Makati Fourth Ward Variety Show

Saturday May 17 was our ward variety show, and was really quiet a varied show of talent. One was a home-teaching song that was a hoot! I got a copy of it.  There were jokes, a 2 year old making animal sounds, the Beehives doing What Does the Fox Say, opera, reader's theater, and lots of music, from rock to folk to animé.  We thought we should bring a little American 60's to the program. David bought a new guitar, an electric-acoustic complete with amplifier. Here is just a sample.  There were about 30 million kids there and you can hear them all, but:

Just Another Day in the Mission

In my head, I write these wonderful posts about our days in the mission, but when I get home at night, I'm too exhausted to think! And, often too tired to eat. (Not always a bad thing!) Yesterday, we ate lunch after we came back to the apartment at 3:30.  I should say, David ate.  I flopped onto the couch and watched an episode of West Wing.  We bought Strong VPN Client, which, for a monthly fee, hooks us up to an American IP address so we can get Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Yesterday, we spent four and a half hours looking at apartments with two wonderful Zone Leaders, Elder Obray from Payson, Utah, and Elder Manares, from Ilo-Ilo, Philippines. It is so much fun to be around these excellent missionaries! We finally had to get two apartments, each for two elders, because we couldn't find larger.  We actually DID find two larger, very nice apartments, but both owners were flying under the law. The Church insists on paying the income taxes on the rent.  It's a good deal for owners because their rent is increased by the 5% tax rate. However, if they don't pay on their other apartments, having one paid for them puts them in a fix.  So, we can't rent those apartments. Having signed those two, we are still searching for at least four more apartments in the mission. Before June 6!! We send to SLC for the first rent check, and that takes at least a week, so we are really down to the wire. We're gaining a net 12 missionaries at the transfer.

Today we inspected five apartments, three that we've never been to before so there was a little exploration included, handed out two new skillets and some pocket knives, fixed a toilet by installing a new flapper, checked out a new apartment which we are going to rent, and sent in the paperwork to begin the rental process.

This evening, we learned that as we were acquiring the apartment, the president was telling the elders not to go ahead with that apartment! So then, we started the un-do process!!

All in a day's work.  Tomorrow we get to visit Villa Escudero, a working coconut plantation and resort, with several senior missionaries.

Two Really Big Days

They are creating a new stake that will take part of our mission and put it in the Quezon City Mission. The new Taguig Stake will encompass some of our proselyting areas, so we are giving three of our apartments over to them. This means that we must find and rent three apartments for these missionaries before June 4.  Typically, the missionaries in the area find the apartments, and then we go look at them and see if they meet mission requirements, then talk to the owner about using our contract, make sure they have a Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), and come to terms.  Many Filipinos do not have a TIN because they don't want to pay the taxes, and probably can get away with it.  The Church, however, insists on the tax being paid, to the extent that we actually pay it. S0 if someone wants P10,000 a month, we pay the taxes in their name and they still net P10,000.  It's a pretty good deal for them! But, we've had people refuse, either because they insist on their own contract or don't want to have the taxes paid, calling attention to them.

Besides finding these new apartments, we are also signing up replacement apartments for missionaries who have rats coming up their toilets, or whose apartments flood in the rainy season soon to be upon us.  We also must inspect all 48 apartments for cleanliness and function once each transfer. So, Thursday we drove to the southernmost apartment in the mission to inspect. There is a checklist that they all have, that they will be graded on. The highest score is about 12 (which the sisters usually receive). If they score less than an 8, they each lose P400 of support, and the "House Mouse," the missionary with the longest time in the apartment, who is in charge of the house, loses P500.  Their support is P4000 per month, so it is not an insignificant penalty.

We left our apartment at 7:30 am, and arrived at 9:10 at the first apartment, which, I think, is fifteen or seventeen kilometers away. We were able to see three apartments in that area, which is significant and very helpful. We have from 8 am to about 12 noon to see the apartments.  The missionaries are in their apartments for that time Tuesday-Thursday, and on Friday, they are in until three o'clock, so we have a little longer. This may seem like they spend a lot of time in their apartments, but they have designated study time.  They are to be dressed in missionary attire by 8 am, do personal scripture study until nine, then companionship study until 10.  At ten they begin language study, which is 30 or 60 minutes, then eat lunch and go out.  On Friday they add weekly planning from 1:00-3:00, then go out.  They are back in their apartments by 9 or 9:30, and then in bed by10:30.

