From Dave Slyter (70): 

Gary, Bernadette and all alumni of DHS.

Heres wishing all of you a blessed Christmas and the best for 2009.

Again Fargo/Moorhead is in another winter storm warning with about 4 inches of fresh new snow.  Winds are suppose to pick up this afternoon and then we are in a  blizzard watch.    I am ready for it though, as yesterday I went out and bought a brand new snowblower.  I broke my old cloncker in the last snow storm so had to shovel over half of it.  At my age, all muscles that I didn’t know I had was aching.

I think that is great Gary that you and Bernadette provided the lady with the little child, money to get her out of the hospital.   Christmas is the season for giving and how appreciative the mother must be that their are people like you in this world.    In our church a family of 7, had a house fire that pretty much took everything from them.  My wife Pat and I have decided that when they do find their new home to live in we are going to donate our sectional couch to them as we were going to trade it in, or sell it anyway.  We feel they can certainly use it.  We are also donating to them financially as our church will take a special collection this coming Sunday so they can have a sort of good Christmas.    It is a very good feeling to know that we can help in many ways not only during the holidays but everyday of every year.

On that note, again I wish everyone the Merriest of Christmas’s and the best to you in the coming year.

Dave Slyter (70)

Dave, We intended that to be a loan to the lady so she could get her granddaughter out of the hospital, but it’s looking more like a gift.  She has exceeded the dead line of when she said she’d repay us.  Sometimes these folks, even if they get the money, will drag their feet with repayment because they think we can afford the gift to them.  Bernadette goes after these folks kind of hard.  They for sure do not want a visit from her.  She’s very soft on those truly in need. Gary.

Reply from Bill Hosmer (48): 

Gary, your description of some of the basic health issues made me most appreciative of treatments I have had recently.  Sometimes we here in the US take for granted some things that others do not experience. Health issues as you described them are certainly critical, and my hope is that those standards of health service in the PI, will improve.  My cousin Diane Larson Sjol, who is immersed in the vital realms of the very beautiful and complicated medical orientation of bringing babies into our society is a person who might bring more perspective into this focus. She is a national asset in my book.  Hopefully, she will comment on the situation you described in the Philippines.  Her discipline and practical standards of life at its best encourage me to encourage her to  respond.   Besides that, she is just a miracle  in the finest arena of education and  contributions to all of us in her sphere of influence.  All of us Dunseith Folks are in special company

with the presence of this special American.  Cheers, Bill Hosmer

Bill, The standards of health care are good in this country.  It’s just that a big percentage of these folks can not afford them.  The doctor and hospital fees are relatively low in comparison to the USA, but the medication (drug) costs are about the same, which is very high.  Bernadette and I are very fortunate that our GEHA and Tricare insurances cover nearly all of our medical and medication (drug) needs in this country.  We are very satisfied with the latest state of the art services available here.  Because of cost and no insurance coverage, most of Bernadette’s relatives are unable to have these services provided to them.  We will help out in extreme emergencies, but we can not, out of pocket, take care of all their needs. Sometimes some of them think we should, but we have to be selective in the areas that we assist. Gary

Lumpectomy update From Neola Kofoid Garbe: 

Hi Everyone,

Thank you for ALL the emails.  I have so many people praying for me God might need to hire an assistant to hear prayers for other people!  Seriously, thank you so much for your prayers/sharing your experiences with this very problem/support/just sending greetings/etc.  I enjoy reading your emails and appreciate them tremendously.  I still hope to reply to them.

I visited with the surgeon today: Dr. Lane Lee, Minot.  Surgery will be January 5, 2009, at Trinity.  Surgery is at 12:15.  I check into the hospital at 8:00 A.M.  It’s same-day surgery, so I should be going home later in the day.  I won’t necessarily be “out”, could just be heavily sedated.  I think I would prefer being heavily sedated, but I don’t know if I’ll have a choice.  It really doesn’t matter, either way is fine.

Sometime after the surgery, I need a bone density test and a chest extra.  After that, I’m not sure how long, radiation will begin and last for, I think, 6 weeks.

