Feeling the temperature rising...

In a small village in southern Palawan, a missionary got on his motorbike to drive to the boat on the coast. He got partway there before his bike broke down. He sat in the shade of nearby coconut tree, hoping to catch a lift with someone passing by, and finally called his wife on his cell phone. "I'm stuck under a tree and there is no one out!"

Why is that?

Because it is HOT SEASON here and that means it is HOT! and in the middle of the day, no one goes out.

When I moved here, I mistakenly thought that the tropics meant heat, humidity, and rain. I was only partly right. During rainy season, there is rain, which we gladly play in (much to the amazement and consternation of the locals). But during hot season, it is only hot and humid. There is no respite during the day from the heat and humidity, which put together, puts us up to between 110 and 120 degrees every day. And hot season lasts for 6 months.

Any suggestions for staying cool are welcome. I may send you a treat of some sort if it actually works :) (we don't have an air conditioner, so you can't use that one)

On another note, allow me to introduce you to my oven (see picture) It's a big *huge* pot that I put on the stove. It has a brick in it so that my dishes won't burn. It works well. I bake anything I want to in there. and even some things I don't want to.



For the last few months, I have noticed a strange odor and taste in my baked food. I thought maybe the brick was getting old or maybe there was some moisture in there. Couldn't really put my finger in it. But then, the other day, I took the brick out to clean the pot up a bit, and there sat a lego man (see picture). He is completely burned to a crisp. poor guy.

And now, our food tastes much better.

Birthday Bashes

A week ago I turned 31. It was a really cool day.
I got to sleep in till 8 am
We went out to breakfast at the local coffee house and I had a very yummy Filipino breakfast
They played country music, my favorite, over the loudspeakers
They played my favorite song, "Love, me". They didn't know that was my favorite song.

We checked to see if cheesecakes were available at a local bakery. None were, so we went home and Ben made me a chocolate betty crocker cake on our stovetop. He frosted it and decorated it.
I opened my gift of a very fancy coffee press. I can now drink yummy coffee again.

We made one of our favorite meals and watched a family cartoon.

It was a very good day, indeed. I thoroughly enjoyed being with my family and just having fun.

And the rest...

And the week went fast. Ben had a flight last week, which went well. My days were full. Monday was talking with the US embassy and our office in Manila. Tuesday was for buying plane tickets (yes, it takes a good part of the day when you have to price shop); Wednesday was for receiving and sending a fax--which took a good part of 4 hours. Thursday was *FUN* visiting with a friend while our kids played. Friday was setting the house in order and getting a few food essentials (which was actually on Monday's list...). Saturday was playhouse building. It's almost done, and I'm very excited.

And that is our update.

Cockroaches

When we returned home from our trip to Manila over New Year's, our house had sat empty for 3 weeks. Or had it?

Empty, yes, of the human kind, but when the humans are away the cockroaches will play. When we returned, our bathroom was their new high occupancy apartment complex. The first night back, we killed over 15. Or, I should say, Ben killed them.

I am totally grossed out by them. But they don't care about my opinion. They crawl up the toilet plunger at night, in plain sight, they hang out in the toilet paper roll, they crawl all over and eat away at our toothbrushes. They scurry all around the sink and floor. or skulk. no, scurry. They are quick, and they fly. They hide in the shower curtain, the trash. I hear them at night. They are gross. and I hated going in that room in the dark.

To date, they have not all gone away. I realized a few days ago that depending on Ben to kill them was not practical. My being home all day and him being at work... So I asked the Lord to help me overcome my fear/revulsion. And then I took the first step.

Now I am:

Suzy

the

Cockroach

Slayer

Victory is mine!!!

The plunger is my weapon

and the death toll is many.

Pelis Nabidad!

Just a quick update for you. The last two months have flown by as Ben has helped prepare one of our planes to fly on another island, hosted two NTM Aviation visitors from the States and renewed his Filipino pilot's license. What does that entail? That's for another time...

On the home front, today is Zack's 6 month birthday. He is almost crawling and is pretty much a happy camper. Ellie is our 'big bad princess' and Ty is determined to make his way as a superhero.

