Just like family...

So, I don't know why, but God decided to throw an extra special blessing at us in the form of friends that are loving us like family.

David has one other co-worker at the Embassy that also is being contracted by the Department of Justice. He fills a different role than David does, but his office is right beside David's, and he seems to have decided before we even got here that their family was going to take care of ours. Obviously, I have no problem with this decision. :)

They've been here about 6 months, and C. and S. are empty nesters with young adult kids back in the U.S. They live in our condo complex, and they have already gotten all their furnishings and their car.

I figured out pretty quickly that it was going to be no fun to take all the boys to the Embassy for a full day of newcomer trainings, and I was asking around to see if anyone's helper would be willing to watch them for me. Well, S. offered to keep them. All day.

They had a fantastic time with her. They made pizza and cookies, and she told me that she wasn't exhausted after a full day with them. Say what? That's miraculous.

She's been taking me grocery shopping every Monday, and I usually bring one of the boys along to experience the truly interesting experience that is the Filipino grocery store.

S. dropped by McDonalds when the boys were working just to say hi and let them serve her some ice cream.

C. has been taking us with him to a local church on Sunday mornings.

We had them over, and they played a game with all of us. And brought over dessert. (May it be noted that I offered to have them over for dessert, but she likes baking so much that I was asked to let her bring it. :)

Their genuine kindness and open handed giving has been such a blessing. Why do I ever doubt His provision?

(I haven't asked to put their info on this little blog, so that's why I'm not giving their names.)

McDonald's Kids Crew in the Philippines...

We are walking distance to a McDonalds, and I found out early on about this thing called McDonald's Kids Crew. It sounded too good to be true. For $14 per kid U.S., your kids could go to McDonald's every afternoon for a week, and they would actually let them work behind the counter.

Note the full uniform they gave these children. This is a uniform loving country. I've even seen men dressed in identical dress shirts and ties. The ladies who check you out at the grocery store are wearing what looks like identical 60's mini dresses, including hose and nicely fixed hair and bright lipstick.

I digress. Anyway, it seems like the boys came back from camp each day with additional pieces to add to their uniforms. They gave them t-shirts to start with when I signed them up. That made sense to my American mind.

But when I picked them up from camp the first day, they had hats and name tag lanyards and bags with notebooks and stickers in them.

They missed the second day of camp due to the World's Worst Uber Driver, but the third day they had on full aprons and chef's hats when I got them. This was in addition to their new badges that said they'd been counter trained and drive thru trained.

I was expecting life sized, blow up Ronald McDonald toys by yesterday.

Y'all, they let them work behind the counter. You know this would never happen at McDonalds in the U.S., but my boys were pushing buttons on the cash register, printing out receipts, handing out napkins and condiments, making ice cream, etc.

Evan proudly handed me a cheeseburger that he made me himself. It had all the little onions and ketchup and mustard on it, and it was even in the yellow paper wrapper. How cool is that?

I thought that they did this camp during their slow time in the afternoons, but I'm learning that there is no slow time at McDonalds here. It's always busy. McDonalds is very popular, and it's considered a higher end restaurant than it is in the U.S.

I'm so glad that they let these kids actually help, and no one complained when they slowed down the line! This is such a kid friendly culture. We love that!

They told me yesterday that today was graduation day, and I figured this would be a fun experience. Check out the banner in the upstairs room.

McDonald's camp here also definitely includes dancing and singing. There are even McDonald's songs, and the kids learned them, including hand motions and dance moves. I am not kidding. It's so fun. I'm learning that Filipinos love to sing and dance.

Certificates and awards are also a bigger part of the culture than they are in the U.S. Evan got an award for "best dancer", and they asked me to pin it on him while pictures were made.

One of Seth's teachers and his graduation certificate.

We had a special guest! Grimace showed up, and he had some mean dance moves. There was selfie time with Grimace. Who am I to say no to that? :)

I forgot to mention this, but I would like to note that this isn't a secular culture. Filipinos make no apologies for being Catholic, and there are crosses and crucifixes in government buildings. Seth was asked to give the prayer to start the McDonald's graduation today, and he did a great job. :)

Good Friday in Maloban, part 3...

We were on our way back from seeing the flagellantes, and I saw some of these trikes. I asked how much they were for a ride, and M. flagged one down for us. :) David and I got on behind the motorbike driver, and the boys took the side car. It was a fun way to get back to where we parked after a lot of walking in the heat.

