This was our first Transfer Week in the mission, having arrived ourselves on the last one. I already described the farewell traditions for those going home. The new missionaries arrived from the Philippines MTC early Wednesday morning. Missionaries from the States arrive very late Tuesday night, and are put up in a motel. But beginning with the arrival in the morning, the mission office was in for a day of chaos.
We don't really have a place in the office. The other couples have places and computers, but since we don't have an official office duties, and are out so much, we work at a conference table with our laptops. Since we didn't have early transfer duties, we thought it prudent to stay away from the office as long as we could.
New missionaries usually go to the Mission Home for their arrival breakfast and orientation, but the home is undergoing extensive renovations. Apparently it had been remodeled several years ago, but inadequate support had been placed in the floor of the second story. Now they've gone back to reinforce those beams, and several rooms are involved. The new mission president coming in July will be bringing a 15 year old son, and perhaps they are doing some of the remodeling based on that. Because of that work, the missionaries were brought to the chapel by the mission office, instead. There they had donuts and juice for breakfast, orientation meetings, pizza and fruit for lunch, some more meetings with their trainers, and were given a sack lunch for their evening meal, since they might not arrive in their areas until past dinnertime. We were given the assignment of picking up some tables, food and drink at the Mission Home and bringing it to the church building. When we arrived at the small mission office, it was quite full of missionaries and missionary luggage, the latter completely filling up our little conference room.
Through an oversight on the other end, the missionaries coming over from Palawan did not have their travel phone with them, and were unable to notify anyone that their flight was an hour late. The airport website listed their plane as landed, so there was a deal of wondering where they were! Finally a couple of elders drove a van to the airport and finally found them and brought them back. We had been asked to deliver some new sister missionaries to an apartment where they could stay for two nights until their flight over to Palawan, and it was about an hour's drive. We arrived back home at six, but heard later that the couples in the office were not able to leave until 6 :30.
Thursday we drove all morning again, checking out a new apartment for some elders in Parañaque and doing a couple of deliveries. Friday was another drive day, as we returned to Parañaque for the third day in a row. It's the hour's drive that we keep having to take! We had planned to leave early from our apartment, but Brother Base texted us that he was planning on washing our car that day. He is the mission's handyman, which the couples have hired for car care and heavy housework. He told us to stay at the office, that he was coming in. He came by bus from Cavite, which is about fifteen miles south of here, so he didn't arrive until 9:30. We were pretty ancy by then, but then remembered that the missionaries stay in their apartments until about three on Fridays, doing their weekly planning. So, we finally left on our planned trip at 11:45, but weren't quite as upset about it as we could have been! We had to deliver some medicine to a sister that needed it quickly, so we grouped as many deliveries together as we could. We were coming home in heavy traffic and I needed to go to the store, so we ended up stopping at the mall nearest home and eating there in a Philippine restaurant. Only Maria might recognize the food we ate, but it was Lechon (fried pork belly), Kare Kareng Crispy Tadyang (fried beef ribs), and Ginataang Sigarillas, some kind of green beans cooked in coconut milk, with, of course, rice. I'm trying to experience the full culture of the Philippines, which means giving the food a chance. I haven't found much that I've really loved, but I'm willing to keep trying! We were served purple, white and lime green rice muffins as an appetizer. I'm not usually appetized by that much food coloring!
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Little side note: We have now been pulled over by cops or traffic monitors five times since we arrived! It's all but once been for trivial things, just so they can get money from the "rich white guys." And, of course, by most local standards we are quite wealthy. However, so far, except for the encounter with the sticky cop the other day, and actually, maybe even then, we have been saved by our missionary tags. They look and say, "Oh, you are missionaries! OK, you can go." So, another blessing of service.
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