Sun,
Jul 22, 2012
Salutations
once again! You may be asking yourself, where is Sister Kelli King emailing us
from today? Well, this email (including such desired information) comes to you
in 3 parts.
Part 1: You're Sending Me Where???
On Tuesday morning last week the four sisters of Sagay all left via bus to go to Bacolod where we got our new companion assignments. My new companion is Sister Sabar, and she is from Pakistan. She is a previous companion of my trainer, Sister Rosina, plus we have many other mutual friends and acquaintances in the mission. Before her mission she didn't speak English or Ilonggo, and now she speaks both, and she's only been a missionary for 11 months. She's truly an inspiration. The two of us have both been sent to Inayauan (pronounced like 'in eye you want' without the t on the end). Inayauan is on the southern most Zone of the mission, the Sipalay Zone. They almost never send sister missionaries to the Sipalay Zone. In fact, I think they only ever did one time. But Sister Sabar and I are the first Sisters ever in Inayauan. It's about a 4 hour drive from Bacolod. If you look at the map. I am nearly has far as I can possibly get from my previous area, Sagay, which was in the northeastern corner of the island, without of course leaving my mission boundaries. We were soon told that the senior missionaries would drive us to our area the next day. So we had some time to kill. Which leads us to...
Part 2: Big Shoes for Big Feet
That afternoon, Sister Sabar and I went to the SM (it stands for Super Market, but it's actually a Shopping Mall) to buy some glasses for her, and to print pictures, and do various other errands. I also told her that I wanted to buy some new rubber shoes. The only pair of rubber shoes I own is my pair of dressy Crocs that we bought in America, but I soon realized that they were too narrow for my feet, and caused blisters. So, we set off on a grand adventure to buy shoes for Sister King. Why do I refer to this quest as an adventure? Because here in the Philippines, the largest size ladies shoe that shoes stores carry is a size 8. I'm a size 9 at least. More like a 9 wide. So, after we found nothing suitable at the SM, we went to another mall (under the guidance of a member Sister Sabar knew, whom we happened upon at the SM. This member accompanied us). Nothing again. Over the course of several hours, I think we visited every mall in Bacolod (at least four) and I think we visited at least half of the shoe stores in the city (and believe me, there are a lot), and there was still nothing! Don't worry, there's a happy ending to this story. At the last store we went to be found a pair of size nine dressy rubber shoes. HUZZAH!!! They fit and everything! And it's a good thing too because of...
Part 3: Over Mountain or Rice Field or Sea
Inayauan is beautiful. We're right on the coast (they call it baybay here) and the ocean is a gorgeous blue color. This city has beach resorts, and I understand why. It's beautiful. The resorts aren't anything fancy, I'm sure, but they exist! There are also zillions of rice fields, and mountains. There are also a lot more cattle and caribow here. I don't know the English word for caribow here. It's like a big cow. Water buffalo? In order to get to the homes of our investigators here we actually have to walk across a river... twice. Both ways. It's awesome. We also walked across a rice field which is easier said than done. Rice fields are completely flooded with water with only thin bits of land for people to walk on. In some parts it was almost like walking on a balance beam. If you fall, you fall in mud. The area here is big, and the people are really spread out. It's a branch here only, not a ward. They don't even have a chapel, just a rented meeting house. Many of the people can't afford to go to church because it's far, and that's why they are inactive at church.
Part 4: Random Tidbits about the People
- People here in the Philippines don't know how to shake hands. My favorite is when people offer me a hand without an extended thumb. It's like shaking a sideways high five.
- Common speech impediments of the Filipinos: Bs
are Vs and vise versa. Fs are Ps and vise versa. Many times when people are spelling,
'a' sounds like 'e' and vise versa. They solve this problem just like they do
in America (C is in Charlie!) Here's a very Filipino thing. This is how they
would explain the name Bella to you: "B as in Bacolod, E Eagle, double L,
A Apple). Part 1: You're Sending Me Where???
On Tuesday morning last week the four sisters of Sagay all left via bus to go to Bacolod where we got our new companion assignments. My new companion is Sister Sabar, and she is from Pakistan. She is a previous companion of my trainer, Sister Rosina, plus we have many other mutual friends and acquaintances in the mission. Before her mission she didn't speak English or Ilonggo, and now she speaks both, and she's only been a missionary for 11 months. She's truly an inspiration. The two of us have both been sent to Inayauan (pronounced like 'in eye you want' without the t on the end). Inayauan is on the southern most Zone of the mission, the Sipalay Zone. They almost never send sister missionaries to the Sipalay Zone. In fact, I think they only ever did one time. But Sister Sabar and I are the first Sisters ever in Inayauan. It's about a 4 hour drive from Bacolod. If you look at the map. I am nearly has far as I can possibly get from my previous area, Sagay, which was in the northeastern corner of the island, without of course leaving my mission boundaries. We were soon told that the senior missionaries would drive us to our area the next day. So we had some time to kill. Which leads us to...
Part 2: Big Shoes for Big Feet
That afternoon, Sister Sabar and I went to the SM (it stands for Super Market, but it's actually a Shopping Mall) to buy some glasses for her, and to print pictures, and do various other errands. I also told her that I wanted to buy some new rubber shoes. The only pair of rubber shoes I own is my pair of dressy Crocs that we bought in America, but I soon realized that they were too narrow for my feet, and caused blisters. So, we set off on a grand adventure to buy shoes for Sister King. Why do I refer to this quest as an adventure? Because here in the Philippines, the largest size ladies shoe that shoes stores carry is a size 8. I'm a size 9 at least. More like a 9 wide. So, after we found nothing suitable at the SM, we went to another mall (under the guidance of a member Sister Sabar knew, whom we happened upon at the SM. This member accompanied us). Nothing again. Over the course of several hours, I think we visited every mall in Bacolod (at least four) and I think we visited at least half of the shoe stores in the city (and believe me, there are a lot), and there was still nothing! Don't worry, there's a happy ending to this story. At the last store we went to be found a pair of size nine dressy rubber shoes. HUZZAH!!! They fit and everything! And it's a good thing too because of...
Part 3: Over Mountain or Rice Field or Sea
Inayauan is beautiful. We're right on the coast (they call it baybay here) and the ocean is a gorgeous blue color. This city has beach resorts, and I understand why. It's beautiful. The resorts aren't anything fancy, I'm sure, but they exist! There are also zillions of rice fields, and mountains. There are also a lot more cattle and caribow here. I don't know the English word for caribow here. It's like a big cow. Water buffalo? In order to get to the homes of our investigators here we actually have to walk across a river... twice. Both ways. It's awesome. We also walked across a rice field which is easier said than done. Rice fields are completely flooded with water with only thin bits of land for people to walk on. In some parts it was almost like walking on a balance beam. If you fall, you fall in mud. The area here is big, and the people are really spread out. It's a branch here only, not a ward. They don't even have a chapel, just a rented meeting house. Many of the people can't afford to go to church because it's far, and that's why they are inactive at church.
Part 4: Random Tidbits about the People
- People here in the Philippines don't know how to shake hands. My favorite is when people offer me a hand without an extended thumb. It's like shaking a sideways high five.
Okay, this has been fun. I'll write to you liwat (again) next week! I'm writing to you from a city called Kabankalan. Inayauan is so out there that they don't have a grocery store or bank, and the internet is really slow. So we come here.
Halong kamo (Take care)!!!
Sister Kelli King
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