...part 6

Just so everyone knows, while on our trips I try to keep a travel journal.  I love to write down the things I see, the people we meet, the things we do, and (most importantly) the food we eat.  Well, I always start with good intentions.  I'm fairly consistent for the first week.  The second week is where I start to fall behind.  And then, by the end, I've usually gotten so far behind that there's virtually no hope of catching up, though I try to with all the energy I can muster.

Such was the case with this trip.  I was on the island of Siquijor in the Philippines, roughly 4 or 5 days into our time in the country.  Do you know how far back I was writing for?  I was trying desperately to get from Bangkok to Chiang Mai...I didn't even make it through all of Chiang Mai before I gave up.  So, needless to say, my journal has a bunch of blank pages from our last day in Chiang Mai all the way through the Philippines, Taiwan, and the many national parks we ventured through in the western United States on our way home to Utah before moving to Oregon.  Yes, my friends, what you will get from here on out are pictures with commentary instead of the exhausting essays that have preceded this post.  I suppose you're relieved since each post is impossibly long and I've always been garrulous.

And so we continue...

Philippines

These people are my really good friends.  I served my mission in Utah with the three girls and when we got together in San Fernando 4 years after I got home from my mission (and about 5 for two of the others) it was like no time had passed at all.  We had a little picnic before heading up into the mountains for some sightseeing.  I also got my first mosquito bite in the Philippines while eating this lunch...the mosquitoes there are freaking brutal!  I hate mosquitoes in general, and I mean a hate fire fueled with nitroglycerin, but these nasty blood suckers make that hate worse.  Serious kine, they make me so angry!!  But, thanks to something that's not sold to the general public in the United States, a little ethyl alcohol immediately took away the sting and itch those nasty insects leave behind.

After spending some time in the mountains with some really pretty scenery and almost getting attacked by monkeys, we came down to the ocean.  The fish in the second picture were directly behind and below where we were sitting in the first picture.  My friend's son has no fear and wanted to jump right in where the fish were, so the guy behind us is her husband holding their son while he views the fish.  It was a little early to see the hundreds of bats take to the air for their dinner, so we just watched them hang and "converse" with one another in the trees across the street from where we were sitting (as seen below).

A couple days later we went back to the airport to fly down to Cebu where we met up with another friend of mine from my mission.  Diva is one of 17 siblings and a part of one of the happiest families I have ever met in my life.  Supremely humble and kind, they are an extraordinary family.  Diva and her sister met us at the airport and we first went to drop off our stuff at our guesthouse before going to visit the Mormon temple in that city.  After that, we took a jeepney most of the way up a hill with the intention of watching the sun set from a great lookout spot.  When the jeepney took us as far as its route would allow, we negotiated for the four of us to pay for a ride on a couple of motorbikes.  The drivers took one look at the white couple and then at the two tiny Filipinos that accompanied us and said, "One big, one little each."  Haha!  Meaning, one big white American and one little Filipino on each motorbike to even out the weight.  And even with the balancing, we all had to stop and walk a certain part of the road up to the view point because the incline was too steep and the load too heavy for the motorbike to make it the rest of the way.  The sunset was virtually non-existant, but the moonrise was really pretty.  Soon it was time to head back down the mountain for dinner, a shower, and some sleep.  The next day was church and a meal with Diva and her family.

This is the bedroom that Diva's siblings that remain at home all share together.  For those of us who had to share a room with a sibling, and one of the opposite sex, I can only think back on memories of arguments and no privacy.  Imagine 6 or more boys and girls all in one room with one of the drawers in a filing cabinet as your own...now be grateful for what you had (and currently have).  And aside from normal sibling behaviors, they all get along and play well with one another the majority of the time.

Mass was being held outside since it was such a large crowd.  Never have I seen such a large crowd gather for religious purposes.  Even the number of concert-goers at the Christian rock concert Jordan and I attended probably couldn't top the number of Filipinos gathered here to listen to the sermon.  I tried very hard to not to lose Diva as we made our way through the crowd to see Magellan's cross, but Jordan had a pretty easy time keeping track of me since I was at least a few inches taller than most of the people there and had a lighter hair color than everyone else.

By the way, this is Magellan's cross...but not really.  The real one is encased within the large shell you see in the photo.  Time and moist air would have reduced the original to nothing by now if it had been left in the open air for viewing.

The nice building in the background is the Mormon temple.  It is a pretty structure on its own with a parking lot large enough to accommodate those that attend the temple.  This squatter's settlement is obviously not very far from it.  There will be no commentary here about the money spent on building religious buildings versus the amount spent on caring for the poor.  Anyone who knows the Mormon church knows of the monetary support offered through the welfare and humanitarian programs they provide around the world.  I will, however, say that there is a large portion of the general membership that thinks attending church and the temple regularly and checking the box next to whether or not our home and visiting teaching has been done for the month makes us an active participant in Jesus' gospel while we ignore the literal and figurative squatters in our backyard thinking that the organization of the church is taking care of them for us.  'Tis not so.  We need to open our eyes and live and serve as Christ would if we expect to recognize Him and be recognized by Him.

These children probably know nothing of how the outside world views their poverty.  Does it look like they care?  They were some of the happiest children I've ever seen.  Similar to the children in Bali playing soccer in the abandoned and overgrown lot we saw back in 2010, these kids don't need Call of Duty or World of Warcraft to feel entertained or happy.  A foreigner pulling out a camera down the street is more entertaining for them than what our kids in rich countries, like the USA, have come to expect and even demand from their parents as part of a happy and fulfilled life.

This is looking back on the small, small city of Dumaguete where we flew when our time in Cebu came to a close.  Dumaguete was just a very short stop-over on our way to the island of Siquijor where we planned on staying 3 days.  It was a beautiful sunny day and we were excited to go to an island where we could enjoy more time on the beach.  In the very first photo is the girl in pink and her husband in the black t-shirt...when we told them our itinerary for the Philippines they told us they spent their honeymoon on Siquijor.  So they gave us an expectation for price and a few tips on places to go for swimming and snorkeling.

We toured around the island and stopped at this little bay (a suggestion from Edellen and Paul's honeymoon).  It was so calm and beautiful!!  We had a really great time and while snorkeling we saw lots of little colorful fish as well as a sea horse.  Rare to see one of those in all the times we've been diving, so we were very excited.  Jordan made friends with a bunch of children and a few guys around our age and when we took a break from swimming, they offered us our second lunch of the day...close to a half hour after a different family offered us lunch.  We met the first family while touring through a super old church and I offered to help them take a picture of their family as they were celebrating the newest baby's baptism.  When we arrived at the beach we were surprised to see them there and they lit up when they saw us.  They invited us to eat with them...their lechon baboy was so good!!  Never had better.  From our time in the Muslim majority Malaysia we were craving pork, so this was perfect.  The second family had their version of lechon baboy, so we had a lot of pig that day.  A lot.  This beach was also where I got stung about 18 times by little jellyfish across the arms and chest.  (The picture below isn't in focus on my arm, but that's the best one we've got of the incident.)

When we left Siquijor we spent 2 nights in Dumaguete and wandered around pretty aimlessly for most of the time.  We had an extra guest in our room, a mouse, so at night and whenever we left our hotel room we tied up our snacks and put them up in the bathroom in the middle of the shower curtain rod so it couldn't get into our food.  Necessary precautions to protect my precious snacks.  There's no way I'll give up my snacks.  While in Dumaguete there was some kind of race that was going on one night while we were having a McFlurry.  We had no idea what was going on, but were intrigued nonetheless.  Time passed and pretty soon it was time to head back to the airport to get to Taiwan.