Mon, May 28, 2012 2:34 am
Epistle from the Philippines #5 - Thou shalt not kill... dogs.
Hello again! It is a lovely Monday afternoon in the Philippines as I
wrote this. It rained this morning, but that won't dampen my day!
(Anyone? Anyone? Dampen? No?) This coming week is the last week of my
first transfer. Sister Rosina and Sister Ombao are a bit trunky. I try
to keep them here and now.
This coming Saturday we have a triple baptism! I am really excited.
This is my first baptism, and there will be THREE people joining the
fold! Up here! (That's how Filipinos say 'High Five!')
Follow ups from last week:
The Moon: Kira, thanks for researching moon cycles for me. I saw the
moon again this week, so all is well! My theory is that it was cloudy,
so I didn't see the moon. Or like Kira suggested, maybe I was just
looking in the wrong direction.
Angry Birds: I found my answer! Angry Birds isn't merely an app on
Smart phones. It's also a computer game that is loaded onto many of the
public computers. THAT'S how these people know it...
One-eared cat: I forgot to mention the cat last week! He's fine. I saw
the cat this morning or yesterday, and he's fine. Another note: Cats
here are NOT your usual house cats. My sister, Kalenn's cat, Fritz
would be a huge fat lard next to these street cats. They are skinny,
bony, and small.
Let's continue.
This week I saw something that I haven't seen in 17 years: CHICKEN POX.
The children of a less-active family we visited have the chicken pox!
We only saw one of the kids, a 12-year-old her, and her body was
covered in little bumps. It was so fascinating. I had the chicken pox
with my siblings when I was five, but since then, most people get
vaccinated now, so Chicken Pox is pretty obsolete in America. Not here.
I told the girl that she's beautiful, and that the spots will go away.
Fast food is not dead in the Philippines. But is it tasty, that's the
question. I kid. Sort of. Many of these fast food places sell
spaghetti. Also fried chicken. Rice of course. And burgers. The burgers
though... are questionable. First off they are "spam" (some parts are
meat). No 100% beef here. With burgers I have a don't ask, don't tell
policy. I don't want to now what's in them. The burger patties are very
thin, and small (I am reminded of that old "Where's the Beef???"
commercial). Also, the ketchup is different, and there is no mustard.
Eating a real burger is something I look forward to when I come back
home. In other food news, I ate squid this week. And more baracuda, but
I learned that it's called balu or palu.
Now, I know I've mentioned the attention I've gotten here from people.
Here are a few stories that might intrigue you.
I've heard of cat-calls before, but have you ever heard of literal
cat-calls before? Once in my first week here, we were walking along
when I heard a LOUD cry from an obviously disgruntled/angry kitty. I
turn toward the sound, and... there's no cat. But there is a group of
men staring at me. WEIRD. Even weirder is that this happened again, in
a different place. o_O
Last week after our last appointment for the night, we stopped to get
some burgers, actually. This was a little street-side vendor. The
establishment had a little bar and stools where you could sit. While
we're waiting for our food, this apparently drunk guy comes up to me
and starts hitting on me in very terrible and broken English.
Drunk guy: "You.... good... uhhh..." [makes gesture that I interpreted
to mean 'dancing' but I might be wrong]
I proceed to turn him down. He tells me he knows of a place we could go
for dancing our whatever where the people are nice. He says it's in Old
Sagay.
Sister Rosina: Do you know the missionaries there?
Drunk guy: Mormons? [shakes head]
He continues by trying to compliment me.
Drunk guy: You... look... good. [thinks] You... good... looking.
Then we ignored him, and he walked away. It was all quite funny.
Right now in the Philippines the kids are all on their summer break. In
fact they return to school again in the next couple weeks. Their break
is like April to June, which I heard is the hottest part of the year?
The children and youth of the church have little else to do so many of
them come and hang out at the church during the day. No joke. In the
cultural hall they set up a ping pong table, chess games, etc. Outside
there's a basketball court. If we need people to come teaching with us,
we usually just stop by the church and find volunteers.
Okay, here's the story that brings us today's email title. This week,
we went to teach a family a lesson about the 10 commandments. The
Bishop of the ward is a tricycle driver by trade/skill, so he proves to
be a very useful member missionary. He comes teaching with us all the
time, including during the circumstances I am describing presently. We
all went to the lesson, and it went well. We kept it short, and only
did the first five commandments, meaning we stopped with "Honour thy
father and mother." If we had proceeded to #6, It would have been "Thou
shalt not kill." Well, maybe we should have reviewed #6. As we drove
away to our next appointment, there was some traffic in the street that
all came at us at once: other tricycles, carts, people. We did our best
to avoid them all, but when we swerved out of the way... we hit a dog.
It went right under the passenger side of the tricycle. There was a
bump, and a whimper. I don't know if the poor thing lived or died.
Despite it all, I couldn't help but smile at the irony of the
situation. Thou shalt not kill.
On a happier note, have you ever known how wonderful baby powder is
here? It's a miracle product! People love it because it not only helps
dry out your sweaty body, but it also makes you look whiter! At a
part-member family's home, I noticed a beautiful bottle of baby powder
that was called (I kid you not) Baby Anti Monkey Butt. Apparently it's
a product of America (God bless America. P.S. Happy Memorial Day!). The
slogan of Baby Anti Monkey But is this, "Tender loving care, for your
babies derriere."
That's all for now! I send my love!
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