Monday, April 7th: It’s a holiday here, so Katherine and Ian are both home. Originally, the holiday was supposed to be on the Wednesday, but last week the government decided to move it to Monday. I guess such things are easy enough to do here.
We gave the driver the full day off today, and he went home after bringing us home from church yesterday. It’s odd, not quite knowing what his real hours are, or even his days. I imagine that when we hire someone as a personal driver (this one came with the rental car, how terrible does that sound) we’ll have a better idea. As far as I can see on the rental agreement, he is ours to use every day up to 10 hours a day. But this guy has a family of with 6 kids, all small and 2 of them born Christmas Eve, a year apart. From what I’ve gathered from other Embassy personnel, it’s not uncommon to have drivers work 10 hour days, 6 days a week. Goodness, I think we’ll try to be a bit more humane than that, seeing as they only earn about $150/month.
Last night, Jonathon woke up sometime in the darkness and when Ian got him, said he was trying to open the bathroom door. I figured that he was trying to get out the wrong door, but this morning when I looked over (yes, he slept with us the rest of the night) he had somehow taken his diaper off in the middle of the night. Everything is still dry, but I suppose I should put another on him. Do you suppose he was actually trying to get to the bathroom?
Jonathon has become very huggy lately. He’ll willingly sit on Katherine’s lap and give Rebecca big hugs and when daddy comes into the room he gets a big “Daddy!” and a running knee hug. Just this morning when Katherine woke up he said “Abaf!” and gave her a big welcome hug. What a sweet boy. And while he still nurses several times a day he can be distracted if need be. Even this morning when he woke way too early I knew that if he started nursing that was the end of sleep for me. So while he wasn’t pleased that I said no, he did fall asleep a few minutes later, until 6 a.m. Nicholas’ speech has come a long long way in the past 2 weeks. Last night, he was even understood by other people who’d just met him. That’s a BIG step. Katherine is having some issues, probably extending from the stress of starting a new school and the effort of trying to make new friends. At the beginning of first grade at King she would behave well at school, but be a little bad attitude at home, and that’s what we’re dealing with again. It’ll pass. Rebecca is just thrilled that she has been making friends at the playground.
Wednesday, April 9th: Bits and pieces.
OK, so I tried to make the house a little more homey today. We spent some time changing sheets so there’s a little more color to the kids’ rooms other than the institutional white of the sheets and covers. I think it made a difference. I also finally put away all the clothes that were piling up all clean and folded in the crib.
It’s always a bit breezy outside. You definitely notice when the breeze quits, but when it’s there even the 92 degrees at 9:30 this morning is bearable. Yesterday it was breezy and overcast and we took a walk around some of the neighborhood because it was so nice. Rebecca collected some flowers that had fallen off various trees. They now grace our table as a floating flower bouquet.
You know, I’m getting real tired of people trying to hawk their help onto our shoulders. When I’m ready, I’ll hire a housekeeper. I know they’re only trying to help, but really it seems like they’re done with these people so they’re trying to push them on us. Enough all ready. I don’t want a yaya and I don’t want a live-in and I don’t want to be pushed into hiring anyone.
Sometimes, the kids remind me of why I have them. Besides Jonathon’s new penchant for running up to people, arms outstretched, when they get home to give them a whomping big hug, this evening he did that to his brother as they passed one another, and Nicholas didn’t push him away. The two of them just gave each other a big hug, danced around for a minute, then went their own ways. I’m happy I was there to witness it.
Katherine seems to have made up with a schoolmate. From day one she has said that one little girl was giving her problems. But today they apologized to each other (I asked why Katherine was apologizing and she said she couldn’t remember. Of course I asked if she couldn’t remember or she didn’t want to tell us. Never did get a real answer.) and apparently decided to start over. We’ll see how well it goes.
Nicholas is even more attached to his blanket than ever. For the first time he has expressed himself in terms of emotions. When we were being dropped off for Shoppers Day, we insisted he leave the blanket in the car and he told us quite clearly that he was not happy. As we were leaving the center, he knew what was coming and said “Now Dihdis ‘appy! Abap ‘ar!” Yes, you still need a full-time translator.
Our washer and dryer are outside the back door and thankfully there’s an overhang for when the rains come. Right now, I’m having a great time hanging clothes to dry on the lines and finally have plenty of clothespins. The biggest problem I’m having is with all the leaves that blow into the washing machine even with the lid closed. And the dust and dirt that settle on top of the dryer make it a poor place to pile either wet or clean clothes. I think I need a couple more laundry baskets.
Oh yeah, I think I’ve found our doorbell. Perhaps it’s the pile of metal and wires on the counter in the “dirty” (aka second) kitchen. Hmm.
Friday, April 11, 2003
April 5th - April 6th: Weekend #2, Shopping galore
Saturday: April 5th: Shoppers Day at the World Trade Center. See how it all gives the impression of being Americanized? It’s a twice yearly affair put on by the Embassy Council of something or another.
A big warehouse type room filled with vendors of local crafts, children’s clothes, jewelry, food stuffs (including an entire spitted calf, yes, head and all), raffle stage and an entire row of handmade quilts. While we did our duty of buying a booklet of raffle tickets, I also picked up a small wooden tray of local wood inlayed with mother of pearl while Ian bought a marble chess set. The kids were able to use some molding material to make bugs and other objects that were then fired and turned into erasers. They thought that was pretty cool. Honestly, we’ll have a much better idea of what we’d like for our home and what we’d like in general from the local crafts in November when the next Shoppers Day occurs. Until then, we spent our time looking and making notes.
Afterwards we went to yet another mall, called Greenhills. What a change from Powerplant. It’s a local mall, huge with many different wings, and packed to the gills with items and people alike. It’s indoors without the nicety of air conditioning and we ended up in the software/hardware section where Ian swears 90% of the inventory was pirated. Every 3rd person was asking Ian if he wanted to buy some DVDs, and in general the place made us hot, uncomfortable and exhausted. We attempted to get a post-paid phone for me but decided it was too much of a hassle, so attempted a prepaid but the folks were so disorganized we just left. Maybe tomorrow we’ll have better luck. But on the way home we decided maybe PriceSmart had a phone section so we swung by. No luck, but we did restock our fruit bins. By the end of it all, both Ian and I had headaches and decided it was a combination of too many things to count.
A short while later, Wendy Trott came down the street bearing goodies. Apparently, of the 15 raffle tickets we’d bought, 3 of them were winners. The package of ladies clothes was interesting as it was no where near my size, but it also came with a very lovely hand fan. Something I’d been looking at during Shoppers Day, but decided it wasn’t worth the hassle keeping away from the kids. Another package had a dinner for 2 at a local restaurant, a free game of pool, and a lovely necklace. And the third package was a set of Christmas decorations! A gold wreath, a set of nativity figures and a gold embroidered stocking. I guess it was worth it, especially as all the proceeds from the raffles went towards charities like Operation Smile. We’d bought one book of tickets, and 3 books paid for a child’s operation.
After dinner, all the kids piled into our room for a movie night with popcorn and sodas. After Jonathon knocked the 3rd cup of soda over, we put him to bed, then called up grandma and grandpa at home to talk to everyone. I was falling asleep around 6, but when we called I woke up enough to chat for a good long while. Thank goodness for IVG lines! One of our favorite jokes seems to be telling my parents what they’ll be doing that day. After all it’s already Saturday night here, so the day is done.
Sunday, April 6th: Went to church this morning at the San Antonio church just outside the barangay walls. It looks like something right out of the southwest and inside it’s very classical and simply gorgeous. There’s even an organ, though we didn’t see it but it sounded electric. Well, it’s better than last week where there was no music at all at the chapel. The Mass was interesting. The entrance and recessional were not sung, but all the other parts were. The Holy, Holy was even straight from home, while the Our Father was sung in Tagalog in a simple yet almost haunting melody. All the spoken sections and the homily were in English, as was the Communion Hymn, but many parts were sung in Tagalog and certainly added a refreshing feel to the Mass. The churches here print up a new mass program each week with everything (but the homily) that is said during the service. It’s a big help for Katherine to follow along, but the songs that are sung were on an overhead projector. Unfortunately that takes away from some of the beauty of the altar, but it would seem that they will be moving to a powerpoint presentation in the near future. Welcome to the new millennium! Jonathon really enjoyed the music, singing along whenever he could, and even when he shouldn’t. Each time the music ended he’d put up his hands like Where did it go? and say Gone? (or is it Done? I can’t tell). Nicholas was tired and sat on daddy’s lap most of the time. The girls were very well-behaved and as the recessional was ending Katherine was in awe over the little priests that were girls and around 8 years old! No dear, those were altar girls. She says she wants to be an altar girl too. That doesn’t surprise me one bit as both girls have already said they want to be everything. In Katherine’s case, I wouldn’t be surprised if she pulled it off. We did discover via the bulletin that we have 2 options for Easter. There’s the Vigil Mass on Saturday night that begins at 9 p.m. I can only assume it’s supposed to continue through midnight in order to officially ring in Easter. Or there’s the 5 a.m. Mass on Easter Sunday. Yes, that would be daybreak. Ian has already nixed that one and says we can go to a regular Sunday service but I really don’t want to miss it. I’ve never been to a sunrise service, all we need now is the beach.
