The Lost Plates of Jack and Leiana

 We have learned that the definition of a meal is that there is rice. If there isn't rice served, it is just a snack. Rice is served at every meal. The elders love to see the sign Unli Rice as that means unlimited rice. I have seen the elders eat 5-8 servings of rice.  One of the best places I have eaten is at the zone conferences in Catarman. We eat at the pension house across from the church, Bahay Pinoy. I took pictures of lunch and dinner from that conference. Yes, that is a fish tail. I chose that instead of the one with the eye still in it. I noticed that the tail was more popular than the head. The fish was really good. 

 In the Philippines, people live right on the road. Jack often jokes that it must be hard to have to check for traffic before opening your front door. The houses and businesses line both sides of the main and side highways. In the evening, people will sit on the edge of the road looking at their phones. I snapped a picture of an example. 

 There are lots of kids and adults around Tacloban that beg. It is actually illegal and against the law to give them money. That doesn't stop them, though. We'll be walking down the street and kids will come up to us with their hands out and say "give me money" or "give me food". It feels like you are being held up by a bank robber. If their English isn't good enough, they'll mime it for you. If you try to ignore them, they stare at you. It can be quite uncomfortable. I have taken to shaking their hands that they thrust at you. "Nice to meet you". It throws them for a bit. However, some of the kids will get a big smile on their face which feels like a win. I've also learned how to say in Waray that I don't have anything.[waray na] It's  not just the street people, though. Some members will come up to you and ask for money. The only members who have visited our home have all come to ask for money. Being American, we are seen as r...

 I learned that the Philippines have a pretty slick way of doing car registrations. A license plate is issued to a car and it keeps the same license plate for the life of the car. The last number of the plate is the month the registration expires. January is 1, February 2,....October is 0. They then don't have to do registrations during the holidays of November and December. The second to the last number is the week of the month the registration expires. The first week is numbers 1,2, and 3. The second week is numbers 4, 5, and 6. The third week is numbers 7 &8, The 4th week is numbers 9 & 0.  Let's practice with a few license plates: If you guessed that this plate expires on the 3rd week of January, you are correct. If you guessed that this license plate expires on the 1st week of October, you are also correct. We learned this because we didn't know about registrations. There are no stickers on the car telling you when it expires so we were driving on expired plate...

 People love to wear T-shirts here. It is a pretty casual dress code.  Most of the shirts are in English. I asked one lady to let me take a picture of her shirt.  I also found a cute shirt at a store. I love that the heartbeat is hope.

 They do this thing in the Philippines with their fingers called a finger heart. It's one of their ways to say I love you. This cute 4 year old was doing it and Sister Wiltsie joined her so you can see what it is. The grandma in the background is 91 years old. They also do regular hearts, too.

 We went to Limasawa Island with a group of people today. Limasawa means Five wives and is named for the king's five wives. There are 5 barangay on the island, one for each wife. Limasawa was the island that Magellan landed on in 1521 on Easter Sunday. He had his priest perform mass and they errected a cross at the top of the hill. It was 450 steps to make it up to the cross. Jack and I were the first ones to make it there from the group although we were one of the oldest there. In the museum, they had statues of the event. One of the younger girls posed for a fun picture, getting her first marriage proposal from Magellan himself. I loved the priest blessing the union from behind.