A Great Adventure - Day 7

Saturday, November 22

We had been told that the Young Women had planned an activity that we were invited to on Saturday.  We had a rather difficult time trying to determine what it was that we were actually going to do.  Normita wasn't quite sure either and said that maybe we would go swimming or hiking, but finally texted us Saturday morning arund 5:30 am that we were to meet at the Conference Center in San Fernando and wear pants and shoes.  Pants?  Really?  So we figured maybe hiking.

Kristen came with us to the activity and then returned with Arcadio and Allyson to De Ocera's home to play for awhile.  Chris came as well and hung out with all of us girls.

We arrived with our backpacks and water in tow only to find out from the girls' Young Women leader, Michelle Aliac, that we would be jogging.  Yay.  In long pants.  In 90 degree heat (at 6 am).  The young women had had a lesson on being healthy the previous Sunday and this was a follow up activity.  So we joined and were hot.  As we finished up, we hung around and chatted with the girls while waiting for another sister, Sister Magda, who was bringing what we thought was a snack.  Besides the leader, Sister Aliac, and her two daughters, Chloe and Alea, we were also joined in our activity by Allyssa, who had just recently turned 12, and with three other young women name Joy, Princess, and Elisha.

Elisha Lazatin, whom we met on our last visit, brought a lot of life to the group as she had on our previous visit when we visited the orphanage.  She mentioned that she had seen the new "Mockingjay" movie and though not wanting to give anything away, said the ending was terrible.  My girls piped in that they wanted to see the movie.  Chloe and Alea Aliac echoed that sentiment and a plan was made for Amy and Misha to go see a movie at the downtown SM Mall in San Fernando, Philippines with their new-found friends, Chloe and Alea.  Chris and I were excited because on our last trip they had been rather quiet and shy without trying very hard to make any friendship connections.   We planned to meet the Aliac girls at the mall at 12 pm for the 12:30 show.

While we waited, Amy introduced these girls to Studio C.  I am not quite sure they found the skit quite as funny as my girls did, but I thought it humorous that she was standing in the middle of a sports field, with an iPad, showing a tv clip.
 

When Sister Magda arrived with our "snack", we were surprised when she unloaded instead a full-blown Filipino breakfast.  Rice porridge, which you and I would consider to be rice soup, rolls, scrambled eggs along with spoons and bowls.  The rice porridge was in a huge pot and she transported it to the track while riding in a trike.  Amazing.  And then she packed it back up and took it home again.  I loved the cute Avon bowls that she brought and handed out especially to the guests.  Apparently it was Sister Magda's husband that had been up since 3 am making the porridge.  Many men make the family meals while the women work outside the home in the Philippines.

As we finished up, we marveled at all of the people arriving at the Conference Center next to the track for some kind of religious revival.  The place was packed, the parking on the streets was equally packed, and Sister Aliac's car was boxed in.  She asked Chris if he would try and help her work her car out of it's spot.  Fortunately, the driver of the jeepney blocking the car, noticed Chris on his second turn, and came to help out by moving the jeepney.

Michelle Aliac was kind enough to drive us back to the hotel in the air conditioned comforrt of her car.  Allyssa came with us and waited as we changed out of our long pants and shoes.  Ahh so much better to be in cooler clothes, we were still hot, but not quite as hot.

We hopped a jeepney to the church where the primary was meeting to practice for the Christmas program.  We arrived at 9 am when the activity was to start and waited until 10 am before anything really began.  Seems to be typical for Filipino activities.  There were about 15 kids hanging out at the church (came to find out later that they provided activities on most Saturdays to give the kids a chance to play together and have fun.)  The sister in charge of the activity was Elisha's older sister, Veronica Lazatin.  She was 19 now and working on submitting her mission papers.  Till leaving, she had a calling in the Primary and that Saturday they worked on choreographing the December Christmas program.  Her younger brother, Nephi, was one of the young boys attending the activity.  He was four and a handful.  I don't know how many times we heard her say in frustration, "Nephi!!"  Finally she began sending him to time out.  He was not happy, but that didn't mean he was going to be obedient to his sister.  As a last measure of frustration, she pulled out a stick of some sort and jokingly threatened him.  Veronica's patience was wearing thin, but we were all rather entertained.

We attended church in this building in 2013 on our last trip, and since then the church had been refurbished with the floor being raised to help alleviate problems during the flood.

