The Last Year of Childhood

Last Sunday we hit the end of an era. Emily turned 12! It's her last year of childhood before becoming the dreaded.....teenager. We had a really nice day as a family. After church we met our neighbors from the fall for lunch at the restaurant of Emily's choice. I would like to tell you her choice was some truly exotic restaurant that had cool, uniquly Filipino food, but alas we are a little boring and she chose to go to Chili's (are you jealous Aunt Chris?) Our meal took a while and we enjoyed talking and visiting with our friends. If you know Em, you probably won't be surprised that she really loves for the waiters to sing to her on her birthday. The waiters at Chili's out did themselves with tamborines, banging metal glasses, other noise makers and lots of loud singing. Will doesn't like it and hid under the table as soon as her heard them coming.


We returned home for a relaxing rest of the day. We watched a movie, Eragon, just hung out together, and had cake. Of course there were gifts too. I had my Mom mail out a couple things from the states. Emily has become enamoured of Nascar in the last year. Her favorite driver is Matt Kenseth who is actually related to the Nelsens. She got a Matt Kenseth hat, night shirt, and of all things a toothbrush (because it was a dollar and didn't add any more to the shipping) She has told everyone she is so excited about brushing her teeth. What does that mean she's been doing for the last 11 or so years?

Happy 12th Birthday Emily!

We Love you!

Splish Splash

If you are a frequent reader of our blog, you might remember that Faith built a new pool that a little over a year ago. The pool was designed to be a competition pool and so in January of this year, the first ever Faith Academy Swim Team began. Will and Emily both love to swim and have been like little fish since they were young, so they were quite excited to join. They can now be found after school on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays swimming laps. They both really love it. The school hoped to have 10 or so kids come out for the team. They thought they would have 2 or 3 lanes designated for swim team and the rest of the pool for community swim. The response though has been huge, more than they could have hoped for, and continues to grow. The swim team now commandeers the whole pool from 2-3:30 and there is very little room to spare--even for all of the swimmers. There are about 15 participants in the middle school alone. The elementary group is even larger.

So today the kids (and of course Allan and I) headed off across town to Brent International School for their first swim meet. They really enjoyed it. Emily likes to say, "I didn't lose a single race." That's just her optimistic way of saying she never came in last place. Having only been practicing for a couple months, even our fastest swimmers were not in the top 5 or 6 of any event. It was a good experience and I look forward to seeing how much they improve at the next meet on April 21.

We have become quite the athletic family lately with swimming and tennis. I have now joined the ranks of the hip FTP (Future Tennis Players) at Faith. I am taking tennis lessons with the 2 other moms we went with to Boracay. Soon Em and I will have to have a mother/daughter match up. I just need to practice a bit more so I'm not stomped too badly.

Below are some picture taken at the meet today against some of the other international schools and Filipino swim clubs. The pool was covered so some of the pictures are a little dark.

Go Swimming Vanguards from FASC!
(Faith Academy Swim Club)

Emily getting ready to swim the breast stroke

Em's neck n neck on the first length.

She's in the closest left lane.

Close to the finish line

Will on the blocks

Will swimming his favorite stroke: Breaststroke

Will touches the wall in the Freestyle

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles---Spring Break 2007

Last week was March Break for Faith Academy. I always refer to it as Spring Break, but that's not right since we have no Spring and the summer is beginning. During the break, we took a trip with 2 other families to the Island of Boracay, about halfway down the chain of islands of the Philippines. This blog should actually be called Planes, Trikes, Boats, and Automobiles because those are the modes of transportation we took to reach our destination. After driving to the domestic airport we had a 35 minute flight from Manila to Kalibo on the island of Panay. We then hired a van to drive us 1 1/2 hours to the Jetty port in Caticlan. This was a gorgeous drive along the rural coastline of Panay. The most common comment was--"Why do so many people move to Manila? This is beautiful!" The scenery was everything you would expect an island in the tropics to look like. After reaching Caticlan, we took a banka, which is a type of boat over to the small island of Boracay. Once there it was a short Jeepney ride to near our hotel. The roads in Boracay don't go all the way down to the beaches or the resorts. The road ends about 200-300 yards before the beach. This being the Philippines, we had porters to take care of our luggage as we walked down the path to the beach and then along the beachfront path to our hotel.

