shopping, manila style

Manila can be a fun place to be.  For a few days.  Then it gets overwhelming.  The metro area is FULL of malls.  High end malls, low end malls and everything in between.  This week we spent time going from one mall to the next trying to get everything we needed before heading out to the providence where selection of most of the goods we would want is either limited or very expensive.  

There are lots of little nuances that you need to know when you are shopping in the Philippines.  For instance, the first time in the country I learned that just because you are standing at the counter in a store does not necessarily mean that the person behind the counter will assume that you need help.  Even if you stand there for a good 5 minutes. Sometimes you have to signal.  This can be contrasted with the fact that most times sales people will follow you all the way through the store while you look just for the sake of looking and will pull products off the shelf to demonstrate to you how wonderful they are and why you should buy them.  Also it is customary for an employee to stand and watch you while you decide which kind of shampoo to buy or what kind of hot wheels car your son might pick out as his favorite.  

This time around, I'm learning to just ignore the curiosity instead of get mad at the attention.  

Something else you would find different here is that all electronics are tested out in the store by an employee  to show you that the product you are buying indeed works.  Here is our coworker trying out a cord for his iphone.  You can see the station in the middle of the counter labeled 'self test'.  We went to buy a hair dryer this week and the sales girl dragged an extension cord into the middle of the aisle and turned on the hair dryer to test it out for us.  It was noisy, I tell ya!  

Mirielle checking out the pencil case aisle.  Kellan wouldn't participate in the picture.

We went to the drug store to find some medicine for Jason and I was amused by the children's vitamin section.  Hmmm.  Do I want the Tiki Tiki brand or Growee?

And what's up with this girl?  I think maybe she is getting a perm or some highlights while she is riding her bike.  Or maybe she's headed into a construction zone.  Inquiring minds want to know!

 The best of all was our trip to S&R which is the Filipino version of Costco and is pretty close comparison.  While we were there we stocked up on LOTS of cheddar cheese, ziplock bags, crasins, almonds and a few other things you can't find anywhere else.

 Bet your Costco doesn't have garlic shrimp pizza.  Mmm mmm good!

And who knew that there was a bus line named Kellan? Well close, Kellen. Can't wait to hear how they pronounce it here.

reason #89,382 i love my husband

That man of mine is always ready to make the most out of any situation. Welcome to Manila! 16 hours of flying. At least a good 5 hours of babies screaming in the three rows surrounding us.  3:00 in the morning our time.  Hotter than heck.  Our bags don't come out until the very end, making us more than a little nervous and the man still has a smile on his face.  How did I get so lucky?  Looks like the kids need a lesson from their dear old dad!

getting there, being here part 1

I'm sure you, along with our mothers, have been dying to see some pictures and hear how our first week in the Philippines have gone.

Our trip started off with one gigantic pain-in-the-butt experience at the airport, because really, a trip across the world without a major pooh pah over luggage would be simply unheard of.  Being the consciences pilot that Jason is, he called the very fantastic airlines that we flew a few weeks before hand to verify their baggage allowance because their website was rather vague.  We were elated when we were told that we were each allowed two 70 lb. bags, or 560 pounds. 

We should have known that it was too good to be true.  

We were feeling pretty darn proud of ourselves that we managed to shove a years worth of our stuff into 7 bags (one less than we were allowed) and were hovering at 66 lbs a bag.  We had organized and packed all of our stuff so that we could live out of 2 bags in Manila and be at the correct weight to get on the plane from Manila to Palawan without having to repack.  We even had our carry-ons down to one backpack each and a computer bag.  We were feeling mighty fine.  

When we got to the baggage counter we were informed that we were only allowed two 50 bags each. Which meant that at $125 a bag in overweight baggage we were looking at having to pay $875 (about the price of our ticket) or dump 62 pounds of our stuff.  It didn't matter than Jason had written down the name, date and time of the customer service agent that he had talked to.  We were screwed.  Dirty bugger, as my mother would say.

To make a long story short we ended up adding an extra bag we already had hiding in one of our suitcases and Grandpa V ran up the stairs and bought us all roller bags to take as our carry-ons.  We started opening up all of our carefully packed and organized bags dumping stuff into carry-ons and the 8th bag.  Dump dumpity dump dump.  The worst part was that the manager of the area was a total jerk.  He just put a big ol' smile on our face.  The plastic missionary smile that goes on when you would really like to kill someone but you have already revealed that you are a missionary and therefore cannot.  

Once we got on the airplane, one last phone call to make sure everything was in order and we were off.  

poor hubby

Poor hubby came over with a cold.  He hit the ground running day 1.  Yesterday he left the NTM guest house we are staying at in Manila at 7am.  When I saw him at dinner, he looked and sounded so miserable it almost made me cry.  This was after he got back from putting in some eye drops.  He looked twice as bad before hand.  He's a trooper that man of mine!

hello, this is reality knocking

The last few weeks we've been asked quite a few times if we're excited about going to the Philippines.  The answer to the question is YES! We've gone on and on about how it will be.

a great experience

a new adventure

an amazing opportunity for our family

I had built up a picture in my head that was so dreamy.  Swirly twirly gumdrop dreamy.

A few days ago we got a schedule with a run down of the first few weeks we are in country from our coworker. Overwhelming. Almost every day in Manila is filled with Jason getting paperwork done and licenses renewed. Once we are on Palawan the task begins to get to get Jason flying, checked out on the airstrips, program details passed on.

All of the sudden reality came a knockin.  Hello dreamer.  Bubble burst.  We're going to work.  We're not going to play.  Although we should be able to get some playing in too, that's not the reason we've crossed the globe.  If I was going to cross the globe for the fun of it, I probably would have traveled East instead of West. Hello Paris.  

Not much time to adjust this time around.  Just enough time to learn enough to move onto the next thing. And to shop.  Mostly for what we need.  Maybe it's good that there isn't much time to sit and think about what we're doing.  At least for now.

Maybe it is why God tells us to stay in today because tomorrow has enough worries of its own.

So I've decided not to look at that darn schedule again.  Just take it day by day.  And remind myself that it's a great experience, a new adventure and an amazing opportunity for our family.

Today.

like pulling off a band aid

Over one week on the road done, just under two to go.  While traveling and getting to see family and friends has been great, the time since we left Spokane has seemed like a wonderful necessary evil. The good-bad.  The slow-fast.  The short-long distance. Hurry up and wait.

It has been like pulling off a band aid really slowly.  Personally I'm a rip it right off kind of gal.  Peeeeel sloooooow. One hair at a time.  Get me on the dang airplane already.  The kids are going crazy.  Two hours of Mirielle crying last night.  Kids up in the middle of the night.  Sick.  Crying.  Homesick.

God keeps reminding me.  It's about finding joy in the middle.  Even when I'm on the plane, it will still be part of the middle.  The middle of something. The middle of my life.  Find Him in the middle.

It's how we missed so much of our married life together.  Always waiting to get somewhere. Waiting to arrive.   So today is about being in the here and now.  Enjoying grabbing a cup of coffee with my mom.  Lunch with my dad.  Reading a story before bed to the kids.  A quiet night with Jas.  A pool and a warm day waiting for me tomorrow.  And fish tacos.  And my wonderful aunt who knows I love fish tacos.

So many blessings to enjoy.

Peel on band aid, peel on.