Magandang gebee - Hello from the Philippines

Magandang gebee (Good evening in Tagolog - we think but didn't confirm so beware),

We've acquired a VERY small tagolog vocabulary:) Learning a language is definitely daunting and perhaps it is not very motivating when we can actually communicate to most everyone in English. It will be different when we go to Cambodia so we'll have to clean out the cobwebs in our brains and make room for Khmer.

So six weeks have nearly passed since we first came to the Philippines. We have enjoyed our time here, though, and feel very grateful to have been able to spend this time with Crystal, Jerry, Joshua and Joel, mostly just living life. Here are some of the pictures...

Crystal, Jerry, Joshua (2 1/2 years old), Joel (1 1/2 years old). Family photos are never "perfect" at this age but they are full of character so that's what counts.
Not too sure how to switch this picture so tilt you head to your left and it will make complete sense. This is my (Charlene's) dad, Richard and Joel looking at animals in a zoo. Mom and dad were here for the first week of our stay so we have a 2/3 family reunion (we were missing my brother Jonathan).
My mom, Mary, with us and the kids post puppet show. We've had a few puppet shows over the back of the couch. They seem to be a hit with the boys.

Ate Edna, Kuya Gimo, Genesis, Jhomari, Mariel. This the the nurse that Crystal works with at the clinic and one of the men that worked with Ben on fixing up the clinic. We visited them at their house and they made us very yummy Singang and fish one day.
This picture is definitely worth the head tilt. What a cute little guy, eh?? This is Joel. He is playing in a little kiddie pool full of balls. Perhaps if he could talk, he would say that this is one of his favorite ways to spend the day. Joel is a very content little boy wandering around checking everything out, occassionally adding in some words from his five word vocabulary. He's also a charmer...it'll be fun to see what he's like as a teenager with that cute smile and sneaky way about him.We went to Borocay Beach for a few days. It is a beautiful white sand beach with gentle waves. Did some snorkelling but mostly just relaxed. The boys loved playing in the sand.


Ben and Jerry holding the octopus.

While we were at the beach, we went "Island Hopping" one day. That means gettting on a "bancka" (quite a ricketty boat for our standards) and going from island to island. We really only went to one, though, because Ben and Jerry were both getting sea sick and the waves were quite large especially considering the looks of our boat and the fact that we had two little kids on there with no lifejackets on:( At the one island we went to the boatmen prepared a meal. Someone came by and sold us this octopus for about $12. It is a delicacy here - we didn't find it too appealing but it was interesting nonetheless.

Joshua and me. Joshua is a very fun little boy too. He is talking a lot. He speaks English but he often forms sentences in Tagolog. For example, he always asks "What doing you Uncle Ben?" because in Tagolog the verb and noun are in the opposite order (that's what I heard - don't really know). Joshua is very social and always remembers everyone's name and greets them. It is great in the morning to come downstairs and have him say "Good morning Auntie Charlene". Sometimes he even asks "How are you?" He's working on potty training right now. Last night he did a #1 and #2 (sorry about too much info but...) and he brought it to us in his portable potty to show us and then he said we had to smell it too. A bit nasty.


Uncle Ben giving rides in the Pedicab to Joshua and his next door neighboor Ira. They were especially enjoying the ride because Uncle Ben could make it go up on two wheels around corners. Lots of laughs were heard.
We've been to three zoos here and their idea of treating animals well is definitely different than what we have experienced in Canada and more recently, Australia. A bit concerning really. Kind of a funny sign to have especially considering the pictures below.
This is Louie, the show monkey. He even wears a diaper and Crocs on his feet when he walks around. It would be interesting to know how he feels about life...

At the end of last week, we went out to Second Mile. It is a vocational/discipleship program for street kids. It was nice to get out the city and breath fresh air again. My Uncle Marton, Auntie Cely and their kids (May Rose, Rose Marie, Thomas and Jean Paul) live nearby so we went to the zoo with them and had lunch with them.

So that's a bit of what we have been up to. Life is so different here and we have had our thinking challenged in many ways. It is hard to reflect things on this blog. Oh, in case anyone is worried, we have still been playing Settlers here too. Crystal, Jerry and Jean ( a lady who lives with them) are all keen players now. It was definitely worth the weight to bring along:)

We're off to Cambodia on Sunday to start the last "leg" of our adventure. We're not too sure what to expect there. We'll be living with a family in a slum area of Phnom Penh, experiencing life as they do for a short while.

We love to hear from you...keep us posted on what is going on in your lives too.