Corregidor Island Visit with Derek

 

We went to Corregidor Island on February 10th, the day after Derek arrived in the Philippines. We walked about 35 minutes to get over to the dock and when we got there we looked around and saw a large group of senior Missionary Couples. The Senior Missionaries from the Cavite Mission were going on the same tour as we were. They probably do not often get that many Mormons on one tour boat at a time. Here are Derek and Dale on the boat going out to the island:

 

 

 

 

And here is a display showing the island:

 

 

 



The trip to Corregidor was nice. It was warm and sunny. It took a little over and hour to get to the island. When we arrived we got on open air shuttle buses. There was a breeze blowing on the island, so we were fairly comfortable. When we stopped to go see some of the bunkers and big guns we got a little hot and had to put our hats on.

 

 

 

The tour took us all around the island to different batteries, tunnels, and memorials.  We saw a gecko in one of the tunnels we went into.   We had lunch at the hotel dining room and then finished our tour. The last part of the tour was a walk through one of the tunnels and they presented a light and sound show. The presentation gave a history of the island of Corregidor during World War II. It was quite interesting.

 

 

 

It was an enjoyable day. I thought about my Dad who would have loved to visit the island. He always loved history and especially anything about World War II.

 

And by the way, MacArthur did return!

 

 

 



 

 

 

Born in the USA, but now living in a "Barangay."

An excerpt from Dale's journal from this week:

We got up and went running this morning. It was only about 73 degrees. It is pretty nice although the humidity is still high. The Filipinos are freezing and complaining about it being extra cold this winter. It is dry, almost no rain in two months. It seems hard to believe that just a few months ago it was raining all of the time and flooding every other day. We now understand what they mean by "wet" season and "dry" season. We had thought that it was more relative like rainy and less rainy but it really is more like flood vs drought. My i-pod was working again this morning and I listened to the "B" songs. I had a good run through "Born in the U.S.A.", "Born to be Wild", finishing with, "Born to Run". As I sang along I thought I saw some of the Filipinos looking at me but they do anyway. It is probably pretty unusual to see a 60 year old white man running down the sidewalk singing, "Born in the U.S.A.". I do appreciate being born in the U.S.A. more than ever now. We have so many advantages compared with the people here. Poverty takes on a whole new meaning when you see how these people live and how little their government does for them.

 

We run along Manila Bay (view from our condo) all the way to the...

Yacht Club and beyond.

In the Philippines each city is divided up into smaller residential areas that are called "barangays."  Each barangay has their own elected officials and a barangay hall.  We live in Barangay 669.  When we went to Stake Conference last week, a sister gave a talk about doing missionary work and said she would like to see an LDS church in every barangay in the Philippines.  All of the audience laughed at that because it is a pretty ambitious desire.  She was speaking in Tagalog, so Dale and I didn't understand why everyone was laughing.  I had to ask our district leader what she said.  Below is a picture of our barangay hall and the barangay fire truck.  It is on the same street as our condo.

 

Barangay 669

 







Dale has his hands full every time he gets in the car to drive somewhere.  I also am pretty busy making sure we turn on the right streets and don't get lost.  We were driving down south of Manila and came to a large intersection and there was not a traffic light.  Instead there was someone from the local barangay directing traffic.  It was a Sunday and we waited a long time to get through the intersection.  We figured out that the person directing traffic was letting people in his barangay have special treatment while keeping the traffic on the major road stopped.  Here's a picture we took at the intersection showing what normally happens.  You get lots of motorcycles weaving through the traffic and going to the front of the line and staying in your lane is only optional here.  Also, notice all of the electrical wiring spanning the road.  It is challenge to be out on the roads here.

 

 

 

It's more fun in the Philippines!