Right across the street is a mini shopping center with a pharmacy, meat/specialty store, grocery, Starbucks, hair salon, florist, engraver, nursery school and video rental store. It’s a smidgen too far to walk in the summer heat (which runs from end of March to mid-September) but it seems a good all in one place to go, unless you need tools.
Went to Glorietta Mall with the Trotts. It appears to be right across the street and a nice middle ground between the overpriced Powerplant Mall and the grungy GreenHills Mall.
At 4 p.m., Casey Graham came by to us up for the pool party/BBQ at her house. She and her family used to live in the house we’re in now but they have 5 kids and this place really only has 3 functional bedrooms as the one downstairs is right by the front door and has the guest bathroom in it. In other words, it needs to be neat all the time and her older kids are all teens. The two don’t mix. They’d had 2 kids in one room, 2 kids in another room and the last one housed in the dressing room in the master bedroom. OK, they needed some more space. But WOW. They’re new home is simply amazing. Not only does it have a small yard and pool, but the house is stunning. There’s a semi-circle driveway to the front door, and when you walk in, you’re in an entrance way. Not just a little place to drop your shoes, but a long, wide hallway with openings on all sides to a variety of other rooms. To the right is a small hallway to a bathroom and a small den. Further up on the right is a side hallway (much like a side street) that has the stairs (both up and down, downstairs was a TV room/den and a pool table, upstairs were all the bedrooms), a doorway to another small room that was used to house toys and at the end of the side hall was an entrance to the kitchen. Straight ahead from the entrance hall was a double door entry to the dining room which was the size of a large living room (which opened to the right to the kitchen, also the size of a large living room as it had 2 full walls of counter space but also an island, an eat-in table and plenty of additional room to walk around everything). And to the left in the front entrance way, was the double doors to the living room. With ceilings 2 stories high and enough room for a full set of living room furniture, a large round circular table and chairs and room for more furniture around the corner. All the windows were bordered with dark wood and I tell you, the house was stunning.
We weren’t the only ones invited. The Trotts were there, as well as a few other couples, one who had just arrived on Thursday. Not surprisingly, they were totally wiped out before they arrived and only stayed a short while. The kids were able to swim and the food was excellent and we all had a great time. One of the Graham children was adopted from India and another is in the process of being adopted from here. The older one is in 1st grade at IS, so Katherine sees her at the playground.
A big warehouse type room filled with vendors of local crafts, children’s clothes, jewelry, food stuffs (including an entire spitted calf, yes, head and all), raffle stage and an entire row of handmade quilts. While we did our duty of buying a booklet of raffle tickets, I also picked up a small wooden tray of local wood inlayed with mother of pearl while Ian bought a marble chess set. The kids were able to use some molding material to make bugs and other objects that were then fired and turned into erasers. They thought that was pretty cool. Honestly, we’ll have a much better idea of what we’d like for our home and what we’d like in general from the local crafts in November when the next Shoppers Day occurs. Until then, we spent our time looking and making notes.
Afterwards we went to yet another mall, called Greenhills. What a change from Powerplant. It’s a local mall, huge with many different wings, and packed to the gills with items and people alike. It’s indoors without the nicety of air conditioning and we ended up in the software/hardware section where Ian swears 90% of the inventory was pirated. Every 3rd person was asking Ian if he wanted to buy some DVDs, and in general the place made us hot, uncomfortable and exhausted. We attempted to get a post-paid phone for me but decided it was too much of a hassle, so attempted a prepaid but the folks were so disorganized we just left. Maybe tomorrow we’ll have better luck. But on the way home we decided maybe PriceSmart had a phone section so we swung by. No luck, but we did restock our fruit bins. By the end of it all, both Ian and I had headaches and decided it was a combination of too many things to count.
A short while later, Wendy Trott came down the street bearing goodies. Apparently, of the 15 raffle tickets we’d bought, 3 of them were winners. The package of ladies clothes was interesting as it was no where near my size, but it also came with a very lovely hand fan. Something I’d been looking at during Shoppers Day, but decided it wasn’t worth the hassle keeping away from the kids. Another package had a dinner for 2 at a local restaurant, a free game of pool, and a lovely necklace. And the third package was a set of Christmas decorations! A gold wreath, a set of nativity figures and a gold embroidered stocking. I guess it was worth it, especially as all the proceeds from the raffles went towards charities like Operation Smile. We’d bought one book of tickets, and 3 books paid for a child’s operation.
After dinner, all the kids piled into our room for a movie night with popcorn and sodas. After Jonathon knocked the 3rd cup of soda over, we put him to bed, then called up grandma and grandpa at home to talk to everyone. I was falling asleep around 6, but when we called I woke up enough to chat for a good long while. Thank goodness for IVG lines! One of our favorite jokes seems to be telling my parents what they’ll be doing that day. After all it’s already Saturday night here, so the day is done.
Sunday, April 6th: Went to church this morning at the San Antonio church just outside the barangay walls. It looks like something right out of the southwest and inside it’s very classical and simply gorgeous. There’s even an organ, though we didn’t see it but it sounded electric. Well, it’s better than last week where there was no music at all at the chapel. The Mass was interesting. The entrance and recessional were not sung, but all the other parts were. The Holy, Holy was even straight from home, while the Our Father was sung in Tagalog in a simple yet almost haunting melody. All the spoken sections and the homily were in English, as was the Communion Hymn, but many parts were sung in Tagalog and certainly added a refreshing feel to the Mass. The churches here print up a new mass program each week with everything (but the homily) that is said during the service. It’s a big help for Katherine to follow along, but the songs that are sung were on an overhead projector. Unfortunately that takes away from some of the beauty of the altar, but it would seem that they will be moving to a powerpoint presentation in the near future. Welcome to the new millennium! Jonathon really enjoyed the music, singing along whenever he could, and even when he shouldn’t. Each time the music ended he’d put up his hands like Where did it go? and say Gone? (or is it Done? I can’t tell). Nicholas was tired and sat on daddy’s lap most of the time. The girls were very well-behaved and as the recessional was ending Katherine was in awe over the little priests that were girls and around 8 years old! No dear, those were altar girls. She says she wants to be an altar girl too. That doesn’t surprise me one bit as both girls have already said they want to be everything. In Katherine’s case, I wouldn’t be surprised if she pulled it off. We did discover via the bulletin that we have 2 options for Easter. There’s the Vigil Mass on Saturday night that begins at 9 p.m. I can only assume it’s supposed to continue through midnight in order to officially ring in Easter. Or there’s the 5 a.m. Mass on Easter Sunday. Yes, that would be daybreak. Ian has already nixed that one and says we can go to a regular Sunday service but I really don’t want to miss it. I’ve never been to a sunrise service, all we need now is the beach.
Right across the street is a mini shopping center with a pharmacy, meat/specialty store, grocery, Starbucks, hair salon, florist, engraver, nursery school and video rental store. It’s a smidgen too far to walk in the summer heat (which runs from end of March to mid-September) but it seems a good all in one place to go, unless you need tools.
Went to Glorietta Mall with the Trotts. It appears to be right across the street and a nice middle ground between the overpriced Powerplant Mall and the grungy GreenHills Mall.
At 4 p.m., Casey Graham came by to us up for the pool party/BBQ at her house. She and her family used to live in the house we’re in now but they have 5 kids and this place really only has 3 functional bedrooms as the one downstairs is right by the front door and has the guest bathroom in it. In other words, it needs to be neat all the time and her older kids are all teens. The two don’t mix. They’d had 2 kids in one room, 2 kids in another room and the last one housed in the dressing room in the master bedroom. OK, they needed some more space. But WOW. They’re new home is simply amazing. Not only does it have a small yard and pool, but the house is stunning. There’s a semi-circle driveway to the front door, and when you walk in, you’re in an entrance way. Not just a little place to drop your shoes, but a long, wide hallway with openings on all sides to a variety of other rooms. To the right is a small hallway to a bathroom and a small den. Further up on the right is a side hallway (much like a side street) that has the stairs (both up and down, downstairs was a TV room/den and a pool table, upstairs were all the bedrooms), a doorway to another small room that was used to house toys and at the end of the side hall was an entrance to the kitchen. Straight ahead from the entrance hall was a double door entry to the dining room which was the size of a large living room (which opened to the right to the kitchen, also the size of a large living room as it had 2 full walls of counter space but also an island, an eat-in table and plenty of additional room to walk around everything). And to the left in the front entrance way, was the double doors to the living room. With ceilings 2 stories high and enough room for a full set of living room furniture, a large round circular table and chairs and room for more furniture around the corner. All the windows were bordered with dark wood and I tell you, the house was stunning.
We weren’t the only ones invited. The Trotts were there, as well as a few other couples, one who had just arrived on Thursday. Not surprisingly, they were totally wiped out before they arrived and only stayed a short while. The kids were able to swim and the food was excellent and we all had a great time. One of the Graham children was adopted from India and another is in the process of being adopted from here. The older one is in 1st grade at IS, so Katherine sees her at the playground.
April 3rd - April 4th: The end of the week
Thursday, April 3rd: What a quiet day. We were up at 5:30 to get Katherine ready for the bus at 6:30. Without a hitch, the bus came and she was off for her first day at the International School of Manila.
