Nona and the Grands

What joy to a grandma's heart! I got to be with the Solera grandkids for an morning and afternoon. Their mom and dad went to attend a temple session and found all the sessions were full until 12 noon, so they did other work instead.

Solera's family: Ernesto, Jhon Andre, Princess, Jhon Kyle, and Cristy

I hung out with the kids and showed them how to make corner book marks and let other children around play with all the paper, scissors, markers, crayons and such.

Princess Solera

Jhon Andre and Princess

Nothing like a good movie after a few hours of waiting

Ernesto finished early and waited with the children for his wife and sister to finish

A game of chess - like I've never seen played before

All together again. We took off for Jollibee's and had lunch there

This is the first weekend after school has began that the Solera family had together to have fun. They attend the temple first and then we went out to lunch and then on to have fun at the mall.
I introduced them to the joys in the mall I live in. First the carousel so I could take pictures - but going round and round got boring really fast.
Then a trip on the train that drives around the mall on the third floor - Children's departments.
But the most fun came when the family went bowling for the first time. The joys and frustrations - it was hilarious to watch. Everyone got over 50 points so that was good!

The ride

Good acting for the picture

I'm hoping they had a little fun on this ride

Boredom set in after a few rounds

When is the ride going to be over?

So off they go for a different ride

Dad watching the train ride

Off they go round and round the mall

Watching

Back again!

All home again

So there are WAY too many pictures, my consolation is that you can skim through and get an idea without stopping at each picture. You may not even get to the rest of these! Regardless the day was really magical even though I woke up that morning with no voice and had no voice the entire day.
I'm trying to limit myself to two pictures of each person - leaving out a little less than a hundred.

Nothing like knocking the pins down

Great eye hand coordination

Ernesto got the highest points - though it looked like Cristy was going to win

Darn those last three pins!

Princess gently rolled the ball down the lane and it would go from side to side on the bumpers and surprisingly knock down a bunch of pins

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What a delight! The balls were almost a heavy as he is.

Intensity to get the job done

Ah, beautiful Cristy supports everything her family does

Cristy got the strike of the day!

When I dropped them off at the train station I had a little teary vision driving as I missed them immediately. It is better to miss someone than to not know them at all. The Lord give really good blessings.

Dinner and a Concert

We we had some fine dinning at a restaurant call Four Seasons. At the table for four there is a hot plate embedded in the table with a pot on it. The pot has a metal piece down the middle that makes it two pots in one. The idea is to walk around different parts of the restaurant picking up the meal you want. The first section has little bowls filled with meat, seasonings, vegetables etc. to make your own soup. The next section has fruits and vegetables all cut up and ready to eat or make into a salad. There are other sections with fried tempura and specialty items, and another section of roasted, bar-be-que meats etc. to be cut from the bone and served. The drink section took up half of the back wall - I got cucumber and strawberry flavored water that I served myself. I can't remember what took the other section of the back wall as I was way too full to check it out, but in the middle were desserts in little mini cups and bowls. Most were bite-size though some were a make yourself with whipping cream, sprinkles etc. that served for ice-cream and cakes. It was a fabulous place with great service and good friends.

Elder and Siste Idos serve as the Executive Secretary to the Area President

Note the two ladles in the pot with two different soups and the wavy metal section down the middle

David and LeighAnn Bowman - he serves as the Controller and takes care of Area financial dealings - these are Sharon's in-laws. LeighAnn is the Primary President in their ward and has the niftiest crafts that she teaches at the Area office.

Elder and Sister Haynie - he is the first counselor in the Area Presidency. Sister Haynie works with Sister Stewart in their Primary and is a whiz with the kids.

Brother and Sister Almeida - he is the Director of Temporal Affairs, and Sister Almeida is the one to take with you Pearl shopping. I try very hard to tempt her to come whenever I have a chance to go shopping as she knows where to go and how to get the best deal.

So after a fabulous meal - the soup I picked out some of the veggie's and seasoning and Sister Idos actually put it all together and made both soups - the result was awesome!
We all walked a couple of blocks over and went to the David Archuleta Concert. We met the Whiteheads and Jonah on our way in. I liked being with all the enthusiastic fans and enjoyed it as much as I did the Moody Blues. When I compared them to Jeffrey, he felt they were two different kinds of music. He did agree that they both had a fast pace hello and welcome, an old nostalgic pieces,  some introspective new pieces, a fast pace interlude, some old songs that everyone sang along with and a fast pace finish. I don't go to very many concerts but they seem similar to me with different genre's. Most of the women were moving or dancing along with the music and I got into it when I went back and swayed along with Jonah (who is a big fan!) I can tell you that the Filipino's in this concert hall LOVED him. When he sang a song in Tagalog it raised the roof. Ah life is good.