One of Chris' friends from his mission came to visit while we sat at the church.  Sister Elda Aquino.  She is not currently active, but has this image in her mind of being Chris' girl friend.  She is about 60ish.  She mentioned it a couple of times.  Amy and Misha found Elda rather disconcerting.  She pretty much ignored the girls in Chris' life and focused all of her attention on him.  I later told him that if I lived closer to Elda she and I would have issues, but she could live in her little dreamworld halfway around the world.  We made plans to get together with our friends later in the evening at the same BBQ place.  We didn't know anywhere else to go, and it was large enough (and not so busy in the early evening) that it would work well for whomever chose to join us.

We left the church (Kristen chose to stay with the De Ocera's) to take Amy and Misha to the mall for their movie.  But, before the movie we were meeting a friend of Chris' at 11:30 am for lunch.  Lovely was serving as a missionary at Salt Lake Temple Square shortly after Chris and I were married when we had a chance meeting.  It had been about 16 years since we had last seen her.  She arrived at the mall on Saturday afternoon with her two young daughters, and they joined us for lunch at KFC.  My girls liked the homey feeling of somewhat familiar food.  Anyway, we ordered lunch.  It wasn't long before Chloe and Alea showed up along with their older sister Venice.  The girls headed up to the movie theater on the fourth floor and Chris and I sat and talked with Lovely for an hour or so before she had to be at a Primary practice herself.

She and her daughters were in the process of waiting for the visas in order to move to Canada to be with their husband and dad.  The girls were fairly fluent in English but also quiet fluent in "shy" so they wouldn't talk to us at all.  We finally parted with Lovely, did a little grocery shopping for snacks, and then checked out the mall until Amy and Misha were finished.

The first words we heard were, "The ending was awful."  Apparently there is a sequel and the movie just ended  mid-scene.  Just like that.  They didn't like it either.  They were happy however to have seen the movie and they had new friends.  We were happy for them.  The Aliac girls had to return to the church for a seminary class (yes, a class on Saturday afternoon); and we headed back to De Ocera's old house where we would meet up Kristen and chat for a little while in the kubo hut.  It's claim to fame was that it was maybe 2 degrees cooler!  Still hot.

I had been waking up at 215 am for the past couple of days, and I was exhausted.  Amy, Misha, and I chose to return to the hotel.  All. by. ourselves. You should be proud of us.  Taking a jeepney by ourselves and finding the right turn off was an adventure in and off itself.  I wasn't exactly comfortable in making sure that I was catching the right jeepney though and asked Chris if he would just make sure we got on the right transport.  Normita also walked with us to the main street--MacArthur St.--and when we found our jeepney, she talked with the driver to make sure he knew where to drop us off.  I handed him our money, saying, "Buyad po" (Here's our money, sir) and we were on our way.  Let's just say that Misha was very nervous.  I was sure we could find the right place to get off if I could see the Jomafer grocery store out the squatty little window.  I just had to make sure to see it out the window.  We were fortunate that I saw the grocery store at the same time that the driver announced that we were at the stop closest to the St. Jude neighborhood. "Para po" (this is my exit, sir), and we wove across the lanes of traffic after hopping off the jeepney.  Yep, wove.  There wasn't really a cross walk.

We arrived back at the hotel and enjoyed the blast of cool air as we walked in to our room.  Ahhh, joy.  After awhile though, the phone rang.  "Uh, hello."  "Yes, this is the front desk and we need you to change rooms."  What?  Apparently the A/C wasn't working well, though we hadn't noticed it, and we needed to move two doors down.  I asked them if we couldn't wait until Chris returned.  She said ok, but it wasn't five minutes later when they called again and asked us to move.  Sigh.  Ok.  So we moved from S22 to S24.  Same style of room though this one was missing something important to this Americano.  A toilet seat.

Chris and Kristen returned to the hotel just as we had finished packing up and moving things.  He was kind enough to call the front desk and request a toilet seat for us.  Just one of the comforts that I appreciate.  He also returned with a huge package from Normita---a Christmas lantern.  Getting it home would be a trick, but it was so thoughtful of her.

We headed over to Calle Boulevard just after 6:30 pm to have dinner and to see if any of our new friends were going to join us.  Guess who we met outside the entrance?  Elda.  Woohoo.  She monopolized Chris and frankly it was kind of humorous to watch.  When he left the table she only talked to us to show us what she looked like when she first met Chris and then said, "I got ugly." 