Then I went upstairs to call and fire the housekeeper even before we hired her. Combine the two and I was glad Ian was still home to offer a shoulder to lean on. How will I handle when my last baby goes off to school? How will I manage being a boss to someone? Ugh, too much to think about. And all so uncomfortable. But boy did she looks cute in her uniform of a yellow ISM polo with khaki skort.
He took the kids to the park while I messed around at home, then around noon he went off to the Embassy to meet with the Ambassador and DCM.
Katherine was home from school at 2:30, did her homework and then we went to the playground where there was a passel of kids and yayas.
Friday, April 4th: A couple comments on TV viewing and various other items.
Gain: An infant formula, one marketed for 6+ months, one marketed for 12+ months. Sold as a brain-fortifying nutrition source, huge letters on can saying breast milk is best, with a tag on the end of the ad saying breast milk is best for children up to 2 years old. Thumbs up for this one!
Skin White Whitening cream: A cream that blanches the skin. Women rubbing cream all over themselves. It’s slogan? Defy color. Thumbs down.
Oh yes, today at the playground I was approached by a yaya saying that she’d heard that I was looking to hire a yaya. That’s funny, I haven’t talked to anyone at the playground and I certainly haven’t told anyone that I’m looking for a nanny, so it would seem that the rumors are flying already. It sure must look weird to them to see me with my 4 kids. Jonathon just loves the playground and going down the slides. He can climb the ladders by himself, even the 8 rung ladder to the bumpy slide, but I admit to being right next to him for that one. The 4 rung ladders he’s on his own. He’s putting more and more words together like “dihdis abbap” (Nicholas blanket) and just saying more in general. I think my favorite word to hear from him is nuts. He says it so perfectly. Nicholas is getting clearer and clearer as well and it’s wonderful. Of course the one thing he says perfectly clear is “Baby nurse!” Thank goodness we spend a lot of time at home. This evening when he was very ready to get into bed he said “Dihdis eeepy.” And in reply to my saying I loved him very much he said “Uv you ‘ery much” I teared.
The highlights of our day were receiving our UAB shipment and getting our water dispenser. OK, granted the dispenser didn’t give out cold water so we called the company and they sent over a new on (only to discover once the new one was installed that the actual problem was that they’d plugged the flat 220v plug into the flat 110v outlet, and all it had needed was an adapter to go into the round 220v outlet. Oops, like I was supposed to know to check that.) But yes, we got our UAB and the 7 boxes were largely clothes, so we have plenty of stuff to wear now and Ian doesn’t have to order more shirts from Penney’s. Of course, we also received our crib which they assembled. Now we have 2 fully assembled cribs and my child is sleeping in the twin bed reliably. Well, I suppose I can use it to hold clean laundry and for the naptimes he decides he’s going to fight me. Not like today where he was falling asleep at the table during lunch so when I brought him upstairs he just climbed into bed and conked out. Yes yes, I do still stay with him until he’s asleep. He’s so small I can’t imagine just leaving, he doesn’t understand it all yet and just calls out Mama if he thinks I’m gone. He’s back in cloth diapers, which I’m very happy with as disposables are just not nice to him.
And we had tuna sandwiches for lunch. I have a working can opener!
After some delicious Atlantic salmon for dinner (I was wary of picking it up, I mean, the Atlantic is pretty far from here), Ian headed walked over to the DCMs home for a meet and greet with a bunch of other JOs. After drinks and hors d’oevres, they were all corralled and played Taboo. I can see this will be a tough post.
Then I went upstairs to call and fire the housekeeper even before we hired her. Combine the two and I was glad Ian was still home to offer a shoulder to lean on. How will I handle when my last baby goes off to school? How will I manage being a boss to someone? Ugh, too much to think about. And all so uncomfortable. But boy did she looks cute in her uniform of a yellow ISM polo with khaki skort.
He took the kids to the park while I messed around at home, then around noon he went off to the Embassy to meet with the Ambassador and DCM.
Katherine was home from school at 2:30, did her homework and then we went to the playground where there was a passel of kids and yayas.
Friday, April 4th: A couple comments on TV viewing and various other items.
Gain: An infant formula, one marketed for 6+ months, one marketed for 12+ months. Sold as a brain-fortifying nutrition source, huge letters on can saying breast milk is best, with a tag on the end of the ad saying breast milk is best for children up to 2 years old. Thumbs up for this one!
Skin White Whitening cream: A cream that blanches the skin. Women rubbing cream all over themselves. It’s slogan? Defy color. Thumbs down.
Oh yes, today at the playground I was approached by a yaya saying that she’d heard that I was looking to hire a yaya. That’s funny, I haven’t talked to anyone at the playground and I certainly haven’t told anyone that I’m looking for a nanny, so it would seem that the rumors are flying already. It sure must look weird to them to see me with my 4 kids. Jonathon just loves the playground and going down the slides. He can climb the ladders by himself, even the 8 rung ladder to the bumpy slide, but I admit to being right next to him for that one. The 4 rung ladders he’s on his own. He’s putting more and more words together like “dihdis abbap” (Nicholas blanket) and just saying more in general. I think my favorite word to hear from him is nuts. He says it so perfectly. Nicholas is getting clearer and clearer as well and it’s wonderful. Of course the one thing he says perfectly clear is “Baby nurse!” Thank goodness we spend a lot of time at home. This evening when he was very ready to get into bed he said “Dihdis eeepy.” And in reply to my saying I loved him very much he said “Uv you ‘ery much” I teared.
The highlights of our day were receiving our UAB shipment and getting our water dispenser. OK, granted the dispenser didn’t give out cold water so we called the company and they sent over a new on (only to discover once the new one was installed that the actual problem was that they’d plugged the flat 220v plug into the flat 110v outlet, and all it had needed was an adapter to go into the round 220v outlet. Oops, like I was supposed to know to check that.) But yes, we got our UAB and the 7 boxes were largely clothes, so we have plenty of stuff to wear now and Ian doesn’t have to order more shirts from Penney’s. Of course, we also received our crib which they assembled. Now we have 2 fully assembled cribs and my child is sleeping in the twin bed reliably. Well, I suppose I can use it to hold clean laundry and for the naptimes he decides he’s going to fight me. Not like today where he was falling asleep at the table during lunch so when I brought him upstairs he just climbed into bed and conked out. Yes yes, I do still stay with him until he’s asleep. He’s so small I can’t imagine just leaving, he doesn’t understand it all yet and just calls out Mama if he thinks I’m gone. He’s back in cloth diapers, which I’m very happy with as disposables are just not nice to him.
And we had tuna sandwiches for lunch. I have a working can opener!
After some delicious Atlantic salmon for dinner (I was wary of picking it up, I mean, the Atlantic is pretty far from here), Ian headed walked over to the DCMs home for a meet and greet with a bunch of other JOs. After drinks and hors d’oevres, they were all corralled and played Taboo. I can see this will be a tough post.
Wednesday, April 9, 2003
April 2nd: Checking in
Wednesday April 2nd: Today was a longish day. I was awake at 3 again, but managed to doze until 6. Around 9 a.m. we all headed over to the Chancery (Embassy to all you non-State Department folk) where I finally got my badge to wander around the grounds and buildings should I ever be immensely board. No, really.
Besides lots and lots of armed guards like Marines and PNP (Philippine National Police) there’s really little of interest to look at. We did see Ian’s cubicle, sparse and tucked away as it was while he faxed all the info to the school. It didn’t seem to matter to the Foreign Nationals who work in the IV lines. They crowded around, oohing and aahing over all the kids, commenting on their eyes and for the 5th or 6th time we were asked if the boys were twins. No, I’m not kidding. I honestly think they look nothing alike, but when they are both walking down the hall, I can’t imagine how 2 boys who are easily 4 inches different can be called twins!
So from the Embassy we went to Seafront. Seafront is a gated Embassy community filled with apartments and townhomes for smaller families, but it also houses the Rec Center pool, a future restaurant, the CLO (Community Liaison Office), the Transportation Office (will we ever get our boxes or our car?) and the FPO (Fleet Post Office) along with several other offices and the shops (metalworks, woodworks, etc). Oh yeah, yesterday we requested a gate be put in at the top of our stairs but it has to be custom made so with some specs written down, the builder is off creating a gate for us.
First stop was the Medical Clinic. We turned over our yellow cards, filled in too many forms, had a chat with the physician and guess what! I’d actually remembered to bring along Katherine’s physical form for the school and they did it right then! Something finally went right for the school. Even better, the office let us fax it right then. Sweet. The only thing that concerned me was when I mentioned keeping the kids out of the high heat sun and she looked at me funny and asked Why? Well, uh, they’re really pale and we just left a place where it was snowing and I’ve always known to avoid the mid-day sun because of the strong rays. She said I’d simply have to accept that we’re living in Manila now and being in the sun was a fact of life. Well, being raised in Africa, I still knew to stay out of the hot sun when possible and don’t see why it should be any different now. Letting the kids swim and play in the sun is one thing, but if we can avoid swimming at 1 and instead swim at 4, I say why not.