The lack of roads makes you feel like you are truly in a tropical paradise. The beach is wonderful, filled with Coconut trees that provide shade during the morning and crystal clear water. The evenings were my favorite time though. We faced west and every night about 5:30 we would all gather to watch the sunset over the ocean. Truly spectacular! It was a great week filled with swimming, snorkling, sailing, sand castles, and soccer. Our friend Matt likes to use the phrase-"only Millionaires and Missionaries get to visit exotic destinations like this." Great thing is we didn't need to be millionaires to afford to go here. If you want to see more pictures of our trip you can check them out on our web page at: http://philippinemission.com/boracay.html

Emily and Megan enjoy the cool water

Emily and Allan Snorkling

Sailing at Sunset

Cost:$12

Emily took this sunset picture!

Help

If we have veternarians among our readers, I would greatly appreciate the chance to consult with you about our dog. Email me using:
http://philippinemission.com/contactus.html

Scooterin'

Here are a few pics of the family that I took on Saturday. The kids were on their scooters in front of our house. We have a nice hill there and they enjoyed trying to make skid marks. Maggie also got into the action. She liked racing the kids up and down the street---she won!

Peace, baby

Will checks out his skid mark

Run Maggie run

"Look what I found!"Sitting in front of our house

Tennis anyone?

There are some definite advantages to living overseas. One of them is that certain things are cheaper here. Sports and music lessons fall into this category. Emily decided last fall that she wanted to learn how to play tennis. So for Christmas my parents gave her a tennis racket and some tennis lessons. We have a friend (and em's PE teacher) who knew a great coach and so in February after outdoor ed, Emily began tennis lessons. Em's friend (and our former neighbor) Megan also wanted to learn how to play. Since lessons are an hour, we were told it was good to have a buddy or it would be exhausting. Now 2 afternoons a week Emily and Megan go to the covered courts in a neighborhood near the school for lessons. We chose these courts for 2 reasons, we didn't have to wait until the tennis team at school is finished at 4, it's cooler and no sun burn!

Their coach, Jhun, is a former Philippine National Tennis Champ who won his first title at age 14. He is now about 70, but don't let his age fool you--he's active and tough. He's a great teacher and is really working with them to get their form perfect. He also is a great encourager, although Em will tell you he wants things perfect. We keep telling her that's good because she won't to have to correct things later. She loves tennis and is getting good. We are almost to the end of the grandparents lessons, but will probably continue on. Where else can you learn to play tennis for $7 an hour (and that's for 2 so we only pay $3.50)

The pictures in this blog were all taken on Tuesday of this week. The girls were learning how to serve--a much anticipated event. By the end of class Thursday, Em served 6 out of 10 balls correctly- meaning they were legal serves. She was so proud of herself! Wimbledon here we come!

A picture of the inside court

Service with a Smile

Each year America moves toward more and more self service. When we left the states I was not only bagging my own groceries, but scanning them and checking myself out too. At fast food restaurants, I fixed the drinks and ketchup for our family. As for the gas station, well I have never had my gas pumped by someone that wasn't also riding in the car. Things work a little differently here. It is like stepping back to a different era. The era of customer service, bag boys, and gas station attendants. Not just the grocery store has bag boys. Almost every store has someone to carry out your packages. We have had young men carry things from the hardware store at the mall to our car parked down the street in a parking garage. Not only is there help to carry things, but purchases have to be bagged and wrapped just right. Boxes, large items and packages, including pizza boxes, are tied with ribbons (red seems to be the most common color) for easy carrying before you leave the store. As for the gas station, I have never even touched the gas cap on our car or a gas pump here. Never even gotten out of the car at the gas station. The windows are even washed and squeegeed clean.

Yesterday when I went to the grocery store, there was a employee there to help put my groceries up on the conveyor belt. I then was expected to sit on a stool while my groceries were being rung up and bagged. This can sometimes be an awkward moment if I don't want to sit. I am never sure if it is ok just to stand. Sometimes they will keep telling me to "sit down ma'm" until I do. It is one of those cultural moments where I don't want to be offensive by standing. Do I really look that tired from grocery shopping?

Usually, after paying, a bag boy takes our groceries to the car. This service costs me a tip of about 10-20 cents. Yesterday, the store was very crowded so I told the bag boy I would take them out myself. I do this sometimes just to touch base with my past life and feel a little normal. Typical though, as I left the building, the sercurity guard guided the buggy down the inclined entry way. He then proceeded to help me to my car and unload the buggy. This, by the way, is not his job. If it is raining, the security guards carry an umbrella for those who got caught in the store with out one.

The Filipino people love to help. They are generally very friendly and patient. I am not sure that I have ever had an employee, walking in to start their shift at Walmart, ask to take my buggy for me? It just rarely happens there, but it often happens here. Even the guy who hails the trikes for those without cars, will come out to meet you and take your cart as you push it back across the parking lot.