Hello my lovely family
and friends! How now brown cow? Living abroad has heightened my realization of
the weirdness of American/English language expressions. Darn tootin.' Anyway,
I'm going to spend most of this email discussing things I have observed in the
Philippines. Won't that be peachy keen?
Sister King's Observations in the Philippines:
Fads - The biggest fad that I've seen here is ANGRY BIRDS. I'm not even talking about playing the game. In fact, I've barely even seen any smart phones or iPods here. Nonetheless, I've seen Angry Birds purses, Angry Birds crayons, Angry Birds toys, Angry Birds toys, Angry Birds shirts, Angry Birds pencil sharpeners, Angry Birds notebooks, Angry Birds stickers, Angry Bird UNDERWEAR. There's even an Angry Birds inspired TV show in which there are people dressed up as birds. I dare you to look it up. Angry Birds is everywhere. Also, people love SpongeBob and Hello Kitty, but what else is new?
Dress - When a Filipino has a job, they dress the part. This I have mostly observed at the grocery store. The cashiers don't wear polos and khakis, or ugly vests. Cashiers are almost always women, and they are wearing a dress or dress suit of some kind with their hair pulled back in a fancy way, and they are wearing massive amounts of makeup. The security guards at the same grocery store are wearing very official looking officer clothes, and they are carrying huge guns. It's sort of terrifying, actually.
Television - As a missionary, I am not permitted to watch television. Strangely enough, in my not watching television, I've watched quite a lot of television. Why? It's because that's what the people here do for fun. A lot of them can't afford books or computers (or choose not to, I guess) but they have televisions, that are almost always on. The people watch a lot of game shows and soap opera-esque dramas ("BAKIT??????"). Most of their television is in Tagalog or "Taglish." Also, there are a lot of drag queens on the TV. On the news they show dead bodies, but they blur out the faces.
Kitchen Maintenance - I don't know if this is a Filipino thing or just a Sister Rosina thing, but at our house we are very mindful about unplugging things we aren't using. I think it's to save money on the electricity. Sister Rosina gets mad when I accidentally don't unplug the toaster oven after I make toast. We should be more aware of this stuff in America... Also, my companions are very okay with leaving food out. We'll eat our meal, and then they might cover the pan with a plate, but they just leave the food out! They know that we have ants! And every time we leave out the rice, we get ants in it. But instead of putting the rice in the fridge, they'd rather just scrape off the ants.
Whiteness - People here are obsessed with being whiter. I'd heard of whitening products before, and I can now testify that they are real. There are lotions, facial creams, facial scrubs, body washes all devoted to making you whiter! I was quite amused one day when I was putting on sun block, and Sister Rosina asked my "What is THAT???" She'd never seen or heard of it before. Today I explained it to some of the youth in our ward. "This is what white people use to stay white! It's true, but that's not what it's for. We use it to keep our pasty white skin from burning!" They'd never heard of it before either. America, let's bring sun block to the Philippines! They'll love it!
Local Wildlife - My sister, Kalenn mentioned that they are raising baby chicks. Well, there are baby chicks here too! Sometimes they wander into homes while we're teaching. Here in Sagay I regularly see dogs, cats, chickens (male, female, and baby), pigs (alive and dead. I've seen and heard them being slaughtered too), goats, cows, something that the people call "caribo" (sp?), which is like a water buffalo, rats, bats, lizards (that live in and on the houses. I've never seen a lizard not on or in a building), frogs, crabs (in the gutters and streams), spiders, and BUGS. The mosquitoes see me more than I see them, unfortunately. There are cockroaches too. And ants. And flies. And a lot of things I don't know the names of.
Height - I have a confession to make: I'm really bad at guessing/knowing people's height. I'm 5'8. "In my mind, I always assume that all women are a few inches shorter than me, and all men are a few inches taller than me. I'm always really surprised to find out or realize that someone is outside of those zones. If you were to find the average height of all the people in the world (both men and women) I like to think that I'd be very average. That doesn't change the fact that even I have to duck here. I'm not that tall! But alas, I hit my head on low hanging wires and door frames and stuff all the time. Here I don't really compare the heights of people to myself, but to each other, and my height references are the same. For example, sometimes I think "Are there any tall men in the ward?" Then I think, "Yes, Brother Dizon is tall!" So I go stand next to Brother Dizon, and I realize that he's 2 inches shorter than me. Oh. Brother Dizon is tall compared to his WIFE. Gotcha. Then I think, "I know the Bishop is tall. He's got to be over 6 feet tall." I stand next to time. He's about my height. Maybe and inch taller. People are just small here!
The Moon - Last week Grandpa Bell asked me if I saw the beautiful full moon. Yes I did. It was gorgeous. Here's the thing though. I haven't seen it since. The moon was full, and then after that... it disappeared. I'm worried for the waterbenders of the world. But the moon disappeared! I'm assigning homework. Kira. My sister. Tell me why the moon disappeared. Look up when the moon rises and sets in Sagay, Negros Occidental. If you can't find it, look up Bacolod instead. Is the moon too low on the horizon for me to see? Is it rising after I go to bed? Is it out during the day? I know it should be a new moon now, but that doesn't explain why the moon has been missing for two weeks! Help!