Off to get some lunch before our next appointment with the CLO. Well, there’s no place to eat on the compound but we find that there’s several options down the street outside the gates. The kids get their first taste of the true Manila as we traipse down the street in our obvious foreigness, on sidewalks that aren’t kept clear, next to the street that has jeepneys filled with people, the sounds, the smoke, the shops, the alleys, the air pollution that bounces off your face. Rebecca was asking for a bandana to cover her nose, a common sight on people in the street and in the buses (the ones without windows, much less air conditioning). After a couple blocks we found a pizza place, the name escapes me at the moment, where we had a choice of pastas or pizzas. Ah, pasta. The country seems in love with the concept. They haven’t quite gotten it right, but the idea intrigues them. You can buy pasta at 7/11, you can buy pasta at Jollibees (the Philippine equivalent of McDonald’s), you can buy pasta at KFC. Spaghetti, lasagna, macaroni, it’s all here and everywhere. We ordered, and had the lunch delivered to the table. Thank goodness the kids ate, even Jonathon. He’s been so so picky of late, but he ate a whole slice of pizza. OK, so the pizzas are only 6 inches wide, but he still ate. When we were done, they came to clean up our plates. Fast food served, cleaned up and eaten off real china. All 6 of us ate for $5. We also had some dessert. Mango slushie in essence, but what we thought was a pile of crushed ice was instead… well, how does one describe it. I would fathom a guess at hardened plain gelatin cut in little chunks. Think bits of Jell-o jiggler without the taste. It was interesting, and I’m just glad the kids like mangoes so much.
Lunch over, we did the return walk and went to the FPO to mail some letters and a package. Who knew that we should have kept all the Priority Mail boxes we passed on to friends and family? Went to the CLO, received a welcome packet that we informed the CLO would be amazingly useful if provided to each home prior to a new arrival. We sure could have used some of the phone numbers and information in the past week! We also asked if there was a list of available teen babysitters as we’re not hiring a yaya but would like to be able to hire someone on a one-time basis to watch the kids if we go to a function. Oh, doesn’t that sound important. A Function. Wheee. She was very helpful in calling around about the guarantor letter for the school and we discovered it isn’t necessary and there’s a standing agreement with the Embassy, just as Ian anticipated. Again we’re asked if the boys are twins. *sigh* No, they aren’t. I should be keeping track.
Off to the Housing Office. Our contact isn’t in, so we went to Transportation. This was a long visit, but Ian handled all the details while the FSNs came to see the kids and gave them paper and markers to color with. I was seriously running out of ideas for items for the girls to draw while Nicholas was falling asleep on the couch and Jonathon had fallen asleep nursing. It was a quiet hallway, I promise.
We finally got home and there’s something I have to say about personal drivers. They appear out of nowhere. I don’t know how they do it, but they do. We can be earlier or later than the time we’d specified and it doesn’t matter. We walk out the gate, and the car appears. It’s like magic.
Finally home, we discover we have a mango tree in the yard and the mangoes are even better than the ones we bought. After dinner we hop the kids off to bed and wait for the woman who manages the car rental we have so we can sign the lease for the month. After some discussion, Ian broached the topic of the driver we have now. We really like him and wondered if there was a way to hire him as our driver for the next 2 years. Ah, well. Not only does he work for this rental company, he’s also the personal driver for the manager! Well, that makes things sticky, but she’s willing to work out a split time program. It’s something we’ll definitely think about.
Besides lots and lots of armed guards like Marines and PNP (Philippine National Police) there’s really little of interest to look at. We did see Ian’s cubicle, sparse and tucked away as it was while he faxed all the info to the school. It didn’t seem to matter to the Foreign Nationals who work in the IV lines. They crowded around, oohing and aahing over all the kids, commenting on their eyes and for the 5th or 6th time we were asked if the boys were twins. No, I’m not kidding. I honestly think they look nothing alike, but when they are both walking down the hall, I can’t imagine how 2 boys who are easily 4 inches different can be called twins!
So from the Embassy we went to Seafront. Seafront is a gated Embassy community filled with apartments and townhomes for smaller families, but it also houses the Rec Center pool, a future restaurant, the CLO (Community Liaison Office), the Transportation Office (will we ever get our boxes or our car?) and the FPO (Fleet Post Office) along with several other offices and the shops (metalworks, woodworks, etc). Oh yeah, yesterday we requested a gate be put in at the top of our stairs but it has to be custom made so with some specs written down, the builder is off creating a gate for us.
First stop was the Medical Clinic. We turned over our yellow cards, filled in too many forms, had a chat with the physician and guess what! I’d actually remembered to bring along Katherine’s physical form for the school and they did it right then! Something finally went right for the school. Even better, the office let us fax it right then. Sweet. The only thing that concerned me was when I mentioned keeping the kids out of the high heat sun and she looked at me funny and asked Why? Well, uh, they’re really pale and we just left a place where it was snowing and I’ve always known to avoid the mid-day sun because of the strong rays. She said I’d simply have to accept that we’re living in Manila now and being in the sun was a fact of life. Well, being raised in Africa, I still knew to stay out of the hot sun when possible and don’t see why it should be any different now. Letting the kids swim and play in the sun is one thing, but if we can avoid swimming at 1 and instead swim at 4, I say why not.
Off to get some lunch before our next appointment with the CLO. Well, there’s no place to eat on the compound but we find that there’s several options down the street outside the gates. The kids get their first taste of the true Manila as we traipse down the street in our obvious foreigness, on sidewalks that aren’t kept clear, next to the street that has jeepneys filled with people, the sounds, the smoke, the shops, the alleys, the air pollution that bounces off your face. Rebecca was asking for a bandana to cover her nose, a common sight on people in the street and in the buses (the ones without windows, much less air conditioning). After a couple blocks we found a pizza place, the name escapes me at the moment, where we had a choice of pastas or pizzas. Ah, pasta. The country seems in love with the concept. They haven’t quite gotten it right, but the idea intrigues them. You can buy pasta at 7/11, you can buy pasta at Jollibees (the Philippine equivalent of McDonald’s), you can buy pasta at KFC. Spaghetti, lasagna, macaroni, it’s all here and everywhere. We ordered, and had the lunch delivered to the table. Thank goodness the kids ate, even Jonathon. He’s been so so picky of late, but he ate a whole slice of pizza. OK, so the pizzas are only 6 inches wide, but he still ate. When we were done, they came to clean up our plates. Fast food served, cleaned up and eaten off real china. All 6 of us ate for $5. We also had some dessert. Mango slushie in essence, but what we thought was a pile of crushed ice was instead… well, how does one describe it. I would fathom a guess at hardened plain gelatin cut in little chunks. Think bits of Jell-o jiggler without the taste. It was interesting, and I’m just glad the kids like mangoes so much.
Lunch over, we did the return walk and went to the FPO to mail some letters and a package. Who knew that we should have kept all the Priority Mail boxes we passed on to friends and family? Went to the CLO, received a welcome packet that we informed the CLO would be amazingly useful if provided to each home prior to a new arrival. We sure could have used some of the phone numbers and information in the past week! We also asked if there was a list of available teen babysitters as we’re not hiring a yaya but would like to be able to hire someone on a one-time basis to watch the kids if we go to a function. Oh, doesn’t that sound important. A Function. Wheee. She was very helpful in calling around about the guarantor letter for the school and we discovered it isn’t necessary and there’s a standing agreement with the Embassy, just as Ian anticipated. Again we’re asked if the boys are twins. *sigh* No, they aren’t. I should be keeping track.
Off to the Housing Office. Our contact isn’t in, so we went to Transportation. This was a long visit, but Ian handled all the details while the FSNs came to see the kids and gave them paper and markers to color with. I was seriously running out of ideas for items for the girls to draw while Nicholas was falling asleep on the couch and Jonathon had fallen asleep nursing. It was a quiet hallway, I promise.
We finally got home and there’s something I have to say about personal drivers. They appear out of nowhere. I don’t know how they do it, but they do. We can be earlier or later than the time we’d specified and it doesn’t matter. We walk out the gate, and the car appears. It’s like magic.
Finally home, we discover we have a mango tree in the yard and the mangoes are even better than the ones we bought. After dinner we hop the kids off to bed and wait for the woman who manages the car rental we have so we can sign the lease for the month. After some discussion, Ian broached the topic of the driver we have now. We really like him and wondered if there was a way to hire him as our driver for the next 2 years. Ah, well. Not only does he work for this rental company, he’s also the personal driver for the manager! Well, that makes things sticky, but she’s willing to work out a split time program. It’s something we’ll definitely think about.
March 31st - April 1st: Getting set for school
Monday, March 31st: This morning when Jonathon woke up, he started calling for me which woke up Nicholas. So Nicholas got up and brought Jonathon to our room. I don’t know that there’s anything sweeter than hearing the pitter patter of little feet, followed by 2 little boys staring at you saying “Mama!”
We have a driver starting today. Yay! At 7:30 we arrived at the International School for Katherine’s testing which lasted all of 30 minutes. It seems they just checked her competence in Math and Reading and she did well on both. The Admissions secretary pulled her file and said all was well, so now there’s the wait to hear from the Guidance Counselor. Since we’re not homebound, we went to PriceSmart and signed up for some membership cards. Hey, it’s just like being at home! It seems like for families, it’s the only place to shop. Everywhere else the items are so small I’d have to buy 4 for a single meal.
All in all, a blur of a day. Nothing much going on. Just trying to adjust and while everyone seems to be doing OK, Nicholas and I are still having troubles. We’ll get there. Hopefully before we move.
