First church experience in Cebu

Roger and Lan took us to their church, the Mabolo Evangelical Free Church just right around the corner from where they live. Dan and I didn’t know what to wear, so we put on whatever we have that looked a bit more formal. Well, Dan was a whole lot more formal than I was and much hotter, since he has only one pair of lightweight wool pants that look decent. He wore a long-sleeve shirt with an under shirt and a tie. As you can imagine, he was boiling up in the church. I wore a lightweight skirt and a T-shirt. We both became overheated during the church service because the church is typical Filipino style – open windows and fans. Kioni did fine until she got overheated also. When her head started to sweat, she started to become extremely irritable. She wanted me to hold her once she was irritable, and it only made her hotter, and that turned me into a sweat-soaked mom.

The microphone was loud, and so was the music. We went down to the Sunday school classroom to see if Kioni would want to stay with the kids. I was surprised to see that in a 10’x10’ room, there were about 20 kids in there. I did not see windows opened in that room, there was a fan hanging on the ceiling, but it was not turned on. Most of the kids were standing, they gave us warm welcoming smiles. I asked Kioni if she would like to stay with the kids, she shook her head violently. I asked her a couple more times, still the answer was no. I took her back upstairs, thinking how bad those kids might feel with this foreign girl refusing to be with them. I hope they did not get offended.

The church service was Christ-centered, it was longer than what we are used to, but the message was good. It was about prayers. We did not stay long after the church service, Roger would like to treat us to Joe’s, a missionary hang-out place. However, all three of us were so overheated that we needed someplace to cool down. Joe’s does not have A/C, so Dan told Roger that we will take a rain check Joe’s, so we went to the Ayala Mall instead. Dan craved pizza, so we went to Pizza Hut. They served not only pizza, but also fried chicken.

After that, we went to Watson’s (Hong Kong based store) to get some cortisone, I have been cruelly bitten by mosquitoes since we arrived, I told Dan if there are any mosquitoes borne disease here, I will be the first one to be infected.

Busy Mall
We have been to the two biggest malls around here; both are busy and loud all the time. It seems like store crank up their speakers just to get the attention of customers, one can hardly hear oneself talking when you are in the mall. Cebu has more people than we thought, lots of people on the streets, in restaurants, in shops, there are just people everywhere.

I am more used to the heat now, but still not handling it very well. I might take me a long time before I won’t feel like fainting when I am in the heat. Yesterday was a better day. We stayed home and the sky was overcast, so it was not as hot. I have not yet started the romantic period that most people live cross-culturally will feel when they first arrived, I think I have moved strict into the being angry period. This is hard, but I am thankful that we don’t have the language problem, and we can also find whatever food we are used to eating. KFC, Pizza Hut, MacDonald’s, plus some very good local restaurants. I found that most food has some sort of spices in them, but the menu won’t indicate as such, so it becomes a challenge when order for Kioni, since spices is causing her stomach to feel bad.

This concludes the first week after our arrival. I have yet to figure out what to cook for Dan. It has been a challenge even when we were in the U.S., but now, it is even harder.

Worms?!!

To rug or not to rug
Dan likes colours, the house we are staying in has a white theme. Dan cannot function well in whites. We have gone out today with Chuck and Maggie Guill to pick out some rugs in Ayala Mall. We bought three rugs; one of them is a bamboo rug, for the sala (front entrance sitting area). Then Maggie and I went to the department store to pick up a few kitchen items, like non-stick pans and can openers, while Dan and Chuck went to get a second cell-phone. Still they couldn’t get one because they want to see Dan to have a certain visa before they will give them the good deal Dan was looking for. So now Chuck will have to be the person on paper who owns the phone, while we will pay for it. But yet, there is another piece of paperwork that Chuck will have to complete before they will allow Dan to have to phone. So that means just getting a cell phone will take three trips to the store.

Inter-no-net
We have no Internet access still. Hopefully, tomorrow the phone company will come like they said and assess if we can have it or not, don’t know what they are looking for, but that’s the procedure. I need to pay credit card bills over the Internet, so I hope tomorrow they will say yes to our request.

Worms!
So far Kioni loved the food here, she ate a whole lot more than when she was in Vancouver and Hong Kong. I hope her loose poop problem will be resolved quickly. Maggie Guill also told me that I should ‘de-worm’ the whole family every six months, back when her kids were small, they passed worms after they took the de-worming medicine. That’s new to me, but I will ask the pediatrician when we have one. It sounds a bit gross and scary, but Maggie just said it as a matter of fact. So I guess it cannot be too bad.

First day not soaked in sweat

We did not go out today during the day, we stayed home and unpack the remaining items in the suitcases, all the suitcases are now stored in a little storage room upstairs. Mariss also helped Dan moved four huge boxes of books up to the loft, where Dan’s office will be. Dan is grateful for Mariss’ help, without her help, he probably will let the four boxes sit there for another month or so. He is waiting for Jerry, a local carpenter to build him some bookcases in the loft.