Middle Earth - The subdivision/neighborhood in which I live is called Saromar. I'm convinced that this is simply a typo, and it's supposed to say "Sauroman," and I actually live in Isengard (sorry my spelling is so poor), in Middle Earth. There aren't any orcs or ents running around, but you know... I just know. Also THEY'RE TAKING THE HOBBITS TO ISENGARD!
Food - Since I have seen here, I have been introduced to many new and exciting flavors! In addition to the things I've mentioned in my previous emails, I've eaten well, where shall I start? Last week at the market, Sister Rosina and Sister Ombao bought us chicken feet and chicken livers. To my dismay, the first thing Sister Rosina did when we got home was cut off the large talons. We ate the chicken feet both fried and cooked in sauce. And you know, what, it wasn't bad... once I got past the fact that I was eating toes. Sister Rosina kept on trying to gross me out by telling me that the chickens had athlete's foot. Gross! As for chicken liver... I've had bits of it before in fried chicken and stuff, but definitely not as a main dish! It too was okay. I've also been exposed to much fish here. Most of which I don't know the names of. Sister Palai made a delicious Kiribati dish what was Coconut Tuna Curry. I wrote down the recipe, and I definitely want to make it later. The other night I also ate something that I can only call... barracuda. The bishop's wife made us a fish that had a pointy face, sharp teeth, and an unpleasant demeanor. It tasted good though! Being here has led me to the knowledge that I like fish! It's good! People in America should eat more fish!
That's enough observations. My week has been good. We started teaching a 17-year-old sister, and she'll be baptized on June 2 with a group of people. Oooo, guess what? She's from Manila, so we get to teach her in Tagalog. MY SIX WEEKS OF TAGALOG AT THE MTC IS NOT IN VAIN!!! My MTC teachers would be so proud. I'm proud of all the investigators and less active people we teach. I love seeing people make changes for the better in their life. Every time someone we've taught comes to church, I am filled with joy for them.
Today we ate a picnic with a bunch of the young women in the ward at a park called Lady's Circle. It's lovely. At some point the girls hijacked my camera and took over a hundred pictures of themselves. Sigh. There were also some tourists from another town there who insisted on taking their picture with me. ARE YOU KIDDING ME. I'M JUST WHITE. GET OVER IT.
I've broken my record about not getting caught in the rain. It rained while we were out this week, and I loved it. Most people here don't like rain, but I love it! I wish I were allowed to dance around in it, or run around in puddles and stuff, but such things are frowned upon for missionaries. :( No me gusta.
Well, that's enough for this week! Keep writing!
Sister King's Observations in the Philippines:
Fads - The biggest fad that I've seen here is ANGRY BIRDS. I'm not even talking about playing the game. In fact, I've barely even seen any smart phones or iPods here. Nonetheless, I've seen Angry Birds purses, Angry Birds crayons, Angry Birds toys, Angry Birds toys, Angry Birds shirts, Angry Birds pencil sharpeners, Angry Birds notebooks, Angry Birds stickers, Angry Bird UNDERWEAR. There's even an Angry Birds inspired TV show in which there are people dressed up as birds. I dare you to look it up. Angry Birds is everywhere. Also, people love SpongeBob and Hello Kitty, but what else is new?
Dress - When a Filipino has a job, they dress the part. This I have mostly observed at the grocery store. The cashiers don't wear polos and khakis, or ugly vests. Cashiers are almost always women, and they are wearing a dress or dress suit of some kind with their hair pulled back in a fancy way, and they are wearing massive amounts of makeup. The security guards at the same grocery store are wearing very official looking officer clothes, and they are carrying huge guns. It's sort of terrifying, actually.
Television - As a missionary, I am not permitted to watch television. Strangely enough, in my not watching television, I've watched quite a lot of television. Why? It's because that's what the people here do for fun. A lot of them can't afford books or computers (or choose not to, I guess) but they have televisions, that are almost always on. The people watch a lot of game shows and soap opera-esque dramas ("BAKIT??????"). Most of their television is in Tagalog or "Taglish." Also, there are a lot of drag queens on the TV. On the news they show dead bodies, but they blur out the faces.
Kitchen Maintenance - I don't know if this is a Filipino thing or just a Sister Rosina thing, but at our house we are very mindful about unplugging things we aren't using. I think it's to save money on the electricity. Sister Rosina gets mad when I accidentally don't unplug the toaster oven after I make toast. We should be more aware of this stuff in America... Also, my companions are very okay with leaving food out. We'll eat our meal, and then they might cover the pan with a plate, but they just leave the food out! They know that we have ants! And every time we leave out the rice, we get ants in it. But instead of putting the rice in the fridge, they'd rather just scrape off the ants.
Whiteness - People here are obsessed with being whiter. I'd heard of whitening products before, and I can now testify that they are real. There are lotions, facial creams, facial scrubs, body washes all devoted to making you whiter! I was quite amused one day when I was putting on sun block, and Sister Rosina asked my "What is THAT???" She'd never seen or heard of it before. Today I explained it to some of the youth in our ward. "This is what white people use to stay white! It's true, but that's not what it's for. We use it to keep our pasty white skin from burning!" They'd never heard of it before either. America, let's bring sun block to the Philippines! They'll love it!
