Where are the beaches?

I thought we will be surrounding by beaches, I thought when Dan is busy with his work, Kioni and I will go and play on the beach for a while, then go home for dinner, I thought it will take us 15 minutes to go to a beach. All the above assumptions were wrong. We found out the nice beaches are owned by the various hotels and resorts on Mactan Island, about an 45 minute drive from where we live, and you will have to, of course, pay for the using their nice white sandy beaches. There are other beaches all over the islands, however, it takes much longer than 15 minutes to go to, like the Santa Fe Beach Club, which owner goes to the same church as we go to. While Dan gets talking to the owner, he offered us 50% off for staying at the place. However, it will take a 2 to 3 hour drive to get to a ferry pier and another hour of boat ride before we will get there.

Helplessness

We have been here for over two months, though we are still struggling with the heat and other issues, we are better than when we first arrived in many ways, for one thing, I have ventured into the local vegetables, which are quite tasty, and much cheaper than broccoli and romaine lettuce.
The helplessness starts to sink in, there are so much poverty and deadends in this country, that it seems like only God can change anything at all, if there is any change at all, in this country.
People who have dark skin have a hard time finding a job (believe it or not, this country is obessed with having white skin, that will be another entry at a later time), people from the province with no education are doomed to have a hard life, people can get away from traffice violation, drug trafficking, anything, even murder (literally) by paying off the judges.
It seems like there are so little we can do, yet, God sent us here for a purpose, to train the local leaders so that the gospel can reach the multitude in this country, so that their basic outlook for life will change, so that they won't feel helpless, hopeless and pointless living.
While we were driving home after Sunday service yesterday, we saw a guy totally drunk, walking by the side of the street, but was swaying in and out of traffic. That is the kind of hopelessness I am talking about. In a supposedly Catholic country, where most people still are 'religious', this guy got drunk in the middle of the day on a Sunday.
What can we do? How can we help? I don't know, but God knows, it is a matter of finding out what small part we have in the next two years.

More than a hotel

Today we went to the 'first world' in Cebu, that is the Shangri-La Hotel, that's where the 12th Asean Summit is going to be held in a month. We went for a Christmas Bazaar, they have export items in which they sold for a bit over wholesale price. Both Kioni and I couldn't deal with the heat much, after just checking out a few stalls, we were soaked. And just like I said before, when Kioni feels bad, she hung on to me even tighter, and it doesn't matter how I explain to her that it will only make both of us hotter, she just wouldn't walk by herself. After a half hour out in the heat, we were about to pass out.

So we went into a buffet restaurant for some A/C and food. I was concerned about how much we were going to pay, but Dan said, 'Do you care at this point?' I guess I I didn't care how much we were paying, because I was about to pass out from the heat. It turns out, we have a 25% off of the $30US dollar/person lunch buffet, because we purchased a few US dollar worth of things at the bazaar. I was almost moved to tears when I saw raw fish and shushi! And of course, there are other 'first world' foods, including a chocolate fountain and strawberries! I didn't go for the chocolate, but Dan went nuts over it. Kioni ate a great deal of strawberries. It feels good to see landscaping around buildings again, and it is particulary good to sit down at a table without feeling the stickiness of the table and the chairs. Some missionaries here told us it is just fine to use money this way, because this is one of the ways to make sure you can stay and keep your sanity. I do feel a bit guilty over this, but I am starting to realize what they said is absolute truth.

Since we are not house guests, we cannot check out the pool or the beach, we just ate and left. It was a nice outing, and it does help us to know that if we need some break from the chaos around us, we have a nice place to go.

Lost cell phone

Just when I get settled down after lunch to do some work on the computer, the phone rang, it was Dan in a bit of a frantic voice, “I left my cell phone in the taxi, please ask Mariss to call my cell phone to see if anyone answers. They said it is rare that lost cell phones would be returned to the owner, but at least we can try.” I hung up the phone in disbelief! It was the first time Dan took a taxi to school to teach, in fact, this is his first day of teaching! Absent-minded professor?

Every Wednesday this semester, Dan teaches both at Cebu Graduate School of Theology CGST (from 8:00am to 11:00am), and at Evangelical Theological College of the Philippines ETCP (from 2:00pm to 5:00pm) which is across town from us. He was off to school this morning before Kioni and I woke up at 6:30am driving his own car, he came home for a short lunch, and then took a taxi to ETCP because it will be rush hour when he comes home, and the traffic is horrendous driving across town.