They weren't so clean this week, perhaps because they called their mothers on Monday, which is their P-day, so they didn't have as much time to clean. None were below 8, though. We drove back to the office, arriving something after one, ate lunch, and spent the rest of the afternoon in the office doing paperwork.

That night we rehearsed for the ward talent/variety night.

Friday we began again, this time going to the northernmost area of the mission.  We were very blessed this day because we were able to get to seven apartments, an unheard of number! We were in Tondo, that horribly poverty-stricken and scary area we were in on our first day with the Hiatts.  It wasn't nearly as scary this time, after two months of driving all over the metro area! One nice benefit of experience, I guess. In addition, we had an appointment to sign a contract, and got that done, too.  We missed our first Zone Conference to do so, but we felt this was more important, and the President agreed.  We don't really have to attend Zone Conferences, but they are one of the perks. There is a nice day of spiritual meetings, a nice, catered lunch, and being with the missionaries. Nonetheless it was a good trade-off.
It was Friday night.  We had to get bread, and I was tired, so while at the store we purchase some pre-made spinach quiches, and brought them home to eat. Afterwards we watched Scarlet Pimpernel until we fell asleep.

Random photos and thoughts

The cop escorting us after he felt guilty for defrauding us.

Sorry these two pictures are blurry.  Most of my photos must be taken from a moving car. These are dwellings on inlets of the ocean. Hard to imaging that people actually live here.

Had to take a photo of this one! Some missionaries live in this development. Most housing developments have security at the entrance, where you must leave your driver's license if you're not a resident, to pick up on your way out.

Our favorite intersection.  This will eventually be two lanes at the stoplight.

Another blurry one, sorry.  This is a dragonfruit we ate for supper.

Isn't it pretty? Love that bright outside, and it looks like poppyseed inside.  It has a melon-like texture, and a very mild taste. It would be pretty in a mixed fruit salad.

Tried to capture the sun reflecting off that tower this evening.

David and his new baby, an Epiphone electric acoustic guitar.  There's a talent show Saturday night, and we're thinking of doing Jug Band Music.  I'm hoping a friend will bring me a washboard tomorrow.

Photos I Got This Morning from Virlanie

This little boy and I stayed together for our whole time at the baby and toddler home.

I think we were singing "If You're Happy and You Know It" with the challenged teens.  They were so sweet, and loved their singing time!

Virlanie

We have been talking about serving a mission for years.  From the very beginning, I told David that my dream mission would be as a service missionary to go to an orphanage and hold babies. When I was in Church on Sunday, they announced that the Relief Society was going to be going to Verlanie today, and invited all to come. Virlanie is a foundation started by a French man to take care of street children in Manila. They have several homes with houseparents, and take children from birth on up. These are children who have families who can't care for them, or who were born to other street children, or who have been abandoned and/or neglected, or abused. Verlanie takes them all.

So today, my very long-held dream was realized, and I got to go to an orphanage and hold babies! Actually, I only held one little boy, Angeles, who was about 18 months old.  We danced and sang and just cuddled. There were about ten young children in the room, from 3 months up to almost three.  The others, three and four, were downstairs with the other women who came.  We didn't get to stay but 30 minutes there, because then we went to see the developmentally disabled teens in another house. There we also did lots of hugs, and sang songs with them, and lots of high-fives. Again, only thirty minutes.  Jamie Bohn, our bishop's wife, has been going there for about a year and singing with the kids.  She is moving in June, and is hoping someone else will take over for her.

