Down Memory Lane

At Greenhills Shopping Center

Wednesday, Rita, Roger and I went in the morning to a shopping center called Greenhills Shopping Center.  Its about 10 miles from their house and it took us a bit over an hour and that was good time.  I have to say the traffic here may take the prize for being the worst so far on this trip.  Not only is there a lot of it but also it seems that no one really knows rules of the road or if they do they are totally ignoring them…and you have a lot of motorcycles…jeepneys (public transport) that are in and out and all over…and the occasional “trike” which is a motorcycle with covered seat on the side for riders.  Some of the roads we were on were 3 lanes that turn into 4 or 5 when people don’t observe the lane lines.

Travel in Manila

So we arrived at Greenhills and I was amazed to see that Unimart (a mini super walmart type store) was still there and really had remained quite the same.  It was stocked with a lot more variety than 35 yrs ago and there were a lot of American food products on the shelf….of course you pay more for them than you would at Walmart but it’s a nice option if you are missing a taste of “home”.  I have to say I am not missing food from home yet but was very excited to see the mangos…ripe and green and guavas….that I have been craving.

Eating Vietnamese

Steve had a meeting nearby early that morning so was able to meet us for lunch and walk around the shopping center that is a huge mall now instead of a small strip mall. We were looking for somewhere to get my glasses fixed as the glue that held a little piece of the earpiece to my lenses had come off.  We were told repeatedly that it could not be fixed and I needed new glasses.  But later Roger was able to find some glue and glue it!  Yeah!!

Shop selling Pearls

We enjoyed going to an area that was full of pearl shops…freshwater and deep-sea pearls.  They were beautiful to look at and had some nice jewelry.  I went for the freshwater ones because they were so cheap and got a couple necklaces… I am not a huge jewelry person but it has been a fun thing to buy along the way on the trip because they are small and lightweight.  We enjoyed lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant because we have not had that taste yet.  Steve, Rita and I ordered soup and Roger a noodle and curry dish.

Enjoying Choir Practice at Faith Academy

When we left the mall we battled the traffic back to Faith Academy to pick up the kids from school.  We arrived a few minutes early so decided to take Chicken and go interrupt Stephen’s choir class.  The teacher loved having Chicken there and agreed to get a picture of the choir with him and also allowed whoever agreed to sing the solo parts in their last song to hold Chicken.  He was a huge hit and there was no lack for soloists.  We also got to join the choir as they practiced singing thru the Amen song.  Talk about bringing back memories:)

Steve and Rita congratulating an award winner

The next day (Thurs) we went in the morning to a nearby school that provides a good education for many of the kids in the area that can’t afford school and also provides schooling for a nearby orphanage.  Rita is involved there helping to write curriculum so was asked to speak at their “stepping up” ceremony.  It is the end of their year so they were being promoted and recognized for different achievements in an attempt to keep kids motivated to stay in school.  Drop out rate is very high here.  It was fun to see the school and hear Rita speak in Tagalog (with Steve interpreting for us) and just the different culture of that type of ceremony.  At the end we met a Filipino couple (who support the ministry and are on the board) who had an interesting story…. He is captain of a bulk transport ship that sails all over the world and a strong believer.  He was telling us about a time his ship was attacked by some pirates and they had stolen $37 thousand dollars and were getting ready to take he and the crew on shore and he asked the Father to please not allow them to take him to land.  Right after that request the pirates started leaving the ship and  looked up at him and said never mind…we don’t need you so you can stay and off they went.  He is quite bold about his faith and has a captive audience in his crew.  I love hearing stories like that …again…we have an amazing Father.

In case you didn’t realize it, 

Celebrating St. Patrick's Day

Thursday was St. Patricks Day and we celebrated it in style with an Irish evening.  Rita is Irish through and through so it was a fun time celebrating in a way we never had.  The “down under” (Doty family that live downstairs of their house) people came up for a dinner of Irish stew, Irish bread and corn on the cob.  It was really quite nice. We had chocolate cake with a shamrock decoration on top for dessert and a  devotional using some of St Patrick’s testimony and  ended the evening with watching a very old video of the River Dance that was quite impressive.

Corrie, Babe, Jan, Cila and Helen chatting on the back veranda

So that brings me to Friday which was quite an emotional day for me but oh so good.  We took a trip out to the “province” to see some of the Filipinos I grew up with.  We stopped on the way to pick up Corrie who joined our family when I was in high school.  She lives in the Manila area and her life is ministry…she has such a heart to serve the Father.  She lives in  a very poor area near the lake that flooded terribly a couple years ago.  Her house had water in it for over a month.  Her husband died a year ago and she has a 12 and 13 year old boy to raise on her own.  One of the first things she told me when she got in the car was how thankful the Lord brought my mom and dad to the Philippines because knowing the Lord had changed her life and she could not live without him in her life.  She also told me how her mom died when she was very young and my mom treated her as a daughter and nurtured her.  It was so touching to me to hear these things because when I was here I was a child and this was just my home and life and I did not see a lot of the impact of lives being changed…cause kids just don’t see those things a lot of times…to busy living and playing. 

View on road to Sumapa

The trip to Sumapa took about and hour and half (it used to take about 3 hours) due to a nice newer road.  We arrived at Helen’s house and tho it recently had been renovated it was still familiar inside.  I say inside because last I had been there it was surrounded by farm land and small houses but now it was incased in apartment buildings and other homes.  It was still all familiar tho in an odd sort of way and it was so fun to see Helen, Babe, Cila and Mario and his wife Emma.  The women who are between my age and about 10 yrs older were part of our family when I was growing up and like sisters to me so it was really fun to see them again…frozen in my mind as young women…but we all had aged without really changing…funny how that happens.

Babe, Jan and Cila

Jan, Roger, Helen, Corrie, Mario and Emma

We talked about some memories and looked at pictures I had brought of our family and then had lunch with them.  There were a lot of different foods as they tried to remember what I liked to eat.  One lady  (Daisy) who was not able to come had sent green mango because she remembered I loved them…talk about a good memory.  We were only able to stay about 3 hours but they were precious and I am so thankful for that time.  As we left my heart was filled with emotion that was hard to sort through…joy, gratefulness, grief, compassion, and just an overall feeling of being richly blessed for having been able to grow up here and known these people and how it all had an impact on me even tho it was relatively a short portion of my life.

Jan - "I know you miss your mom.  I lived here away from my mom"

We got back to Manila a few minutes before time to pick up Stephen from school…I just have to interject a bit about this nephew of mine.  He was staying after school late because he was teaching Hebrew to other students who wanted to learn it.  Stephen is very gifted in languages and has a strong interest in older languages and a few years ago began teaching himself Greek and Hebrew.   He is quite fluent in both languages and it will be interesting to see where the Father leads him in the future with this gift.

So we got to school early and enjoyed sitting on the benches in the center of campus surrounded by all sorts of trees and bushes.  Steve was able to lie down on a bench and nap and I had fun with Chicken taking some crazy pictures.

I promise I'm going for the AW Root Beer

Sorry Steve

The kids are officially on spring break now…yeah!  Tomorrow we go to a conference with them till Wed.  we are looking forward to getting to spend more time hanging out with Stephen and Shannon.  Since it was Friday night we had movie night with popcorn…oh… but before that we were able to Skype with Eileen and it was such a great connection we ended up being on line a couple hours.  She sat at the table while we had dinner and just had a fun time chatting with her.  I can’t help but be excited knowing we will be with her in 2 weeks…which means we will also get to see Lucas , Jamie, Sam and Sophie in 3 weeks!!!