Back at the family home, the local coconut vendor had showed up. We watched him hack the outside off with a machete, and once he'd make a smooth top of the inner white coconut meat, he poked a straw through it. Freshest coconut water you'll ever have! In the corner of the picture of the boys, you can see their household helper. She is holding out a pitcher, and he is filling it with coconut water as  he hacks it open.

Good Friday lunch was served boodle fight club style on a table of banana leaves. You stand around the table and eat with your fingers. Most of the food was seafood, but the family roasted some chicken for me and the boys. David ate squid. :) There was also fresh lumpia, and after lunch, I got to try cheese ice cream for dessert. Don't worry, it takes more like cream cheese than cheddar, but I didn't know exactly what to expect. :)

Being with this kind family made me miss my own. M.'s father reminded me a little of my dad, and he was so kind to make sure he'd gotten filtered water for us when the lemon guy came to make lemonade. We felt so welcomed, and we found out later that this family often hosts people that their globe trotting children drag home. What a gift of sweet hospitality they had!

I felt proud of us when we got home in the early afternoon. I had no idea what to expect when we accepted the offer to spend Good Friday with a local family, and it's hard for me to do this kind of thing with the kids because I'm nervous that things won't go well with the boys (and me by extension). We smelled some unfamiliar and unpleasant smells, definitely saw things that were out of our comfort zone, and managed well without air conditioning in 95 degree heat. And everyone had a great time! We are being stretched, but it's not breaking us at this point, and I'm grateful to God for that.

Good Friday in Maloban, part 2

M. had offered to take us to see the flagellantes. These are men who have their backs sliced with blades and then walk through the streets, beating themselves with whips made of small rods or leather straps. They do this to identity with the sufferings of Christ, and she told me that isn't a machismo thing. They are genuinely devout, and people along their route give them raw eggs for sustenance and water buckets to dip their faces in as an offering for them.

This is one of the flagellantes. Most of them had their faces covered as a sign of humility so that others wouldn't know about the sacrifice that they were making.

I hadn't realized that we'd stopped beside one of the stations of the Cross, but he stopped there and crossed himself and knelt for a minute before getting up and continuing on his way.

We would occasionally see a temporary altar set up along the way, and women would be singing in Tagalog into a microphone. I found out that they were singing a Catholic Easter Missal about the life of Christ. They do this all day on Good Friday. Note the infant Jesus dressed in a Superman outfit. :)

This was a bloody scene. We tried to step back out of their way as much as possible when they were coming by, but it was hard to get back very far sometimes. This is a zoomed shot, but they weren't more than a few feet from us rather often. Ben's t-shirt was splattered with blood.

We saw only one man carrying a cross, but there were about 30 or more flagellentes in this neighborhood.

Some might question why we took our boys to see something so bloody. (I had my doubts about whether this was a good idea or not.) We gave it careful thought, and we talked to them ahead of time about what we were going to see and why the flagellantes do what they do. We told them that these Catholic believers in Jesus share many of our beliefs, and though we don't think that this kind of self punishment is necessary because Jesus paid for our sins on the Cross, these are devout men who want to understand Christ's sufferings better and want to do this because of their desire to love Christ.

It wasn't a gloomy or scary atmosphere, despite the goriness of this, and they didn't seem distressed by it, though Evan looked away and told us that he didn't like it, and we told him that was totally fine, and we didn't love to see this either.

Good Friday in Maloban, part 1....

When David flew to Manila back in October to interview for the position here, he sat next to a Filipina/American on one of his flights. She works for a U.S. company, and she spends half the year in the U.S. and half of it in Philippines. M. was so friendly and truly helpful, and she gave him her email address and invited him to get in touch with her if he wanted advice about touring. Never one to turn down a genuine offer for help, he did ask her to help him figure out how to get to the local volcano, and a friendship was born.

She offered to take us to her parents' home for Good Friday and show us around, and boy, did we ever get a cultural experience! We live in a wealthy bubble in our part of Manila, and we don't really see how the average Filipino lives on a daily basis, but she took us into a neighborhood where most foreigners rarely go.

She picked us up at our complex, and we drove about an hour away (and that's in nonexistent traffic that only happens on major holidays here, so it was a little on the outskirts of metro Manila.) We arrived at her family home, and we picked up her niece. Then we walked out to see the sights of Good Friday. Imagine narrow streets and concrete and block wall homes. There are trikes and mini bikes and people selling popcorn.

This little girl was selling tiny chicks that looked a lot like quail. They were 2 pesos apiece. Some of them were dyed blue and pink, I hear, but I didn't see that for myself.

