30 March 2014

     Sabbath day once again.  Feeling a little homesick, missing family, friends and the comforts of home.  We were getting ready for Church and I decided to listen to the Mormon Channel on my iPad for some soothing music and the General Women's Meeting was just beginning.  Just imagine, I am half a world away and yet, I could feel my "sisters" (family, friends, daughters-in-laws, granddaughters, neighbors etc.) watching and listening to the same wonderful messages from our leaders!  The only difference was, it was 6:00 Saturday evening for them and it was 8:00 Sunday morning for me.  It brightened my spirit for sure.  lds.org  
     Our week was once again busy and doing pretty much the same things.  We had new missionaries, weddings, and sealings of children, young and older, to their parents, and lots of youth in doing baptisms for the dead.  They are out of school for summer vacation and came in droves yesterday.
     I'd like to share some very different and exciting pictures here.  Look at them and you decide which ones win the prize!  I know Edward's children and grandchildren will be surprised, and wonder what has happened to their father and grandpa, so I can only say, I must be rubbing off on him.

I finally got him in some shorts and
sandals.  He wouldn't however
leave the apartment.

Second set of shorts and new sandals. We found
them at The Gap in the Mega Mall.   I put
the socks down...

he pulls them back up.

Socks up - nah!

Rod Stewart's song:  "I'm too sexy
for my hat, too sexy for my shorts, too
sexy for ..." comes to mind!

So between these two pictures, everyone
needs to vote:  socks up or socks down.

I say no socks, but I guess I need to take baby steps
with him.  He has been a good sport about all of this.

     Well, I best close and go practice the piano for an event next week.  Hope y'all have a good day, and I'll see you in the funny papers! 

Sunday, 23 March 2014

     It is hard to believe we have been here six weeks!  We are finding ourselves settling into a routine, able to get to and from the malls by ourselves, and we are preparing to get our driver licenses!  
     I have had some pretty humbling moments this past week. I sometimes whine and complain about this or that and then I see someone who walks on stumps who gets along with a smile on his face.  I wanted a house keeper (in Manti) and couldn't find one and there is a woman who comes and "spring" cleans our apartment every other week for 600 pesos ($13.66) and spends six hours doing everything from top to bottom (windows, moves out the fridge, washer/dryer etc.) and is so grateful when we leave her a snack to eat, she writes us a note!  
     Americans complains with the occasional mucky air/inversions and here, it is a way of life.  The autos/jeepneys/buses aren't required to meet emission standards.  The people who work in the traffic wear respirators, and there is a haze most of the time.  Some of this is from burning garbage at all hours of the day and night.  
      I go to get my hair cut and one girl washes it and does a massage, one dries it, one has a large brush and comes by and removes the cut hair and then I get it styled.  This costs 650 pesos ($14.77).  

"Archie" who is the maintenance supervisor at the
Temple who takes care of our apartments, fixing
what is needed.  He has two of the cutest
little boys, 3 and 2 years old.
Smiling all the time!

     At the Chilis we ate at, there were probably 15 "extras" who filled glasses, cleared dishes, smiled and wanted to do whatever for us.  Talk about customer service!  We go into the Ace Hardware and don't know where to find things, and we have three or four helpers descend on us to help us.  
     They spend their days working and working hard for a pittance.  Amid this, these are smiling, happy people who are grateful for each day of their lives!  They work so they can go to school to better themselves and their families.  They would give you the shirt off their backs if you needed it.  They are amazing!  
     Okay - off the soap box.  I talked with my sister JoAnn this morning and she was amazed that we have met "connections" here, half-way around the world:  Elder & Sister Dial - he is my sister-in-law Jane's cousin, Elder & Sister Goss from Fresno, CA who is in the same ward as a life-long friend of Edward's, then imagine my surprise and delight today while we were in Church and I see Elder & Sister Shaffer (Dean & Angela) formerly of Panguitch walk in.  Pam had told me they had been called to the Philippines but couldn't remember where exactly and they are in the Quezon (Q is K and they don't say the u, so it is Kezon) City Mission which is where we are.

It was fun to see them.  They are MLS missionaries and work with two stakes, mainly with Young Adults, and were just visiting the Marakina Ward.  Hopefully, we can make connections with them again.

     In going over some of my pictures from my lasts posts, I found some interesting ones I failed to include.  They are definitely worth putting here:

Hanging coffins from Salgada - I got this one off the Intrnet

Road construction - I call him the OSHA nightmare!  Two green
flags (go or go-go?) no helmet, flip-flops - yikes!

A delicacy at the Fresh Market - pig intestines and blood brownies. I
don't think I will be purchasing these any time soon!

    Anyway, hope y'all have a good day, and be thankful for what you have!  We love and miss everyone but are so grateful to be here having the experiences we are.

After our Zoobic Adventure, we headed back to Quezon City the long way!  We visited a cashew farm and when one knows the work that goes into one little jar of cashews, you gain a new appreciation for the taste, and the cost.

The cashew tree is a tropical evergreen that produces the cashew nut and the cashew apple. Officially classed as Anacardium occidentale, it can grow as high as 14 metres (46 ft), but the dwarf cashew, growing up to 6 metres (20 ft), has proved more profitable, with earlier maturity and higher yields.

The cashew nut is served as a snack or used in recipes, like other nuts, although it is actually a seed. The cashew apple is a fruit, whose pulp can be processed into a sweet, astringent fruit drink or distilled into liqueur.

