One Week in October . . .

This last week was an especially busy week for Elder Roundy. First of all, this was the first week the Area Presidents were back from General Conference and full of ideas and answers to many questions they have had. One question was the pending event for the Philippines – the groundbreaking for the Cebu Temple (November 14th – more about that in another chapter).

The Presidents don’t come to the office on Monday because they usually are occupied each weekend at a stake conference or on a mission tour or something that keeps them busy through Saturday and Sunday. So Tuesday was a get-ready day for Wednesday which was when they held the first Area Presidency meeting since mid-September. And it was a long one (as most of them are. We go into a room and stay there from about 9:00 to 5:00. Sometimes they stop and go home for lunch, sometimes not. This week they did, but Elder Roundy went straight to his computer to catch up on the material they asked for or to prepare a letter or a report.

Because a Area Council was scheduled for Thursday the next day, we planned that. The Area Council is when all the Area Seventies come to meet with the three General Authorities (Area Presidents). There are seven Area Seventies in the Philippines. Because the presidency had not been together for nearly a month, we had to plan and prepare on Wednesday for the Area Council meeting on Thursday. This system ended up having Elder Roundy staying at the office putting things together (agenda, handouts, etc.) until nearly 8:00 pm. He emailed copies of all this to the Area Presidents for them to read on their Blackberries, and they in turn sent changes and additions back.

So Thursday morning bright and early the office lights were on and Elder Roundy finished up the preparations for the 8:00 am Area Council. It was a well designed meeting even if it ended at 4:30 in the afternoon. Those are powerful leaders – three General Authorities (Seventies) and seven Area Seventies. Lots of things happening in the Philippines.

On Friday, all the things talked about, planned, decided, and considered had to be finalized. So Elder Roundy spent the day doing that. He never did get the minutes for the two meetings typed up in the computer, so Monday will be the day for that.

Saturday the Roundys went shopping, as if we had never done that before, but we spent nearly the whole day doing it. We first started out to find some sort of special lotion (Clinque) that Sister Roundy uses, but after three trips back and forth, we still didn’t find it. That’s because neither one of us knew where she remembered (?) seeing the shop. Was it at the HyperMart, or the Eastland Mall, or at the ShopWise? She’s still needing to find it, but we did get a little computer desk. Our friends (the Fullers) left a printer for us (color, no less), and the laptop we have, so we needed a place to set it all up. Now we have a cute little tri-level computer desk and it only cost 1995.00 pesos ($42.87), but, don’t complain; the computer chair was free. So now we don’t have to hold the laptop on our lap or have it on a table where your knees won’t go under.

Sunday we were off to our assigned branch, Minuyen. We took the route we had explored last week and arrive just in time. (We took the new doctor and his wife with us because they have not yet figured out how to get to their assigned branch.) On the return trip right after the toll booth, somehow God (some more devious being) had move the world so instead of turning south back to Manila, we ended up going north to San Simeon. The compass clearly said we were going north, but Elder Roundy knew the compass must be stuck because he could easily tell we were going south because the sun was setting on the right (which he figured was West. He kept flicking the compass with his finger to make it work. But in his geographical analysis he didn’t calculate the fact the clouds could be hiding the setting sun sinking in the West (?) and he only considered the bright lights on the left (his East) were just a break in the clouds. So after it got dark and none of the landmarks showed up, and some 50 kilometers down the road, he decided (almost by himself, with almost no helpful persuasion) that he should stop and ask for direction. We were on the North Luzon Expressway, so you couldn’t just pull over and ask someone. You had to go and go until there was an exit. Well, those guys there said Manila was the other direction. (Huh? What do they know?) The compass was not fibbing. The darned thing was telling the truth. We were going north.

We learned how to find an overpass (1 more klm down the freeway). We paid another 72 pesos to cross the bridge to get back on the south-bound expressway and happily headed for Manila. When we got back to nearly the place were we made the wrong turn, we had to pay another 110 pesos toll to stay on the NLEX. The gate attendant kindly encouraged us to continue because we were sure to find Manila down there somewhere. Eventually we found another toll both for the South-bound travelers. The pretty girl there took our 110 pesos and said we were on the right road home.

Have we ever mentioned the EDSA? It is the busiest thoroughfare in Manila. We had to get on it and look for the Ortigas exit. We didn’t find it. No left turns off the EDSA. You gotta go until you find a U-turn slot. The rain decided to help out, so there we were, headed into Manila on the EDSA, bright lights glowing from every direction, buses honking and blocking lanes, rain pounding on the windshield, and us sweet young Mormon Missionaries looking for the U-turn slot to go home. Being an orphan isn’t fun.

We got home at 7:30. We probably could have been home and finished watching a good TV program in all the time we were lost.

Elder Roundy solemnly promises not to complain about the traffic in the Philippines. If he ever mentions it again, keep track and he’ll pay you a bright, new centimo (about 1 half penny) for each instance you find.

Thanks for caring.

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.

The Manila Hotel . . .

