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
