Last night I watched the CNN HERO Awards hosted by Anderson Cooper.

The Christmas season reminds us that we need to help and serve as much as possible. The stories that were told touched my heart. They told about common, ordinary people who saw a need, stepped-up, helped others and became extraordinary people. Efren Penaflorida is one of these extraordinary people.

Pushcart educator Efren Peñaflorida took top honors as the 2009 CNN Hero of the Year. He was recognized for bringing education to poor Filipino children through his “pushcart classroom”. He will receive $100,000 as his winning prize and he said that he’ll be using 90% of it to continue his work with the Dynamic Teen Company and the remaining 10% to the church.

Here are the 2009 Top 9 CNN Heroes:

Brad Blauser- He has vowed to try to make life a little easier for these families by organizing the distribution of wheelchairs, donated and paid for by his charity, Wheelchairs for Iraqi Kids.
Roy Foster-  Started Stand Down House program provides homeless male vets food, shelter and a safe place to recover, as well as the tools to conquer their personal problems.

Doc Hendley- A Bartender who has traveled to Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda and Cambodia, working with local communities to build clean water wells and sanitation systems. His program Wine to Water has brought sustainable water systems to 25,000 people in five countries.

Andrea Ivory- Breast cancer survivor Andrea Ivory is bringing early detection to the doorsteps of uninsured women. With mobile mammography vans, her group has provided more than 500 free screenings in Miami, Florida.


Betty Makoni- Zimbabwe native who founded the Girl Child Network that creates safe spaces for girls to grow and connect with each other. Betty uses advocacy campaigns, media projects, and works with community leaders to raise awareness and change attitudes at community and national levels.

Jorge Munoz- Founded the nonprofit, An Angel in Queens which provide much needed meals through his mobile food to homeless in Queens, New York.

Budi Soehardi- A former pilot living in Singapore, and his wife, Peggy, run an orphanage looking after 47 children. They give a home and more importantly a family to abandoned children and those orphaned by the East Timor conflicts.

Derrick Tabb- Snare drummer for the Rebirth Brass Band and founder of the after-school Roots of Music band program for New Orleans middle-schoolers. His music education program provides free tutoring, instruments and music instruction to more than 100 students.

Jordan Thomas- From Chattanooga, Tennessee who started a foundation after he lost both feet in a boating accident and turned it into a great foundation to help other children receive the prosthetics that they need and can’t afford.

As Annie and I travel about the city and go about our lives here, we look for ways to make a difference. We had a special honor this year. When we came here in November, we carried money donated by a Church in Ohio, to help build a Church on Samal Island.

It all started after a Church Mission trip in 2006. My wife Annie could not believe it when a lady from Central Ohio Southern Baptist announced a women’s mission trip going to Davao, Philippines. “That’s my home!” she told me. “Can I go?” I told her, “Of course you will go!”, and the planning began. Soon, she and six other ladies from central Ohio were headed to Davao to work with the Pastors wives while staying in their homes on Samal Island.

Needless to say, friendships were forged and bonds were created.

In 2009, Annie and I had made a decision to move to Davao. Out of the blue, we received a letter from a Pastor on Samal who wanted to build a new Church building. We were doubtful at first. We had never taken on anything like this and did not know where to start, so, we contacted some of the other ladies from the mission group and a local Pastor from our home town and they said, “Let’s do it!”

Well, we raised some money and after we arrived here, in November, we called the Pastor’s wife and met to present her with the money. She was so pleased and immediately returned to Samal to order supplies to finish building the Church.

Next week, we will attend services in their new building (nearly finished) and take pictures to show our friends, who raised the money for this project. We are very excited to see the new building and meet the rest of the congregation. We are humbled by those who work so hard to reach their dreams.
What a wonderful world we live in and how blessed we are to live in these times. Hope and love for our fellow man is indeed alive.

After receiving his award, Efren Peñaflorida said this;
“Our planet is filled with heroes, young and old, rich and poor, man, woman of different colors, shapes and sizes. We are one great tapestry, each person has a hidden hero within; you just have to look inside you and search it in your heart, and be the hero to the next one in need.

“So to each and every person inside in this theater and for those who are watching at home, the hero in you is waiting to be unleashed. Serve, serve well, serve others above yourself and be happy to serve. As I always tell to my co-volunteers … you are the change that you dream as I am the change that I dream and collectively we are the change that this world needs to be.”

I agree, “We are the change that this world needs to be”.

I started to write this article after reading Bruce’s article about having a Christmas party for the kids at Agdao Public Market. I re-wrote it after seeing Efren Peñaflorida’s story last night. It’s the simple things we do that mean so much, to those we help.

I hope each of you will step-out on faith and step-up to the challenges you see all around you and become someone’s Hero.

Steve in Davao

If you watch the news you have seen the disaster in Manila and Luzon. You might be saying, “Why is Bruce writing about something as trivial as street flooding in Davao where the water is just a few inches deep when people are missing and drowning in Manila”?