 

 

More of What We do

We started teaching a Conversational English class on Thursday night.  We have spoken English our whole lives but we have never thought much about how to say the sounds. What shape your mouth should be, where to put your tongue, etc. It is different when we try to explain this to people who sometimes do not even have these sounds in their language. I usually teach the sounds and Anna teaches the grammar. They seem interested in the sounds, almost like a game to them. The Filipinos really like group games but the grammar is pretty boring. We are making an effort to keep everything interesting but grammar seems to be pretty boring no matter what you do. We had 16 students at times tonight (January 23rd). Sometimes they come and go depending on what other classes are being taught in the building. We keep getting different people to attend. We have now had a total of 28 different students attend at least one lesson.

There are many call centers here in the Philippines.  If you have ever called 1-800 Flowers, you talked to someone in the Philippines.  If people can speak English well, they can get a job in the call centers.  These jobs pay better than being a nurse.  So, it's good to learn to speak English better.

Here's a picture of the poster we put up to advertise our class:

  



 In January we started training for Priesthood leaders and teachers about the new Self-Reliance Services initiative.  Dale has been busy setting up the training and inviting people to attend.  We are training teachers to teach the Planning For Success Workshop which is a required course for anyone wanting to apply for a Perpetual Education Fund loan.  The Priesthood leaders are receiving training on setting up Self-Reliance Centers in their areas which will help the church members with education (PEF is included here), employment, and self-employment.

On Saturday, January 18th, we got up early and drove down to Dasmariñas, a town in the Cavite Province south of Manila, to participate in a training session.  People attending the training were coming from all over the Cavite Province.  Some had to ride jeepneys for over two hours just to get to the building.  When we arrived at the building we were greeted by the stake clerk and he had already set up tables for our meeting. He had also made a delicious porridge for us to eat. Dale had worked hard all week to make sure that the Dasma building would be open and ready for us. The stake president promised it would be ready.

The turn out for the meeting was great. There were about 20 people in the PFS training and another 11 or so who were in the SRS training with Jomel Villanueva, the SRS Manager for our area. Franco Advincula, the Operations Manager for the PEF in the Philippines, trained the teachers.  He explained all of the new directions for 2014 and encouraged the teachers to be dream makers and success planners. I hope they understand the importance of their calling to help these students plan and prepare for their future. Franco expressed how important it is for them to follow up with the students and encourage them. The teachers had several questions about the new incentives and how the new program will work.

It was a very good day.  Here's a picture taken during the training.  (We're the two gray-haired ones.)

  



 



We handed out training materials to all of the teachers and Priesthood leaders to take back with them to their stakes, wards, and branches (Mormon congregations).  We had people from four stakes and one district come for the training.  Below are pictures of the training materials:

Our Visit to Beautiful Tagaytay

Here's our group at one of the gardens

 

On Saturday, December 21st we met the PEF Office workers and went down to Tagaytay. We first drove to the Area Office and got in a van with Elder and Sister Tenney and Sister Doig. We picked up Jib at Market Market Mall and then drove to SM Bicutan Mall to pick up Franco, his wife, and his mother. We continued on down the SLEX toward Tagaytay. It was a very nice day and we really enjoyed the scenery. We drove up into the mountains and saw pineapple farms and we even saw a carabao right beside the road.

 

An encounter with a Carabao beside the road.

 We drove through Tagaytay and were able to see Taal Lake and the Taal volcano.

 

View from Tagaytay, up in the mountains, to Taal Lake and Taal Volcano (island in the lake)

 We went to Sonia's Bed and Breakfast to have breakfast. It was a buffet with small omelets, fruits, bacon and sausage, fish, and a few other things. They served us hot chocolate. The bed and breakfast has beautiful gardens around it. After we ate we walked around the gardens. It was a lovely place.

 

 Us in the gardens

 

We left there and then drove to another garden that had a church up on a hillside. The view across the hills was very nice. We walked around these gardens and then walked around a koi pond. The weather was somewhat cooler up in the mountains, so we didn't get sweaty walking around. It was so nice to get outside and enjoy the views.

 

Dale and others on the swinging bridge across a ravine.

 

This is what we thought the Philippines should look like and we're glad we were able to go on this trip.

