Life in Cebu

The Walk to Church is lovely with beautiful flowers and trees along the narrow street--rain drops still on the flower.

 

 

 

No need for coat racks and closets here but you will need umbrella holders. The one new item of clothing that I bought before I came was a raincoat which I am sure that I will never wear. The sales lady wanted to make sure that it was big enough to put a sweater under it. This is the lovely little Mabolo chapel. There is no air conditioning just lots of fans. Today a stray dog wondered in but no one seemed too concerned --it turned around and left.

Construction goes on seven days a week --just behind the church building. People here are very hard workers and work long hours. Below is our apartment. The guards will open and close the gate for you. 

 

 
Welll


 
Well, guess what --they do run and bike in Cebu. Below is a man that was running with his two boys and wife--hinay, hinay. There was a big Iron Man competition here August 4, 2013. These events always start early in the morning. One day a man came into the office and I could see that he had some runners in a bag. I asked something about running and he pulled out a pair of "well worn" shoes that he had just had repaired.

We meet wonderful and interesting people when we walk either home from work, to the temple or to one of the malls. There was Abraham who worked at the French Baker. He sold coffee on the side to make enough to live. And there was a Japanese fellow that works in Japan as an IT person 3-4 months of the year and comes to the Philippines because it is much cheaper to live. There is the little fellow that took my hand, and touched his forehead--a sign of respect for the elderly. Then there were the two brothers with the drums made out of tin cans and other material. They played wonderful music.

 There is one very busy street corner that does have lights. Usually someone there is directing traffic as well. When the walk sign comes on it is actually a little fellow running. That really doesn't matter to pedestrians as they all just cross the street when they see an opening anyway. The cars drive very close to each other and the motorcycles and bicycles weave in and out. Pedestrians do not have the right of way.

 

If the traffic is heavy this motorcycle  "just used the sidewalk" to get ahead of the cars

"moving day"

 

 

They have McDonald's here --and they do deliveries.

This is family transportation and it isn't unusual to see two children with their parents. Most adults wear helmets now.  Next is motorcycle parking by Ayala mall.

 No more drinks along the sidewalk. The city decided that the water was contaminated.

Our first jeepney ride

 

 Sweet little school children--always clean and smiling. The public schools sometimes have more than 50 students in a class.

 

This was a religious parade at 5:00 PM (rush hour) on the main street. There are a lot of catholic people that live here. The parade totally blocked the main road so we eventually tried another route. It took us over an hour to get home instead of 10 minutes. No one here seemed too concerned--they just waited or found another way.    

 

 

Yes, toothpaset in the candy isle.

 And, a special isle for chocolate is common. There is chocolate bread and chocolate everything.

 This is a popular treat that we use at the SRC (now PEF Self Reliance Center or PEF SRC) for graduation, incentives or whatever.

Banana heart--take off the outer tough leaves and use in a stir fry

Above is the inside of a Jack fruit and below is the outside of part of one. This is the largest fruit in the world and can grow to 80 pounds. There was a picture of one hanging in a tree in the last post.

 Lanzones--sweet and yummy

 Mangosteen--very good

 

My favorite papaya and mango--no balut!!

Ramboton

 

 

 

 

Rain delivers fruit to our office. He does this so that he can go to school. One day a week he picks up the fruit at 1:00 AM and then does deliveries each morning as he has school later in the day. Rebecca brings us powdered milk. Some kind of work is part of the  requirement for PEF

 

Any excuse for a party and food--ubie purple yam cake

Philippinos all tell you that they love sweet.

 

SRC and Around

When it rains it really rains but it may not last long. Bro. Jai (Jarius Perez) says that Cebu has not had a typhoon for big storm for many years.

 

He looks after all the disaster areas in the Philippines where the church is framing houses  for residence to finish and he is negotiating water improvement where it is needed.

 

 

view from our FGU office building 

 

We feel very fortunate to live where we do. Parts of Cebu flood regularly. We just have a few leaks now and then--the television does not work but we do have WiFi .

 

 

One Saturday we discovered this art show at SR mall and went back the next Saturday because we wanted to take pictures (without flash was permitted).

 

 This was my favorite "One Market Day" by Ramon V. Dias

 

Another weekend we had  a Stake Relief Society activity. The purpose was to encourage and motivate women to become more self reliant through self employment or helping a spouse. Speaker was James Fantone from Ace Academy.

The next weekend was the ACE Academy Conference on Saturday --

"Growing and Strengthening Your Money Tree"

The focus is on small business--"start small think big". Always take a livable salary and save for a rainy day. Don't kill the golden goose.

The workshop "Trash for Cash" was interesting. They made paper beads and paper to weave all sorts of items--using items all headed for the trash.

 

Some of our classes are quite Amazing. I enjoy working with the PEF students figuring how they can go to school, work and get the money that they need for their education. Sometimes my heart breaks --like when I read in the paper about a 12 year old who wants to be a doctor. He sells hard boiled eggs on the corner after school to help his family--and hopes that the rugby boys don't punch him and steal his money.

 

Office Staff (Elder and Sister John, Eljane, Me, Sister Keller, May and Mary Ann Balen) The Johns go home in August and a new couple, the Mathers, come the end of. October.



Classes and Job Fairs will draw quite a large number of people--up to 40 sometimes..

 Ramil Judilla is over thirty, which means that it will get harder to find a job. He has three children. Right now he drives a jeepney but has no drivers license. He would like a call center job as they will hire older people and the pay is better than average. However, he could not pass the language part of the call center test so his brother James (below) told him to come into our center. He worked very hard and was beaming one day when he came in --he had passed the language part but not the technical part. He does have a small printing business so we wondered if he could expand that. James teaches English to Korean students.

 

Ponciano in front of Elder John is a church member with six children. He had a sea shell business but says that it has been out sourced to China so --he wants a call center job. The rest are not members of the church but wonderful and gracious people.

 Below is a group of missionaries that are just ready to return home. This is a very unusual group as so many were from the USA, but all missionaries take the Career Workshop course before returning home.

 

 Bennie, in the back with the blue shirt, is 37 years old. He used to work in Dubai but now wants to be home with his family so he is hoping to get a call center job. The person behind Sister Keller wants a call center job. Her son took the course and he thinks that if he could just get to Canada he could earn lots of money to support his mother.

Elizabeth (sixth from the left) spends hours writing out notes from a call center book in the office. She worked in the UK but "intonation" keeps her from passing the language test. She came home because her son had an accident and had one leg amputated. Anna in the black and white top wants to go to the temple and wanted to improve her English. She grows coconuts and has a small farm. 

 

Jefrey and Arjai were so lacking in confidence that I was surprised that they even came. But they were so proud of their certificate after eight classes and thanked us both. They really did improve and it gives them hope.

 Nenieta was leaving a teaching job because the pay didn't make it worth her while to work but she likes teaching. At the end of the American Accent program when she listened to the two tapes of before and after the classes (that is how we evaluate progress) she said: "wow I really am better and I even look prettier too".

 

I just want the best for every one of the people that we work with. We pray for them and we love them.

 

Just in case you wonder I am a member of the Mabolo ward choir. I told them to smile because my family may not believe that I am really joining the choir.

 

 

A few of the girls from the Apas ward choir that did a fireside "Do You Have My Name?" The music was wonderful and the presentation great. It definitely motivated us all to do our family history, and the temple work for our ancestors. .