The Lost Plates of Jack and Leiana

  On Sunday, Jack and I were with two of the sisters in Baybay, spending the day with them. We visited some interested friends then walked back to town for 4.5 hours. Along the way, we stopped to talk to people. At one house with a part member family, the wife offered us Balut.    Balot is a Filippino delicacy. It is a duck egg that has been fertilized about 16 days so the baby chick is formed. It is then boiled and eaten. I had never tried it and wanted to be let off the hook, but it would be wrong. We tried it. You drink the broth which tastes like chicken soup. The egg white part is sort of a soft custard texture. It is dipped in salt or has a flavored vinegar poured on it. Both help the palatability. The dog became my best friend as I slipped him the formed chick and some of the egg. I have now tried it. Mark that off my bucket list!

   We went snorkeling with the other couples in the cuatro islands,  Apid, Digyo, Himokilan and Mahaba. We went to Himokitan first, walking along the beach and wading in the water. This was the largest and most populated island. We saw lots of starfish and sea stars. Jack and I walked out to the statues in the harbor that protected the island. One was a Catholic priest blessing the island. The other was a humble man with a duck next to him. No idea who he was. Next we went to Mahaba Island. This had a small village on it with lots of fishing boats. We did some snorkling there. There was a huge drop off near the island. The water was really warm with bursts of cold and super clear. We looked at all kinds of fish, coral, anemones, etc. After snorkeling there for a while, we sailed to Apid Island. This island only had a few homes on it but a super long beach. Here we snorkeled near the boat. I found a sand dollar. It was pretty small, more like a sand dime. There is lots of ...

 Between Baybay and Mahaplag there is a place called the Sea of Clouds. You arrive there about 5 in the morning, just before the sun comes up. As it rises, the light brightens the clouds to give them color and feature.  Predawn with a little rain falling on us. Sun starting to rise and peek through the cloud cover. Morning breaking through. The mountains trap the clouds coming in from the sea. It litterally looks like waves flowing. The sun lights up the upperclouds as well. It was worth getting up early to drink hot chocolate and eat breakfast, while watching the clouds form, change and lighten around you. Pictures do not do it justice. 

  We spent two days traveling on Samar Island, delivering supplies and bicycles. We had 6 bicycles, 2 dressers, 25 chairs, a bunkbed, 2 tables, a washing machine and a fan in the back. We had the back seat of the truck packed with supplies as well- packages from home for missionaries, prostelyting supplies, another fan, dishes, mops, etc, etc, etc. All the suppies behind the fan and dressers was what fit into the truck. The office elders didn't think we could get it all to fit. We did have to leave one of the fans behind, although I think I could have strapped it on back with the other one... The trip started off with an almost flat tire and a forgotten drivers' license. The first night we got in around 8:30 pm to our hotel, hungry and seat sore. We finally got a meal before delivering our packages to the sisters in that city. The next morning we delivered bikes to elders at the farthest reaches of the mission. We had hoped to circle the island but a road was closed so we had t...

  We were doing a supply run in Ormoc area. We had dropped a washing machine off in Palompon, a pretty coastal town.  As we were doing this, we could hear thunder. Just what we would needed, a rainstorm. We actually got very lucky and it didn't rain on us. The GPS suggested a shortcut from Polompon to Ormoc instead of going around the coast or backtracking. It was just a 12-kilometer road. Why not? We noticed at the start that it said "dangerous, road construction" on it. It will be fine. It was a narrow, paved road, but plenty wide for our truck and the occasional motorcycle that was coming the other way. Then the paved road ended. It was okay. We bounced a bit but got some video footage of the road. Then it got worse. The paved road would come and go. The unpaved road was often washed out with large ruts in it. We were glad we were in a truck. Can missionaries go 4-wheeling? At times we would see where they were working on the road. At one point, we were on a single lan...

 We joke in the states about Christmas in July. Well in the Philippines, Christmas decorations start going up the end of August and by September, it's in full swing. The first picture was from the end of August. By the beginning of September, we had the parachuting santas and reindeer. I can hardly wait to see what it will be like in October. The stores are all playing Christmas songs. Our last zone conference that happened in September started singing Christmas Carols. The malls are decorated as well. Christmas music blasts from the speakers. It's very festive and jolly, just much earlier than we expected to see it.