The "not nice" price of rice--Update

One Friday morning a couple weeks ago, I needed to dash to the grocery store for just a couple items. I left the kids home doing school work and assured them I would be back within the hour. The grocery store is probably no more than a mile from our house and, depending on traffic, the drive normally takes 5-10 minutes. This Friday, traffic was terrible. I sat and sat moving inches every few minutes. After about 30 minutes I neared the stop light in front of the grocery store. I began to see groups of people walking with heavy white grocery bags. Finally it dawned on me, somewhere ahead the NFA truck was selling government rice. Thankfully I turned before I got any closer to the distribution point.


The world shortage of rice continues to effect the Philippines. The National Food Authority (NFA) is trying to help provide rice to the poor by selling "nfa rice" in depressed areas. People will line up for hours in the hot sun to buy rice from NFA trucks. The rice is selling for 18.25 pesos per kilo as opposed to 25-30 pesos in the market. Each family is allowed to buy 3 kilos per day. Just this week, Emily and I passed another distribution truck. Em took these pictures as we passed by.


Read one woman's story here:http://www.bulatlat.com/2008/04/queues-nfa-rice-keep-getting-longer

"I scream, you scream....

.....We all scream for Ice Cream"

This is a familiar site around Manila. This guy is selling ice cream from his push cart. We often see men with carts like this or on bikes with the ice cream at the front. Just like American ice cream trucks, they have a special tune that plays to let the kids know they are coming.

At the Car Wash

Almost every Saturday, we pay these girls to wash our car. They are part of Cindy's Bible Study. She has been discipling these girls since they were 12. They are now 17-18 and have taken over the leadership and teaching of a new group of girls. They meet with Cindy during the week to study the lesson and prepare for their teaching time. I have really enjoyed getting to know these young women over the last 3 years. They are a lot of fun and seem to really want to follow Christ. I took this picture back in April. One of the girls had graduated from high school that day and we were having a special merianda (snack) in celebration. The graduate is the one holding up the peace sign. She hopes to go to college and become a teacher. The 2 girls on the left graduated last year. One is in college and the other hopes to begin midwifery school soon. The girl on the right is our next door neighbor and the youngest of the bunch. She is still in high school.

Summertime!

Well- the homeschool year for the Gilmer's is officially over! We finished school last Friday, much to the kids (and mom's) delight. The long endless days of summer stretch before us. Unfortunately most of the kids' friends are heading to the states this summer so they will be a little lonely.

While summertime in the US means hot weather, we are moving into rainy season. We like the rains since it is a little cooler. We were thankful that the rains began about a month early this year. Hot season lasted only about half it's normal time. While it lasted it was HOT. There is one great benefit of hot season.....Mangos! Mangos are one of our favorite fruits and the best mangos of the year are sold during the months of April and May.
Fruit stands and vendors begin popping up in early April along the road side selling all types of fresh fruit. This year the mangos were sweet and delicious and about the cheapest they've been in our 3 years here. Allan said he wanted to eat a mango everyday since we won't be able to enjoy them while on furlough. I am not sure we ate one everyday, but we did eat quite a few kilos. Just last week the prices began to rise and we have had some tart ones. It's sad to see another mango season come to an end. We will still buy them, but just not as often. Pineapple, I am happy to report, doesn't seem to have a season. It is sweet and delicious all year long.

A pushcart selling fresh fruits and other goodies.

Mangos ran between 20-35 pesos a half kilo this year.

That is about a dollar for 5 large mangos.

Happy Memorial Day!

Today is a holiday in America and most people are enjoying the day off. Life goes on here in the PI, Faith Academy is in session and Allan is at the clinic. We did celebrate Memorial Day though. Yesterday, we went a ceremony done by the Embassy at the American Military Cemetery here in Manila. It was a nice recognition of those soldiers, both American and Filipino who fought and died for our country.

17,202 American Soldiers who died during
the war in the Pacific lie in these graves.

Honoring the dead

Remembering friends and fellow soldiers

The Memorial to more than 36,000 soldiers

who "sleep in unknown graves"

Emily and Will with the S. Carolina state seal

Remiss in Blogging

I just saw the date of my last blog and realized it has been almost a month since I last blogged. It has been a busy month with end of school activities and such. I never finished the series on jobs our patients do. I will have to get on that. While I haven't been blogging, I have been taking tons of pictures. I just downloaded 245 from my camera to the computer. I will be weeding through them over the next few days and hopefully get some uploaded soon. Meanwhile I will show you a some pictures I took just a few hours ago of Em. She is at the Faith Academy Middle School Banquet tonight. Doesn't she look beautiful? She has gotten so old this year.

Pretty in Pink!

With friends

Here she is giving Bonnie a quick pet.
I just love her smile in this one.