Lini, Rini and Nili

Lini & Elisa with Butterscotch

Once upon a time, a little girl moved to a new house in the jungles
of Palawan. Her name was Elisa. Elisa was four years old, and had a
baby sister named Bethany. Elisa's house faced the grass airstrip.
Across the airstrip was another little bamboo house. In that house
lived two little girls named Lini and Rini. Lini was 3 and a half
years old, and her big sister Rini was ten. Lini came across the
airstrip everyday to play with Elisa. They were best friends.
Sometimes they would go down to the river that ran right by their
houses. Sometimes Elisa's mommy would take them, and sometimes Rini,
the big sister would take them to watch them play in the river. Lini
and Rini had a cousin named Nili who came to visit them sometimes. It
was Nili who taught Elisa how to swim underwater when she was six
years old. Elisa's mommy and daddy where so happy that their daughter
Elisa loved her new house and friends and neighbors.

Many years went by. Elisa is now a young married woman, living in San Diego, California. But Lini, Rini and Nili are still living in the
jungles of Palawan. And Elisa's mommy and daddy are living there
again. Lini, Rini, and Nili are young married women with three, four
and five children respectively. Nili now helps the people in the
village with their medical problems. She works at the little clinic.
Rini was Elisa's mommy's language and translation helper for two
years, but she just had a new baby boy and can't do that work right
now. So Lini is her new language and translation helper.

Elisa's mommy and daddy never imagined that the little girl living across the airstrip from them would become such a great help in the
translation work they were doing.

Did they all live happily ever after? Well, this isn't the end of the
story yet. We will all have to stay tuned to find out.