Mariss uses her own cell phone to call Dan’s cell phone, she attempted several times, and no one answered. On the fourth attempt, a lady answered the phone, Mariss asked if she is the driver of the taxi, no, she said, she is a passenger. Then She turned the phone over to the driver, Mariss asked if he would please return the cell phone to Dan, the driver said he would have to take the passengers to their destination first before returning to ETCP. Mariss also told her that Dan would give him a nice tip.

Five minutes later, Mariss’ cell phone rang, this time a man spoke. He told Mariss not to worry; the taxi driver will return the phone to Dan. He identifies himself to be the chief of security of a Filipino military colonel; he said the taxi driver does not know how to operate the cell phone, so he was calling for him. He reassured Mariss several times that the cell phone will be returned, emphasizing that he is the chief of security of a military colonel, a man of authority. He also asked Mariss to tell Dan to give the driver a nice tip for gas and for the time it will take him to return the phone.

Mariss and I put all these together, it seems like there are two passengers in the car, a lady and a man. Nobody knows a cell phone was left in the seat until it rang. That’s why when it rang for the first couple of times, no one answered. In fact, if the taxi driver did not have these passengers, he would not have answered the phone even if he heard it rang, because he didn’t know how to. Having the chief of security of a colonel as a passenger helped tremendously in the return of the cell phone also. A man in such position has too much honour and authority to take Dan’s cell phone and resell it.

A series of events and people put together at the right time and right place, and Dan is getting his cell phone back. Who puts all these together, well, I believe God is watching over Dan and his cell phone, what do you think?

Security Guards

Many stores hire security guards; some will carry guns, if the stores sell jewelry or more expensive items. Other than guarding the store, they also open the door for customers, greet them, help them park their cars, or help them get out of the parking lot (the parking spaces are quite tight sometimes). If you don’t have an umbrella during a downpour, they will even take you to your car with a big umbrella.

Why hurry?

We already know before we came that the clock runs differently here, so to speak. Event is what is important. Groceries usually have long lines, because if there is nobody to bag your goods, you are not supposed to do it yourself, wait till the cashier scans everything, and she will bag your goods. Buying an electronic item takes about 15 minutes just for getting the multiple receipts. No one is in a hurry, because there is no reason to do so, it is 90 degrees all the time anyway, rushing will only ‘heat things up’, both physically and emotionally, so why hurry?

When we took a trip to Dumaguete, we went to a restaurant along the way, it took about 45 minutes for the food to come, but we were enjoying beautiful scenery,it made the 45 minutes go by much faster.

Coping better

The rain is pouring with loud thunderclaps. The streets get flooded in this kind of downpours. And I am sure if we go out to the street right now, we will see little kids running naked to take their showers.
Kioni is down in her bed trying to take a nap, but I don’t know how long will it take her with the thunders so loud. We were out in Bo’s Coffee again this morning; Susan Rosenberg was there also. We have a relaxing morning, thanks to Kioni, content to colour and read by herself the whole time. We shared some frustrations and new experience after living here for a couple of months. It was good to have someone ‘new’ to talk to. We also saw Melody Nordine, wife of the Dean of CGST, walked by. She came in to say hi and chatted for a bit. She did mention that after being here for 25 years, sometimes she would forget how is it like to be new in a country.

I have learned how to deal with the heat a little bit better now, maybe because it is the cool season here, or I just cope with it better now. Bare in mind, cool season means it is still 90 degrees during the day. At night, with the fan on, Dan and I are able to sit in the living room to read a book or watch some TV without sweating, which is great news.

Kioni is still quite irritated by the heat, like just now when we first arrived home from Bo’s, she felt so hot and sticky that she threw a tantrum. But as soon as I put her in her room and turn the A/C on, she immediately has a ‘personality change’; it was quite amazing to see.

Bleach your eggs

Yep, that's what Mariss, our helper told me. I bought eggs from the supermarket and started using them. Mariss said, no, you need to wash them with bleach water before storing them in the fridge. Which makes perfect sense when I think about it. I have seen chicken poop still attached to the eggs before, I washed that one, but why didn't I think I should be washing all of them?
By the way, none of the eggs sold in the supermarkets are refrigerated, and we have not had any poisioning from the eggs yet.