Tuesday April 1st: Woke up at 3 a.m. after falling asleep at 8:30 last night. Must do better staying up at night. By 7 a.m. I was ready for a nap and the rest of the house was waking up. Amazingly, the boys slept all night, no peeps and Jonathon stayed in his twin bed with no problems. This morning he woke up and called for me once, but Nicholas got up and brought him to our bedroom. He’s getting good at this.
After a breakfast of some yummy and nutrition-free cinnamon rolls, we went to the playground next door where we were lucky enough to find a sprinkler on. Well, it was like Christmas for these four. They got wet, they got muddy, they ran around and did monkey bars and slides and finally we came back and stripped right at the door so as not to track mud. We have no bathtubs in this house, so we covered the drain and filled the shower stall with a few inches of water and they splashed around.
Not feeling real comfortable about the decision yesterday to hire Merlene. There’s something about her I don’t like, but can’t put my finger on it. I don’t want her as a nanny and that’s her primary focus, so I’m thinking we may be hiring someone else when the trial month runs out. Not that I can call around (or even want to, but it must be done to hire someone) when all the kids are around, but she doesn’t start until Monday so I do have a few days to figure out what the heck I’m doing.
Anyway, it’s been a busy morning already. The school called saying that the Guidance Counselor is back in her office and we can come by at 2:30 this afternoon, provided Ian makes it back from the Embassy in time. If so, Katherine will start school tomorrow, but if we miss it, we have a 9:30 apnt tomorrow morning and she’d start school on Thursday instead. Everyone is very organized here, but all a little disjointed in times and places.
The water people called and said they would deliver out water dispenser today instead of Friday, like they said yesterday.
And the repairmen came by to fix the stove since the burners weren’t lighting. Apparently all is well, but that the gas tank that it was connected to was empty. So we have a full tank we’re using now and an empty spare tank we need to get replaced.
So Ian gets home and as we’re walking out the door to the school for Katherine’s interview, the guys to fix our doorbell show up. No one around here knocks on doors. There’s a remote doorbell switch at the gate but just our luck, it doesn’t work. And people don’t honk horns at houses either (it’s rude). So we’ve had workmen show up and had to call the house because the bell doesn’t ring and we can’t hear anything over the hum of the air purifiers and air conditioners. Anyway, they come to fix the bell and we all wander around the house to see where the actual chime is. Oddly enough, no one can find it. It seems to not exist. No wonder we never hear the doorbell. But we’re walking out the door and the workmen can’t stay unsupervised, so we reschedule for tomorrow at 8 a.m. I wonder if we’ll actually see them again.
Off to the school! After wandering around the campus, brand new and really big since it goes from PS-GR12, we finally found the Elementary School Guidance Office. Katherine talks to the counselor for a few minutes then we all go in and describe her in 3 words (they teach this in psychology school?) so we pick Energetic, Smart and Inquisitive. I think that wraps her up very well. Of course then the counselor asks if there are any concerns and we had to be honest and admit she’s a huge chatterbox. She can be corrected easily enough but forgetting herself and chatting away is very common. Just ask her Kindergarten teacher at King. So we schedule Katherine to start the following day, as her teacher was in the office and okayed the plan.
All was going well so we checked out Katherine’s classroom and the Guidance Office staff sends us off to get Katherine’s uniforms, class items, release form for the bus and then to the transportation office to schedule her pickups. Uniforms? Check. Two yellow polos, one green polo, 2 skorts and 1 pair of shorts. Class items? Check. P.E. uniform and various pens and notebooks and such. Off to the office for the release. Ah, here’s where it gets juicy. The first thing she gives us is a piece of paper that is to be signed by each department as we go through. Well, we’ve already done the guidance bit and the uniforms and textbooks and it’s after 4 p.m. We try to get beyond the fact that we’re not going to go through all the steps all over again and we’re all set to get to the Transportation office, but suddenly we’re being informed they need a copy of her passport (I didn’t bring it), her physical has to be done before she can start (we were in Admissions yesterday, she never said it had to be done –today-) and they want a guarantor letter from the Embassy. Did I mention it was 4 p.m.? I start laughing at the ludicrous nature of it all and the fact that she didn’t mention any of this yesterday when she looked through Katherine’s file and said it was all in order. Ian starts getting angry as we now realize that the kid won’t be able to start school when we’d promised. We decide that she won’t start until Thursday, that we’ll do what we can with faxing info in tomorrow and hope that they’ll accept her Worldwide Clearance in place of a physician’s exam. Off to Transportation, get her set with a bus and go home.
On the way through the gate, a water truck went the other way. Hmm, guess we missed them.
After some yummy lasagna dinner, a gift by one of our sponsors for our arrival, we all conked out. Some earlier than others. I admit I was none too pleasant to Ian as I whined to fall asleep before 8 p.m.
We have a driver starting today. Yay! At 7:30 we arrived at the International School for Katherine’s testing which lasted all of 30 minutes. It seems they just checked her competence in Math and Reading and she did well on both. The Admissions secretary pulled her file and said all was well, so now there’s the wait to hear from the Guidance Counselor. Since we’re not homebound, we went to PriceSmart and signed up for some membership cards. Hey, it’s just like being at home! It seems like for families, it’s the only place to shop. Everywhere else the items are so small I’d have to buy 4 for a single meal.
All in all, a blur of a day. Nothing much going on. Just trying to adjust and while everyone seems to be doing OK, Nicholas and I are still having troubles. We’ll get there. Hopefully before we move.
Tuesday April 1st: Woke up at 3 a.m. after falling asleep at 8:30 last night. Must do better staying up at night. By 7 a.m. I was ready for a nap and the rest of the house was waking up. Amazingly, the boys slept all night, no peeps and Jonathon stayed in his twin bed with no problems. This morning he woke up and called for me once, but Nicholas got up and brought him to our bedroom. He’s getting good at this.
After a breakfast of some yummy and nutrition-free cinnamon rolls, we went to the playground next door where we were lucky enough to find a sprinkler on. Well, it was like Christmas for these four. They got wet, they got muddy, they ran around and did monkey bars and slides and finally we came back and stripped right at the door so as not to track mud. We have no bathtubs in this house, so we covered the drain and filled the shower stall with a few inches of water and they splashed around.
Not feeling real comfortable about the decision yesterday to hire Merlene. There’s something about her I don’t like, but can’t put my finger on it. I don’t want her as a nanny and that’s her primary focus, so I’m thinking we may be hiring someone else when the trial month runs out. Not that I can call around (or even want to, but it must be done to hire someone) when all the kids are around, but she doesn’t start until Monday so I do have a few days to figure out what the heck I’m doing.
Anyway, it’s been a busy morning already. The school called saying that the Guidance Counselor is back in her office and we can come by at 2:30 this afternoon, provided Ian makes it back from the Embassy in time. If so, Katherine will start school tomorrow, but if we miss it, we have a 9:30 apnt tomorrow morning and she’d start school on Thursday instead. Everyone is very organized here, but all a little disjointed in times and places.
The water people called and said they would deliver out water dispenser today instead of Friday, like they said yesterday.
And the repairmen came by to fix the stove since the burners weren’t lighting. Apparently all is well, but that the gas tank that it was connected to was empty. So we have a full tank we’re using now and an empty spare tank we need to get replaced.
So Ian gets home and as we’re walking out the door to the school for Katherine’s interview, the guys to fix our doorbell show up. No one around here knocks on doors. There’s a remote doorbell switch at the gate but just our luck, it doesn’t work. And people don’t honk horns at houses either (it’s rude). So we’ve had workmen show up and had to call the house because the bell doesn’t ring and we can’t hear anything over the hum of the air purifiers and air conditioners. Anyway, they come to fix the bell and we all wander around the house to see where the actual chime is. Oddly enough, no one can find it. It seems to not exist. No wonder we never hear the doorbell. But we’re walking out the door and the workmen can’t stay unsupervised, so we reschedule for tomorrow at 8 a.m. I wonder if we’ll actually see them again.
Off to the school! After wandering around the campus, brand new and really big since it goes from PS-GR12, we finally found the Elementary School Guidance Office. Katherine talks to the counselor for a few minutes then we all go in and describe her in 3 words (they teach this in psychology school?) so we pick Energetic, Smart and Inquisitive. I think that wraps her up very well. Of course then the counselor asks if there are any concerns and we had to be honest and admit she’s a huge chatterbox. She can be corrected easily enough but forgetting herself and chatting away is very common. Just ask her Kindergarten teacher at King. So we schedule Katherine to start the following day, as her teacher was in the office and okayed the plan.
All was going well so we checked out Katherine’s classroom and the Guidance Office staff sends us off to get Katherine’s uniforms, class items, release form for the bus and then to the transportation office to schedule her pickups. Uniforms? Check. Two yellow polos, one green polo, 2 skorts and 1 pair of shorts. Class items? Check. P.E. uniform and various pens and notebooks and such. Off to the office for the release. Ah, here’s where it gets juicy. The first thing she gives us is a piece of paper that is to be signed by each department as we go through. Well, we’ve already done the guidance bit and the uniforms and textbooks and it’s after 4 p.m. We try to get beyond the fact that we’re not going to go through all the steps all over again and we’re all set to get to the Transportation office, but suddenly we’re being informed they need a copy of her passport (I didn’t bring it), her physical has to be done before she can start (we were in Admissions yesterday, she never said it had to be done –today-) and they want a guarantor letter from the Embassy. Did I mention it was 4 p.m.? I start laughing at the ludicrous nature of it all and the fact that she didn’t mention any of this yesterday when she looked through Katherine’s file and said it was all in order. Ian starts getting angry as we now realize that the kid won’t be able to start school when we’d promised. We decide that she won’t start until Thursday, that we’ll do what we can with faxing info in tomorrow and hope that they’ll accept her Worldwide Clearance in place of a physician’s exam. Off to Transportation, get her set with a bus and go home.