Jonah's picture at the concert

There was nothing subtle about the cell phones pulled out to record David's concert, half of the audience was in the aisles to get as close as possible to him, most of the audience stood for at least the last half of the concert some swaying and singing along which Mr. Archeuleta encouraged. We had a fun evening!

I Went Visiting Teaching this afternoon

Sorry, there are no pictures and that is really a shame because we used a tricycle for transport to all of our ladies homes and best of all we visited a two-week old baby!  My hand could fit over her whole head. She has lots of black hair and is very long - ah bliss. Evidently she is very fussy and the whole family is not getting much sleep. She was a little angel the whole time we were there.  One of the grandpas is staying with them so they are getting meals made and errands run. I told them to keep me in mind when the grandpa leaves.
I love how I am getting familiar with the ladies and we can communicate better. I am sad when I understand some of the gravity of their situations. One lady will be moving to a sister-in-law's home when her lease is up after the school year is over so she can keep a roof over her son's head.  The new mother is not getting enough sleep but is happy and is deciding if she will need to go back to work or stay home with her infant. Another is worried about who really owns her home. I'm hoping a missionary's prayer on their behalf will help.

Visitors from Pallawan

Today I looked up and saw a whole contingent of missionaries. I recognized the first woman who walked in but I can't remember from where I knew her. She told me all of these missionaries are visiting from Palawan. I sure would love to visit there someday. I've heard so many wonderful things about that archipelagic province! So here are the missionaries on tour:

The lady in red.........how do I know her?

Adventures 3? - well maybe errands run

I really was tired when I woke up on Thursday morning. I knew I had several things I had to accomplish and I found myself just sitting on the couch. So I asked the Lord what do I HAVE to get done today. I was going to talk to Becka and had the impression I needed to bring dinner over to Marianne. My list included getting Activity Day ready. So after having a nice chat with Becka, Jonah and I started out with our errands. I walked over and bought a sewing machine for a lady in our ward.
I have to pause a minute and tell you about the service in the Philippines. Whenever you buy something time is not the issue, service is. So the salesperson will talk to you about what you want, then go get the item all packaged up, open it and show you each detail, fill out all warranty information, package it all nicely back up, you pay for it and then they put a strong plastic 'string' four sides around the box so you can carry it easily. Everything I buy is carefully inspected and shown to me and then packaged back up for me to bring home. So back to my story....
We walked down to Max's restaurant and picked up some soup, rice and chicken for Marianne's family and then got into a taxi to bring us to the area office. I went upstairs to get the car key from Jeffrey and Jonah went down to buy some things in the Bishop's store, we met up and drove over to Marianne's house.
I know everyone reading this in the US can not even fathom the effort it takes to dodge, slide, and negotiate every lane, street, and corner in the rat race to travel from point A to point B. Whatever.
After dodging cars (literally) to walk across the street, we travel down a small alley to two wrought iron gates and pass through to knock on Marianne's door (set in a small building of doors at intervals). This is the door to her whole house as it is just the one room. Her husband Mike sticks his head out the door and I can tell it isn't a good time to visit, but no matter I didn't come to visit, just to drop off their unexpected meal. Then I head on over to another door to drop of materials for Activity Day. On our way back Mike asks if we want to stop and see the baby. I said no, we'd wait for Marianne to heal up before we came to visit. She had a cesarean having her beautiful baby girl. Then we drove back to work on some more things at home.
The really nice thing was getting a note a half hour later from Marianne telling me how she had been feeling down and cheered right up with a feeling of being cared for when we dropped off the dinner. I did note that was the one impression I received that day.

Adventures close to home - Part 2

Aaron, Jonah and I in the Jeepney, I usually hit my back on the ceiling when I bend over to get out. I can't see out of the windows because I'm too tall - unless I slouch over.  

Since the Jeepney strike was over, we traveled by Jeepney and then by bus to a restaurant that had many types of food from all over the world and also exotic Filipino food - so I could try everything.
I don't believe I can get use to the fact that all parts of the fish are used. The eyeballs in the fish heads and stew are still off putting. I tried little bits of almost everything (except the fish heads and a type of blood sausage). There were so many I can't even remember them all.

The traffic is always a nightmare

We took the bus just so I could try all the forms of transportation here. I only have a motorcycle left on my list.

I can get used to the VIP treatment! 

Jonah called ahead for a reservation Nice!

Logo and sign in front

The stick that looks like a lumpia is actually called a bomb and is a chill wrapped up in a wrapper. Jonah says she has had hotter chiles. 

We had two guitars, a bass, and a percussion quartet come and serenade us.