Local Wildlife - My sister, Kalenn mentioned that they are raising baby chicks. Well, there are baby chicks here too! Sometimes they wander into homes while we're teaching. Here in Sagay I regularly see dogs, cats, chickens (male, female, and baby), pigs (alive and dead. I've seen and heard them being slaughtered too), goats, cows, something that the people call "caribo" (sp?), which is like a water buffalo, rats, bats, lizards (that live in and on the houses. I've never seen a lizard not on or in a building), frogs, crabs (in the gutters and streams), spiders, and BUGS. The mosquitoes see me more than I see them, unfortunately. There are cockroaches too. And ants. And flies. And a lot of things I don't know the names of.
Height - I have a confession to make: I'm really bad at guessing/knowing people's height. I'm 5'8. "In my mind, I always assume that all women are a few inches shorter than me, and all men are a few inches taller than me. I'm always really surprised to find out or realize that someone is outside of those zones. If you were to find the average height of all the people in the world (both men and women) I like to think that I'd be very average. That doesn't change the fact that even I have to duck here. I'm not that tall! But alas, I hit my head on low hanging wires and door frames and stuff all the time. Here I don't really compare the heights of people to myself, but to each other, and my height references are the same. For example, sometimes I think "Are there any tall men in the ward?" Then I think, "Yes, Brother Dizon is tall!" So I go stand next to Brother Dizon, and I realize that he's 2 inches shorter than me. Oh. Brother Dizon is tall compared to his WIFE. Gotcha. Then I think, "I know the Bishop is tall. He's got to be over 6 feet tall." I stand next to time. He's about my height. Maybe and inch taller. People are just small here!
The Moon - Last week Grandpa Bell asked me if I saw the beautiful full moon. Yes I did. It was gorgeous. Here's the thing though. I haven't seen it since. The moon was full, and then after that... it disappeared. I'm worried for the waterbenders of the world. But the moon disappeared! I'm assigning homework. Kira. My sister. Tell me why the moon disappeared. Look up when the moon rises and sets in Sagay, Negros Occidental. If you can't find it, look up Bacolod instead. Is the moon too low on the horizon for me to see? Is it rising after I go to bed? Is it out during the day? I know it should be a new moon now, but that doesn't explain why the moon has been missing for two weeks! Help!
Middle Earth - The subdivision/neighborhood in which I live is called Saromar. I'm convinced that this is simply a typo, and it's supposed to say "Sauroman," and I actually live in Isengard (sorry my spelling is so poor), in Middle Earth. There aren't any orcs or ents running around, but you know... I just know. Also THEY'RE TAKING THE HOBBITS TO ISENGARD!
Food - Since I have seen here, I have been introduced to many new and exciting flavors! In addition to the things I've mentioned in my previous emails, I've eaten well, where shall I start? Last week at the market, Sister Rosina and Sister Ombao bought us chicken feet and chicken livers. To my dismay, the first thing Sister Rosina did when we got home was cut off the large talons. We ate the chicken feet both fried and cooked in sauce. And you know, what, it wasn't bad... once I got past the fact that I was eating toes. Sister Rosina kept on trying to gross me out by telling me that the chickens had athlete's foot. Gross! As for chicken liver... I've had bits of it before in fried chicken and stuff, but definitely not as a main dish! It too was okay. I've also been exposed to much fish here. Most of which I don't know the names of. Sister Palai made a delicious Kiribati dish what was Coconut Tuna Curry. I wrote down the recipe, and I definitely want to make it later. The other night I also ate something that I can only call... barracuda. The bishop's wife made us a fish that had a pointy face, sharp teeth, and an unpleasant demeanor. It tasted good though! Being here has led me to the knowledge that I like fish! It's good! People in America should eat more fish!
That's enough observations. My week has been good. We started teaching a 17-year-old sister, and she'll be baptized on June 2 with a group of people. Oooo, guess what? She's from Manila, so we get to teach her in Tagalog. MY SIX WEEKS OF TAGALOG AT THE MTC IS NOT IN VAIN!!! My MTC teachers would be so proud. I'm proud of all the investigators and less active people we teach. I love seeing people make changes for the better in their life. Every time someone we've taught comes to church, I am filled with joy for them.
Today we ate a picnic with a bunch of the young women in the ward at a park called Lady's Circle. It's lovely. At some point the girls hijacked my camera and took over a hundred pictures of themselves. Sigh. There were also some tourists from another town there who insisted on taking their picture with me. ARE YOU KIDDING ME. I'M JUST WHITE. GET OVER IT.
I've broken my record about not getting caught in the rain. It rained while we were out this week, and I loved it. Most people here don't like rain, but I love it! I wish I were allowed to dance around in it, or run around in puddles and stuff, but such things are frowned upon for missionaries. :( No me gusta.
Well, that's enough for this week! Keep writing!
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