On the way through the gate, a water truck went the other way. Hmm, guess we missed them.
After some yummy lasagna dinner, a gift by one of our sponsors for our arrival, we all conked out. Some earlier than others. I admit I was none too pleasant to Ian as I whined to fall asleep before 8 p.m.
March 29th - March 30th: Our First Weekend in Manila
Saturday, March 29th: Well, that was a useless night’s sleep! Jonathon managed to stay in bed for a whopping hour and half from 2-3:30 before deciding that he’d much prefer to be with us and nurse the rest of the morning. That was OK I guess since I was up at 3 a.m. too, but I’m wondering if this twin bed thing is going to work out.
Not that we have a choice at the moment so let’s hope tonight goes better. At least he and I got in a shower. This place doesn’t have bathtubs, but the showers are from one wall to the other, marble tile lined and have a very short step, so if you plug up the drain you can conceivably raise the water level a few inches and have a mini-pool. Not that it’s very safe as we all know how tile gets when it’s wet. We’re getting a bath mat in our shipment but we may need to buy one or two more. He slipped and bonked his head after not wanting to be held anymore so we’ll have to find an alternative soon.
Anyhow, by 9 a.m. we were ready to do something so we went next door to the playground which the kids thoroughly enjoyed, for about 15 minutes before complaining about the heat. Mental note, go to the playground before 9 a.m. Made it back to the house where Ian called up the Trotts who live 3 doors down. A short while later we went over to their home and met their son, their 2 dogs a Bichon Frise named Chubby and a Great Dane named Chewy. The dogs were a huge hit with all the kids even though the Great Dane is as big as a horse for Jonathon and the whip of a tail was mighty dangerous as it was just his head height.
We piled into their Ford Expedition and headed over to the nearest mall, called the Powerplant mall since it was on the space of a former power plant. Clever, huh? We wandered around and saw the grocery store Rustans, along with every sort of brand name shop in the hemisphere. There was also a food court on most of one floor. It’s a different sort of food court where the tables in the middle are designated for specific food places that act more like sit down restaurants than fast food. There’s an outdoor lot with rockwall climbing and trampolines and a paintball zone. There’s an indoor paintball shooting range. There was a line in the shop for cell phones and prepaid phone cards. Everyone here has a cell phone and this is the text messaging capital of the world. Folks talk on one phone while texting with another, it’s bizarre. There are signs in the street that say No Texting While Driving and No Texting While Crossing Street. Speaking of road signs, there are plenty of them with catch phrases and suggested behavior (Do Not Block Intersection, No Jay Walking), but few signs that are useful for actual driving, say street signs.
OK, back in the mall it was lunch time and I was aiming for something interesting but our hosts were headed for McDonalds, so that’s where we went with a pit stop at a French sandwich shop where Rebecca asked for a sandwich with lettuce, mayonnaise and cheese on wheat bread. Thank goodness she liked the Brie. At McDonalds we discovered that everything you order comes with a side of plain rice. And McDonalds serves plates of spaghetti, chicken and the new McDo (short for McDonalds) Rice Burger. I can’t say what was inside looked like meat, but more like a seaweed patty. And the part that would normally be bread was flattened patties of… rice. OK, I’ll admit that none of us was bold enough to actually try it. But I did get a chicken with side of rice, and Katherine got a plate of spaghetti. The boys had their standby nuggets and fries.
Took a drive by the local Santis for meat, the local pharmacy Mercury Drug, by ISM and the British School next door, and saw the large local Catholic Church called San Antonio. It’s too far to walk to from the house, so we’ll have to find something closer, especially since we have no personal mode of transportation yet. Jonathon fell asleep in the car around 1p.m. after we did our grocery shopping for more milk, fruit and various other items, none of them too exciting. At home, we plopped him in his room carseat and all for a nap. Feeling a little tired myself, I went and curled up on our bed where Nicholas joined me a few minutes later. Ian was stretching out on the couch, Rebecca found a cozy piece of carpet and (can you see where this is going?) Katherine got bored so curled up in a chair.
Before I know it, it’s 6:30 p.m. and the whole house is still sleeping and no one was happy to be awoken, least of all Nicholas. At first we were totally confused, wondering if it was 6:30 in the morning and the sun was rising or if we had saved enough of the night by waking in the evening. Thankfully it got darker and while no one really wanted to be up, wake up we did and to get our blood pumping we set out on a walk to find a school nearby that had a chapel. We figured that it would be a good adventure and keep the kids awake and I do believe that the biggest hits on the walk for me was to see the other houses up close even in the dark, and for the kids was to see the cockroaches scurrying around and the random stray cat. Earlier in the day Ian had made a quick map of where the school was and before long we found it and discovered there was an 8 a.m. service and a 10 a.m. service. OK, let’s be realistic. We’re still all going to be up way before the crack of dawn, and by 10 a.m. a 20 minute walk will be scorching. So we settled on the 8 a.m. and walked back, fighting to keep Jonathon awake and Nicholas moving and the girls from tripping over their own feet. We do know why everyone walks in the streets now which bodes not so well for traffic. The sidewalks are very iffy, if they’re there at all. Tree roots push up sections, parts disappear to driveways, trash pickup means some portions are blocked by bags, some ripped into strays, and no one clears the trees and bush branches from whacking you in the head. Oh right, trash pick-up. They do it twice. Not twice a week, twice every night. You can put out bags of trash at anytime and it should be gone within 12-24 hours. I’m not kidding! Everyone puts out every bit of trash from regular sized bags to little baggie sized waste. Apparently there’s a recycling truck that comes by as well, but we haven’t seen it.
So we made it back home to play some MasterMind and Chess and finally packed everyone off to bed around 10:30 p.m. in hopes that they would be better adjusted. The girls made it to 6 a.m. while Nicholas made it to 5 a.m. and mom and Jonathon were up at 3 a.m. But that’s better, right?
Sunday, March 30th: We thought we’d go to the 10 a.m. Mass at the chapel, but with everyone up around 5 a.m. and the day already progressing to warm, we marched out around 7:30 for the 8 a.m. service. We were there early, but needn’t have worried at Mass began around 8:10-8:15. There was no music at all, the chapel is outdoors so thank goodness for lots of fans, and everyone was silent. We were the only folks there with children, so every noise they made seemed louder than it really was. Mass was totally in English and very short. I spent part of my time outside with the boys since there was nothing to keep them occupied, not even missals as the weekly liturgy is printed out and Jonathon thought it would be great fun to chew it then rip it. But it was all very short and we were walking home by 8:45. I now remember back to my days in Africa and how Communion was run as a free for all as the entire church gets up and moves to the aisle at one time, but during Mass I’d forgotten, so it seemed like chaos today.
When we got home, Mike Trott called and offered us a ride to Mass which we had to decline. Around noon we walked down the street to their home where they had generously offered to host us for lunch. It was a welcome meal as last night all I’d managed to make was some salad and no one was hungry enough to eat it. And after lunch, the pool was open for business and the kids had a blast. Thank goodness I’d lathered them up in sunscreen as it was in full sun for part of the afternoon. Wendy Trott and I chatted while everyone else was in the pool and she’s a font of information and anecdotes. She did seem a little concerned when I said I wasn’t going to hire a yaya and wondered how I would attend Ladies Functions. Ladies Functions aren’t at the top of my list, so I’m not worried about that, but she was insistent that I would have trouble meeting people unless I would be able to get out without the kids, or even go grocery shopping. What I’ve been looking forward to instead is not functions, but rather hiring someone to do the basic housekeeping thereby leaving my hands free to play with my kids. That’s what I’m aiming for, so my ultimate hire would be someone who comes in part-time (say 9-3) with the option of staying longer to babysit if we need to go somewhere in the evening. But a nanny is not someone I want or need.
Not that we have a choice at the moment so let’s hope tonight goes better. At least he and I got in a shower. This place doesn’t have bathtubs, but the showers are from one wall to the other, marble tile lined and have a very short step, so if you plug up the drain you can conceivably raise the water level a few inches and have a mini-pool. Not that it’s very safe as we all know how tile gets when it’s wet. We’re getting a bath mat in our shipment but we may need to buy one or two more. He slipped and bonked his head after not wanting to be held anymore so we’ll have to find an alternative soon.
Anyhow, by 9 a.m. we were ready to do something so we went next door to the playground which the kids thoroughly enjoyed, for about 15 minutes before complaining about the heat. Mental note, go to the playground before 9 a.m. Made it back to the house where Ian called up the Trotts who live 3 doors down. A short while later we went over to their home and met their son, their 2 dogs a Bichon Frise named Chubby and a Great Dane named Chewy. The dogs were a huge hit with all the kids even though the Great Dane is as big as a horse for Jonathon and the whip of a tail was mighty dangerous as it was just his head height.
