A change of engine

It's time for the old girl to get a new engine. That would be the airplane I'm speaking of. And since she is a part of the family (Ellie kisses her goodbye every time we leave), we thought we'd get a picture of the airplane in process.
Ben gets to work outdoors in the humidity and sun...
I get to work indoors, in the humidity....
During out trip to Manila, we got to go out with our friends :) and try fried fish. Literally, they are little fishies, fried to a crisp, bones, eyes and all! Scrumptious...if eaten with a lot of vinegar or ketchup. Okay, maybe their edible with a lot of ketchup. Scratch that, ketchup tastes okay with a little bit of the fishies.

At the Store

Standing in line the other day (it’s an art form here), listening to “joy to the world’ play over the loud speaker (because it is Christmas season after all), I noticed an unusual product for sale. It was called ‘placenta soap’. Guaranteed to stop the signs of aging. Yeah, yuck. But it sells. Then again, so do chicken guts and feet. Oh, and I was shopping in the meat section and came across a couple rows of foot long squids. Do you know how funny that looks? Squid on ice; yeah, yummy. And lest it become boring, I also noticed big golf ball sized fish eyes for sale…and this at the fancy grocery store, not the outdoor market, mind you. Put that in my soup, baby.

A breakdown of the month *SNORT*

We spent two weeks up in manila in August. Ty rediscovered his love of escalators and Ellie discovered the fantastic trick of keeping everyone up at night when you all sleep in the same room. We all got spend time with the missionary aviation personnel and meet a newly arrived pilot family.

Beginning during our time there, stuff started going haywire on us. First, our laptop kicked the bucket, completely and resolutely. When we got back to Palawan, we lost a motorbike tire to a long nail; our desk top was rendered unusable due to a worm infestation (hence no emails or updates); our bathroom sprung a gusher, or in other words, a sizeable leak; we've had a 5 or 6 brown outs (aka, black outs); and, my current favorite, the ring...

Of all the 10 fingers I have, a critter would choose my wedding ring finger to take a nibble at. And, of course, my finger doesn't like to be nibbled at, so it swelled up in protest. And I woke up to a finger so swollen I couldn't get the rings off. I had to get them cut off. I hear, on the brighter side of it all, that they are fully fixable. That makes me happy.

On the sunnier side of things, Ben has been flying a couple missionaries into the tribal locations and lots of cargo to go with them. In 'one more sleep' (kid time talk), we will all be flying in to visit some other missionaries, bringing in their food order and spending some time with them. That will be great!

Butterfly Garden

We took a trip to a butterfly garden a couple days ago. While not edge of your seat excitement for those over the age of 5, the kids sure enjoyed it! And what cutie-patootie kids they are!

the first week of august

There was another medical flight last saturday. Friday night, we were sitting on the couch, watching a movie, when a text came: A measles outbreak. One little 18 month old tribal girl had grown lethargic and needed medical care. Would we be willing to fly in on Saturday to get her? You BETCHA! So, Ben flew on Saturday, I manned the radio, and the kids? Let's just say that playing super heroes is the thing of the day:



...which included a little flying in our house...










Today, Ben is out flying again, this time returning the baby to her home (she is better now) and flying some missionaries out of their location. There is a (another!) tropical storm brewing to the north of us that has made for interesting weather here yesterday, but all clear today.


And throughout our days here, we hear a *chirp, chirp, chirp*. Like the cricket noises back in the states, I just tune them out. Not the Bean; every time she hears them, she yells out 'BooKee! its BooKee!" (translation: budike! Definition: a small lizard that chirps). If you grab their tails, they (the tails) fall off. Yeah, creepy. Doesn't seem to bother her. Apparently, she doesn't mind when they crawl on her either....

out and about

Last weekend, we went sight seeing with another family. We visited a memorial park built in honor of 143 American World War II POWs who were executed by the Japanese. The tunnels they built are still there and it was a shocking and disturbing event to learn about. It really brings history alive when you can see places that you hear/read about.





We also visited a local fishing village where the houses are built over the ocean water. One boy had fashioned his own boat--and was very good at getting around. We decided this was a single speed, manual transmission, creative edition. Very clever and he was having fun.




And one of our crew was mighty tuckered out after a big day of playing with a visiting missionary family. After not hearing the pitter patter and general exclamations from our wee little one, I meandered about the house to find that she just couldn't take another step before having a quick rest...

what we do...

Here's some highlights of the last couple flights Ben has been on:
Flying into one location proved to be a bit wet, as he sprayed his plane and the surrounding area with water (not to mention the missionary in the back seat...sorry about that...)





And on another day, he was able to bring in supplies to the missionaries (so they can EAT!). One trip to this location included a small happy redhead who got to fly along with his daddy and...








...go swimming!







And finally, whilst the boys of the house were up flying and out swimming, us ladies held down the fort and did the flight following: