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.

Dr. C Owen Roundy Elementary's School Song

Hello! This is Carolyn - Elder and Sister Roundy's "favorite" daughter. Dad told me I could put this in their blog.

With Dad's elementary school just being dedicated, we thought it would be fun to post the lyrics and music of the school's song. Dad wrote and composed it all.

Travis (Elder Roundy's son) and Elder Roundy at the school dedication in June.

Here are the words and there is a link at the bottom of this post to open a media file of the music. You might like to open that up in a new window so you can read the words and listen to the music all at the same time.

We’re Roundy Racers

At C. Owen Roundy School.

We’re Roundy Racers, we use the Golden Rule.

We learn our lessons ‘cause we study hard;

Always fair when we are playing in the yard.

Roundy Racers, we’ll keep our standards high.

Work will always win the racer.

We are the C. Owen Roundy School.

.....

We’re Roundy Racers

Just watch our bright banners wave.

The Roundy Racers will win with time to save.

We have fine teachers and a principal.

All the Roundy Racers are invincible.

All you Racers, come join us in our song.

We’re a happy winning team.

We are the C. Owen Roundy School

Link for music

A View from the Window

On Sunday afternoon we looked out our terrace window. The sun was shining and the air was relatively clear. It seemed like a good time to show the scenes we see everyday.

We are situated on a hill that overlooks the surrounding valley. All of this habitation is called "Metro-Manila." The actual city of Manila is probably 15 kilometers away from where we live, but the entire area is one big place, so it's called Metro-Manila. We live in Quezon City, right by the Temple (as you probably all know). When we look out our south terrance, we see part of Pasig City and Makati City, as well as some of Quezon City. We have a panoramic view from Pasig City to the left clear across to Makati on the right. These show what we see from our terrace. What you see here stretches way down to Makati.
This is the central section of our view, panning from right to left.

This is essentially the same view as above.

To the left of our view is Pasig City. In the far distance (lost in the haze) are some mountains that rise on the east side of the valley. We have a gazeebo in our back yard (you see the roof here). Actually, we rarely go there.

This is a coconut tree in our back yard. Look closely in the center of the leaves. You'll see the green coconuts. About a month ago we had a typhoon and it tried to blow the nuts off the tree, but they held on.

This is another look at Makati. Notice the building cranes in the far distance. Wherever you look there is construction going on. Some of the buildings are never completed because, as we understand it, the property is not taxed until the construction is completed. Hence ... what's the rush?


Now this is from the end of the front walkway. This is Pasig City. See the cranes on the buildings. We go down in this section of town to get our groceries. We try to avoid going downtown very much anywhere else. It's a big place, this Metro-Manila.

Below is a front yard scene. The white wall you can barely see is along the stairs we climb as we go from our apartment to the Temple grounds. It is always kept green. Some months there is a lot of rain (May, June, July). Other times the grounds are watered with sprinklers.

Here you can see the walkways in the front of the apartment building. (Our actual room is on the top floor here, a couple of doors to the right, not shown in this shot.) The apartment building is three, three-storied rectangular structures, set next to each other like dominos placed half way down the side of the other piece, sort of a stair step arrangment. We live in the center building. It is from the far end of this walkway that the picture above of Pasig City was taken.

Flying into the Morning . . .

At five in the morning Ferdie came to get us at our apartment on the Temple grounds in Quezon City to take us to the International Airport. After shuffling through lines and lines to check through the security inspections, we eventually left Manila on a 747 at 8:00 a.m. It was Thursday, May 29. This was an unusual trip. Missionaries are generally not allowed to leave their assigned work location. But we had special permission, permission granted more than a year ago before we entered the field.

We flew to Tokyo, a four hour jaunt. After a couple hours there, we boarded another big Boeing 747 flown by Northwest Airline. Flying into the morning sun, we crossed the International Date Line somewhere over the Pacific Ocean and slipped unperceptively back into Thursday, May 29 when we landed in Los Angeles. We were met in Las Vegas about 11:30 Thursday morning by Cathy and Taj Owen who were at the airport to pick us up.

The purpose of our trip was to participate in the dedication of the Dr. C. Owen Roundy Elementary School in Las Vegas, Nevada. This event had been planned a year ago before we were assigned to the Philippines. We were given permission to attend at the time of our call.

Tuesday was the day for the big event. Around 5:00 in the evening we gathered at the Dr. C. Owen Roundy School for a family tour. Mr. Knowles, the principal, escorted us around the school to see what the students and teachers had done to memorialize Dr. Roundy’s life. The school has four “pods” (and a kindergarten wing). In each of the four pods segments of his life were depicted – his childhood, his high school years, the colleges and universities, and his professional career. In this view, Dr. Roundy and his brother Nolen and Nolen's wife, Beth, are observing one of the displays.

Each student made a hand-print tile and the staff and family members made a tile (in the center section). This are permanently mounted on the wall of the interior courtyard. If you look carefully, you'll notice a diagonal pattern -- each grade had a different color. These are the students during the first year at the Dr. C. Owen Roundy Elementary School.

With Dr. Roundy are (to his right) his sister Zelda, brother Nolen, sister-in-law Beth, and Cathy, one of his favorite daughters. There were too many others to show, but on Tuesday we learned that some of Elder Roundy’s brothers were coming down from Salt Lake City, something he had not expected. Nolen and Beth came in the early afternoon and brought with them Quim and Zelda (another brother and his sister). We had a nice, but short visit with them. They said Shane, the youngest brother, was on his way. (Shane and Zelda live in New Mexico.) We had also learned that Gail’s oldest brother, Ronald, was coming up from California. And then Mary and Bob, Pete and Dee (and Wayne and Lisa), and Dorothy (from Texas). Surprise, surprise.

These are the Roundy boys: Nolen (oldest), Don (next to youngest), Shane (the youngest), Owen (most handsome, but younger than Nolen and older than Quim), and Quim (third to the youngest). Robert (age between Quim and Don) was not able to get off from work, so we had to do without him.
The student choir performed. The students and teachers sang the school song that Dr. Roundy had written for the school.

Dr. Roundy has enjoyed a long professional association with Dr. Marjorie Conner (ABD). He was pleased to have her speak at the dedication.

Federick Watson is one of the favorite principals with whom Dr. Roundy worked. He was a speaker at the dedication. This is Travis, Rick, and Dr. Roundy.

Some of the guests gathering. In this shot you can see several of the grand kids (Kenna Martin, Taylor Simmons, Drake Martin, Chase Simmons) and Dr. Aaron Waite, a son-in-law. The room was full of friends, family, colleagues. On the front row beyond are Aunt Dee and Uncle Pete. Behind him are Mary Sue and Bob Bishop and Uncle Ron. If you know whom to look for you can see behind them Uncle Nolen talking with a cousin, Glenna Anderson. Dan and Aleen McGuire. Jenifer and Wayne Horlacher are on the far left. Jenifer is telling her dad a secret . . . and he'll never tell.

Travis, Dr. Roundy, Rick Watson, and Marjorie Conner on stage. Marjorie Conner and Rick Watson, gave short tributes. The governor’s representative presented a proclamation designating June 3 as “Dr. C. Owen Roundy Day” in Nevada. The student presented Dr. Roundy with gifts: two books of student writing about why they liked the school, a yearbooks with all their pictures, a large poster with every child’s picture on it, a jacket from NASCAR (which has essentially adopted the school because of its Roundy Racer mascot, an idea, by the way, which Travis came up with). The students and teachers sang the school song (which Dr. Roundy had written for the school). Travis, representing the family, gave a nice tribute to his mom and dad.

Senator Reid had a short recorded video. The other congressmen presented flags, proclamations, pictures and other memorials.