We went out for dinner last night, to Krua Thai restaurant again. We love the food there, but Kioni is starting to have very loose poop, wonder if it has any thing to do with the weather or the food. Kioni did not eat much of the spicy food at all, and she always drinks mineral water, so I wonder if the heat is causing her problem.

I am less tired today, since I took a short nap in the afternoon with Kioni and I was not out in the heat all day long. Things start to look better now. I hate to talk about the heat everyday.

I feel guilty about how quickly we want air-conditioning. Are we still suiting to be missionaries if we need air-conditioning? Should we just tough it out just like the old-timers? What good does it do to our ministry if we simply cannot function? Kioni becomes so irritable when she is hot and sticky, and she switchs back to her sweet old self when she is in an A/C room. It hurts me to see her suffer. On the other hand, I have to be responsible for the resources that our supporters give to us. No doubt we are going to pay for the A/C out of our own pocket, not through the ministry expense, but I am still feel guilty about it. I guess it really is a matter of personal preference, what will others say about the fact that almost all missionaries that we know drink spring water instead of water from the tap? Is that extravagant to do so? I don't know, God will be our judge.

I have learned so much about living in a developing country in just a few days, I am sure there are much to learn still in the next two years. Mostly I see how unprepared I am and how different living in a developed country is from living here in Cebu. I certainly know I cannot be a missionary in the jungles, Cebu is far from being in the jungles, in fact, Chuck Guill said a Vietnamese would love to come and live in Cebu, it is paradise in comparison to Vietnam, but for me who comes from a developed country, it is not without challenge.

It is still the heat

Heat continues to be the subject of the day. It will get to us so badly that Kioni will start to throw bad tantrums; I will not have the patience to deal with it, while Dan would just be sitting there sweating away. We get tired by 2:00pm, it is draining just to be in the heat, even without doing anything at all.

We are slowly getting what we need, we have the phone company come and connect the landline for us today. Our helper Mariss said it is record speed, well, it is because Chuck Guill has applied for the phone line two months ago for us. Now they will have to see if we can have DSL internet service, don’t know what they are looking for, but it will probably take another month or so before we can have internet service.

Garbage in the fridge
Yesterday when we ate at the Guills’, Maggie, a veteran missionary in Cebu, told me that she puts her garbage in the fridge if she is done going out of the house for the day, this way, she will keep the ants out. I thought that is a good idea, but question if that is a bit overkill. Today, Kioni asked for some cereal from the box, I pulled the box down, and here they are, ants all over and inside the box! Mariss said one never leaves an opened box of food in the cupboard, one will need to put everything in a tightly sealed box, or else, the ants will certainly get to them. She said even dry oatmeal has to be put in a box. Tonight, I started putting garbage in the fridge, tomorrow, I hope I can get some boxes for various things.

I cooked my first meal tonight without propane gas. Mariss bought some ground pork, I marinated it with some soy sauce, a little bit sugar, and some salt. Mariss also helped me cut up some Chinese cabbage, I just throw everything in with some rice into the rice cooker I bought yesterday. Half hour later, I got some wonderfully tasting rice with pork and cabbage. Kioni loved it, she ate a whole bowl. Dan ate a bowl of cereal. We ate dinner tonight in our bedroom, with air-conditioning; Kioni smiles and sings again.

Dan either has a bad cold or he has allergies so bad that he cannot breathe. I am just soaked in sweat when I am home at the ground floor of our house. The heat does one good thing, it is a constant reminder of why we are here. I thought about the cool dry weather in Michigan often, but now we are here, and the whole reason for being in the heat is because of what God has called us to do in the next two years.

We have decided to install an air-conditioner at the ground level of our house, so that we can actually use that room and won’t feel like we have to hide in our bedroom all the time. The owner of the house Howard Plucar is going to pay for half of the price of the air-conditioner, we are grateful for that. Tomorrow, the air-conditioning guy is going to come and give us an idea of how it will be installed.

This is an interesting place, they have a ‘guy’ for everything, and the missionaries here know just the right guy for the right thing.

來到宿霧己經有三天了，但是炎熱和潮濕的氣候仍然是難受極了。家中地下的那一層沒有冷氣，祺祺熱得十分容易發脾氣，我沒有耐心應付他，因為我也熱得要命。宿霧比我想像中貧窮，新式建築物隔壁是一大堆隨便撘起來的木屋。好多人的生計也似是靠勞力賺取的。
炎熱的天氣提醒我們來宿霧的原因，若不是神的帶領，我們是沒有甚麼理由來這?的。

Drive like water

Today, Dan drove for the first time. It is different driving here. No rule, just ‘make your presence’ known (quoting Chuck Guill). However, it is important to know that whenever another car is an inch in front you, they have the right of way. First rule that Chuck told us is that, “Forget about lanes.” First of all, many roads have no lines, so other cars can be in the ‘opposite’ direction driving right in your ‘lane’, so when you see another car coming towards you, you just ‘go with the flow’, either slow down and let the car pass or go in front of the other car. When there are lanes, the above rule still applies. Dan finds it quite ‘freeing’ to be able to drive like this; he describes it as driving like water, meaning you just have to go with the traffic.