The shell of the cashew nut yield derivatives that can be used in many applications from lubricants to paints, and other parts of the tree have traditionally been used for snake-bites and other folk remedies.

The true fruit of the cashew tree is a kidney or boxing-glove shaped drupe that grows at the end of the cashew apple. The drupe develops first on the tree, and then the pedicel expands to become the cashew apple. Within the true fruit is a single seed, the cashew nut. Although a nut in the culinary sense, in the botanical sense the nut of the cashew is a seed. The seed is surrounded by a double shell containing an allergenic phenolic resin, anacardic acid, a potent skin irritant chemically related to the better-known allergenic oil urushiol which is also a toxin found in the related poison ivy. Properly roasting cashews destroys the toxin, but it must be done outdoors as the smoke (not unlike that from burning poison ivy) contains urushiol droplets which can cause severe, sometimes life-threatening, reactions by irritating the lungs.

Took this picture to show we
are in the Bataan Province at the
cashew growers.

Cashew Tree

Blossoms - each one makes one cashew nut!

Picked nuts - dried and still in the shells

Press - cracks cashews, one nut at a time!  Slow going!!!!

Cracking the nut, then they are roasted, and sold.



Onward We Go:

The Bataan Death March (Filipino: Martsa ng Kamatayan sa Bataan, Japanese: Batān Shi no Kōshin (バターン死の行進?)), which began on April 9, 1942, was the forcible transfer by the Imperial Japanese Army of 60,000–80,000 Filipino and American prisoners of war after the three-month Battle of Bataan in the Philippines during World War II.[3][4] All told, approximately 2,500–10,000 Filipino and 100–650 American prisoners of war died before they could reach their destination at Camp O'Donnell.[5][6][7] The reported death tolls vary, especially amongst Filipino POWs, because historians cannot determine how many prisoners blended in with the civilian population and escaped. The march went from Mariveles, Bataan, to San Fernando, Pampanga. From San Fernando, survivors were loaded to a box train and they were brought to Camp O'Donnell in Capas, Tarlac.

The 128 km (80 mi) march was characterized by wide-ranging physical abuse and murder, and resulted in very high fatalities inflicted upon prisoners and civilians alike by the Japanese Army, and was later judged by an Allied military commission to be a Japanese war crime.  For more info Google: bataan death march.  Stunning pictures on there!

These markers are all along the route.

Next stop The Memorial Cross:

Mount Samat National Shrine (Tagalog pronunciation: [samat]) or Dambana ng Kagitingan (Shrine of Valour) is a historical shrine located near the summit of Mount Samat in the town of Pilár, Province of Bataan, in the Republic of the Philippines. The memorial shrine complex was built to honor and remember the gallantry of Filipino and American soldiers who fought during World War II.

Consisting of a Colonnade and the large Memorial Cross, the park was commissioned in 1966 by then-President Ferdinand Marcos, himself a War Veteran, for the 25th Anniversary of WW2.[1] The white Memorial Cross stands as a remembrance to the soldiers who fought and lost their lives in the Battle of Bataan. The shrine complex also includes a war museum with a wide array of collections from paintings of the Philippine heroes, to armaments used by the Filipino, American and Japanese forces during the battle.

From the colonnade and the cross, there is a panoramic view of Bataan, Corregidor Island and on a clear day, the city of Manila situated about 50 km (31 mi) across Manila Bay.

The Memorial Cross is a towering structure at the highest point of Mount Samat, 555 m above sea level. The monument is made of steel and reinforced concrete with a lift and viewing gallery at the Cross's arms. A staircase also leads to the gallery in the wings. 

Location

Pilár, Bataan, Philippines

Designer

Lorenzo del Castillo and Napoleon Abueva

Type

Historical landmark

Material

Steel and reinforced concrete finished with chipped granolithic marble

Length

90 feet (27 m)

Width

18 feet (5.5 m)

Height

92 metres (302 ft)

Beginning date

1966

Completion date

1970

Opening date

1970

Dedicated to

Soldiers who fought for freedom in the Battle of Bataan

This was a pretty somber experience!  There is an elevator which takes you up inside the cross to look out at the area.  I feel badly that I didn't go up and had I realized I couldn't get out, I would have gone.  I thought it was an open area and with my phobia of wanting to fly from high places, I didn't dare try it.  Edward took the pictures above while I took the pictures of the memorial on the ground.  These statues are life-sized and are incredible.  They certainly portray the suffering that went on.  If you want more information, just google: cross memorial in bataan.

This concluded our trips until August!  It's back to work.

Oops! Left these off the jungle part.  Yes, it is a real tiger.  I think
she was totally bored with us.

Missionaries and E/S Nicholson's kids

Subic Bay - Part two - water

The first two activities were in a hut with natives and animals and then the dolphins.  The still shot camera wasn't the best so the pictures are on the video camera.  Guess y'all will need to wait until the movie comes out!

The third activity was "Balancing Act" which was absolutely incredible!!!!  I still couldn't get the video clips to work!  If someone can tell me how to put clips on here, let me know.  They are priceless!

E Kresge, S/E Nicholson and son Eric

E Lacanienta, S Pitts, S Lacanienta

E Kresge, Eric, James

James, S Nicholson, E Dial

Oh man!  They want me to pay to walk on the beach? 

The only still shots I got - Brandy the Sea Lion

Shaking hands

Leaving Subic Bay

Gorgeous - but hot/humid!