Here are all of us Roundys: (f row) Cathy, Jenifer, Gail, Carolyn; (b row) Travis, Owen, Jill. These kids are the best in the world, so the rest of you will have to struggle along with your own lot in life; we got the cream of the crop.

Mr. Knowles, the principal, has cleverly used the Roundy Racer theme and has hooked up with NASCAR and others for a mascot theme. This model race car is on display in the library. It's about four or five feet long.

Here is another clever use of the checkered flags and the sports car tires. You can see evidence of this theme throughout the school.

The Las Vegas Speedway donated a lot of used tires. These have been displayed here and there in the school to good effect.

If you want a Roundy Racers T-shirt, here's the place (the one and only place) to get it.

All in all, it was a glorious day.

Lots of good things have happened in our lives. This was one of them.

Manila American Cemetery Memorial Day

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We enjoyed the Memorial Day weekend in Manila. The Manila American Cemetery and Memorial is located in Fort Bonifacio, a subsection of Metro Manila. There were a couple of special events held there for Memorial Day. This remembrance is produced by the Embassy of the United States and the American Association of the Philippines.

The cemetery site, 152 acres of gently rising ground contains the largest number of graves for U.S. military dead of Word War II. The grave area is divided into 11 curved plots forming concentric bands around the high ground where the memorial stands. There are more than 17,000 graves. Going out in a semicircle from the memorial building there are 25 tall rectangular piers. On these huge slabs of marble are inscribed the names of 36,282 soldiers (someone told us) who are missing and who rest in unknown graves. Seventeen thousand graves and 36,000 missing.


On Saturday, we got up early and drove down there — about 10 kilometers. We had volunteered to help place flags at the cross of each grave. There is a system worked out. One person uses a jig that measures the exact position of the flags (an American flag and a Philippines flag at each grave), and when you step on it, it punches two holes in the ground. Another person (sometimes two others) place the flag stick into the holes. Then on to the next. We didn’t count the number we did, but it was easily 300 to 400.

Sister Roundy is running the machinery. (The camera case was in the way, so she soon turned the jigging over to Elder Roundy.) Sister Alexander is going to put the flags in the holes that the jig punches.

This is Sister Roundy using the hole-punching jig, Sister Alexander (in red) and Sister Dayes are waiting to plant the flags. Sister Alexander is the medical adviser's wife and Sister Dayes is the nurse at the Missionary Training Center.

Someone earlier had placed two flags on the top of the cross, so the system was easy and efficient. Some 150 acres of flag draped crosses. As he went along punching the holes, Elder Roundy would read aloud the name of each soldier and where he was from. We saw some from all over the United States, however, in our section we did not see a grave for anyone from Nevada.

This was an enjoyable experience. Probably 12 senior missionary couples came (so this picture is not of all who were there.) And there were many others — military men, other volunteers, even a troop of Boy Scouts of America (for American boys living in the Philippines). Here you see the flags in front of the crosses.

On Sunday we returned to the Memorial where they had tents set up and enjoyed a dignified and impressive memorial service. There were a lot of people there. We saw the U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines (Kristie A. Kenny) and a number of other Filipino dignitaries. The American Marine Corps and Philippine Army made a beautiful presentation of the colors with the Philippine Army Band playing the national anthems for both countries. The reverend gave a decent opening (and closing) prayer — completely within the mores of an LDS service (although the event, as you would suspect, was entirely nondenominational). Ambassador Kenny spoke, the Philippines Secretary of Defense spoke. Wreaths of flowers were presented by various organizations. It lasted almost an hour.

This shows how the whole 36,000 graves were decorated with the two flags looked when we went back Sunday morning. Row upon row. Completely around the Memorial semicircle. (The skyscrapers in the back are downtown Makati.)

This was the prettiest girl at the whole show. One of the stake president's wife gave the pearls to Sister Roundy as a gift. She gave her a necklace and bracelet to match.

We were under a tent, so we couldn't get good pictures of the ceremony. These are the American Marines and the Philippines Army Soldiers presenting the colors.