Good eating. After we were stuffed we headed out to catch a train (another bucket list down) to go shopping in Cubao. Those two walked my socks off though I didn't want to admit a thing.

The train was very full so it was nice that we only went one stop

Aaron was very good with the selfies - actually most Filipino are - this is a nation of selfies and they are very good at taking good pictures

Jonah was excellent as usual in finding all the things on my list in all the right stores and malls . Aaron was such a trooper he carried all the bags

We loaded up and took another jeepney ride back to our apartment. I looked in the fridge and found lots of leftovers and decided not to get take-out because I didn't want everything to go bad. Actually Jonah took the leftovers and made fried rice. I put out a pre-made salad and chips. Jonah was kind enough to go out and get a chess board as I found out Aaron was a chess master and wanted him to play Jeffrey.

When we got back Aaron beat Jeffrey 3 times in Chess!! 

Jonah was kind enough to put all the leftovers together in a fried rice, I opened a pre-made salad and set the table - presto dinner is served!

Jonah in the kitchen - I have to admit after I took this picture I went and sat down on the couch. I was tired.

It was really a good day. A little adventure, great company, finished some errands and watched Jeffrey with a Chess master and I slept really good that night.

Adventures close to home - Part 1

Starting out with Aaron and Jonah

All the timing worked out perfectly so I could have a last week of adventures with Jonah before she left for her home in Legazpi. I had three days off because the batch of missionaries was so small at the last intake. We started out with lunch at a very nice restaurant which only had Philippine cuisine. Adventure begins: I tried Isaw - a chicken intestine and famous Filipino street food. Ok flavor, but chewy texture, probably wouldn't pay for it again.

Isaw

Kubol (Snail) the rice farmers pluck out all these snails from their fields. My favorite of the day! Cooked in coconut milk, butter, garlic and herbs and Kang Kong. I found them delicious. I would pay for them again.

Snail from the Rice Fields

Lato (Seaweed salad) It reminded me of the sea and Jonah said I needed to eat it with fish and tomatoes to really give it a good try.

Seaweed with vegetables

Sisig we had a pork sisig (tiny cuts of meat and vegetables on a sizzling platter) I have actually had some type of this at the MTC cafeteria. I'm told all different kinds of meats are used in this dish - including pig feet - maybe I just don't want to know everything. Anyway anything fried or sauté and hot usually tastes good. This one did.
Monggo (green beans) This is an almost stew dish often served with rice. It is usually served on Friday and is President Duterte's favorite food. I like it just fine though I kind of wish I hadn't been told that the crispy stuff on top (that I mixed in like crackers) was fried pig skin - chicharon.

Monggo

Jonah and her brother Aaron took me to explore the river that has intrigued me so much. I wanted a nice safe way to see what life was like right on the river. They took me a few miles down the road where I could look back and see my apartment and we explored that part of the river near an amusement park with lots of families.

Marikina River

I was surprised that the "bubbles" that rise up front the river are actually lots and lots of black fish. For some reason I thought the bubbles were caused by something fermenting on the riverbed. But so much water gets flushed down by rain in the mountains and off the streets - the darting fish eating are actually the reason for the bubbles.

Bubbles

Black fish from small to about a foot or so long

Aaron said, "Oh those are trash fish." It made me wonder what was coming out and why so many fish were almost jumping out of the water near this drainage pipe.

We met all kinds of people walking and enjoying the day. I can tell there is not any government department of OSHA at work here, I had to watch my step in quite a few places and dodge obstacles in my path. The people are so friendly, polite, and nice.

I told this girl she looked like a model holding these poles

I couldn't resist this man and his dogs

the amusement park was probably a lot of fun for kids. Each ride was paid directly to the person running the ride or event.

I was a little leery of the construction standards and had to watch where I walked not to trip up.

Just on the edge the rides were colorful booths that looked like they sold oranges and kumquats, but on closer examination it was trays of Balut!  All kinds of fishballs and other delicacies (like lumpia!)

The balut is a baby duck in an egg that has been cooked and then the stall owner will deep fry it so you eat it hot. The bones become like pretzels and the whole is eaten.

There is Balut and then day old ducklings. Jonah said that the day olds were better for foreigners to try out the Balut on. 

Day old duckling

Served with vinegar, onions, chili peppers and a little oil. It was actually yummy though I only tried a tiny bit - and drank lots of water after as we aren't suppose to eat street food.

So of course I had to try it. It wasn't bad and since all food is pipping hot (probably never had a hot coffee lawsuit in the entire country) being hot makes it taste better.
The river is peaceful and beautiful though a little smelly and full of people traveling, picnicking, playing, and working.

Is he fishing for a different kind of fish or farming?