To Market, to Market, Jiggity Jig

We had a pretty great weekend. First thing Saturday morning we packed around 24 people into a little truck thing and drove to Silay for a Stake primary activity. They learned about fire safety. The group that taught it was called Seagulls Rescue. It started as a group of young single adults whose objectives were to go the temple, get married in the temple, and to help people. Now they invite anyone to join.


Sunday was pretty uneventful which was nice. We relaxed and had a nice family day in the A.C.

Today, we went to Ærowyn's school to get her school supplies. She will have Math, Reading, English, and Religion courses. They had a kit with all of her supplies together in a little bag and it was less than $8 so we opted to just buy it instead of looking all over Central Market for all the bargin places. We will buy her uniform next month. It is pretty silly looking, but we're trying to be positive about it. She also gets to wear little bloomers for P.E. We did go to Central Market and I took some great pics of some of the different shops so you could get an idea of what it looks like. It's just a huge giant warehouse with tons of little shops shoved in to it. We ate at McDonald's so I took pics of that :) The quarter pounder tastes a ton better here for some reason...weird huh! Their menu also includes rice and fried chicken. Nothing too strange, but you have to make sure you tell them what you want to drink, because they don't ask and they will just give you Coke.

I took a few more pics of where we were and put them in our Picasa album for you to enjoy!

Fly me to the Philippines

Wow, what a crazy couple of months, and even crazier without the internet!! But, all is in order now, so I can get back to posting and keeping everyone up to date on our adventures.

First of all, let me catch up...I'm sorry it's a novel, I promise future posts won't be this long :)

After we rented our house out in Seattle and said goodbye to our wonderful city, we headed for Eastern Idaho to spend some time with family and friends. We spent a couple days in Boise with Uncle Darren's family, a week in Utah with Uncle Dano's family, and a couple of months at Grandma and Grandpa Ricks' house.

Wrævn turned 2 in February and is 100% all boy: likes trucks, planes, bugs, dirt, and guns of course.

We had a great early Easter at Aunt Taunia's house. We got to celebrate a week early because we would be gone on Easter Sunday.

It was fun to visit family and friends and we played as much as we could, but soon it was time to say farewell, so we hopped on a plane and were on our way. It was sad to fly over the beautiful mountains knowing we wouldn't see them for a long while, but it would be plenty green where we were going so at least we wouldn't miss that.



The long plane ride was actually the easiest-besides trying to get two very tired children and our bags on a plane at 2am-but thanks to some great friends (you know who you are) we had full bellies and made it to the airport with time to spare). We had one layover in Taiwan which was fun because they had a Hello Kitty play land and store that kept the little ones busy for our 4 1/2 hour layover. Ærowyn made lots of new friends and Wrævn enjoyed looking at the planes out the window.



Well, we finally arrived on April 9th and walked from the airport out in to what I like to call the sauna of death. Hotter than hot, humidity dripping everywhere, and no breeze to be found. It's a good thing that isn't normal (the no breeze thing) because I would have to change my mind about staying. Brandon met us in Manila and after misplacing the stroller and having to track it down, we sat in the airpot awaiting our flight to our final destination. Air conditioning sure is nice :)

Let me just say that Easter weekend is not a good time to arrive in a country that is over 90% Catholic...everything was shut down that first weekend we were here so I must say my first impression was a little skewed. We visited one of the markets and did get some Buko (young coconut) which was a first for the kids and I. We drank the water and then scraped out the coconut and ate up. Yum! It might be a good thing they didn't have all the fish and meat out because it smelled pretty nasty without them there!

Click here for pics of the following:

After spending a wonderful weekend in the hotel, we were off to our empty rental house. We were able to get mattresses and sheets so at least we had something to sleep on. Over the next couple of weeks, we obtained the essentials to live and then we even got some furniture. I'm hoping we will have some money saved up so we can ship some of our furniture home because I love it: couch, coffee table, 2 chairs, 6 person dining table, king size bed, 2 night stands, and 2 twin beds all for $250!!!!

Before we had our furniture, our wonderful neighbor Ms. Mack, offered to let us borrow some of her patio furniture she wasn't going to use anymore. We were very thankful to her because it provided a place for us to eat. Our first family dinner at our new house was during a brownout (that is when the power goes off across the city for an amount of time; sometimes 5 minutes, sometimes 2 hours), but because we have a gas stove we still get to cook. We purchased some fresh prawns earlier that day and bought some yummy mangoes from a street vendor. I must say mangoes are the most delicious fruit I have tried to date. So it was, we ate by candlelight outside on our borrowed furniture, but it was one of the best meals we'd had in a long time.