This is the Ambassador from the United States of America, Kristie A. Kenny. The speech she gave was short and elegant. She wasn't.

Then, almost on cue, when the ceremony was over and we had walked to our car, the rain came down — heavy, hard, a deluge. Literally, we climbed in dry; shut the car door, and sha-zam, it started to rain.

We drove to an LDS chapel not too far away to attend Church services. We enjoyed the services because all was in English. The chapel was right in the middle of downtown Makati. Tall skyscrapers all around, almost like downtown Manhattan. We were told the chapel was the first Mormon chapel built in the Philippines after World War II. It was a nice one-story chapel with a typical, but not too tall steeple. And when they built it back in the 50s, they had to get a variance because of the tall steeple. We laughed about that, because on all four sides are these enormous buildings scraping the clouds.

A Big Fish in a Little Pond

Just outside our door, on our way up the stairs to the Temple parking lot we pass by a water garden. It's a pretty spot. There are plants and waterfalls and several little ponds. In the one larger pond lives this goldfish (well, mostly gold, but all fish). His name is Gary Goldfish. (Or if needs be, we can change it to Gertrude Goldfish, but who knows and how could we tell? I doubt even he knows.) He spends his whole time swimming back and forth in this meager world. He sometimes slips under the rocks, sometimes rests on the bottom, mostly leisurely gliding back and forth, hardly moving. But it's his world, it's all he knows, and he seems sufficiently content.

He has no friends. He's alone. But he doesn't know that. There are neighbors in the otherponds, small, frisky guys. Poor Gary is alone. He doesn't know about them. Probably he doesn't know about anywhere beyond his small, mossy pond. He seems to know when you approach, so sometimes he comes up and sticks his nose out of the water. Could be he's smelling, or it may be he actually can see you.

Gary's probably 15 inches long. Seems pretty big for the size of his pond. Who knows what he eats? Maybe the gardner feeds him, but there are plenty of insects and worms around, and it doesn't look like he's missed too many lunches.

Wonder how old Gary is. How long has he been there? What does he think about? Everybody likes him, but he has no concept of affection, I suppose. Jesus loves him.

Multi-Stake Youth Conferences -- Everywhere

The schools in the Philippines let out for summer in April and May. During the summer breaks the stakes and districts hold youth conferences. Usually two or three stakes or districts combine. (A district is essentially the equivalent of a stake but is in a mission. There are six or ten of them in in one mission and are overseen by the mission president.) The conferences are typically three days (two sleeps), and on the last day they hold a devotional. Speakers are assigned by the Area Presidency to go to each of these devotionals. This year there were 78 youth conferences planned, so they ran out of speakers and had to dip deep into the well. That's why Elder and Sister Roundy were assigned to speak at three of these conferences.

The first one was on April 3 near a city called Sariaya, Quezon. We left on Thursday morning early and were taken by our driver a couple of hours south of Manila. This location was a beach resort, the Dalampasigan Resort (although we never actually saw the beach). We arrived, listened to a dozen or so youth bear their testimonies (all in Tagalog), gave our speeches, and then were driven back to Manila. It took about four hours to come home because of the late-in-the-day traffic through Manila. We didn’t even have time (nor, most likely, the sense) to take any pictures of this event.

The second conference (April 11 and 12) we went to was on an island—Samar in the Eastern Visayas, at Calbayog. Two districts had joined. This was an interesting trip. We caught a plane out of Manila at about 7:00 a.m. (and it was only an hour late). Because there was no morning flight to Calbayog, we went to Catarman on the north side of the island. The district president, President Palmaso, met us there (after waiting for us at the little airport the extra hour) and had a driver shuttle us across the island from Catarman to Calbayog. A long drive in a Ford SUV -- 1980 model. The map looked like it would be just more or less a straight course across the top corner of the island, but it turned out to be a windy, hilly road. We got there about 11:00. We stayed at the “best” hotel in town, I’s Plant (actually a converted ice plant). We thought we were the only guests that day.

