What ... Another Holiday?

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We sometimes can’t get our work done because of all the holidays. Monday, August 25, was declared a city holiday by her excellency, the major of Quezon City. Because the PAO (our office) is in Quezon City, all the Filipino employees were entitled to the day off. The office was closed, The air conditioner was turned off. What should we do?

And another thing ... in Metro-Manila, there is a “color code” for cars. It is nothing to do with color, but that's what it's called. This is how it works: on Monday, cars with license plates that end in 0 or 1 cannot be on the streets; on Tuesday, those with 2 or 3; Wednesday 4 or 5, etc. through Friday. Our car ends in the number 171. Humph! Can’t go anywhere. But ... we knew this was coming and we made plans.

Some senior missionaries, four couples, and President and Sister Edwards took off on an adventure. We heard of the Pagsanjan (pahg-SAN-on) Falls. We headed there; off at 6:30. This place is about 60 miles south east of Quezon City. Took two hours to drive there. Two vans. (The top yellow punch pin on the map shows where we live; the one in the lower right shows where we went. Click on the map to make it larger.)

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Can you believe it? Sister Roundy persuaded Elder Roundy (who is nearly 70 years old and can’t swim a stroke) to climb into one of these long, narrow canoes. He felt pretty safe, though, with his helmet on. (He didn't know that helmet had some sort of radio active brain penetrating diode in it that dulled his senses. Notice Sister Roundy is not wearing hers.) (The resort photographer took these next two pictures and then sold them to us when we returned down the river.)
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Each canoe had two boatmen ... one in front and one in back. This is Ronald (we think). Donald was in the front. (Ronald said they were twins. They may have been, but it was obvisous they were not twins to one another.)

When everyone was load up, they linked us together in a long chain with a motor boat on the front hauling us upriver.
The river is wide and slow. Eventually the motor boats unhooked, and Ron and Don took over.

And the river took over, too. They told us there were 16 rapids on the river that we would have to cross.

The boat men had to get out and drag us over the rocks. (This isn't us, however.)

The Pagsanjan Gorge is long and deep.

Along the way there were lots of hanging vines. We could hear jungle sounds — birds and monkeys.

There were a lot of water falls tumbling down the sides of the canyon.

Some were short and loud. Others were long and lacy.

It took those two stripling Filipinos about an hour to take us up the river. Some of the time they could paddle along, but much of it was hard work, dodging rocks and dragging fat Americans over the rapids. Eventually we could see the Pagsanjan Falls up ahead. Notice how high the sides of the canyon are.

When we got closer it was loud. It had rained the night before, so there was a lot of water rushing through the rocks.

Part of the fun ... well, fun is not the right word ... say, part of the full experience when you arrived at the falls was then to exchange the canoe for a raft. This was one of the raft men.

So we climbed onto the raft and a couple of men pulled the raft hand over hand away from the comfort and certain safety of the slippery, jagged, moss-covered, wet, and slimy rocks into the chasm of the roaring waves.

Right across the river we went, directly to the falls.

There was no turning back. Elder Roundy said he was glad he had just recently renewed his life insurance so his family would have something to remember him by.

Under. Heavy water pounding on your head. A fierce updraft of wind blowing the water all around you.

Behind the falls, looking back. Loud, ringing, roaring din. But we're still alive. There's hope! But wait... Now we had to go right back through the dang thing to get out of there. We were wet from tip to toe, drenched.

Going back down the river was half of the journey, but was way less than half the experience. The boatmen easily paddled through the calms waters and expertly guided us across the rocks and rapids, gliding across the flowing river.

Luckily, our forward-looking plans had included some dry clothes to change into. This was way too much fun!

[We have to acknowledge that we did not take all these pictures. Some we borrowed from others, and some we found elsewhere.]

A Week Filled with Good ...

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August 15 through 20 was a week of goodness. Good things happened. Mostly it was because Elder David A. Bednar of the Council of Twelve Apostles came to visit the Philippines. He was accompanied by his wife.

They came first to Cebu, where the new temple is being built. He presided at a stake conference there on Saturday and Sunday. Sunday evening he flew to Manila. And that’s where the whirlwind of good things began.

Sunday evening was a leadership meeting for the Church leaders in Manila and nearby. On Monday was a meeting with members from three stakes. (We really wanted to have all the members in Metro-Manila come, but we couldn't find a meeting place large enough.) Monday afternoon he held a meeting with missionaries from two missions, Manila and Angeles. (One of his friends from BYU-Idaho is the president of the Angeles Mission.)

