"Cordova Children's Carnival" Written by Candace

Today we hosted a children’s carnival in Cordova, which is a small Island a few minutes south of where we’ve been staying the last three months.  We first thought about having this event after the team rented a boat from a local fisherman named Rodrigo (“Rego”) to go Island hopping.   The fishing village is an impoverished place that has many needs.   I had a chance to speak with some of the fishermen’s wives who began telling me about all their children. They smiled so big when we would exchange children names and ages. They were surprised that I had three children. One woman had eight kids.   When we were leaving the area I saw an open grassy field with over a hundred children running and playing.  That was the first time I thought about doing a children’s carnival there.  After mentioning to others on the team, they too thought it would be a good thing to do.   So after a month of brainstorming, discussing and planning, today we got to make it happen.

The team all came together to make the event a success.  Some of our Filipino friends even came and helped us out.  Jo Jo Balista helped the guys get the field ready, our friend Philip brought a crew from his youth group to help facilitate the carnival, and Nanay Vergie helped Rina and Hannah cook all day and helped serve the food.  We were so thankful to serve alongside them.  I thought we all worked really well together.  Craig was a blast with all the kiddos they all really loved him.  He is great to have around when you need someone to improvise.

We really weren’t sure how many kids would show up today.  On Friday, Shaun and I went to the barangay to pass out fliers and talk to some of the families (We had already got approval from the barangay to use the field).  When we arrived today we counted around 120 children.  At our last count we over 150 kids, and 50 moms!  Many of the mothers helped us throughout the entire event, from cleaning up the field with the guys to passing out food.  Some of them even participated in the games. 

The activities included a coloring station, necklace making station, beanbag toss, jump rope, Frisbee, water balloon toss, and a bible skit. We ended the night with a pancit, rice, and fried chicken dinner. We were able to feed everyone! It was wonderful! You could tell some of the moms and children were worried there wouldn’t be enough, but the team kept praying and had faith that God would make sure everyone had enough. J  We ended just before dark and a torrential rain came.  The team didn’t have a chance to eat, so the crew came back to our house where we hung out and shared a meal together.  

On a side note: A lot of the families present today were directly affected by a major ferryboat crash that happened off the coast of Cebu last month.  Not only did many people die in the crash, but also it caused a huge oil leak, which stopped all local fishing for over 25 days.  They were told not to fish until the “cleaning agent” they used to clean up the oil spill was able to dissolve and the fish returned.  Some time after the crash Clark and Rina went to Cordova to talk to some of the fisherman.  When they visited the market the fish stands were almost completely empty.  As of the other day, the situation hasn’t changed much. Many of the people in this area depend on fishing for their livelihood.  The barge company responsible for the crash only offered them rice for their troubles.