The Lost Plates of Jack and Leiana

 Jack and I went to the mall to find a zester to try some lemon cookies. We went to look at the flan before leaving. We were surprised when we turned the corner to see the sister who helped me buy gifts for the Christmas party singing in the mall. She is a recent return missionary from Thailand who often translates for me. She is going to school, working and also busking.  Since we are in the Philippines, we had to get a selfie with her in the background! Just so you can hear her as well, here's a short piece. I thought she sounded like Hannah Montana or Taylor Swift, but what do I know.

 The Philippinos rank #1 in the world for taking selfies. I believe that. You can't go anywhere without someone wanting to get a picture. Go out to dinner--all the wait staff take picture for you or take a selfie of the group. Meet a bunch of friends somewhere-- we need a selfie to remember the moment. Unfortunately, I have not adapted to this craze yet. I never remember to bring my camera or find my phone in time.  Here is one selfie we took at Christmastime in front of the Coca Cola Plant that is between our apartment and the mission office. They had all kinds of cool selfie backdrops for you to use.

 LDS Charities donated a bunch of emergency equipment to Naval Hospital for their ambulances, including a defibulator, an ECG machine, backboads, laryngoscope with video, oxygen tanks, etc. They had a turnover ceremony on Monday February 17. Jack and I were asked to represent the mission there and give a speech. Jack took on that assignment.  I got to spend some time talking with the nurse managers and an EMT and a few other hospital workers. I wrote most of the talk that Jack used. The parts that I wrote:  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members strive to care for those in need as Christ did during His mortal ministry. As followers of Jesus Christ, we consider this to be both a duty and a joyful privilege. Through volunteer service, collaborations with organizations, and donations, the Church provides worldwide aid and service to all of God’s children with the hope of building self-reliance. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Sain...

 We tease that Philippinos that here Christ would be known as the Rice of Life instead of the Bread of Life. They eat rice at every meal. If rice isn't served, it is considered a snack. We see rice fields all over as we drive. We also see people drying their rice on the side of the road. Sometimes, it is totally on the road and you have no option but to drive over it. People, wash your rice before cooking it. We may have driven over it. the sidwalk like looking things on the right side of the road is actually rice spread out on blue tarps to dry. I think we were able to dodge this set.  Sometimes we see very happy chickens or ducks enjoying the unattended drying stations. Some of the native missionaries mentioned that their job growing up was to chase away hungry animals.

A nice up close view of a man and his chicken. It really is funny how many guys you see carrying chickens around. Even young boys will carry their rooster.  It is quite common to see men walking around carrying a rooster. Cock fights are a huge sport here. You will often see tons of trikes and other vehicles parked along the side of the road. You know that there is a cock fight going on there.  This guy is actually stroking his chicken. It was sort of interesting to watch. Men can be sitting talking to each other holding a chicken. 

 The Philippines get a lot of rain. December is the rainiest month that gets about 10 inches of rain (274 mm). Januanry is second with 220 mm with June and July being close. The dry months are March, April and May. April only gets 105 mm (4 inches). This makes these months so much hotter. All in all, Tacloban gets about 90 inches of rain a year. It rains 21-22 days in the rainy months and only 13-15 days in the dry months. Lately, we keep getting messages on the GPS saying that our route may be affected by flooding. We have had to change plans due to the rainfall. We were driving missionaries home when we crossed some interesting rivers that used to be streets. The water is a couple of inches deep. On the right side, you can see the sidewalk that the water is running over. This is a street in Catarman that we actually drove through. You can see the buildings on both sides. I was worried our engine might get flooded, but we made it through.

 Probably not the most exciting post but it is good to know for when (if) you come to the Philippines. We are lucky and have a full flush toilet with the small and large flush buttons on top. At the side of every flush toilet is a little sprayer. I am not sure if it is a manual bidet or if you use it to clean the toilets after use. I have used it for both. There is usually a small garbage can nearby. That is to collect the toilet paper you use. Like many third world countries, they don't like you to flush the paper. It mucks up their systems. The other type of toilet you often see is just the base. nearby you will find a large bucket of water and a small scoop. You do your business and then scoop water into the toilet until it flushes. It takes some time and skill to get things to go down.  The shower, if they have one, is often next to the toilet so you can see all the shower supplies hanging above it in the first picture. The second picture, the elders cleaned everything awa...

 We are proud to say that we drive some of the worst roads in the Philippines. Jack had the opportunity once to talk to a driver for the Philippine government who had driven on all the islands. He asked where the best roads were. "Mindanao", he was told, "the roads are smooth". "So, where are the worst roads in the Philippines?" "Catbalogan." We agree. We have driven all over our mission. By far the worst roads are in Catbalogan.  We see lots of construction. For longer stretches, they have either electronic stops or people manning the booth with big stop and go signs. You can see the green Go side upside down. The stopped traffic sees the red Stop part. They dig up the old road, smooth out the ground, pour new concrete and often tar it. The old road is ground up and reused.   For short stretches, people just alternate getting around the construction.  Sometimes the back-up can take up to a half hour.

 Basketball has to be the national sport here in the Philippines. Every Barangay (a small self-governing area) has a basketball court. We often seen basketball jerseys being worn by men around the town. You can tell how financially well off the barangay is by the condition of the basketball court. Poor barangay will have backboards with hoops but no nets on either hardpacked dirt or sometimes on the road. Nicer ones have actual concrete surfaces. Super nice ones have a cover and bleachers. We've seen ones right by the ocean or up in the mountains. They are everywhere. The basketball court is also used as a gathering place for concerts, meetings, potlucks, etc. We've seen graduation ceremonies there. The members of the church have held movie nights there showing Book of Mormon videos. It is a central part of the community. A little mountain barangay basketball court on the side of the road A city court with cover and bleachers you can't see.

 In the Philippines, rice is eaten at all meals. In fact, if rice isn't served, it isn't considered a meal, it is just a snack. A typical Philippino breakfast will be a mound of rice, an egg sunny side up, and some kind of meat such as a hot dog, corned beef, spam, or tocino. I prefer the corned beef and pork adobo when we are out for breakfast.  Rice, hot dog, eggs, and tocino (a marinated meat) At home, we prefer a simpler meal. We made overnight oats. Basically you take a container, fill it with raw oats, pour on juice enough to cover [Jack prefers pineapple juice], and let it sit in the fridge overnight. If you forget to put it in the night before, you can let it just sit for an hour or so. We then like to add fresh fruit such as bananas or pineapple or mango to it as well as granola to give it some crunch.  Here's my overnight oats with banana and pineapple. You can see the granola has nuts in it as well. It's a fairly cheap and nutricious meal. Sometimes Jack gets...

 We often have what we refer to as brown-outs here. We will wake up at 6 in the morning to find that the power has gone out. It can be out for an hour or two or for the whole day. We have had fewer of these brown-outs during the cool season. It was at least monthly for the full day in summer when it was so hot. Part of the problem could be the electricity grid. In some ways, it's almost scary how overloaded the system is. This is just a random street we went down at sunset. I love the line of meters on the pole of the first picture. I couldn't get a good picture of the electric cord just dangling from the wires.