Monday early evening there was a meeting at the Manila Temple for all temple workers. This was followed by a dinner at the Edwards’ apartment. Because Elder and Sister Edwards were accompanying Elder and Sister Bednar at the temple, Sister Roundy and Sister Millett (wife of the Philippines Area Director of Temporal Affairs) and their lazy husbands went to the Edwards’ apartment to prepare the dinner. Sister Edwards had it all planned out and laid out. The women cooked the food that she had ready. Sister Roundy had prepared and brought a salad (one requested by Sister Edwards). Sister Millet brought vegetables. Sister Teh was bringing the deserts. About 6:30, the Edwards and Bednars came. So did the Kos. They brought their daughter. The Tehs brought their four children. So we had a large group at the table. Elder Roundy had been instructed to carefully study the etiquette for serving food (serve with the right hand over the diner’s right shoulder; remove from the left). It was a splendid, easy, and special dinner.

..

Elder and Sister Bednar are easy to talk to, chatty and friendly. They told us some of the experiences they had as they traveled across the world. One particularly interesting report was about Slovakia. Elder Bednar’s grandparents came from there, and they met some of their relatives. He told us considerable and special information about this country, but he carefully asked us not to email it out (because, he said, most people who read it would think it should be spread out to their friends and family, and overnight it would be altogether a different version of the truth). So ... ask us when we come home.

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The Group. Back row left: Elder Teh, Elder Ko, Elder Edwards, Elder Bednar, Brother Millett, Elder Roundy, Adam Teh. Second row left: Sister Kim (Ko), Sister Edwards, Sister Bednar, Sister Millett, Sister Roundy. Front row left: Hy Wong Ko, Colisa Teh, Alysium Teh, Sister Teh.

On Tuesday we held another missionary meeting with the missionaries in the Quezon City Mission (where we are assigned). Elder Ko and Sister Kim (husband and wife) took them on a tour of some historical places in Manila. Then a meeting at the Missionary Training Center where all the new missionaries were being taught.

On Wednesday there was a meeting with all the employees at the Philippines Area Office. The Bednars then came up to our office and wished us all good-bye. Off they went to Korea.

What’s next? Wait until November ..., just you wait.

You Probably Won't Believe It ... But You Should ...

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We know you probably think we should be attending to more important duties, and we probably should, but ... We do spend a good deal of time at the office each day (often 9 or 10 hours). So sometimes we take a break and enjoy our friends here. The senior couples (we call ourselves the "Expatriates") frequently get together on Family Home Evening events, firesides, to watch the 24th of July Tab Choir show, and other fun things. Well ...

On Friday, August 1, Sister Roundy dragged Elder Roundy off to a stage show with the Expatriates. He was kickin' and screamin' all the way, moanin' and groanin'. First we stopped at an "American" steakhouse and had a swell dinner (she salmon, he prime rib -- he liked that). The restaurant is in the Asian Mall (said to be the world's largest) and near the Philippines Cultural Center (see below). After getting lost in the world's largest mall and ending up in the "north" parking lot rather than the "south," we finally caught up with our friends and rode in a van with them down to the Manila ocean front to the Philippines Cultural Center.

This place is a huge complex of theaters and pavilions. (We've been there a several times -- to an opera, to a symphony concert, to The Osmonds.) On Friday we went to a stage production of "Cinderella." We had balcony seats, which we decided suited us just fine because we could sort of look down on the whole stage and see perfectly.

The show was stunning! The staging was superb. The scenery was magnificent! The orchestra was ... slightly out of tune. The sound system was brilliant. The singing was fantastic.

The Fairy Godmother appeared out of a puff of smoke. The little rats (about the size of a pup) pranced and danced, and even sang a couple of songs.

The Ugly Stepsisters and the Wicked Stepmother stole the show. The costumes were topnotch.

The technical scenery was famous. Right before your eyes a pumpkin became this ornate gold coach. No lie ... a pumpkin morphed into a gold coach and Cinderella was driven to the ball by her pet mice (who became prancing steeds) with the rats as the coachman and driver.

The prince fell in love and they all lived happy ever after.

Then we drove home up the EDSA (a virtual parking lot), humming and singing all the way.

This production was excellent. We've seen a couple of Broadway shows and this was ever bit as well done. Elder Roundy is still moanin' and grumblin', but now it's about wondering when the next show will be in town.