The Rain Has Stopped

The rain stopped or at least let up some. There was only a little water in the streets when we drove over to the MPIR this morning. The streets are actually pretty deserted as most of the street vendors are not back up and running yet. The schools were also still closed so the drive was pretty easy for Manila. On the way home we saw sunshine for the first time in over 5 days but it is still fairly cloudy and overcast. We have not seen any real clear days yet. We may never see any. We have been in this apartment for 2 1/2 weeks and have only seen the sunset once. We are learning to be happy if it only rains a little and no one gets flooded. Maybe this is why they refer to this time of year as the rainy season.

The sun is actually shining on Manila Bay.

 

We had a student show up at our office on Friday afternoon. We had been communicating with him because he was waiting for the loan money for his tuition to be sent. We called Sister Tenney at the Area Office and asked her about his loan. She found that all of his information was submitted and will now work on getting his check sent out. It was nice to meet with a student and get to know him and finally see the PEF program working for someone.

 

This is a fruit, that tastes somewhat like a plum.  It is called

rambutan.  You just peel off the fuzzy skin and eat the fruit. 

 

We went to our first baptism in the Philippines today, Saturday, August 24th. Sister Michelle Tanael was baptized, the fiancé of Brother Niu, the couple we met at Pasay Stake Conference last weekend. Three other people were also baptized, a mother and her young son, and another young man. The baptism was held at the San Marcelino building where Manila 1st and 2nd Wards meet. We have been assigned to attend Manila 1st Ward and were able to meet people from both wards at the baptism.  The baptism was supposed to start at 11:00, but didn't really start until about 11:40. Dale volunteered me to lead the music when the missionaries were looking for someone to do it. The baptism was great and there was a pretty large crowd. Sister Tanael's family and friends came. We talked to one of her friends and found out she was not a member of the church. We asked if she would like the missionaries to come and see her and her family. She said, yes, and told us to get her information from Brother Niu. We talked to Brother Niu and he said he will get the information for us tomorrow.

After the baptism there was a dinner in the cultural hall. We were served some traditional food which included our first opportunity to have sticky rice. It was very sticky. Dale didn't really like it, but I thought it was pretty good. It was nice to sit down and converse with the local members. We sat down next to Sister Estrada who was baptized today. She has two young daughters that were laughing during the baptismal service when they saw their mother and brother get baptized. They thought it was funny to see them go under the water. One of the girls came over and asked me a question in Tagalog. I asked her mother what her daughter said. She wanted to know my name, so then I told her and asked her name. I didn't understand what she said, but we had fun talking with them.

 

This is the courtyard in the middle of the San Marcelino Building. 

A lot of the church buildings here have courtyards.

 

 



Our First Monsoon

It is raining like crazy still. The area
is flooding. We were told to stay home again today. There is an orange alert out and people are being evacuated. We talked to the Zone Leaders this morning and they have been out carrying people on their backs to safety in waist deep water to the church buildings. The sister Missionaries apartment is flooded and they are trying to get over here. I have been wondering what would have to happen for this to be a red alert.

At 10:00 AM a red alert was issued. Many church members have evacuated to the various church buildings throughout Manila.

 

 

The street in front of our building

 

                            



                       Definitely!                       

First Jeepney Adventure

We rode in a jeepney for our first time with about 18 other people. We were packed in, good thing the Filipinos are small. We talked to the girls who were all about 19-23 yrs old and members of the YSA Ward that meets in the building next to the MPIR. It was fun to ride in the jeepney. We joked with the girls about the air conditioning and the first class accommodations. They seemed to enjoy it and laughed along with us. The Filipinos are always smiling and seem to enjoy life no matter what.

The ride was bumpy. I don't think they have any shocks. I asked how much it costs to ride a jeepney and was told 8 pesos. At first I thought they had said 80 pesos and they thought that was pretty funny because 80 pesos would be so much money. 8 pesos is about 20 cents. I told them that you can't buy anything in the states for 20 cents
.

The Jeepney



 



 

 

 

Anna and the YSA Ward

         
Stake Conference was good and we understood a lot of it because they speak a lot of English during their meetings. The songs are always in English. The Stake choir sang again and they were surprisingly good When the meetings ended everyone hangs around for a while. I asked one of the sister missionaries about it and she said that the church was the nicest building most of them had ever been in and that they are in no hurry to get home. The YSA ward had a dinner afterward and we were invited. It was some kind of pork and of course rice. It was actually quite good and Anna found out what it was called so we would know for some other time. It was pouring rain and we waited until it let up and then we all got back in a different jeepney and headed back to the MPIR and then back to our apartment. Another interesting day in the Philippines.

 

 

Getting Settled in Manila

 

We went to the Area Office on Monday morning and met with the welfare manager and Franco Advincula, the PEF Supervisor.  In the afternoon we were taken to Adriatico Tower 1 in Manila and were met by the broker who arranged for our condo. We went up to the 17th floor to apartment "O." The first thing I noticed as I walked into the apartment was the great view we have of Manila Bay. We have three large windows along with a kitchen window that face the bay. We will get to see lots of sunsets high aloft in the tower. The main living area in the apartment is about 10' by 20' which includes our living room, dining area, and kitchen. It is small but cozy. The bedroom is about 8' by 10' and has a closet with a few drawers in it and another small area across the room to hang more clothes. The bathroom is tiny but has a large shower area. You have to close the door to the bathroom to get in the shower. 

 

Sunset on Manila Bay from our apartment

 

On Tuesday, we got a ride to our office in the MPIR (Manila Philippines Institute of Religion) with another missionary couple who work there.  The facility is only about 21/2 miles away but it sure seems a lot farther than that.  We met with the Mission President and his wife for about 20 minutes. 

They greeted us warmly and asked if we needed anything.  We said that we had a few other questions and pulled out our list and started to go through it.    At first they seemed concerned. I think that they thought we may already have a complaint list but our list was more about how we could help with the work. President Stucki seemed more than a little surprised and pleased by our questions. 

 

We took a cab to the Area Office on Wednesday morning and paid about twice as much for it as we should have.   Once we got to the office they took us to get our Philippine drivers license. The process wasn't too bad and it only took a little over an hour. We did have to pay some more money but in the end we received a drivers license that looks a lot like the one we have from Kansas.  Then we got our car.

 

Our supervisor Franco was pretty concerned about us driving and worried that we would get lost. He went through our map book and marked the pages and then made his own maps on his computer and walked us through it again. He told us so many details that it was impossible to remember them all but we felt confident that we could handle it.  We got in, started the car and headed off for our first driving adventure in the Philippines.  It wasn't really too bad. There was traffic and it was slow going but we only got lost once and then only for a minute or two.  Anna had a tough time following on the map but we did pretty well. I zipped in between lanes got honked at a few times but it actually seemed a little fun to me. A little challenge to spice up the day.

 

                                     

Another view of the bay from our apartment



 



On Thursday we went to the Area Office for Training. Franco presented info on Philippine culture and the PEF program and Joemil presented info on employment. It was pretty good and it was fun to be with the other missionaries most of whom had been with us in the MTC.

We also learned that because our car license plate ends in a #2 that we cannot drive on Mondays between the hours of 7:00-10:00 am and 3:00-7:00 pm making it pretty difficult to go anywhere. Some people just stay in and work from home that day and some go early and leave early, etc.

When we finished the training they took all of us to dinner in the Intramuros Area of Manila. This is the oldest part where the original Spanish Fort was. We walked around a little bit and saw a church built in the late 1500's and then went to dinner. The dinner was Filipino food followed by a folkloric dance show. It was all pretty good and pretty entertaining.

500 year old church

 





One of the odd things about Manila is the number of security guards. They seem to be everywhere and they are all armed. Most of them are just carrying side arms but some have rifles. They are in front of almost every store, at the door to our apartment building, in front of the fast food outlets including McDonalds and it seems like they are almost everywhere in areas that there may be something someone could want. I do not know what the crime rate is but I would think that armed guards outside the 7/11 would make you think at least twice about trying to rob it.

 

 

The Guards in front of our Tower

Friday was our first P-day since we arrived in Provo. We weren't really sure what to do. We decided to go for a walk along the bay. There is a bay walk and we thought that it would be nice. It was overcast and very humid not quite as pleasant as we had imagined. There were people camped along the area and others trying to sell you stuff, beggars and fisherman. We saw again the huge contrast between where we live and the fancy mall and how most of the rest of the people live. We only walked a few blocks and saw a woman sleeping on the side of the street with a baby laying on her stomach. It was pretty sad. A man driving a horse drawn cart tricked Anna into getting in to take her picture and then she wanted me to get in. I could see where this was going and didn't want to get in but Anna wanted me to. He took our picture and then started down the street. We were now going for a ride in a very small cart. He was giving us a tour and we went down to the end of the bay walk about 10 blocks and turned around and headed toward a very old church. We got out for more pictures and then decided not to get back in. When we asked how much we owed he said 1000 pesos which is a lot of money here. I said how about 200 and we agreed on 500 which was still a lot for a 15 minute ride but only about $13. I guess that it was cheap compared with NYC but not quite the same feeling. We are slowly learning what to do here. It is a different world for us.

In the horse drawn cart



 

Our First Sunday

Today was our first Sunday in the Philippines. Elder and Sister Tenney picked us up at 7:30 am to take us to church with them to the Morong Branch. Morong is east of Quezon City. It was an hour drive from our hotel. We got up there with time to spare so Elder Tenney kept driving past the church to show us more of the town. We stopped by a rice field and saw several people planting rice. Along the way to and from church we were able to see lots of Jeepneys and tricycles. The tricycles are actually motorcycles with side cars that generally have a roof over them. We saw as many as four or five people on one of these tricycles. The Jeepneys are painted in very bright colors and usually have some theme for their jeepney. I saw one that had a picture of Christ on it. While we were driving we also saw lots of tin roofed shacks where many of the people live. It was an eye opening experience.

 

 

Rice Planting

 

Jeepney

 

Welcome to Manila!

Good Morning Manila! It is just after 6:00 am, not too surprising but I (Dale) am the only one up to see the sunrise this morning. It was beautiful and now I know which direction is east. It is an interesting experience to be among the first people in the world to greet the new day. It is Saturday morning here and only Friday night about 5:00 pm back in Kansas City. Just another reminder that we're not in Kansas anymore.

 

We left Provo on Thursday around 7:15 am and arrived in Manila around 9:30 pm on Friday, August 2nd.  We were all completely exhausted when we arrived at the hotel around 12:00 am. We were up for 25 hours straight. We fell asleep as our heads hit the pillow at the Holiday Inn Galleria Manila.

 

As I (Dale) sit here by myself this morning I can't help but wonder what the future will bring. I am glad to finally be here and I hope that we can make a difference in the lives of some of these people. We wanted to be able to help people and now we will certainly have the opportunity to do so. I hope we are up to it. I don't normally lack for self-confidence but I know that I will need the Lord's help in this. I have never done anything like this before. There is so much need here that it almost feels overwhelming. We can't help everyone but we can help some and we have to focus on what we can do.

 

Sunrise in Manila

 

                                                                      Anna in Manila