After awhile Oliver Aliac and Chloe and Alea joined us.  They are cousins to the Lazatins.  And like the Lazatin's young boy, Nephi, they had a 1 1/2 year old at home who was a handful-Shadraq or Shady.  Michelle stayed home with him.

Normita and Arcadio joined us a little later, leaving Allyssa, Allyson, and Armand at home with their dad Rolando, or Lando.  The kids' mom, Armida, was in Saudi Arabia working but was basically being kept in slave-like conditions.  Her time had been extended in the country (not her choice) and her boss held her passport.  Apparently she had two receipts missing from her job and had been confined to her room for four days.  Such a concerning situation for us.  We wished that we could help bring her home, but even if she tried to leave the country, she would be caught before boarding a plane.

A little bit later, Lazatins arrived.  I guess we had just missed them at 6:30 as they had arrived at the restaurant then and then left to meet up with their grandma for dinner.  We had a fun group that enjoyed some hilarious conversation.

As we sat at the table, Kristen was so exhausted that she fell asleep on my arm.  Misha was exhausted as well.  Amy walked back to the hotel with them and tucked them in to bed.  She returned to the group, and  was good to get involved in the conversation, but when she could barely keep her eyes open any longer, I told her to go back to the hotel to go to bed.  During our conversation, Oliver went to buy his family some cake from a cake shop around the corner.  He was so thoughtful to bring Chris and I a couple of pieces as well.  I knew we wouldn't have a chance to finish it all so happily shared half of the cake with Normita for her grandkids.

We said goodnight to our friends and headed off to bed.  But not before eating our cake.  I believe the chocolate cake was called, "Very Sinful Cake."  It was very delicious.  Good thing I gave half of it away.  It was a very caloric cake.  Goodnight.

Thankful Day 21 - Understanding

Sometimes there gets to be a feeling in our home where the hormones are taking over and my emotions and my girls' emotions just escalate.  At that point, I am not really great at being an understanding mom.  But what amazes me is my husband's ability to understand and diffuse and bring calm to these crazy moments.  I am thankful every time he steps in with his humor or logic or simple kindness and teaches my daughters about love.  And in those moments, I am smart enough to step back and let him work his magic.

A Great Adventure - Day 6

Friday, November 21

Another day of travel, but not before Chris and Amy headed into the palanke to purchase some breakfast items.  I will add that I brought my own milk along with me on this trip.  Milk isn't plentiful or tasty in the Philippines; I brought chocolate soy milk in single serving containers.  It was a tad bulky, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

I was up early again and started the final load of laundry.  

Eddy the trike driver and his friend arrived at 9 am to take us to the bus stop.  It wasn't far to walk, but since the road to the main road wasn't completely paved, it wouldn't have been easy to transport all of our luggage.  We didn't have too long to wait and were fortunate the Eddy and friend were kind enough to make sure we got on the correct bus, though Chris was quite familiar with which one to choose, it was nice to have friends watching out for us.

There was standing room only for some and Chris was kind enough to give up his seat for a grandmother.  The young boy next to him reluctantly followed when a young mother and her daughter boarded the bus.  The grandmother said in broken English to me, "Such a gentleman."  I snapped a few pictures from the bus as we drove along.

As people boarded and exited the bus, Kristen finally moved up to her own seat next to me from Amy's lap where she had been sitting at the rear of the bus.  This bus too made a lot of stops until we arrived in Olongapo where we changed to another Victory Liner that would take us to Dao.  This bus was a non-stop bus and much faster even though we were going a little beyond our desired destination.  As we arrived in Dao, we had originally planned to rent a jeepney, but Chris opted for us to have the full travel experience by taking an "ordinary" bus.  That would be a bus with out air-conditioning except for the breezes of mother nature through the open windows.  Not so kind to the hair do, but not impossible either.

We finally arrived at the SM Mall in San Fernando.  Chris' friend from his mission days, Normita, and her husband, Arcadio, were planning to meet us at the mall.  We waited and waited.  Finally we decided to go in to the mall.  That was no small feat since each entrance at the mall was guarded by security guards and we had all of our luggage in tow. What to do?  It was hot even in the shade and all were hungry.  We headed in to the cool air comfort of the mall and offered all of our luggage and backpacks up to inspection.  We made our way to a McDonald's with all of our luggage.  

