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.