An addition to our Palawan trip. Our traveling companions sent us some more pictures. The view at the river entrance and exit, and a picture inside of the under ground river.

January would not be complete without this celebration. Yes, 39 again. Thanks for birthin me mom, thanks for putting up with me dad.

Our girls got together and threw me a party. That was the best present I could get. Thanks to Larry and Connie for that one.

We continue to try to keep folks safe here. Sometimes they do crazy stuff like go to under ground rivers. My husband always says "Go ahead, I will stay here to write the report" Love to you Elder Johnny.

We traveled to Palawan's largest tourist attraction one day. The Under Ground River.

It took 2 hours by car then 30mins on a boat. It was worth the trip. Love the ocean it was amazing. Sorry, dark in the cave no pictures. Elder Gibb at the front of the boat had a spot light. We did see great Stalactites, mites and lots of Bats, thus the protective head gear. Guano, you know. We saw many monkeys and Monitor Lizards out side the cave. The Lizards are about 4 maybe 5 feet long. They were not bothered by our presence. Wonderful prehistoric looking creatures.

Oh, yes this was lunch.

January was a fun month of travel. We and the Rees' flew about 1 hour south to the Island of Palawan. The Mayor found out we were coming and we received the royal treatment. Kind of embarrassing, but I could get used to it. As we got off the plane we four were given shell necklaces with the City logo on it. No, they did not take us directly to the prison, but we did make a stop there. We had some good experiences and made some contacts. We are all about making contacts. We have a new mission presidency member out there and wanted to see how they were surviving. Other then the fact that she is having a hard time finding stuff he will eat, they seemed great. We were able to introduce him to the Mayor and hope they can work together there. Great chance for the church to do some good there. Teach some skills, encourage personal hygiene, proper food prep etc. Very clean Island, very pretty.

The homes along the beach at Subic bay. Loved that pantie clad child in the water. What a different life style. Very laid back. Now you know why severe winds can wipe out a village.

The bay is front yard, play ground, Bath, laundry room and toilet.

They tell us in the schools here there is one toilet to every 184 children. Children and adults get sick here often. Wish they could figure out this connection.

January was as eventful as December. We traveled with our good friends the Rees' to a place called Subic Bay. We saw many things but what I wanted to see was the monkeys. I was not disappointed. We came across a family? of about 30. As I watched them lick moisture off the road from the A/C of vehicles, I said "they are so thirsty." As I turned the elders were already on it. They filled a bottle a few inches with water. This smart fellow knew just what to do. Remind anyone of their grandchildren??

It has been far too long since posting anything here. Blogging is more work and takes more time than I thought. Perhaps if I was more consistent, each posting would take less and less time. I have to "re-learn" each time I post.

Our office was closed for several days between Christmas and New Years so several other missionary couples and a non-member of the church from New York City, that we met here, went to the Banaue Rice Fields. This is an area high in the mountains where rice farming has gone on the same way for thousands of years. You could see farmers knee deep in mud behind a Cariboa (cow) that was pulling a single plow in a patch of land not much larger than a city lot. Entire mountain sides consisted of these rice terraces. We were told however, the maintenance of the terraces and planting of rice in this area, the old fashion way, is becoming a lost art. The next generation are leaving the area in search of better paying jobs.

The lifestyle of the locals here did have an idyllic appearance. They had very little and seemed to need very little. The village pictured above consisted of a church (which has the green medal roof) and about 10-15 grass huts (called Nipa Hut) where everyone lives. There are about 200 people living in the village. The Nipa huts are about 15 ft X 15 ft square. Most of the living is done out of doors, although if need be they can cook inside, otherwise the hut seems to be mostly for sleeping.

I'm sure you have all heard of news reports of tourist buses driving off a mountain road and plunging down a cliff. This seems to happen in developing countries. I always wondered how that could happen until this weekend. I saw the type of roads where this occurred and the type of buses. Actually we were in the type of buses and were on the type of roads, the only thing missing was the torrential rain storm....it was a real adventure.

This is a jeepney, the most common form of public transportation in the Philippines. If you want to know how many people a jeepney can hold, the answer is "one more". As you can see here, when the inside filled up they rode on the back bumper, when the bumper filled up they climbed on the roof...there is always room for "one more". To the right of this jeepney was a cliff almost straight down for several hundred feet...you might be asking yourself, "Where's the guard rail?" That is how all the roads were on this tour. The only thing that gave us peace of mind was, we knew or we were quite certain......well the driver assured us that the brakes were good...well, actually he said the brakes were brand new the last time they were replaced. So we felt pretty safe.

Some of the houses are built right on the edge of the cliff. The front of the house is on the lip of the cliff and the back of the house is on stilts or supports. We stopped at this house which was also a little shop and had a look inside. I didn't feel real comfortable with 15-20 North Americans inside...when talking about people when size and weight are to be considered you have to differentiate between Filipino and North Americans. This house may have been safe for 15 Filipino but I suspect it wondered what hit it when 15 or so North Americans entered.

This little boy and his rooster were two of the residents in the house. He is sitting on the back deck. The railing, which meets or exceeds local building code, is the only separating him from a loooooong drop. Sister Gibb was brave enough to rest on the deck; I wasn't as brave. I felt someone should be left behind to submit the report and collect the insurance.

The rice fields were a very interesting trip. The next time my brother Larry complains about the hard work of farmers who have an air conditioned tractor, a C.D. player, ergonomic chair and a GPS guiding system, I'll let him know how farmers operate in the Philippines.

We really are serving as missionaries. We attend a small branch and before or after meetings we meet some of the members that don't make it out very often. This is Brother and Sister Arnoldo and some of their grandchildren. Brother Arnoldo is not in good health, but is a good man. His wife is as sweet as can be and the grandchildren are just as sweet and cute. We have become good friends with these and a few other branch members. The family doesn't have much in the house, maybe two or three plastic chairs, a table and a bed. There is no glass in the windows. and there are many cracks in the walls and where the walls meet the roof.

Stay tuned, perhaps I will make another post in a week or two. Until then, all the best from the Philippines.