We piled into their Ford Expedition and headed over to the nearest mall, called the Powerplant mall since it was on the space of a former power plant. Clever, huh? We wandered around and saw the grocery store Rustans, along with every sort of brand name shop in the hemisphere. There was also a food court on most of one floor. It’s a different sort of food court where the tables in the middle are designated for specific food places that act more like sit down restaurants than fast food. There’s an outdoor lot with rockwall climbing and trampolines and a paintball zone. There’s an indoor paintball shooting range. There was a line in the shop for cell phones and prepaid phone cards. Everyone here has a cell phone and this is the text messaging capital of the world. Folks talk on one phone while texting with another, it’s bizarre. There are signs in the street that say No Texting While Driving and No Texting While Crossing Street. Speaking of road signs, there are plenty of them with catch phrases and suggested behavior (Do Not Block Intersection, No Jay Walking), but few signs that are useful for actual driving, say street signs.
OK, back in the mall it was lunch time and I was aiming for something interesting but our hosts were headed for McDonalds, so that’s where we went with a pit stop at a French sandwich shop where Rebecca asked for a sandwich with lettuce, mayonnaise and cheese on wheat bread. Thank goodness she liked the Brie. At McDonalds we discovered that everything you order comes with a side of plain rice. And McDonalds serves plates of spaghetti, chicken and the new McDo (short for McDonalds) Rice Burger. I can’t say what was inside looked like meat, but more like a seaweed patty. And the part that would normally be bread was flattened patties of… rice. OK, I’ll admit that none of us was bold enough to actually try it. But I did get a chicken with side of rice, and Katherine got a plate of spaghetti. The boys had their standby nuggets and fries.
Took a drive by the local Santis for meat, the local pharmacy Mercury Drug, by ISM and the British School next door, and saw the large local Catholic Church called San Antonio. It’s too far to walk to from the house, so we’ll have to find something closer, especially since we have no personal mode of transportation yet. Jonathon fell asleep in the car around 1p.m. after we did our grocery shopping for more milk, fruit and various other items, none of them too exciting. At home, we plopped him in his room carseat and all for a nap. Feeling a little tired myself, I went and curled up on our bed where Nicholas joined me a few minutes later. Ian was stretching out on the couch, Rebecca found a cozy piece of carpet and (can you see where this is going?) Katherine got bored so curled up in a chair.
Before I know it, it’s 6:30 p.m. and the whole house is still sleeping and no one was happy to be awoken, least of all Nicholas. At first we were totally confused, wondering if it was 6:30 in the morning and the sun was rising or if we had saved enough of the night by waking in the evening. Thankfully it got darker and while no one really wanted to be up, wake up we did and to get our blood pumping we set out on a walk to find a school nearby that had a chapel. We figured that it would be a good adventure and keep the kids awake and I do believe that the biggest hits on the walk for me was to see the other houses up close even in the dark, and for the kids was to see the cockroaches scurrying around and the random stray cat. Earlier in the day Ian had made a quick map of where the school was and before long we found it and discovered there was an 8 a.m. service and a 10 a.m. service. OK, let’s be realistic. We’re still all going to be up way before the crack of dawn, and by 10 a.m. a 20 minute walk will be scorching. So we settled on the 8 a.m. and walked back, fighting to keep Jonathon awake and Nicholas moving and the girls from tripping over their own feet. We do know why everyone walks in the streets now which bodes not so well for traffic. The sidewalks are very iffy, if they’re there at all. Tree roots push up sections, parts disappear to driveways, trash pickup means some portions are blocked by bags, some ripped into strays, and no one clears the trees and bush branches from whacking you in the head. Oh right, trash pick-up. They do it twice. Not twice a week, twice every night. You can put out bags of trash at anytime and it should be gone within 12-24 hours. I’m not kidding! Everyone puts out every bit of trash from regular sized bags to little baggie sized waste. Apparently there’s a recycling truck that comes by as well, but we haven’t seen it.
So we made it back home to play some MasterMind and Chess and finally packed everyone off to bed around 10:30 p.m. in hopes that they would be better adjusted. The girls made it to 6 a.m. while Nicholas made it to 5 a.m. and mom and Jonathon were up at 3 a.m. But that’s better, right?
Sunday, March 30th: We thought we’d go to the 10 a.m. Mass at the chapel, but with everyone up around 5 a.m. and the day already progressing to warm, we marched out around 7:30 for the 8 a.m. service. We were there early, but needn’t have worried at Mass began around 8:10-8:15. There was no music at all, the chapel is outdoors so thank goodness for lots of fans, and everyone was silent. We were the only folks there with children, so every noise they made seemed louder than it really was. Mass was totally in English and very short. I spent part of my time outside with the boys since there was nothing to keep them occupied, not even missals as the weekly liturgy is printed out and Jonathon thought it would be great fun to chew it then rip it. But it was all very short and we were walking home by 8:45. I now remember back to my days in Africa and how Communion was run as a free for all as the entire church gets up and moves to the aisle at one time, but during Mass I’d forgotten, so it seemed like chaos today.
When we got home, Mike Trott called and offered us a ride to Mass which we had to decline. Around noon we walked down the street to their home where they had generously offered to host us for lunch. It was a welcome meal as last night all I’d managed to make was some salad and no one was hungry enough to eat it. And after lunch, the pool was open for business and the kids had a blast. Thank goodness I’d lathered them up in sunscreen as it was in full sun for part of the afternoon. Wendy Trott and I chatted while everyone else was in the pool and she’s a font of information and anecdotes. She did seem a little concerned when I said I wasn’t going to hire a yaya and wondered how I would attend Ladies Functions. Ladies Functions aren’t at the top of my list, so I’m not worried about that, but she was insistent that I would have trouble meeting people unless I would be able to get out without the kids, or even go grocery shopping. What I’ve been looking forward to instead is not functions, but rather hiring someone to do the basic housekeeping thereby leaving my hands free to play with my kids. That’s what I’m aiming for, so my ultimate hire would be someone who comes in part-time (say 9-3) with the option of staying longer to babysit if we need to go somewhere in the evening. But a nanny is not someone I want or need.
March 27th - March 28th: Mabuhay to Manila
Thursday, March 27th: What a cruddy night sleep. The sunburn really did not treat me well. I should know better by now. We decided to have breakfast elsewhere, and before we knew it, the clouds had opened up. We made it back to the hotel rooms before it really came down, and watched the sheets of rain from our balcony.
This didn’t make me very comfortable with our flight this afternoon. I also have a ridiculous fear of falling from great heights, as 17 floors up feels to me. Having the kids on the balcony made my heart pound, especially as things were a bit slippery with the rain. I found it easier just to sit and write some postcards.
By 11 a.m. the rain had stopped and we did a final walk past the extravagantly priced Louis Vuitton store. Who needs a $500 coin purse anyhow? Someone must. We also passed the quasi Duty Free store where I’d bought some dolphin shaped chocolate and guava/papaya scented soap. Yeah, I actually bought this stuff. But the soap smelled so good! I should have picked up the same soap but the one with the loofa inside. Probably would help me later with this sunburn. Anyhow, the shuttle eventually showed and I’m so glad we insisted on the early time. We were the first stop on almost an hour of touring the area picking up travelers from here there and everywhere. Eventually we did make it to the airport and had someone take our tickets to check-in and our bags to the x-ray while Ian went to do the amazing. He went to a separate desk and explained our situation in detail.
A half hour later (and some annoyed people in line), he had 3 new tickets with boarding passes in hand. Holy cow, everything went perfectly.
We meandered over to the gate only to find it all locked up, with all the stores around closed up. Was everything shut for lunch? How odd. So we went to get some lunch ourselves and learned that all the shops close up once the flights to Japan depart. Well, thanks a lot! Thank goodness we’d done our souvenir shopping at the resort. I’d picked up a small photo album made with some Hawaiian paper art and the girls had picked up hula skirts for themselves. At the airport with the rest of her money, Rebecca bought a hula doll as mother to the hula girl she’d bought earlier. All Nicholas came away with from this trip was a Warner Brothers beach ball. He wanted a big beach ball, that’s what he got and he was happy. And he had plenty of change from his $5.
Back at the gate and it was finally open. Thank goodness my mom was flying out today too so she could get past main security, but because this wasn’t her flight, they wouldn’t let her into the gate. Blah. We had to go in as early boarders with 4 kids and 2 car seats, so there was no hanging around saying goodbyes. It was best this way. We made it short and sweet and my mom headed over to her own gate to avoid getting upset in front of the kids. Ian asked if I was OK and honestly, no, I wasn’t. The longest I’ve ever not seen my mom is about 6 weeks. If they come to visit next Feb-March, this is going to be a year. This is going to be hard. Harder than I want to admit.
It was getting warm and not soon enough we were allowed to board. The seats were fairly cramped, but every seat had a TV screen and one of our movie options was Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, so we were all perfectly comfortable. The overhead screens showed our flight path and ETA which I thought was pretty cool.