Christmas in the Philippines

Christmas Season in the Philippines actually started back in September when they started putting up decorations and playing Christmas music in the Mall.  We have listened to Christmas music for four months now.  There are some lights up around the city.  Below is a picture of one of the lights with the words "Maligayang Pasko," Merry Christmas in Tagalog:

We were able to purchase a wood carved Nativity Set from a Filipino wood carver.  It is unique because it has an animal that is found in the Philippines, a carabao.  It is a cross between a cow and a water buffalo.  We have seen them out in the countryside.  The set also has the wise men bringing gifts of mangos, bananas, and a sack of rice, very typical foods here.  The stable is carved to look like the bamboo huts that can be found around the Philippines.  I love the coconut tree.

 



 



On Christmas Eve we invited the missionaries in our district to come over to our apartment for dinner.  We made our traditional waffles and ham dinner.  We then had the missionaries share some of their family Christmas traditions with us.  We had four American missionaries and four Filipinos.  The Filipino missionaries told us about a special feast they have after midnight on Christmas Eve.  It is called "Noche Buena."  Very few Filiinos include Santa Claus in their celebration.  We shared more of the Jenson Family traditions by reading, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and "Cajun Night Before Christmas."  We then read the real Christmas story from the scriptures.  We enjoyed being able to share our Christmas Eve with these fine young men.  (See below)

 

 

We were even able to have Christmas music and a  fire via you-tube on the internet.  Our air conditioner was also running, no freezing temps in this part of the world.

 

 

We missed being with our family, but we really enjoyed being able to Skype with them and actually see them.  It was especially nice to see our grandchildren and watch them open some presents.  It gave us a chance to share some of Christmas with them from far, far away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 





 





A Description of What We Do

Our mission here in the Philippines is to help young members of our church prepare for their future. We teach a class called "Planning For Success." This class helps them make plans for their future by having them create a work plan, an education plan, and a financial plan. We just started teaching this class to some potential students. After they take the class they can apply for a Perpetual Education Fund loan from the church. The Perpetual Education Fund (PEF) has been established to provide worthy young adults of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with the support and resources necessary to improve their lives through education and better employment to better serve their family, the Church, and their community. We help them with the application process as well.


Getting ready to teach

We also keep track of the students who are in our assigned area. We try to contact them each month by texting them or sending them messages on Facebook. We had never really sent texts very much until we came to the Philippines. Now we text every day. That is one of the preferred methods of communication here. We also learned recently that most of our students are on Facebook and use it regularly. So we are now contacting them via Facebook and have more than 200 Filipino Facebook friends. One other way that we contact them is meeting with them individually. Every Sunday we go to church at different meetinghouses and meet with PEF participants. Some of them are current students and others have graduated. We get to ask them about school or their jobs and we encourage them in any way we can. It is the most fun part of our assignment! We have now met personally with over 100 participants.

Anna and one of our participants

 

Another part of our assignment is to train PEF Specialists.  These Specialists are called to work with students who live in their Wards (Individual Congregations) and Stakes (Groups of Wards).   We train them on how to teach the "Planning for Success" class and how to help students with their loans.  We also meet with leaders in the Wards and Stakes to help them get Specialists called and to update them on how the PEF participants in their Wards or Stakes are doing.

 

We have met so many wonderful people here.  They are always happy to meet us and we shake hands with every one of them.  We love meeting the little children in the congregations.  They seem to think that it is a great honor to shake our hands.  And we love it!

 

To close our blog today I am including a beautiful sunset picture taken from our apartment looking out on Manila Bay.  We have just recently been able to see the sun actually sink into the water.  It was too cloudy when we first got here, and now that the rainy season is over we are delighted by the sunsets.

 



                                                                                         Breathtaking!





The American Cemetery

The Entrance

We visited the American Cemetery here in Manila about two weeks ago. It is on a hill just south of Makati. The grounds are very well kept and there are 17,000 crosses representing the Americans and Filipinos who gave their lives defending our freedoms during World War II in the Philippines. Their names are inscribed on the walls of the monument. There are also historical descriptions of the American involvement during the war in the Philippines. Here are a few pictures:



Supply Routes Description

The Crosses