all the mud and paint flying around the work site, by the end of the second day the Montana Team had earned the title of  “THE DIRTY DOZEN”.

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                     THE DIRTY DOZEN                                  Chip Crees and Ron Todd

This post is being put up on August 21st and the teams are still working on the building rehab project.  The work is being documented by professional videographer, Mark Hanson from Faith Chapel so additional post will be up soon on the continuing progress of the team.

                       Painting Crew                        Mark Hanson ready for rain

You can follow the blogs from one team member at

http://missions.faithchapel.cc/

Mark Hanson has put up some short videos about the team’s work and experiences in Maasin.  Check it out by clicking on the words “MOVIE”

MOVIE 1

MOVIE 2

MOVIE 3

August 21, 2011

The Faith Chapel team headed back to the U.S. last night leaving Manila about 10:00PM.  Although they had to be exhausted after the incredible week of work they put in on the new dormitory, they were in remarkably good spirits.  As Ron put it, this rather eclectic group had really become a team and he gave all the credit to Jesus.

It was unclear from the beginning of the work on the dorm as to how extensive the renovation was to be.  It was only after the ceilings came down, the old roof taken off, and wall panels removed that they could see the termite damage.  It turned out to be significant.  Additional trusses had to be made and walls replaced.  Despite these additional tasks, the team saw 2/3rds of the work on the dorm completed before they had to leave.  The two bedrooms, boy’s and girl’s sides, were clearly defined as well as the kitchen / dining area and the living room area.  All the ceilings and walls were in place as well as all the electrical lines were installed.  Oh, and we should NOT forget the removal of nearly 8 tons of garbage and soil from the inside and out side of the building.

IDEA’s work crew will now finish up the work on the dorm in hopefully about 10 more days.

                         Boy’s Bedroom                                   Girl’s Bedroom

Final Group Shot On Last Day In Maasin“>

Final Group Shot On Last Day In Maasin

   Mark catches the action on video                  The group starts the trip home.

A well earned rest on the outrigger boat to Bohol Island.