3 days in CEBU, PHILIPPINES

Over Thanksgiving weekend, I spent 3 days in Cebu City in the Philippines. Our church organized a group trip to the Temple that was just opened there. Sweet David stayed home to watch the boys.

Most of the time was spent at the temple. Time for service. Time for peace. Time for gathering strength.

In between sessions I would eat yummy pancit in the cafeteria or talk to the gorgeous Philippino people with their big smiles.

"We were expecting Chinese people from Singapore, why are you all white?!" they would giggle. "Hello, sister!" "Welcome!" They were so friendly.

One lady told me it was only a 8 hour bus ride for her to get to the temple. Another told me how she and her sisters took a boat for a day and then a bus for another day to get to the temple. Another lady told me that she was from an island about a day's ferry away but that she and her husband couldn't afford to send their 2 boys to university in Cebu. So they moved to Cebu to cut the costs and found new work. Now they are also close to the temple. So many stories...

Another day I spent snorkeling just outside of Mactan Island with friends (but that needs its own post).

Somewhere in there I saw pieces of Cebu City. I missed the downtown sites, Magellan's history. I guess we'll have to go back another day.

The streets with their black electric wires everywhere and the buildings are the only things that reminded me of South East Asia. The rest of the Philipines is all its own. Check out these Jeepneys. They run a route like a bus for only 7 pesos. You look for your number, wave it down like mad and squish in with everyone else.

Christmas lanterns were everywhere. Most people in Cebu are Catholic.

This little Saint was on the dash of a taxi. In Singapore everyone has a Buddha, or that green shiny cat that waves you good luck.

One night was dinner at Gerry's Grill in Ayala Mall with Malia and her sister, Kei. Sizzling sisig, tuna belly, sinigang soup and of course calamansi juice. Kei lives just north of Manila so it was awesome to have a local to order for us and bargain like a pro while we looked at ukuleles or necklaces. Hopefully I didn't embarrass her too much with my big camera bag and my assertive taxi skills.

Kei even showed us the Surplus Shop at SM Mall. Made in the Phillippines extras from Hollister, Old Navy, Forever 21, Target are all piled up in here. Everything $3-7.

(thanks to Malia for the picture)

Just before hitting the airport I played a couple beach volleyball games with the church teenagers. Listened to their stories of visiting the orphanage and helping to paint a school. Then I nestled into a beach chair at the hotel with my book.

Rested and Strengthened.

CEBU: snorkeling

One full day of snorkeling just outside Cebu. Hilutungan island. And Nalusuan island. Bright blue sky. Even bluer water. Thousands of fish. Dave would have loved it.

We tried the SnorkelPlus. Have you ever heard of that? me either. 4 people share an oxygen tank. You put on a mask, hold onto the bar and can be underwater for 30 minutes. Awesome.

Friends from Singapore - Ben and Lindsay. Aren't they adorable?

We saw big schools of swordfish, parrot fish, rainbow lookin fish, yellow ones, blue ones. crabby ones, nemo ones, black striped ones, one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish. Seriously.

Our guide would dive down deep (no mask, no nothing) and bring up orange star fish, blue star fish, star fish that looked like chubby rocks and big beautiful shells with legs and antennae crawling out all over the place.

BBQed chicken and fish with rice and mangoes for lunch. In the shade.

"Give thanks. It becomes you." - Gordon B. Hinckley

This Thanksgiving we are grateful for:

apple pie!

2 Thanksgiving dinners

good friends

that we have the gospel

that we have a nice place to live

Mommy

Mommy

Mommy

air con

the swimming pool

that we always have enough to eat

that we have enough to give

Mimi

Halloween candy

that we are free to choose where our life goes

that we have access to education

nice taxi drivers

orchids

Most of these were taken from our Thankful Tree. Every day leading up to Thanksgiving we added a leaf or two and wrote something we were thankful for.

Things were a little interesting. Pie shells for $9.45, no canned pumpkin to be found, no school or work days off, no parade to watch or football games. But we will have our American Holiday by golly! We ate pumpkin pie! and turkey! We wore pilgrim hats! chased turkeys! And the food was delicious.

Noah with cranberry sauce on his nose.

Grandma's Apple Crumb Pie

My cute husband with his eyes closed.

Happy Thanksgiving.

The whole wide world

Plotting the next adventure

They stand here and tell funny stories of the little boy who got on a boat to go to Malaysia but got lost and ended up in Australia feeding the kangaroos. Or the mouse in Africa that flew in an airplane to China for New Years, he got lost along the way and Batman rescued him and brought him to Singapore after they fought the bad guys.

Under the Stars

Our church had a fabulous activity the other night: Prom Night.

So,

A hot pink Salvation Army dress was found,

A pink bow tie was made to match,

I even tried to crimp my hair and Dave wore his dancing shoes. It was a blast!

MJ

The kindergarten class hamster came home with us for the weekend. His name is Michael Jackson, MJ for short. The whole class voted on the name.

We were very popular at the bus stop after school. And the entertainment for the rest of the weekend was set. Although we did have to wait for David to get home before MJ was taken out of the cage.

Noah was very careful and gentle. He made sure the hamster had enough water and food and even cleaned out the cage.

Gage could not contain his excitement. He wanted to hold that hamster. and pet him. and hug him. and keep him forever. When Michael was in the ball Gage put him in a box with a blanket, tucked him in, sang him songs, and even said his bedtime prayer:

"Dear Heavenly Father. I am so so happy that MJ is here. Please bless my Mommy and my Daddy and my brother. Bless that MJ won't have scary dreams. Amen."

CAMBODIA: Kbal Spean

Right up this path and then about a 2 km steep hike through the jungle is a river we just had to see. Enough to take the whole crew with us.

Noah and his little buddy Will hiked so fast "Quick! This is the only way out of here!" Gage was perched high on Daddy's shoulders for the best view.

We hiked up and over huge rocks, up stairs of tree roots, and over small streams. Once we were completely sweltering and had entirely sweat through all our clothes we reached the top.

And it was gorgeous. There were carvings built at the top of the waterfall in the 11th century.

Our guide was awesome and hiked all the way up to explain all the carvings to us. There were mostly hindu gods and animals. A big beautiful one of Vishnu. Thousands of 'lingas' were also carved across the bottom of the river bed. They believed that as the water washed over the lingas it would become blessed and travel down into the rice fields and the city. Can you believe they are still there?

Lee was a bit surprised that the kids didn't stay too long at the top but were ready to turn around and hike down. He told me that when Cambodians do this hike they stop at the top to picnic or take a sleep in a hammock, because "Cambodians like to rest." Unluck us crazy Americans? What a great sport.

Gage could have stayed all day. Throwing rocks and sticks into the blessed water. Finding tadpoles and dragonflies.