Nicholas was asleep before we left Hawaii soil and Jonathon conked out soon after. He slept fitfully so eventually I gave him a bit of Tylenol thinking that the air pressure or something was bugging him. Only Rebecca made it to eat a meal. The girls did manage to write letters to grandma on the flight. A couple hours later he calmed down and slept the entire rest of the flight. In fact, Rebecca finally fell asleep and Katherine did as well. I couldn’t have planned a better flight than 4 sleeping children for almost 7 straight hours.
At around 5:30 p.m. Thursday ended and Friday was on its way to closure. Hello International Date Line.
Friday, March 28th: What can one say about a day that never really existed? Oh, a lot, just you wait. We crossed the International Date Line to reach Guam and suddenly it was Friday evening and Thursday but a memory. The kids were sleeping while I filched all the snacks and foodstuffs from their trays into my backpack for when they woke up. It was a good thing too because even though we only had an hour on the ground in Guam, they were all hungry. It happens when you sleep through all your meals on a 7 hour flight.
I did stop in to the only store open and helped out the Guam economy by buying a set of BoJo Bo dolls. My good luck is coming any day now, I can feel it. Got back onto yet another plane and all the kids conked right out and missed yet another meal, which I admit, I pocketed everything but the spaghetti.
So we landed in Manila and woke everyone yet again, promising them that it was the last flight for a long while. We were 45 minutes early, in a swarm of people and our sponsor was no where to be found. Heading over to the customs lines we figured it was better to be actively doing nothing rather than passively doing nothing. After a few minutes we decided we were in the wrong lane and about to switch when Ian decided to go back to the gate and see if we’d missed the sponsor. Finally, she arrived, and we handed over our passports to the expediter and went to collect our bags.
Getting through customs and collecting our bags took about the same amount of time and before we knew it we were in a van heading out into Manila while our bags were in another van right behind us. I guess they were expecting us to have 12 bags (which we were allowed, but couldn’t fathom how we’d manage them with carrying Jonathon, pulling Nicholas and constantly telling the girls to keep up! Maybe on our next cross the world trip. In two years.)
Our barangay (aka neighborhood) is Dasmarinas Village. It’s a large barangay with lighted (but not well-lighted) tree-lined streets. Most of the homes are walled or gated within the outer wall. We pulled up our home and were in awe. It’s a white two-story with big columns and a carport on the side. There’s no real yard other than a small patch of grass in the front, but the front doors are stunning wooden French doors with lovely detail. Walking in there’s a huge L-shaped living into dining room with an extra bedroom/office to the right. Also to the right is the staircase to upstairs. Gorgeous inlayed floors on the stairs and the upper floor were the second thing I noticed. The stairs end in an upstairs den with a master bedroom to the left and the 2 kids bedrooms to the right (with a bathroom between them). Off the master bedroom is a dressing room that leads into the master bath. All the bathrooms are marble tiled. In fact, so are all the floors on the main floor. There are bars on all the windows and a full house security system. Part of life overseas. The furniture is all typical bland government issue but there’s plenty of it so no complaints. And we have a welcome kit that provides sheets, towels, pots, utensils and all necessary items. But, there is no crib here. Uh oh.
After looking around for a minute, our social sponsors from down the street came by and we chatted for a bit. Mostly though, the kids were getting wired and we were beyond exhausted. Broken sleep on a flight doesn’t make anyone well rested, so without being rude everyone headed home and we jerry-rigged a walled twin bed with chairs and pillows for Jonathon. There were no complaints from anyone as the lights went out.
This didn’t make me very comfortable with our flight this afternoon. I also have a ridiculous fear of falling from great heights, as 17 floors up feels to me. Having the kids on the balcony made my heart pound, especially as things were a bit slippery with the rain. I found it easier just to sit and write some postcards.
By 11 a.m. the rain had stopped and we did a final walk past the extravagantly priced Louis Vuitton store. Who needs a $500 coin purse anyhow? Someone must. We also passed the quasi Duty Free store where I’d bought some dolphin shaped chocolate and guava/papaya scented soap. Yeah, I actually bought this stuff. But the soap smelled so good! I should have picked up the same soap but the one with the loofa inside. Probably would help me later with this sunburn. Anyhow, the shuttle eventually showed and I’m so glad we insisted on the early time. We were the first stop on almost an hour of touring the area picking up travelers from here there and everywhere. Eventually we did make it to the airport and had someone take our tickets to check-in and our bags to the x-ray while Ian went to do the amazing. He went to a separate desk and explained our situation in detail.
A half hour later (and some annoyed people in line), he had 3 new tickets with boarding passes in hand. Holy cow, everything went perfectly.
We meandered over to the gate only to find it all locked up, with all the stores around closed up. Was everything shut for lunch? How odd. So we went to get some lunch ourselves and learned that all the shops close up once the flights to Japan depart. Well, thanks a lot! Thank goodness we’d done our souvenir shopping at the resort. I’d picked up a small photo album made with some Hawaiian paper art and the girls had picked up hula skirts for themselves. At the airport with the rest of her money, Rebecca bought a hula doll as mother to the hula girl she’d bought earlier. All Nicholas came away with from this trip was a Warner Brothers beach ball. He wanted a big beach ball, that’s what he got and he was happy. And he had plenty of change from his $5.
Back at the gate and it was finally open. Thank goodness my mom was flying out today too so she could get past main security, but because this wasn’t her flight, they wouldn’t let her into the gate. Blah. We had to go in as early boarders with 4 kids and 2 car seats, so there was no hanging around saying goodbyes. It was best this way. We made it short and sweet and my mom headed over to her own gate to avoid getting upset in front of the kids. Ian asked if I was OK and honestly, no, I wasn’t. The longest I’ve ever not seen my mom is about 6 weeks. If they come to visit next Feb-March, this is going to be a year. This is going to be hard. Harder than I want to admit.
It was getting warm and not soon enough we were allowed to board. The seats were fairly cramped, but every seat had a TV screen and one of our movie options was Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, so we were all perfectly comfortable. The overhead screens showed our flight path and ETA which I thought was pretty cool.
Nicholas was asleep before we left Hawaii soil and Jonathon conked out soon after. He slept fitfully so eventually I gave him a bit of Tylenol thinking that the air pressure or something was bugging him. Only Rebecca made it to eat a meal. The girls did manage to write letters to grandma on the flight. A couple hours later he calmed down and slept the entire rest of the flight. In fact, Rebecca finally fell asleep and Katherine did as well. I couldn’t have planned a better flight than 4 sleeping children for almost 7 straight hours.
At around 5:30 p.m. Thursday ended and Friday was on its way to closure. Hello International Date Line.
Friday, March 28th: What can one say about a day that never really existed? Oh, a lot, just you wait. We crossed the International Date Line to reach Guam and suddenly it was Friday evening and Thursday but a memory. The kids were sleeping while I filched all the snacks and foodstuffs from their trays into my backpack for when they woke up. It was a good thing too because even though we only had an hour on the ground in Guam, they were all hungry. It happens when you sleep through all your meals on a 7 hour flight.
I did stop in to the only store open and helped out the Guam economy by buying a set of BoJo Bo dolls. My good luck is coming any day now, I can feel it. Got back onto yet another plane and all the kids conked right out and missed yet another meal, which I admit, I pocketed everything but the spaghetti.
So we landed in Manila and woke everyone yet again, promising them that it was the last flight for a long while. We were 45 minutes early, in a swarm of people and our sponsor was no where to be found. Heading over to the customs lines we figured it was better to be actively doing nothing rather than passively doing nothing. After a few minutes we decided we were in the wrong lane and about to switch when Ian decided to go back to the gate and see if we’d missed the sponsor. Finally, she arrived, and we handed over our passports to the expediter and went to collect our bags.
Getting through customs and collecting our bags took about the same amount of time and before we knew it we were in a van heading out into Manila while our bags were in another van right behind us. I guess they were expecting us to have 12 bags (which we were allowed, but couldn’t fathom how we’d manage them with carrying Jonathon, pulling Nicholas and constantly telling the girls to keep up! Maybe on our next cross the world trip. In two years.)
Our barangay (aka neighborhood) is Dasmarinas Village. It’s a large barangay with lighted (but not well-lighted) tree-lined streets. Most of the homes are walled or gated within the outer wall. We pulled up our home and were in awe. It’s a white two-story with big columns and a carport on the side. There’s no real yard other than a small patch of grass in the front, but the front doors are stunning wooden French doors with lovely detail. Walking in there’s a huge L-shaped living into dining room with an extra bedroom/office to the right. Also to the right is the staircase to upstairs. Gorgeous inlayed floors on the stairs and the upper floor were the second thing I noticed. The stairs end in an upstairs den with a master bedroom to the left and the 2 kids bedrooms to the right (with a bathroom between them). Off the master bedroom is a dressing room that leads into the master bath. All the bathrooms are marble tiled. In fact, so are all the floors on the main floor. There are bars on all the windows and a full house security system. Part of life overseas. The furniture is all typical bland government issue but there’s plenty of it so no complaints. And we have a welcome kit that provides sheets, towels, pots, utensils and all necessary items. But, there is no crib here. Uh oh.
After looking around for a minute, our social sponsors from down the street came by and we chatted for a bit. Mostly though, the kids were getting wired and we were beyond exhausted. Broken sleep on a flight doesn’t make anyone well rested, so without being rude everyone headed home and we jerry-rigged a walled twin bed with chairs and pillows for Jonathon. There were no complaints from anyone as the lights went out.
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