Out in the country

This week we had the opportunity to get out of Metro Manila for an afternoon. Early in November there is a Mission President's seminar in a resort town called Tagaytay. The hotel is high on the banks of a lake and within the lake is are two dormant volcanos. It is very scenic. We are looking forward to spending a few days in the resort town in November.

Also included in this posting is a picture of "downtown" Quezon City. Metro Manila is made up of many separate cities; each city boasting a population of 500,000 - 2 1/2 million in Quezon city which is the largest. Our apartment is in Manduloung and the Area Office and temple are in Quezon City, the main finacial/business center is in Makati and some of the more historic cites are in Manila proper. The population of Metro Manila is about 12 million. Thats alot of people compared to what there is in Hill Spring.

On Sunday we drove to church. We are assigned a small branch in an out lying area, it takes us about 80 - 90 minutes to get there. As were were travelling we rounded a corner and came across an old timer riding a caribow. Caribow is pronounced similar to caribou but it ends with a bow..as in take a bow. Caribow are the traditional farm animal of the Philippines as you can see they are still in use. We couldn't resist this picture. Oops, where is that Caribow?

The wiring system here is most interesting. As you can see from this picture wire is run every which way you can imagine. Sometimes you see workers with their ladders proped up agains the wires and the workers doing their thing. We have also seen workers standing on the wires in their rubber flop-flops and working on wires up higher...I don't think they follow labor codes here. It is a great adventure. Stay tuned.

The picture of the temple is what we

see outside our office every day.

Today after church service Sister Gibb and I went and visited a few members of the branch. We went with a member of the branch as we would never be able to find our way around. We visited a family that have 4 daughters aged 14 - 3. They had a son that would be 12 but he passed away 2 years ago from brain cancer. Their house was about 15' X 25'. In that space was the kitchen, living room and bedroom (singular) for all 6. The "sofa" did not have a cushion, just a 3/4" piece of plywood to sit on. Their laundry was hanging outside--some on a line and some just in tree branches. It was something to see.

The Philippines

We departed Salt Lake City at about 8:45 P.M. on Thursday, August 28th and flew to San Fransisco where we had a 4 - 5 hour layover. We then had a 12 hour flight to Taiwan and arrived at 5:00 AM on Saturday the 30th. Somewhere in there we flew threw 14 hours of Friday--it just disappeared. We had a layover in Taipei and then boarded another flight to Manila. We got off the plane and there was a greeter with our names on a placard. He took us through customs, escorted to the front of all the lines and we didn't have to say a word, that was sweet treatment. We exited the terminal and there were 2 sister missionaries (there husbands were waiting in their vehicle parked nearby. I had not seen such a welcome sight in a long, long time. It was so good to see their name tags, their smiling faces and someone to take us by the hand and get us settled. We rode from the airport and I sat there staring out the window. I am not sure what was opened widest, my eyes or my mouth. The heat and humidity, the sites and sounds. There were so many people, so much traffic, I thought MacLeod Trail in Calgary at 5:00 PM on a Friday was congested. I now know the meaning of "culture shock." I'm not sure if I could define it properly but I know what it means; I have experienced it.

Elder and Sister Armstrong and Elder and Sister Whitney picked us up at the airport and took us to our apartment. It is a nice apartment on the 10th floor of a 42 floor building. After dropping off our luggage Elder and Sister Armstrong took us shopping to pick up a few items, sheets towels and few groceries. We got back to our apartment at about 6:00 PM and went to bed, we had been up for about 36 hours, we tried to sleep on planes and in airports with little luck. Bed felt very good. The picture upper left is of a trike. A trike is a small motor bike perhaps 90 - 125 CC with a little side car attached. Sometimes the side car is covered and sometimes it's just kind of like a basket. This trike has a basket and is loaded with 6 people. This is not unusual to see.

The tree (upper right) is located on the temple grounds, there is very interesting, lush and beautiful vegetation here.