This was the view from our hotel window out onto the street. There is always some sort of construction going on, and they only do a small job at a time, just what they can get done that day. Then perhaps they'll be hired back for another day. We walked down this street and went downtown. Sister Roundy wanted to do some shopping and needed to buy some tape to fix up her visual aide for her talk.

We crossed a bridge over a river that flowed into the ocean. There was a lot going on there. The bridge was being fixed (one day at a time). There were a number of ferry boats (as you see here) which people would us to come and go from island to island. It actually was a busy street for being in a "quiet, cozy" town.

These were some fisherman (we thought) on the river on the other side of the bridge.

The hotel we stayed in was a remodeled ice plant. Sister Roundy looked out one of the back doors on the ground floor and this is what she discovered.

We watch these older boys teaching several young guys how to play table tennis. They worked with them for an hour or so, but then when the youngsters left, the big boys really went at it, smacking that little ball back and forth. The guy in black was a pretty fancy player. They played for an hour or so. We sat and watched some of it, and then when we came back down the stairs, they were still at it.

In the evening President Palmaso had his son pick us up and take us to the venue (a word they frequently use). We rode in/on a tricycle. This was a motor bike with a side car with a cabin-like cart attached to that in the back. We sat facing one another. We ate with them there (cautiously) and attended their talent show. Each branch had been assigned to present a talent. It turned out that almost all of the acts were dancing groups. The first few were okay (loud but tolerable). The last 45 or 50 were not. Some were cultural, most were mimics of what’s shown on TV. And one by one each group did their thing. We were in that show from 7:30 to 10:30. They all seemed to enjoy the whole thing. At the end President Palmaso played his guitar and sang a song (mostly because someone told us he was a good singer and we unwittingly mentioned that to him, so he “accommodated” us).


This is not the same tricycle that we rode in, but it is one pretty much like it. Ours was not so ritzy lookin'.

Then we rode home in the dark in his son’s tricycle, Literally with no lights. No street lights, no moonlight, no headlights, no lights except President Palmaso’s flashlight, which he turned on once in a while, perhaps three times the whole way back. We made it, how we do not know, but we did. But when we got to our room, the lights did not work because they were having a “brown out.” Barely a single dim light in our hotel room. Life is full of experiences, and this was one of them. We never did learn how to run the shower properly. Just got the entire bathroom wet—no shower curtain.

The "venue" for the conference was a college (a technical school of some sort). There was a big assembly hall with a stage and lots of rooms for the kids to sleep in. This shows the grounds where they had a lot of their outdoor activities.

The next day we were picked up by the shuttle driver and we went back to the conference. We skipped the breakfast of rice and fish. They had a testimony meeting for the youth (which lasted an hour and a half). With the previous night’s show and the long testimony meeting, Elder Roundy said he didn’t know when he'd listened so long to so much that he did not understand. After we gave our talks, we were driven to the airport several kilometers out of town. We waited there at the tiny Calbayog Airport until the plane came from Manila. After three hours it showed up and back we flew, picked up at the curb by an assigned driver from the PAO and home again by about 7:00 p.m.

We watched the kids go through the dishwashing line (but we didn't take a picture of them). These sisters demonstrated for us the routine. Each kid had to do their own. First he'd scrap the dish off in the red bucket. Then he'd wash (more like dip) it in the blue bucket and again in the black pan. Then he'd take to to the brown tub to rinse it. Probably the first 20 got a sufficient wash, but who would want to be number 99?

This big banner was on the back wall of the stage. We spent quite a while in the morning before the meetings talking to the kids. They liked to speak in English, and most of them could. They understand English fairly well. One boy, small, dressed in his white shirt, walked up to Elder Roundy and without a word handed him his necktie and the just stood there. So Elder Roundy wrapped it around his neck and tied it up nicely for him. The boy patted it a couple of times and walked away.

This is the district president, President Palmaso (pal-MAW-so). He is a school teacher (music) and was pleased to learn Elder Roundy had a career in education.