I try to write about living here in Davao. I watch the TV and see what is happening in Manila and understand the tragedy effecting the people in Manila. I lived in California for 18 years and Florida for 10. I have seen the destruction, loss of property and lives an earthquake, tornado and a hurricane leave in its wake. I vividly remember the destruction in New Orleans from Hurrican Katrina and  lived through the year 3 hurricanes hit south Florida and especially Hurricane Wilma.

I have been lucky in my life that I have had no major losses from any of these natural phenomenon.

Back to the reason for this article; I write about life here in Davao as I observe and experience living here. Even though I showed some street flooding, that was what I saw and experienced Sunday. There are areas in Davao that are so low, when there is a rain storm, houses are flooded and streets so low people cannot get to or away from their homes. It is nothing like the tragedy in Manila, and I do feel for them, but I live in Davao and I report about life here.

If your a reader and you feel I am trivializing the flooding here, I am sorry. For me, why should I write about Manila? It is all over the news and the internet. Since I am not experiencing the floods there, all I could do it paraphrase what is already written and avaliable.

Let us all pray for the survival of all the family’s suffering from this disaster.

The article talks about a Monument commemorating President Manuel L. Quezon and the Philippine people helping many German Jews to come to the Philippines to escape the internment and eventual death of millions of Jews in Germany.

In 1939, two years before World War II reached the Pacific, the Commonwealth government under President Manuel L. Quezon allotted 10,000 visas and safe haven to Jews fleeing Nazi Europe. Some 1,200 Jews made it to Manila before the city itself fell to Japanese invaders.

In the Inquirer article they even mention Auschwitz a Nazi Concentration Camp also know for all the deaths and experiments by the Doctor Mengele. I have an cousin, Rose Van Thyn now retired in Shreveport, Louisiana. She was one of the lucky ones, she survived Auschwitz and experiments by Doctor Mangele. After the war Rose and her husband Louis moved to the United States.

The main point of this article is to show the kindness the people had shown in the past, and continue to show to people in need, no matter where they are from.

Even though I am not religiously, I do feel for the history and persecution of the Jewish people and all genocide.

In part 1 I mentioned how I started using the internet to look for a future wife. At first I was in communication with ladies from China and Thailand. Some had a knowedge of english, but most had very little or none at all.  I then realized from my past, that English is/was taught in the Philippines.

From then on I concertrated my chat with Filipinas since they knew English. Over a few weeks I found a few ladies I was interested in and would chat frequently. As we got to know each other better, I would find things that was not compatible with my needs, my philosophy in life or different from my needs. At the time I had a 2 bedroom townhouse. Some women had a few small children and I was thinking, I would need a bigger home that I could not afford at the time. Others would tell me, even though they had children, they would leave them with their mother or family member with no intention to ever bring to the US.

There was one that was very religious and felt, no matter what, God would provide. I am not an atheist but I do not feel God will help anyone that doesn’t help themselves.

Well one Saturday morning, I was in the site and looking at the photos of ladies online and I saw Elena’s photo. I thought she was beautiful and then read her profile. She was single, no kids, had a college degree, a good job and owned her own home.

Elena had her own computer at home, so it was not waiting for a lady to go to the Internet Café. We started chatting and got to know each other. At first we would chat 2 or 3 times a week on Yahoo Messenger . Then it became every evening for me, morning for her, before she left for work. After a few weeks it was every morning and evening.

Over the next months we would talk about everything, life, loves, and feelings. Nothing was kept secret.  About 6 months later, I decided to fly to the Philippines for 10 days and meet Elena in person. Elena lived in a city on Mindanao that was not too safe for a foreigner to visit, so we decided we meet in Manila. So I went online and found a good deal on Continental Airlines.

What a trip. It started in Florida at about 9am, my next stop was Newark, New Jersey with a 4 hour layover. Then from there the next flight went over the North Pole to a stop in Hong Kong, China. Then a switch to Cathay Airlines to Manila. I did not arrive until 11:45PM. All in all I think it was about 17 hours of travel.

Elena arrived earlier than my long flight. When I got to the exit, I looked for Elena and then was informed security will not allow Filipinos to enter the airport to meet arriving passengers so I found my driver from the hotel and he called Elena on his Cell. Next thing I know I see Elena crossing the street and my first thought, she was more beautiful in person than her photos or the lady I looked at for months on a web cam.

After traveling for about 18 hours and not being able to sleep on the flights, we went to the hotel, checked in and then just talked a little before I needed to sleep. What a first night, Elena having to listen to my snoring through the night.

Because both Elena and I were strangers to Manila we did not know what to do with our days. Each morning Elena would make me a cup of the complementary coffee in the room and once showered and dressed we would go down to the buffet breakfast. The buffet had foods for all types of foreigners. I would usually have eggs and either French toast, pancakes or waffles.