On Friday evening, a bunch of senior missionaries (that means couples) got together for a social. We do that two or three times a month, mostly to have something to do with others who speak our language well and who have the same desires and longings and who all want to talk about their cute grandkids. This time we went to the Manila Hotel. But on the way we stopped at a university (there's a number of them) to see a dance program. It was interesting, but short . . . that was the good part.

The Manila Hotel is where General MacArthur spent much of his time after WWII when he returned to the Philippines. It's ostentatious – almost gaudy, 1940s genre. The menu is in French, served as formal courses -- first the soup, then the salad, then a pallet cleaner (sorbet). Then comes the main dish, followed by desert, with a plate of chocolates, milk and dark. We didn’t all order each course, so those who didn’t order a particular course had to wait while those who did got theirs and finished it, one course at a time. We ordered a sort of mushroom salad and Sister Roundy took the salmon and Elder Roundy dined on a veal fillet with small round potatos with shredded carrots (as fine as thread). The waiters unfold your napkin and put it on your lap. They take up all the silverware between each course and bring a new setting for the next. Each sip of water is momentarily replaced.

Six musicians were playing in the background (violins, guitar, piano, bass violin). Golden Oldies. Dad had to laugh at one violinist. He didn’t put the violin under his chin the right way and held the bow like it was a whip. But the music was tolerable; not always in tune. After a short break, the musicians came down by the tables and took requests. (Well, the piano player stayed on the stage.) They seemed to be able to play whatever was requested. They did a half dozen or so tunes. They didn’t come up by our end of the table, so we didn’t request a tune. We were going to see if they knew “When the Saints Come Marching In” or “If You Knew Susie.”

We use the valet parking, for 100 pesos. So all in all, it was an eloquent evening. But . . .

Elder Roundy had to drive there, taking with him the AMA (Area Medical Advisor – the new doctor) and his wife (both who had been in the Philippines for only four days). Elder Roundy had never been there before, and the place is clear across town – probably 20 miles. And the route went down EDSA. EDSA is the name of the major cross-town freeway. And it is always a mess. The traffic and driving are simply indescribable. Nothing you can say will actually give the full story. There is nothing like it in the USA. Can you imagine downtown Manhattan with no stop lights, no left turns, lanes that end without warning, six lanes of cars crowed in the three marked lanes, intersections that go hither and thither? Horns, buses, taxis, motorbikes, Jeepnies, pedestrians. And the driving rules you learned in America to pass your driver’s license tend to interfere. Most people use their own rules, made up on the spot.

All of this traffic plus it was raining, so the windows fogged up, and the mirrors were wet and hard to see with. Going down was bad for the first hour or so, but then it got dark. Coming home was a catastrophe. Never been there, don’t know which way’s which. Rain. Passengers in the back seat recent arrivals from San Diego squealing and gasping at the slightest traffic hitch. Too dark to read the map. Thinking left when you know it's supposed to be turn right.

And you realize you’re still an orphan; Mom can’t help. “Miles to go before I sleep.” Eventually we made it home, around 11:00 pm.

Will one ever get some sleep?

All is Well . . .

At least as far as we know.

We’re not including pictures with this update. That’s simply because the updater has not yet mastered how to make them go where they should be on the blog page, and the updater doesn’t have time to sit and tinker. Eventually . . .

Things go at a quick clip around here most of the time, but then comes conference time. All three of the General Authorities are in Salt Lake City to attend the conference. They left last week, have stayed all this week, and then will return next week, mid-week. It gives a chance for some of the fast-paced tasks to be finally completed. We think they’ll have lots of things to do, however, when they return, so the hiatus will be short-lived.

There are a couple of things on the horizon . . . In mid-November Elder Dallin Oaks and Elder Quentin Cook will be in the Philippines for a mission presidents’ seminar. We have been told these are considered big events, so we have been busily planning their stay. This means arranging for plane flights, hotels, meeting rooms, entertainment, etc. Of course, the Executive Secretary does not have to do all this running around, but he is responsible to see that those who should be running around are. Actually, they are all dependable and capable and usually have things done before needing to be asked. There will later, we expect, be an announcement from Church headquarters about another event in the Philippines, but that for now is on the back burner, so don’t ask. All in due time.

We attended our last Sunday at our provincial branch, Tanay. Our assignment is changed every six months, but because we came in the middle of the term, so to speak, we only had three months. After conference, we will go to another branch up north – Manuyen. Don’t ask about it yet, because we’ve never been there. We’re going to ride up this Sunday with Elder and Sister Dixon, who are assigned there now, so we’ll learn the route. Actually, we aren’t riding with them, but we will follow them. We are taking with us the new medical advisor who replaced Elder and Sister Fuller. They will be assigned somewhere up there also, but, as we understand it, they will attend in the morning schedule and we will go in the afternoon. They’re new, just this week, so they still have to get adjusted to the unstructured bewilderment we lived in every day for three or four weeks. We’re just now beginning to think we have our wits about us. Really . . . you can’t understand it until you come look at it. The working environment is fine, super, but the outer world is a mass of confusion.