I asked our RS president, Micah, why we didn't just take it on as a RS project.  She said she had thought about that, but that there were so many worthy organizations that needed help, she had thought to visit each so that the individual sisters could find the ones that speak to them. As we were going home, I learned of two more such places.  One is the Holy Family school, that takes young girls from age 6 on up, who have been rescued from the most unimaginable circumstances, including trafficking.  This one is run by Catholic nuns Jamie calls "angels from Heaven." Last fall Jamie and another sister from our ward went to this school and organized a choir for Christmas.  The other sister, Carey Baldwin, asked friends and relatives in the States to sponsor choir girls, and got them all red dresses and matching shoes for the concert. They put on one concert for the workers at the school and various friends at Jamie's house, and from that, five more concerts were scheduled.  Then Jamie learned of the plight of women in the Women's Correctional Institution in Mandaluyong, the city where we live. All of you Americans sit up and take notice, and thank the Lord for the Bill of Rights!! These women are imprisoned upon arrest, and stay here until charges are filed and a trial can be held.  One woman, a friend of a member of our ward, was arrested because her boyfriend was caught in possession of drugs, so she was guilty by association.  She was taken from her two young children and put into prison for two years before her friends could finally get her out.  Other women are there eight, nine years--remember, no charges have even been filed! And, they have water and basic food.  No shampoo, soap, toothpaste, nothing unless someone donates it directly to them (bypassing jailers who might help themselves).  I surely did not realize that this kind of prison situation existed in 2014. Jamie and Carey decided to take their choir to the prison, and were able to make it through all the red tape by January 5 (for a Christmas concert.) She said these women were the most appreciative audience, and wanted to not only listen to the girls, but to visit with them.  Later the individual prisoners shared their singing, and the last was a woman who sang a song written by a prisoner, a Christmas song, but one that sang of their sorrows and troubles.  The little girls in the choir were crying by the end of that, which is understandable when you understand the trials they themselves had been through.

Our first calling here is to serve the Manila Mission and to help the 225-ish young missionaries. And when you really think about it, Jesus Christ is the only one who can solve the problems of this country. But, I hope that somehow we can find a way to serve in some of these other capacities.

Shopping in Metro Manila

Materialism is alive and well in the Philippines.  I was just commenting today that of all the wonderful things about the United States, what seems to get imported to other cultures is generally the worst of America, other than the fact that people are free to do those sorts of things. You can find most American brand names, stores, under-clad models, freaky hair styles, ratty-looking brand new clothes, etc. The Philippines is a poor country, made poorer by rampant corruption and greed, but the metro area is not representative of that. Here there are HUGE malls, larger than any I've been to in the States, often connected by aerial walkways from one huge lot of stores to another. There are many "Japan Stores" where you can find inexpensive goods of varying quality, but there are also Prada and Ralph Lauren.

The work force is interesting.  Every venue we have visited (including one mall named "A-Venue") has every worker in a uniform.  Everyone who works for the mall has a uniform, and everyone who works for each store has a uniform, and every store has one or two uniformed security guards at every door. The young women are all beautiful, and every one, usually on their feet for long hours every day, wears four- or more inch high heels with the pointiest toes imaginable.  I cannot think how their feet and legs must feel at the end of the day!

When you walk into the store, the security guard, basically, checks you in.  If you are carrying a large bag, such as a backpack, you will probably be asked to leave it there. He always greets you with, "Hello, Ma'am, Hello, Sir," as does every salesperson you ever encounter. Generally you are in the store less than two minutes when you are greeted, and generally you will have two or three or more who, simultaneously, ask how they can help you. At first we felt somewhat like royalty.  At one store we went to last week, the security guard met me at my car door and held an umbrella for me, to keep me out of the sun! Lovely.  But, shopping under the eye of three or four salespeople is also a little intimidating--"I'm just LOOKING!" It can sometimes be quite amusing. One day I was looking for a king-sized top sheet, and they didn't have any.  Three or four times they suggested the lovely mattress pads they had on sale that day, instead! That would have been comfy!

Every item one buys is thoroughly checked before it is rung up. A set of glasses in a box will be opened and the rims and bases of each one checked for nicks. A lamp will have a bulb placed in it and be turned on.  An appliance will be plugged in and run through all it's settings to make sure it works. An electric fan will be completely assembled, turned on to each speed, then repacked in the box. This is something I would like to take home with me! When you pay, they will say, "I received 1000 P from you, Ma'am." and then count out the change.

Every package is sealed with a staple, or, with larger items, tied shut with plastic tape that makes a carrying handle. If the item is large or there are many, they will carry them out to the car for you. Sometimes they will turn down a tip, but most often, accept it gratefully.  Wages here can be equivalent to about $10/day, which may explain how stores can afford to hire so many!

We have come to appreciate the security guards because they will often help you to back out into traffic, or some other maneuver. When you leave the store and the shopping center, they always thank you for shopping and say good bye.

We actually did not go shopping today. It was supposed to be P-Day, but we had a contract that needed to be signed today.  We arrived about 45 minutes early, partly because there was no traffic in our area and partly because the owner had lots on their drive, so we decided to take the elders to McDonald's.  They were well-pleased, and since we hadn't been there yet, we were glad to try it out.  I'm happy to report that Sausage-Egg McMuffins taste the same here as at home!