A couple weeks ago, we went to visit the crocodile farm here in our city. Originally started to farm the crocs for their skins, I don't know what they do with them now, but there are sure a lot of them. While I held (tightly) onto this guy, the kiddos touched him. Ellie was the only one who was really game (although, Zack didn't care one way or the other...). Don't worry, this guy's mouth was securely closed and I was fully ready to protect my brood from his ferocious and most probably sedated existence.

We look forward to next week's Christmas celebration. We will be joining some fellow missionaries on Christmas day for a traditional Austrailian Christmas feast, complete with roasted lamb. I've never had that before. There is a first time for everything.

Baa.

We've been having carolers at our house at night here. The cultural expectation here is to give them a treat (or money) for caroling. We are enjoying the experience of it, although we have done so much more amazingly well at having the lights out and being in bed by 9 (or 8). It's very cute, with their Filipino accents, singing Feliz Navidad.

And that's all I have to say for now.

Merry Christmas!

Work and play

What's our day in/day out look like here? Ben is off to work in the morning, often coming back for lunch like this:

Yes, ladies and gentleman, let us tempt you with the delightful tropics, so humid you can slurp the moisture from the air. And, yes, his shirt is soaked from perspiration. I believe his work on this day included working on the airplane at the hangar...This was taken only a short while into the day.

And on the homefront, while daddy toils away in the humid heat, we think of ways to include both entertainment and education (ok, so the education part only happens when I'm involved...). On this particular day, we let it 'snow' in the house, brought by a large amount of old printer paper that the kids found and pulled out. It's the coolest stuff to them. Instead of just one peice of paper, it just kept coming and coming, all attached to the next piece. Maybe the fascination is something akin to the kleenex box for these youngsters. Ah, but I digress...

So, we had snow, able to have snowball fights, make snow angels, and sing snow songs:

And after all that really fun mess, we eat. Sometimes, we even finish the meal:


And at the end of the day, when all is *hopefully* put away, daddy is back from work, tummies are full, and showers are taken, we all sit down to stories before bedtime.



And then...

good night.

October ish

I feel Octoberish today. I don't really know what that means, but I feel it nonetheless.

Many have asked how our friends have been affected up in Manila by all the flooding. Well...

Two of our national coworkers lost everything. One sat on her roof with about 100 neighbors, since her house was the only one left standing. The other sat on her roof (before being rescued) for hours with her children, at one point saying her goodbyes because she thought the end was near.

A couple of our other coworkers had their houses flooded, one's car was underwater, and one family was stuck on their second floor for 2 days because it flooded 7 feet on their 1st floor.

Clean up has begun. It would be a nice thought to think the water came and left. But, Manila is full of dirt and grease and all of that came with the flood water, coating everything it touched. So, besides those who lost everything, those who did not have quite the clean up...

And here on Palawan, we didn't see much of Ketsana. We had some cooler days with clouds.

And it looks like this last typhoon, Pepeng, missed Manila, although it directly hit some of our other missionary locations in northern Luzon.

I've been watching the satellite for over a year now, keeping tabs on weather conditions and what's coming for flight days that Ben has. We'll see what this next storm does, but it looks like it's going to head north, as well.

Next on the list

Today and Wednesday are flight days. That means early mornings and lots of weather monitoring. Today, there is a nice tropical storm in the area, not hitting us directly. It is dragging weather across our island tho. Ben was in the air at 6 this morning to get some folks out of the tribe. Not even halfway there, he ran into a wall of black clouds. There was no getting through, so he turned around and headed back to our city.

Four hours later, the weather looks a bit more cleared up. He is off again, this time he has made it to the tribal location and is on track to make it back home.

There's another storm headed this way. Perhaps it will make it here in time for his next flight? Wouldn't that be just dandy? For him, that means flying around storms, and monitoring his turn around boundaries. For me, that means I stick close to the radio, monitoring his location, checking weather on the internet, calling our halfway location for weather updates, and radio-ing the tribal location for up to date weather. And the return trip to our city entails me running back and forth from the computer to our porch to check local weather conditions and see if the mountains are clear (we have a GREAT view!).

After those two flights, Ben begins a 100 hour inspection on the plane. What does that mean? Not exactly sure what that means for him, but for me, it means a lot less running :)