All is going fine.  I’m very relaxed about all of this.  I arrived in Bottineau about six o’clock this evening and will be here until about January 3–depending on the weather forecast.  I need to be sure I’m in Minot January 5.

I’ll be spending Christmas with Mom/Jim in Bottineau.  Wally will spend it with his family in Minot.

The weather in ND is COLD!!  The roads were good, no snow/ice.  I have groceries, and I think I’ll stay “home” until Sunday when they are having special music at Good Samaritan, where my mom lives.

Thanks again for all the support.  I would rather have this than to need to “poke” my finger every day and take insulin, or have chronic pain, or many other ailments so many people have.  So far, I have had absolutely NO pain (even after the need biopsy)/have lost no sleep/or been worried about this coming experience.  Like I said before, God apparently thinks I need another experience  to add to my life’s resume. I’m thinking so positively about this cancer experience, I even ordered caramel supplies for next year’s craft sales. 

Merry Christmas to all of you. :

Neola

From Dick Johnson (68): 

This is a note or question actually, for Gary our ‘Webmaster’. I was
wondering if you see any artifacts from the fighting in WWII around your
area. The Japanese lost thousands of soldiers when the Allied forces
retook the islands. The allies also lost many men and the carnage was
extreme. There were pictures of  tanks and planes and other equipment
scattered across the Philippines after the battles, so I just wondered
if any of it was still there or if it has since all been removed. Leyte
Gulf was the sight of one of the biggest naval battles and so many ships
were sunk, they nicknamed it ‘Iron Bottom Sound’. When you mentioned
Bernadette’s brother was from Mindanao island, wasn’t that where they
found the Japanese soldier who had hid out until the early 70s! I think
three Japanese hid out but one was shot later while stealing food and
the other died in the late 60s from natural causes, leaving one man to
live alone in the hills. He didn’t believe he could surrender without
disgracing his family.There was a documentary on TV about his life and
eventual return to Japan. He came back to a fully modern country and was
overwhelmed. I never had any idea we would ever know anyone who lives
anywhere near the places where these events took place, but with you
Gary, we now do!
Thanks and please post your answer for us all to read.

Dick

Dick,

I was never much of a history buff back in my school days and as a consequence, did not retain much.  I squeezed through Mr. Hepper’s world history class and that was about it.  Now that I’ve traveled the world some, If I was to take some of those classes over again, I’d probably retain a little more than I did back then. Yes, this area is rich in WWII history.  According to Bernadette, everything you have said is right.  She is pretty much up on all of the history of this country.  We, the USA, had to reclaim these Islands from the Japanese for the Filipino people.  The Japanese did not treat the local people well at all when they were in control.  They forced the local girls to have sexual relations with their soldiers.  They also shipped local PI girls to Japan for that purpose.  They also made slaves out of these people, giving them little food. I read about some of this in the local paper here a few months ago.  I have not seen much, if any, of the remains of the second war. The Local transportation, the Jeepney’s, that this country has an abundance of today, were invented, after our country left an abundance of jeeps in this country, following WWII.  The locals started using these jeeps, that we left behind, as mini buses to transport people.  The concept evolved into the development of larger vehicles, with longer wheel bases, that had bench seats an open backs that ply these roads today transporting the locals.  There are over 10,000 jeepney’s registered in the city of Cebu today.  They are very regulated with specific routes. In fact they are a large contributor to the major traffic congestions that this country is experiencing today.  Over all they are a bunch of ruthless drivers competing for passengers on their specific routes. They wear out brake pads quickly. Most drivers rent their vehicles, so they abuse the living day lights out of them.  When we first got here, we thought that would be a good business to get into, so we purchased a Jeepney. What a mistake that was.  The cost of breakdowns, by far, exceeded the rent money collected.

Back to Mindanao.  Southern Mindanao has always had a large population of Moslems. There are the good and the not so good.  Most of the not so good live in southern Mindanao.  They have been causing major problems with rebellion for many years.  This is a very poor country.  The southern Mindanao area is the poorest of the poor. There has been kind of a civil war going on in that area for many years that this country has been trying, unsuccessfully, to resolve.  Gary

                        Filipino Jeepney

From Gary Metcalfe (57):