While I was in the Philippines I took pictures of most of the missionary families that live on the SIL center in Bagabag. In the two weeks I lived there I got to know many of them. Here’s a slideshow so you can meet them too. It starts with a few pictures of the center.
I’ve been back in the states for a few days now, but have a few more pictures to post from my travels. I’ll explain a little what you’ll see in the slideshow that shows the contrast of life in the
The first pictures are of rice drying. Since the road provides a nice sunny flat space, there’s often rice there, it doesn’t seem to bother them if it’s actually in the road and cars must drive around it. We also passed several funerals. They are frequently on Saturdays when everyone is available to attend. The barricades in the road are often found near schools. I’m not sure that causing both directions of traffic to share one lane and weave around them is the most effective way to slow traffic down, but that’s what they do. I’m convinced the mountain pass is the world’s birds nest fern capitol. I’m not sure if they grown them and sell them or what, but they are plentiful. The rice fields traditionally were plowed using caribou, but now you often see motorized plows which can also be hitched to a cart and driven to town.
Molly is enjoying her merienda (snack) at Jolibee, the common fast food restaurant that’s even found in the small towns. Its menu includes the every popular rice, fried chicken and spaghetti along with the French fries and other more typical fast food. I would never have expected fried chicken and spaghetti to be such favorites.
Rice is still planted by hand; it looks like back breaking work, not to mention hot. And, the popular sport is basketball; you’ll see a court of some sort in every town and school.
In Old Manila we saw parts of the Spanish settlement:
Finally, are the most familiar sights in
Solano is a little bit bigger town than Bagabag so we went there to run a few errands and see the market yesterday. Here’s a slideshow of Solano.
Molly is 4 and she’s a pro at making expressive faces. I think she’s hilarious! Maybe she has a future as an actress or comedian. Here’s a slideshow of more of her faces – all of which she has names for! The music is her favorite song – the theme song for Thomas (the train) and Friends.
Sarah and I, along with two other missionary wives (Joy and Amy) took the plane over to Baguio for a day of shopping. Baguio is on the top of a mountain. It’s cool with no humidty, making it a popular vacation location. Unfortunately the car/bus/jeepney exhaust keeps all the roads full of black smoke. Sarah and I shopped in the market in the morning, went to the mall for lunch at our favorite Chinese place Mann Hann, went to Easter Weaving to see the weavers work, went to Mines View for the view and more shopping, then stopped by the Botanical Gardens on the way back. We went to dinner at O Mai Khan, a Mongolian Barbaque place. We spent the night at Doane Rest, a guest house owned by another mission organization. Then back on the plane this morning. It was a short but fun trip. This large traditional capiz shell Christmas decoration, called a parol, was my splurge purchase for myself. 🙂 
Here’s the slideshow of our trip.
This is the Stallsmith’s house and if you look closely you can see Molly and Ida, the helper, out waving goodby to us. The little house I’m staying in is next door.
These are some of the many rice fields we flew over. The view was fantastic!
We shopped and shopped for bargains in the market – till we ran out of pesos! Here Sarah is buying asparagus, something you can’t find in Bagabag.
