Philippine Sites

 Here are some of the MANY Jeepneys here

 Here was a train that we saw

 Another train

 We are on the lower road-that thing above is a road too-called the Skyway, completed within the last 2 years and a great help at times when traffic is bad.

 This picture was taken out the window on the Skyway-the things you can see out in the water are fish farms-they eat so much fish here that they have to raise them.

 You see all kinds of vehicles on the roads at the same time here and often quite close together

 This is a mom feeding her child some ice cream-I just didn't catch it where you could see the child's face

 A KFC with Jeepneys in front

Outside Activities since the Container has come

 The bicycles-are you surprised that Ashley's is pink?

 The kids were excited to see balls and

 at this house we have a flat place to play basketball!  We just hope the window that it sits next to will survive!

 Ryan loves to ride his bike

 trying out a jump rope

Scott on his bike

What Ashley does while we play games

Sometimes it's hard being youngest and told that you are too little to play a certain game-Ashley can spend a lot of time really concentrating on arranging these dominoes just so in the box-it is funny to watch.  We do let her play sometimes too!

Pictures Added

You can go back to the following posts to see pictures now-
-Reading to Ryan's class

-the Container

-the Shallow Pool

-Field Trip to the Fire Station

-Family Day at Ashley's Preschool

Funny Philippine happenings

Greg went to Wilcons Home Depot to buy some scrap wood and a few other things we needed for around the house.  He was ill about having to pay for scrap wood, knowing how much we had put on the curb for the garbage men before we left Greenville.

He found that the store didn't sell scraps but they would cut a piece for him-a good thing since his saw went to storage.   He was told that he had to pay for the wood before they would cut it.  So he takes his stick of wood to the cash register and pays for it.  Then the guy who is helping him gets out his manual (aka old fashioned) saw and cuts the wood right there at the register.  We got a good laugh out of this.

Several days later, something happened to me that reminded me of Greg's sawing experience at the store-Scott's bicycle was damaged in the ocean container and we were trying to decide whether to repair or replace it.  We asked our driver if he knew of a bicycle shop and he took it and got an estimate for us.  We still had a couple of questions and I tried to ask them over the phone but we weren't communicating very well.  So after Ashley's field trip to the fire station, I got the driver to take us to the bike shop.

I had really just intended to ask my questions and leave the bike to be worked on but no-that didn't happen.  Our driver was literally parked on the side of the road-taking up a lane-and the "service dept" of this bike shop was 3 guys sittin on the sidewalk in front of the store.  The front fork (the metal bars that go on either side of the front tire) was pretty badly bent.  When the main guy finished the bike he was working on, he started taking Scott's apart which Ashley was rather confused about.  He took the tire off the rim and made some adjustments to it and then laid the fork on the ground, put a block of wood on top of it and started beating it back into the correct shape.  It was comical to watch.

While we were standing there watching all this-Ashley was occupying herself mostly with looking at bicycles for sale, counting jeepneys-going by really close on the road, and jumping around.  Another customer drove up needing something tightened on his bike.  He was carrying a bundle of some kind of long grass looking stuff, but that wasn't as unusual as the fact that there was a board on top of the top rail of the bike-the one your legs straddle when you ride.  On that board was where his dog rode!  I've never seen a dog ride a bike before-quite humorous!

Just a few more things

Go back and check out the last several old posts-I added a bunch tonight.

A highlight that I can't believe I forgot to list-I got to have a WONDERFUL phone conversation with my dear friend Leslie, who has been in Germany for the last 3 years and moved back to Greenville with her family about 2 weeks after we left.  It was the first time we had talked in over a year!  We email all the time and it was such fun to really talk!  I have missed you dear friend and LOVED our talk. It is also great to have a friend who has been through such a similar situation to ours!

Two funny things about the Philippines-

1.  Greg had told me that Christmas is really big here!  Little did I know-On Monday September 12th I was at the mall (it's hard to believe but it had actually been a few days)  I couldn't believe what I heard and saw-Christmas music and decorations-trees in stores and all kinds of decorations for sale and decorating the stores.  I was completely dumbfounded.  I guess we'll have to start shopping for an artificial tree-no NC frasier fur purchased at Home Depot for us this year.  The children would like it but Greg would break the cds if I start playing the Chipmunks Christmas music this soon! 

2.  Corn meal-I KNOW I have seen it somewhere at a grocery store here-now if I could just remember which one.  This is important because I bought some okra recently and have to have cornmeal to fry it in-though mine NEVER turns out as good as my mother's always was.  Daddy and I had fights over the last spoonful.  I may have to post something on one of the message boards I belong to so that I can find it quickly-don't want to waste good okra.  I asked about it at a grocery store and the guy I asked said "corn" and then took me to a box of corn flakes cereal-I don't think it would be the same!

Family Day

Ashley's school did something else fun on Saturday-9-17.  They had a family day with game booths, prizes for the children, large group games where we competed in teams.  Each family was assigned to a team before today and we were on the blue team.  Ashley asked me as we were driving to Family Day "can I change clothes when we get home?"  I asked why she wanted to and her answer was "I don't like blue clothes!"  Can you say obsessed with pink!

 It was funny to watch Ashley playing this cup game-at first she wanted to run to the other team's line of cups because they had a pink one.

 They had games for big brothers and sisters to join in.

 The mom game-they had to wear aprons and run get ingredients for recipes-I didn't play this one-the clues for what ingredient to get were all read in tagalog-the Philippine language.

 The ya-yas (kids' nannies) game-popping balloon relay-Ashley had her ears covered this whole game.

 All the blue team's children with their medals

 Ashley and her teacher (Ms. Rheena) leading the children in our blessing before we had snacks.

 My children never pass up ice cream-the boys had chocolate and I think that Ashley's was cheese flavored-an interesting flavor for ice cream???

Ashley loves this tiara comb for her hair and was very proud of herself for winning this as a game prize!

The kids enjoyed the game booths and playing on the nearby playground.  The first group game was for each team to find something that started with each letter of Family Day.  Ashley was one of the As.  We enjoyed the games, had fun being with the other families, had snacks, and came home.

Ashley's School trip to the Fire Station

All 5 classes from Ashley's school went to the fire station this morning-about 30 children in addition to parents, teachers, and nannies.  It was quite a crowd. 

Two of the funniest things are that here the fire trucks are green!  not red and the fire station dogs are not dalmatians-the had one doberman pinscher and one who looked like Grammy's dog Mack-a black lab.

The firemen talked to the children.  One wore his fire pants, coat, boots, and helmet for them.  All the children got to hold the fire hose and turn the water on and off.

The firemen held children and slid down the firepoles with them-Ashley wanted NO part of this. 

Then came the really crazy part-we went on a ride ON TOP OF the fire truck-actually there were so many of us it took 2 trucks.  We sat on top with our feet down in where the hoses usually go.  I was thinking as we were riding (and I was holding on to the bar tightly-Ashley and I were at the back) "this is an insurance company's nightmare!"  At least in the US it would have been.  The teacher sitting across from me and Ashley captured the wonderful expressions on Ashley's face as we rode.

It was a really fun field trip!