We visited a local beach a couple of weeks ago. It was quite an interesting experience. There were lots of people there and it even had little covered huts which turned out to be a good thing because it rained on us most of the time we were there. It wasn't a white sand beach with crystal blue water, but it was fun and the water was warm. Apparently we weren't thinking too well before we left and we didn't take any food with us, but we made some new friends there who fed our entire family! It is surely a day to remember.

We celebrated Ærowyn's 5th birthday and it was really fun. She didn't even get upset that there wasn't a Dairy Queen here - that is where she has been talking about having her party for the last year. The only thing we need to do better next time is have more food. If there is one thing Filipinos are passionate about, it is food; they love to eat.

The kids are loving it here! They chase the tiki lizards around all day and find and play with all the bugs and beetles they can. If we can ever find one, we will take a picture of and record a tuko which makes the coolest sound.

We've met so many wonderful people. One filipina, Medley, was actually driving in the opposite direction we were walking and turned her car around to ask if we were ok. She married an American and is living in Texas, but is building a vacation home here. Her mom lives here all the time. She thought we were a family of lost Americans and didn't like to see Wrævn out in the heat so she gave a us a ride. I shouldn't say ride, because it was more like a shuttle to all the places we needed to go. First, she took us to pick up our computer from FedEx, then she took us to her house where she gave us a tour and gave the kids snacks. Then she took Brandon to work and drove me and the kids home. She is back in the states right now, but will be back soon. She gave us her cell number and her mom's home number and told us to call anytime. She is excited to come back and introduce us to her husband. What an amazing lady! Who does that?

While Brandon was working downtown (no internet at the house yet) he made some good friends. One of them invited us to his house last weekend. They were having their house blessed. There was tons of food, Karaoke, and lots of fun people to meet and chat with. Everyone has been so wonderful to us. Ærowyn really likes Karaoke. We would get a set, but A) it's super expensive, and B) we don't have a TV (which we don't miss one little bit).

I didn't have much culture shock (and the kids adjusted right off), just a few surprises here and there.

I hope I never have to drive here because I don't think there are any traffic laws; you can drive down the wrong side of the road, there aren't any stop signs so everyone just goes when they want (although there are 2 stop lights in town...a town of 500,000 people!), and surprisingly enough there aren't that many wrecks...go figure! We ride jeepneys for the majority of our transportation. It's pretty fun and nice because they stop wherever you need them to on their route. It costs 7 pesos per adult each ride which is about 15 cents. We walk a lot too. Brandon and I have each lost a little more than 5 lbs and we hope that we keep on losing :)

Shopping is fun and interesting. They have 2 big malls-Robinson's and SM-with awesome movie theaters which we visit as often as we can because it's only $2! That made me happy to know we won't have to catch up on movies when we get back one of these days. The malls are just like in the states, there is even an iStore. They both have department, grocery, hardware, jewelry and clothing stores, and there is even a Toys 'R Us at Robinson's. We do most of our grocery shopping at one of them, but mangoes are usually cheaper on the street. I won't pay the prices for most of the stuff in the malls because I know I can get it cheaper on the street, especially clothing. Bacolod is known for people who like to spend money so I guess there must be quite a few wealthy people who live here. The house down the street owns 2 BMW's if that says anything. I personally like all the little street shops. I must say I have never seen so many shoes in my life. There is one part of town that every store on two sides of the block is full of shoes of every kind. We all bought some Crocs and the most expensive pair was $5 which is awesome! There are several open street markets all with different things. There is Central Market with baskets, fabric, sewing shops (design stuff, take them the fabric and have it made for super cheap), homemade everything, this and that, anything you can imagine. Then there is Libertad Market with all of the local fruits, veggies, fish, meat, and other food. It's the only place in town to get buko (young coconut). If you want good prices go there, but you have to make sure you wash the food a couple times over. Burgos Market has food and other stuff. Those don't include all of the little shops along streets. I've never seen so many places to shop in my life!! It's just store after store after store for as long as the eye can see. I will have to take some pics all over town and post them later so you can get an idea of what it's like.

Ærowyn will start school next month. She was accepted into a private school where they speak English. She will get to wear a little uniform which she is excited about. When we showed her the picture her first comment was, "Why is it immodest?" We told her she will wear a little shirt underneath so it won't be sleeveless. What a kid! There was one school that didn't even consider her because she wasn't 5 1/2 and couldn't read. Most schools here accept students as young as 1 1/2 and they are reading by age 4-how crazy is that!!

The simple life is great! It took me a little while to adjust to hanging the laundry, doing the dishes by hand, and having our clothes be dirty after only one use, but I really like it here.

So, that's that. I still have to take pics of the city and we have plans to visit lots of places, but for now, this update will have to do. It's great here. I was lying in bed last night with a big grin on my face thinking of how happy I am. I don't know if it's the simplicity of our life right now, or just knowing I'm doing what the Lord wants, or maybe it was because my kids were asleep and I got to spend some time with Brandon alone, but I am happy and loving life.