AVenture to Minuyan

Every once in a while there is a national holiday in the Philippines. So far we haven’t figured out the schedule for these, but sooner or later we hear about another one coming up. We heard the president changed all the non-religious holidays to happen on Monday, but the religious celebrations must occur whenever. On Friday, October 12, 2007, we observed the end of Ramadan (a Muslin holy event). The office was closed and we had the day to ourselves.

However, Friday is the day our cleaning lady comes to spruce up our apartment, so we had to find something to do that would take us out of the house for several hours. We came up with a good solution. We have been reassigned to attend a branch of the Church that is north of Quezon City, probably some 35 or so kilometers (about 25 miles). We went up there a week ago, following another missionary couple, zigging and zagging through the maze of roads and by-ways, across the fields, through the villages, around the jungle. We were sure we’d never find it again. They told us this was a long way to go and that there was a shorter way, but the roads were not all that good. So on this Friday we decided to use their landmark map, showing the odometer readings from point to point and see if we could find our way to Minuyen on the shorter route.

Off we went. On the itinerary was marked so many kilometers to a given landmark, then so many more to a certain turn off. A whole page of this. One of the items was a tollbooth. We paid our 38 pesos, and, wa-la! There we were on a very decent freeway, three or four lanes, traffic moving at perhaps 100 klm per hour (abut 65 mph). It’s called the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX). We followed this for maybe 10 miles and then turned off onto a provincial roadway. Talk about pothole village. Stretch after stretch of two-way road, one lane closed, the open lane nothing but potholes and ruts. Tricycles, trucks, cars, vans, Jeepnies.

Following the landmark guidebook, going through small village and across narrow bridges, we eventually made it all the way to our destination, the Minuyen Branch chapel. And we only had to backtrack once – where the schedule had a big dark dingy Catholic basilica and then said turn right. What it meant was turn left first and then turn right. We figured that out when we turned around and found San Miguel street (which was no easy task because few of the streets have name signs, but this one did).

We were lucky, because when we pulled up in front of the chapel, we were hoping we could go inside for a CR break (comfort room break – restroom). It so happened there was a brother walking around the chapel. We asked him, and he unlocked the gate, unlocked the building doors and let us in. He said his name was Brother Rodriguez and that he had seen us there the week earlier even though he did not belong to the Minuyen Branch. He was a member of the branch presidency which met in the morning schedule. We chatted just a few minutes as best we could and then started back to Manila.

That’s when we turned left when the schedule meant for us to go down the road a ways and then turn left. But we shortly figured it out and returned to the chapel so we could actually restart our trip odometer at zero. The instructions said we would have to go through the market place. It meant what it said. (A couple of pictures of the market place are posted here.)

Now in order to miss much of the pothole road, the landmark list gave us a detour. This was a very small winding road through individual farm country. Twisting and serpentining this way and that. Eventually we came out near the tollbooth. Now we were back on the NLEX and on our way back to Quezon City.

But we missed the fly over on Ortigas street, and therefore had to go 11 klms on down the EDSA to find a U-turn. And it was a holiday, so everyone was out on the EDSA. Eventually we made it home again, fully confident we could now make it to Minuyen next Sunday to go to Church.

We spent the rest of the day taking Elder and Sister Alexander down to the Mega Mall. They wanted to sign up for the internet in their apartment. They bought us lunch at an Italian Restaurant, and we wandered through the mall for a while. This mall (Mega Mall) is a mega-mall, two towers with five levels of stores.

When we got home, Sister Roundy decided we actually now needed to go grocery shopping so she could get the ingredients for her potluck dish she was making for the group lunch between conference sessions on Saturday and Sunday. Back out onto the streets of Manila. Home after dark.