Normita and Arcadio came upon us as we sat down to eat.  Hugs most of the way around as some of us were kind of barricaded in with suitcases.  We hired a jeepney to transport all of our luggage and us to our hotel, the Otel Appartelle (the same one we stayed in on our last visit).  We had a single room with four beds and an extra mattress brought in.  Not quite as nice as the two separate rooms we had last time, but it would do.

We left Misha at the hotel for a little down time.

The jeepney driver then transported us to Allyssa and Allyson's school where we had permission to visit their classrooms.  We stopped first at Allyson's class--2nd grade.  The kids were thrilled to see us and loved Christophr.  Chris talked to the kids and handed out toys while Kristen was reaquainted with Allyson.  They were both excited to see each other.

As we finished in Allyson's classroom and made our way to Allyssa's 6th grade room, we waited as the kids returned from recess.  Allyssa was much more shy about seeing us and maybe a little embarrassed about the attention.  As Chris started in to talking with the kids after getting permission from the substitute teacher to have ten minutes, another grumpy old teacher came in to the and started reaming Christopher out and pretty much ended our visit then and there.  We had no choice but to leave.

We chose to return to the hotel for a short time and have a much-needed rest.  We weren't too familiar with the good or bad restaurants in town so chose a place that was a couple of doors down from the hotel--Calle Boulevard Iwah Iwah.  It was a BBQ place. Chris texted De Ocera's our location and invited them to join us.  They arrived as we finished eating but sat down and ordered a few things for the kids.  We decided to share with them some of the gifts that we had brought for them--Barbies for the girls, Nerf guns for Armand and the girls, and a couple of games.  We tried to teach them how to play Yahtzee, hopefully that kind of got the idea after one game.  After our visit in 2013, I made a book about our trip and had a second copy printed for them.  They loved it.  Something about seeing your face in a book.

We were all exhausted as we bid our friends goodnight but had to make a quick trip to a grocery store around the corner to get water.  The store was called Jomafer.  Wish we had known it was there the last time we visited.  Last time we made the trek all the way to the mall, taking at least an hour round trip.  Jomafer was within walking distance.  

We had our water for the next few days and could now return to the hotel and fall fast asleep.  Which we did.

Thankful Day 20 - Treadmill

Still grateful for my treadmill.  Not only is it a great piece of equipment to have for a workout, but it is also a great stress reliever when my life is crazy.  Even 30 minutes on the treadmill is fabulous for helping me work things out.

A Great Adventure - Day 5

Thursday, November 20

I awoke at 2:15 am and try as I might, I could not go back to sleep.  I used my time to catch up on notes.

I noted in our travels thus far that people stared at us not because we might or might not be attractive but because we were such an anomaly.  I suppose we did look fairly out of place.

I also noted that once we left Manila, most of the towns were much more well kept and tidy.  I rarely saw people sleeping on the street.

As visitors to the Philippines, we were sure to always wear flip flops.  Even in the shower.  You have to think twice in the middle of the night when you wake to use the bathroom and then try to slip on the flip flops without making too much noise.

Chris, Kristen, and I walked in to town to visit the palanke (market), hoping to by some pandasol (rolls).  We aso picked up some rolls for sandwiches and looked for some Tang, you know the drink.  It was pretty naive of me, but when the shopkeepers said we could find a larger package of Tang rather than single packets at the grocery, I was expecting an actual grocery store.  Duh.  It too was just a little shack of a store jam-packed with all kinds of goods.

Chris and Kristen walked through the meat market, but I just didn't have the stomach for it.  I was feeling somewhat nauseous after our bus ride with all it's starts and stops and downshifts.  We picked up a "shadow" who thought he would be our transport for the day. He finally gave up after awhile.  We had our pandasol but were told that we could get actual donuts at another bakery.  Chris hired a driver and off we went in search of donuts.  I waited in the trike while Chris and Kristen picked out the donuts, and then we were whisked back to the rental.

Amy and Misha were both up by then and happy to see that we came with food.  We ate breakfast and then prepared for a day at the beach at Anawangin.  We had bread, some small packages of peanut butter, snacks, and treats.  It would have to do as we weren't able to visit a proper grocery store before leaving Manila.

Eddy our trike driver and his friend arrived at 9 am to drive us to Pundakit.  Chris had been talking with Annalynn earlier, and she had arranged a boat to take us to Anawangin as well as a lighthouse.  Though we were a little concerned when we saw Chris, Amy and their trike driver suddenly disappear in front of us, we were reassured when Eddy used broken English to tell us they had gone to get gas.

Word must have gotten out that we already had boat drivers because we were not swarmed with requests for people to take us in their boat.  I was a little leery of the boat we had hired however, when it took so many times to get it started.  And then both of our drivers opened up the jug of gas they had brought along and smelled it.  Apparently it wasn't diesel.  They turned back toward shore and communicated that they had the wrong fuel.  Our driver Alan dove in to the water, retrieved the gallon jug of gas and swam back to the boat.  It's all a part of the adventure right?

We had hoped to get out on a small island called Capones to see a lighthouse there.  The walk from a sandy beach area would have been pretty far to the lighthouse, so they kept moving closer only to realize that the shoreline was very rocky, and if we wanted to go see the lighthouse, we would have to swim to shore and climb over the rocks.  We opted not to have that adventure and just headed off to Anawongin.

It wasn't too different from last time, maybe another grass hut or two.  The beach area was mostly uncrowded.  We paid our $6 entrance fee, found a hut to leave our stuff, and headed for the water.  The water seemed a lot choppier than the last time when we visited.  Chris and the older girls didn't seem to mind at all being blasted by wave after wave.  I chose to search for shells.

It was a beautiful day.  We ate lunch mostly because we were hungry because it wasn't all that appetizing.  (We pulled together what we could).  The afternoon was spent exploring and playing in the water.  Kristen made a friend name Princess.  For real. We only think about calling our daughters Princess or use that as a term of endearment, they actually name their children Princess.

Princess' family had two surf boards.  My kids watched them play for awhile until the one older sister, Roxanne, asked Amy if she wanted to try.  She then proceeded to spend the next hour or so working with Amy until she actually got up on a wave.  By then, Misha had worked her way out by Amy and Roxanne and gave it a go as well.  They had fun.  I sent the girls' swim shirts out with Misha because I knew the sunscreen had worn off by this point.  Last time we visited this beach, we forgot Kristen's swim shirt and she got a sunburn.  

We headed back to Pundakit around 3 pm with a few extra passengers--a local lady with her young baby and a couple from Germany--and then waited and waited for our trikes to come.  They finally showed up and we were back to the rental for rest and dinner.  Chris and Amy stopped in town to pick up some fish at the Palanke.  Amy vetoed Chris' choice of tuna and opted for tilapia.  

The fish was grilled and delivered to us by Annalynn head, bones, skin and all.  My kids shouldn't have expected anything more.  Chris and I deboned and deheaded the fish.  There wasn't a lot of meat on the fish, but was fairly good, though maybe a little mushy.  And we had rice as well as the leftover pansit and lumpia (eggrolls).  No surprise there.    

Misha fell asleep at 7 pm.  We tried to keep her up, but she was too exhausted.  I started the first of three loads of laundry.  Amazing how much we already had after just three or four days.  Kristen was excited to go visit Hannah, Annalynn's daughter.  Hannah had finished her homework and her father, Nell, had invited Kristen to come over.  She started out the door when she spied a frog the size of Chris' hand.  She screamed and ran back in to the house.  Amy then scared the frogs away, or at least that's what she told Kristen.  Amy was then kind enough to walk Kristen over to Hannah's and protect Kristen from any more frog sightings. 

Chris ventured outside to chat with Nell and ended up being invited in to their home.  He watched Kristen and Hannah play the piano together as both were learning the same music in their piano lessons.  While they were gone, Amy and I started to watch a movie together and both quickly fell asleep.

Chris ushered Kristen home after a little while, keeping her safe from the frogs and then tucking her into bed.  She promptly fell asleep.  Chris woke up Amy and I, sending Amy off to bed while I transferred laundry to the dryer and folded the clean stuff.  It didn't take me long to fall asleep though I never took Unisom thinking I would surely sleep the whole night through.

Thankful Day 19 - Scriptures

Just wanted to share verses of scripture that mean a lot to me:

2 Nephi 25:26 And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.

DC 84:88 And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.

Esther 4:14 For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

I love this thought in Esther "...who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"  I often have this line pop in to my head when I encounter people accomplishing great things or touching other people's lives.  We all have a great work to do.

A Great Adventure - Day 4

Wednesday, November 19

Aaah, another early day for Misha and I.  Amy took a Unisom pill the night before and slept all night long.  Kristen had no problem with her sleeping.  I kept hoping I would sleep a little longer myself.   Not sure why I didn't take the Unisom except that I thought that I wouldn't have a problem since I was so very tired.

