Hello! My name is Beth. I am from the state of Idaho in the U.S. and I am a Beginner Filipino language student.
I am studying the Filipino language because I want to be able to talk to my street kids in Tacloban!
I spent eight months on the island of Leyte, mostly in Tacloban, in 2014 helping after typhoon Yolanda. I fell in love with the Filipino people and helping others and decided that I wanted to do humanitarian work the rest of my life. In February 2015 I turned my home into a hostel which is like a hotel. 2 years later I bought some property near Yellowstone National Park and turned it into a bed-and-breakfast. I use the money I make from these businesses to fund my humanitarian work.
In January through mid-march of 2020 I went back to Tacloban to visit. While I was there I saw children sleeping on the streets and it broke my heart and I wanted to do something to help. So about a year ago with help from my friends in Tacloban, I rented a three-bedroom apartment for the street kids. I have a few friends who live at the apartment who help take care of the street children who come there. Currently there are 10 to 12 kids that live there and a few more that come there just to eat everyday. We have six or so enrolled in school, some of them for the first time in their lives!
I really want to learn Tagalog so I can communicate with them because they like to chat with me on Facebook Messenger! It's very tedious to try and translate things back and forth. LOL I also hope to be able to travel there soon and meet them in person so I want to be able to talk with them. 🙂
Bethahava is the name of my home for the street kids, it is Latin. Beth means 'House of' and Ahava means 'Love' so Bethahava means House of Love. ❤️
I am from Geneva and I am a Intermediate Filipino language student. I speak German, Swiss German, English and French fluently in case you are up for an linguistic exchange.