We became friendly with the Assistant Manager Chona. She would always watch over us and when I needed ore coffee, instead of the pot used for most, she would make me a fresh cup. That was one of the beginning signs of the hospitality of Filipinos especially if you are nice to them.

In the first few days we would go down to the hotel pool, browse around a small mall across the street, of just go to the room to get to know each other better.

One morning, talking to Chona, we talked about things to see in the city. I wanted to see Corregidor, a small rocky island which is at the entrance of Manila Bay. Growing up watching all the WWII movies, I wanted to see such a historical place.

We hired a driver from the hotel to take us to the dock where you take a boat to the island. When you arrive you are brought to the Corregidor Hotel where you are severed a buffet lunch. Waiting for the tour to arrive I met Sheila, one of the tour guides. She was fun and liked to joke. So we made sure we got on her tour bus. We saw the place General McArthur said the famous words “I shall return.”

It was a fun day especially with the joking from Sheila. There was also a Filipina on the tour whose father was on the Baatan Death March and related a story. He survived the march because of Filipinos would toss down to the marching captives water and foods wrapped in Banana leaf parcels.

We also went to see Fort Santiago, which is part of the walled city of Intramuros. They had bronze statues of men in military uniforms to make it feel more realistic.

In the evenings we usually went to the lobby where they had a bar, seating and some form of live music.

All in all, Elena showed me the loving hospitality a Filipina has for her man. From making me coffee in the room, helping me with my clothes in the room, always concerned with me for my comfort, eating, beverages. What to do or not do being a stranger in her country.

We were like young lovers. If we were in the room, she would squeeze in next to me in the arm chair I would sit. We would walk holding hands or arms around each other.

The day we were to fly back to our perspective homes, there was tears in our eyes as I got out of the taxi at the International departure area at the airport.

Last summer Elena and I had to go to Manila. We had used a small bag to check in with the airline but had a backpack to carry on with meds, a book and incidentals.

When we were returning, I accidently packed my toiletry bag in the backpack. While going through Security at the airport, the man at the X-ray scanner called over to one of the Security officers saying “He has an aerosol in the bag”

The Security officer motions for me to open the bag and remove the aerosol container. As I remove my tiny travel Deodorant can he says to me as he points to his under arm “Oh Sir, you need that for Protection, you keep that.”

This week we had to go to Manila to officially cancel the petition for Elena’s Fiancée Visa and get her passport back and also get an Affidavit from the US Embassy so we can get married in the Philippines. Because we had to go to 2 departments we decided to fly on Wednesday morning and return Thursday evening.

If you’re a smoker, here is a warning to anyone going to the US Embassy in Manila. Cell phones, digital cameras, cigarettes and lighters are not allowed to be brought into the Embassy. As you go through security, they will take your cell phones and digital cameras and give you a numbered card to retrieve, but they will not hold your lighters or cigarettes. So not to lose them, leave them in your hotel.

Last august while visiting Davao, I was invited to a group called The Friends of Mindanao. They are a social, support and networking group for foreigners. While at the meeting I met a lot of nice people, one being John Browning, a architectural designer from Denver Colorado.

Back to the story:
We arrived in Manila about 9:30AM and took a taxi to the US Embassy. After we were done, we went to a nice inexpensive hotel across the street called the Swagman Hotel. It is Australian design. The rooms are small, but comfortable and for a deluxe room it is only about $50 USD. They have a restaurant that serves decent meals.

Since I am used to going outside to smoke because in Davao you are not allowed to smoke in any public buildings, after lunch I was outside the hotel door having my cigarette and I see a foreigner walking down the street near me who looked familiar.

At first as I hear his voice, I thought it was an English accent, so I did not say anything. A moment later this man and his Filipina wife were next to me opening the door to the hotel. I looked over and asked if he was John Browning and he said yes. I reminded him who I was. It was funny, here I am, an American, living in Davao on Mindanao, standing in Manila and run into an acquaintance. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening with them including dinner.

The next funny part of the story happened at the airport.

In Davao as we were going through the second screening, the security person took my matches from my shirt pocket. I commented that I knew lighters were not allowed, but matches are. He responded that no flame producing items are allowed at all.

At airports in the Philippines you go through 2 security screenings. One when you first arrive and then again when you go to the gate areas.

After the first screening, you check in, get boarding passes and check any luggage you are not carrying on. Then you pay the airport fee and proceed to the final screening. As we were walking to the conveyor and metal detector, I removed my watch and my money clip. I was told to not bother, but to put my shoes on the conveyor to be X-rayed. As the security was patting me down, he opened my pack of cigarettes. He comments about the pack and I joke that I needed 2 sticks to rub together since I had packed my lighter.

He says to me, “Sir, no lighter?” in which I responded “I know they are not allowed.” He then says, “Oh Sir, here” and hand me a lighter.

So here I am in an airport and like a good traveler, packed my lighter since it is on the list of restricted items and he gives me one so I can smoke if needed.