We are millionaires

We went to the bank to open a bank account so we can have our salaries deposited directly from the Manila head office to us here in Cebu. There are boxes that we have to check asking us for our income level. Surprising, we have to check the highest bracket that the bank offers, and it daunted on us that we are in fact millionaires here. Chuck told us that we will now look upon as the rich, and there is no way we can get around it. It feels funny for me because I have never been rich, however, Chuck said we would have to get use to it because it is a fact in our lives now. He also said I, as a Chinese, would also be look upon as rich, since the Chinese in the Philippines are mostly rich. Moreover, they have expectations from me that they won’t have for Dan. Dan as a foreigner, can say stupid things and be forgiven quite quickly, but for me, being an ‘Asian’, more is expected from me as far as knowing the culture, though I am still learning about it at this point.

Kioni is doing very well with our helper Maris. She follows Maris around when Maris works, when Maris went upstairs, she wanted to be upstairs, when Maris washes the grapes, she wants to help also. It is obvious that Maris likes children, and I guess Kioni catch on to that pretty quickly.

Because of the heat and lack of air-conditioning in the ground level, we find it hard to utilize the main area of the house, where the kitchen and the living area is. We know we will only be here for a year, but we would like to install an air-conditioning unit so that we can actually live in the house normally, rather than hiding in our rooms all the time. Heat does slow down physical activities as well as brain activities. I found Dan missing on something that are obvious, like left and right, or counting, or asking for the date three times in a 15 minute duration.

We were invited to Chuck and Maggie Guill’s tonight for dinner. I was worried that we won’t be able to find our way home in the dark. But Dan is excellent in directions, we got home with no major problems, we did doubt a couple of times if we were on the right road, but it turned out that we were.

It was lightening quite a bit tonight, dark clouds was all over, maybe it will rain and cool down a bit tomorrow.

Oh, also, there is Bo’s coffee, Chuck introduces us to it. It was half the price as Starbucks, and it is also good. I still would like to grind my own coffee beans and make my own cup of industrial strength espresso with evaporated milk. Forgot to buy evaporated milk today, so I will have to use the Magnolia full cream milk tomorrow for my coffee, it should be OK, since the Magnolia milk is quite thick.

We have water!

The Philippines country leader of EFCA-IM Chuck Guill came and paid us a visit. He ordered water for us, (that is another story), and took us out to a large shopping complex to buy some basic supplies. I have a bad headache most of the day; it was hard for me to concentrate anything.

It took us much longer than anticipated in the supermarket because the line was long. It also took us a while to figure out what to buy, we knew American name brands which we are familiar with cost more, but with Kioni in tow and a short period of time to shop, we were unable to figure out which local brands to buy. We were glad that we have some basic things now; we can finally wash our hair and have toilet paper to use.

Being in a new place is always draining, the sounds, the smells, the heat the traffic, all contribute to extra stress.

We drove back home since it was way past Kioni’s naptime. Dan is out again with Chuck to get a cell phone; we need some mode of communication. Kioni is still sleeping. My head is still pounding, but thought I need to write these precious things down.

Oh yes, we have water today. We have to order water for drinking, they come in 5-gallon bottles and they are delivered every week. Chuck called the water company for us, and we have 4 big bottles of 5-gallon water sitting in the living room right now.

Long Absence

After almost one month of absence, I am back blogging! After over two years of talking about being in Cebu, we are here!

The long travel from Illinois to Michigan, then from Michigan to Vancouver, then to Hong Kong, and finally to Cebu was not an easy one. Though we are used to moving with the Air Force, we have never landed in so many places in so short of a period of time. I am glad to report that we made it to Cebu!

First thing that struck me at the airport was the heat. Though we arrive at night, the heat was still suffocating. That did not surprise me, but it still got to me quite a bit. For someone like me who found it hard to live without air-conditioning, I immediately asked myself, “What am I doing here?” While I know full well the answer, I just couldn’t help but to reassure myself of the reason why we were in this kind of heat and humidity.

Cebu is not exactly the kind of vacationing place that everybody talks about. Though the part of city we are in is already an upscale part of town, we still have lots of things to adjust to. The poverty, the crowd and the dirt are more than we anticipated. To the left is a photo of a snapshot of a road that we would drive to and from the mall. It is not uncommon to see this squatter huts alongside with modern looking buildings.

We are trying our best to have humor over things that we don't understand, while accepting them as what they are.

We knew the house that we are renting has no air-conditioning on the ground floor; we were told that you could get by with 5 or 6 fans blowing during the day. It was still hot at night, I wonder what it will be like in the morning.

Fellow missionaries Roger and Lan came to pick us up, the rental van took a while to come, after we were in the air-conditioned van, I was much better, so was Kioni. Her little head of hair was quite wet after waiting for 15 minutes in the heat for the van to come.

At our rental home, Mariss, our helper was there to greet us. We walked into a clean house with all of the basics in it. We were thankful that we made it the first night without much to report. Only a few little lizard like animals crawling on the walls, no major companies.

Kioni took a shower and promptly went to bed. She slept for 9 hours, did not wake up once. She is adjusting quite well to sleeping in new beds now.