Friday, June 4, 2010

Friday June 4, 2010 - One of the things that is so funny, well to us anyway, it’s the rights of passage among Filipino men. Their hair, facial hair the lack of. Filipino men rarely shave in fact, if they have any facial hair they are prone to let it grow, full beards may contain 150 hairs, goatees about 20 hairs. This past couple of weeks has been very humorous. There are a lot of moles on the people here and a lot of them are on their face have hair growing out of them. On the men a hair or two may grow from that mole. Unless the mole in around their eyes they just let the hair grow. A week ago one of the tour guides we had, had a mole just at his shirt collar line and about 5 hairs protruding from it. One of those hairs was approximately 8" long and the others around 5" long hanging out over his collar. At first I thought a hair from his wife was on his shoulder and just about grabbed it when he wasn't looking, to remove it, all of a sudden it dawned on me that it was coming from the mole on his neck and upon closer examining it, when he wasn't looking that is, there were more coming from that mole. I just took a step back and watched the people who could obviously see those hairs so proudly displayed on his shoulder. No reaction at all from any of them in the room waiting for their tour to begin. Since this time I have been watching the men very closely and many of them have these "wild hairs". Mom and I had another tour guide yesterday that had a wild hair on each side of his cheek. Both just below the lower part of the eye socket, each about 3" long sticking straight out. Both of us just wanted to hold him down and pull them out it was so irritating. I'm sure that with time we will accept this abnormality, just like with time we slowly incorporate Satan’s devious plans. Gone from watching Lassie to the Golden Girls over the last few years and seeming to think what's wrong with this.

At home in the winter time we have a wind chill factor combined with the temperature well here they have a “Feels Like” (heat factor) factor. The temp was 98 degrees and feels like 122 degrees. I think we are slowly acclimating to the weather. When we first arrived we would barley be 10' from the Patron Housing and we would be gasping for breath, I can't breathe it's so hot out here. Yesterday we walked to the JY Mall to do some grocery shopping, about 2.5 blocks and Shauna didn't complain until we were within 50' of the door. It went so well that we walked home also with the groceries. All she had to carry was the Umbrella, whom all of the Temple Workers call a lethal weapon in her hand, and I carried 4 bags of groceries and 6 liters of water, all the way back. OH I forgot to mention she had one sack, containing 2 donuts from Dunkin donuts. (Note from Shauna: I asked if I could carry a couple of bags and he wouldn't let me.ha;ha). The feels like factor at that time was 102 degrees.

The other afternoon we, all five temple couples, went to Marco Polo, swank hotel, for the "Buffet Lunch". It was very good but awful pricy, it cost us each P950 Paso’s (P1900 for the two of us). About $46 for the two of us. Then we went to the 30th floor. The hotel is sitting on top of a hill so when we went to the top we had a commanding view of Cebu and several of the closer islands to Cebu on this side of the island. Absolutely breath taking, especially the elevator ride, glass elevator.

I say "all 5 couples" but in fact there are now 7 couples. Two of the couples are Philippine couples and don't socialize much with us (we are laughing and having a good time and they are more dead pan-I don't think they understand us much), one of them is a Sealer. Bro & Sis Jorgensen are not here yet they will arrive on Friday, June 11. But they are in the MTC right now. When they arrive this will be 8 couples to work full time in the Temple. Pres Mortimer has told each of us he wants us to work ourselves out of a job. We will be in the Temple all day on June 13th the day it is dedicated. We all get to attend a session and we all get to help with security, meal prep, etc. for the GAs while they are here and in the Temple. We get to attend the 2nd dedication session but none of us will be in with the Prophet except the Temple Presidency.
The sun comes up approximately 5:15 but it is daylight at 4:50 as if the sun was up. The sun sets approximately 6:45 but is light until approximately 7:15. The locals say that it rarely changes, always the same. The foliage around the Temple gets more impressive every day. When we arrived there was just a bunch of dead looking sticks sticking up out of the ground everywhere. These sticks are now turning into beautiful bushes and ground covers. There are trees here that they just cut the branches off and stick them into the ground and within 3-4 weeks look like they had been there all along. We are seeing some of this on the grounds now; it just amazes me every morning when I go out walking around 5:00 AM. I noticed someone had planted a bean in with some of the plants because there were just 2 little leaves poking out of the ground on Saturday, in a different spot it looks like someone has planted a squash type of plant because of the two little round leaves poking out of the ground the same morning. 6/5, this morning the bean is about 12” high and has blossoms on it and the squash if over 4’ long, no blossoms yet. This in just one week.
Cebu is in their monsoon season but having a drought. It has rained once since we have been here but usually rains daily the locals say. Maybe it will start when the Temple is dedicated. Today is the last day of the Open House. Last night we looked out and there were at least 14 groups of 20 plus people waiting to get into the temple while a steady stream were coming out. We had over 3700 visitors on Thursday and from what last night looked like more than that then. Today being Saturday (June 5, 2010) may prove to be the busiest day of all.

2 comments:

  1. I was writing a comment and nearly finished when I hit something by accident and it disappeared! I did say that we had a ton of rain here and I am about floating away. Some farmers are complaining (the ones that didn't finish planting)and some rejoicing for the added irrigation water. Reservoirs are about 90% capacitity. I am whining again because I haven't seen the sun in weeks. Oh how I wish I could share a little of your heat.

    Adam and Tate are going on the father and son campout tonight. It has been raining all day and the wind has been relentless. They asked me to go along but that just doesn't sound like fun to me. Chasing Tate around in the rain, mud and wind all night. I guess I am getting old.

    Sounds like you are enjoying your mission. I must admit, I am a bit jealous. I can't wait until I can retire and hopefully have enough money for Bonnie and I to go. Right now that is all that is holding us back. Keep up the good work and always keep your testimony on your lips!

    I will read this to Verdean so he can sort of keep up.

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  2. So funny. Critter and I read this and fell off our chairs laughing.

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