We’re taking Elder and Sister Alexander (the new medical couple) to the Mega Mall on our Saturday. That will be an experience. The mall is a big, two-tower building in downtown Quezon City. It’s an adventure and a half to get there and twice as much fun to come home again because you have to use a different route coming and going. We’ve done it a couple of times, so we think we can. What will really be the test is that on Friday night (tonight for us) we are taking them to the University to see a dance performance and then to a classy hotel (The Manila Hotel) for dinner. The “ex-patriots” (USA senior missionaries) are going to have another social. We’ve never been there, so we may end up lost and never be heard from again. Stay tuned . . .

Sister Roundy has gone to the municipal bazaar a couple of times. She enjoys that. All the sisters (couple missionary sisters that is) go in a van to shop at the bazaar. They hire a driver. She has picked up a few things that sparkle up the apartment – pictures, kitchen items, etc. She says there are nice things there and she intends to invest in some things later on to ship home. Oh my!

This is an interesting missionary experience. We aren’t really proselyting. We rarely encounter people to discuss the Church or the Gospel. We do, however, wear our missionary badges whenever we leave the apartment and we dress in our missionary uniforms (white shirt and dark pants, blouse and skirt).

Diligent effort will be given to work out the picture posting so you can see a little more of the world we live in, but for now . . . so long. All is well . . .

Sunday, September 23

This what we see when we step out our front door. Our apartment is on the side of the hill on which the temple is built. We climb up some stairs to reach the temple grounds.
There are four or five sets of steps, each with six or seven steps. This shows the white corridor we walk in when we leave our apartment. The fence is at the edge of the temple grounds. The corridor splits into two sections, one going right and one going left (as you descend). It depends on which building you're going to. We can take either one because we are in the middle building.

This picture shows the terraced hillside between our apartment and the temple grounds. The whole yard is full of this sort of greenery -- palm trees, flowering trees, bushes, flowers. There is a trickling water fall with a fish pond at the bottom. In it are several big goldfish. (I tried to get a picture of that, but you can't see what it really looks like. Besides, it started to rain.)

At one end of the front entrance, we can see some of the buildings in down-town Manila. Manila is just one part of the scene. We live in Quezon (KAY-zone) City. Then there is Merekita, Pasig, San Juan, and a bunch more. All this is just referred to as "Metro-Manila."




The Fullers came to dinner on Sunday. They are the missionary couple who returned the furniture. Elder and Sister Fuller are sophisticated couple, but they decided to dramatize this shot. See the soft leather sofa. They just had to sit on it one more time.

This is Gail's nursery class. Our camera batteries went dead when we got this shot, so we didn't get to do any others.

New Furniture

We got new furniture for our apartment living room. Well, actually it wasn't new-new. It was what the Berrys (whom we replaced) bought. When they went home early, a couple of months before we got here, the neighbor senior couple decided to use the furniture rather than just have it gathering dust in our apartment. When we arrived, the Fullers told us they would give the stuff back when they were released.

We'll, they're leaving on 1 October, but yesterday (Friday, September 21) was the only day we had time to move it. So we did. The Fullers will have to suffer on that old wicker furniture they had before they "stole" ours. But just for 10 days or so.

We now have a leather, yes, real leather, black, double-seat recliner. It fits just right for watching TV. We got the DVD player back and a nice rectangular table. (We had a VHS that didn't work and a round table with eight legs so you couldn't pull your chair under it.)

The Fullers also gave us a color printer and a bunch of paper, etc. So now we're almost as happy as a little lamb with two mothers. They have given us lots of odds and ends. The last day they're here, they said they would set up a free for the taking grocery store. I think we'll see what we want to get. Gail's hoping they will want to "sell" their waffle iron.

Living high . . .

Ancient History

We've sent a few emails and pictures before we discovered how to make a blog. So we don't think we'll try to start over with our history. Perhaps as time goes by we'll post here some of the things we've said before, but for now we'll start from where we are . . . Sunday, September 16th . . .

On Sunday (September 16) we drove out to the Tanay Branch. We are not actually assigned to do missionary work. Our job is almost entirely office work. But on Sundays we are assigned to attend a branch in the Quezon City Mission (in which mission we live). The idea is to give encouragement, suggestions, insights, etc. to the leaders there. We've been going to Tanay for nearly two months now, but today was the first day we brought along our camera. Here are a few of the things we saw.

Much of the landscape is green a cultivated. But in the towns the houses are right on the road. Children playing on the shoulders of the roads. Many houses are just shacks. Not all, but a lot of them












Gail took these pictures from the car as we were "speeding" along. Next week we'll take our camera again and get some more shots of Philippines the Beautiful.

We left the MTC on July 20, 2007

This is our last day at the MTC. We flew out on Friday evening and arrived in Manila on Sunday mid-day. Saturday was lost at the International Date Line. We think someday we'll get it back . . . probably in a couple of years. We went by way of Los Angeles to Taipei, Taiwan. That's a lot of ocean between what's above Elder Roundy's head and what to the left of and above Sister Roundy's head.

This is a first . . .

We've never blogged before, so this is our initial effort. So if things look screwy, just attribute it to the foibles that are so prevalent in almost everyone. We'll keep trying . . .