We got ready for another day.  After another breakfast at the hotel at the Cafe Arquiza, Chris headed over to 7-11 to buy a gallon of water for the day.  we poured it into smaller bottles that were a little easier to carry.  Our first stop was Intramuros, the old city in Manila.  We had to wait about 15 minutes since it didn't open until 8 am.  Yeah, our days had very early starts.  

Intramuros was spotless.  That was monumental because all of Manila is filthy.  If you only ever visited Manila, you would have a very poor opinion of the country.  There is garbage everywhere.  It is an eye-opening experience to visit Manila.  Many people sleep on the streets with very little to cover their heads or bodies.  Breaks your heart really to see that people live this way--moms, dads, children, babies.

Anyway Intramuros was where a national hero was executed-Rizal.

While in the old city, we also visited St. Augustine's chapel, the girls happily slurped slurpees, and we tried to find the entrance to the old chapel without any luck.  

The girls were ready to be done around 11 am.  We returned to the hotel, packed up our stuff, and checked out of the hotel.  The staff checled through our room before leaving.  The hotel also rented us a van and driver to take us to the Victory Liner bus station.  As we drove through the city, I quietly snapped pictures with my small camera.  I just don't think I could accurately describe the condition of the city.

As we arrived at the bus station, there was a bus leaving for Olongapo within minutes.  It was not a direct route, and looking back we should have waited 45 minutes for the faster bus instead of riding on one that stopped every couple of minutes to pickup more passengers and one that stopped twice for rather lengthy breaks.  We even stopped at the mall in San Fernando (we would return there to visit friends in a couple of days).  Oh well, the country side was beautiful, and we had wifi.  Amazing to think that we had wifi on a bus in the Philippines.

We had to transfer buses in Olongapo.  It was a mistake for the girls and I to be the first ones off the bus.  Chris took a minute or two to join us and in that time, the girls and I were mobbed by taxi drivers all wanting to take us somewhere.  They would grab our bags and start walking with them.  I had to caution the girls to hang on their luggage.  I had a piece of paper in my hand that I had been making notes on, and one driver was trying to take it from to see if it had an address.  

Chris finally joined us and told all of the men to leave us alone.  That only helped a bit.  The girls and I took a short break to the bathroom where we had to carry in a bucket of water for flushing the toilet.  There was no toilet paper.  We slathered on the hand sanitizer as we left.   Chris passed us as we left and said, "We're on the second bus back."  Really?  In which row?

A man kept motioning to me to follow him, so I did for a little ways.  The girls followed me.  He took me to the bus and showed me all of our luggage stowed underneath.  I grinned, gave him a thumbs up, and herded my passel of girls on to the bus.  I breathed a large sigh of relief when Chris stepped on the bus.  Apparently, Chris had paid the man to help him with his luggage.  He thought he should be paid more for helping us out.  He found our seats through the window on the bus and began motioning and drawing numbers in the air outside our window.  Chris shook his head no and gratefully the door of the bus closed and we were off to San Antonio.

Like Colorado, the Philippines got dark early in evening as well.  We knew our stop in San Antonio was just a small blip on the road just after a water tower.  Chris moved to the front of the bus to make sure we stopped at the right spot.  He found it perfectly, and as we stepped off the bus there were two trike riders who were quick to offer us a ride.  

If only I had looked back at my seat before leaving the bus, I would have seen my Canon G12 sitting on the seat.  When I realized that I had lost my camera, I was so disappointed and Misha was pretty sad that I had lost all of the pictures she had taken at Corregidor.  Yep, I am still sad about it.  I didn't notice it missing until the next day.

Our drivers to the rental house in the middle of rice fields just so happened to be drivers that we had used before and the preferred drivers of the housekeepers of the rental.  Such a blessing to have them there.  It was dark at 6 pm when we arrived, but we were happy to see that Annalynn (one of the housekeepers) had made a dinner of pansit, rice, and lumpia (egg rolls).  All good--at least for everyone not named Kristen.

We had to force the girls to stay awake until 8 pm.  Crazy when your kids plead to go to bed at 7 pm.  I knew exactly how they felt, however as I was so overwhelmingly exhausted as well.

Thankful Day 18 - Random Acts of Kindness

Have you been the recipient?  The giver?  Both leave you feeling wonderful.  I remember a kind gentleman paying for Kristen's lunch at Costco one day.  It was totally unexpected, but I was happy for the rest of the day.  I've no doubt that he left feeling pretty great too.

What is your best experience?