This is a sari sari store. They sell small amounts of things like soap and cooking oil, candy, snacks, etc., and they're around every corner. Ben didn't understand why the stores were "sorry," and everyone laughed over that one. This one was owned by childhood friends of Manette.

Everywhere we went, children walked up to our kids and stared at them and sometimes touched them. Everyone was friendly, but seeing Americans around was clearly a novelty. I heard "Hey, Joe!" (a reference to G.I. Joe from the days of WWII soldiers in the Philippines) and "American boys!" 

We were there to see and be a part, but I also didn't want to intrude on an important holy day that we share with them in a disrespectful way. I think we succeeded in showing respectful curiosity. At least, I hope we did.

Grocery shopping....

I am extremely grateful that there is another Embassy wife here that has been very kind to take me grocery shopping regularly. She has found the Filipino version of Costco, and I got signed up there. (It's a lot cheaper for a yearly membership than in the U.S. Maybe $14 U.S.?)

Milk is a lot more expensive here, and most of it doesn't taste exactly the same. I can get it, but it's double the price we would pay in the U.S., so we're learning to drink a lot less. Cheese isn't a lot more expensive, but it's usually imported from California, and it's harder to find, unless you're at the Filipino Costco. You can get imported ground beef from Montana. It's really sad and tired looking, having had such a long journey, and you should freeze it right way. Poor cow. At least he's very appreciated here. :)

Now, chicken and pork are plentiful, but let's just say that our meat in America looks far less like the original animal it came from than it does here. I put Exhibit A above for your perusal. Seth went to the store with me this week, and he said, "Mommy, is that a pig's leg?" Why yes, it is, sweet son of mine.

This was the first week that I bought fresh meat other than the imported ground beef in plastic. I got pork chops and pork tenderloin and considered myself fully acclimated since I hadn't just bought rotisserie chicken in despair like usual. :)

There are so many different kinds of snacks, chips, and crackers here. We try different kinds every week. I also haven't even begun to dip into the vast well of exotic fruit choices. Maybe I'll get a dragonfruit next week and try to figure out how to cut into it.

Oddly enough, one of the few imported U.S. imported foods that is the same price as in the U.S. are chips. I can buy Frito Lay at U.S. prices, so we may have more chips for snack here than we have in the past.

Daddy's birthday....

David turned 40 on April 3rd, just a few days after we moved in. I felt like a horrible wife for not bringing him a cake mix and some candles. The boys, however, were completely undaunted. They decided to have a parade for him. Seth composed a chant for the parade about how wonderful Daddy is, and they collected sticks from the walking path behind our complex to make the flags.

At home, we always put the birthday presents on the hearth. There is no hearth here, but they improvised. They put the presents they had created on the bottom edge of the windows in front of our couch. I couldn't get too sad about the lack of our own hearth with them being so willing and happy to improvise.

I couldn't find him a convincingly chocolatey dessert when I went grocery shopping, but the next day, our air shipment arrived. Praise be to God, I had put in some Ghiradelli brownie mixes. He got his birthday chocolate dessert a day late. :)

Din Tai Fung..

This is Din Tai Fung. We can walk to it in about 10 minutes or less, and it's a pretty affordable choice for dinner. They have little steps where kids can stand and watch the making of their famous Chinese dumplings. I used to make gyoza from scratch with David years ago, so I'm extremely impressed by the process. Dumpling making is hard! I gave up and starting buying mine frozen from Trader Joe's years ago.

I tried to put my purse on the floor by my chair, and someone came quickly and gave me what looked sort of like a folding camp stool. They motioned for me to put my purse in there, and then they covered it with a cloth napkin. :)

The food comes and is put on a large lazy susan, and the whole family can turn it to access the dishes. This was also my first experience with metal chopsticks. I admit to having to ask for some forks about halfway through the meal.

Internet again....

The breakfast buffet at the hotel before we moved. I credit it with helping me learn a little about Filipino food. I was able to try a little bit of many things, and I now have more confidence in restaurants.

We have internet again! I didn't think I cared that much, but I'm using our Chromecast to stream Netflix, and I realized it's been far too long since I've seen all three boys sit completely still and silent at the same time. Far too long! Sweet Netflix, never leave me again. Even if you are Filipino Netflix, and I can't trick you with an American VPN because you're too smart for that, I will take you for what you are (despite our missing Pokemon shows.)

Sooo, we moved out on a Monday a couple of weeks ago? The embassy shuttle and movers came and got me and the kids and our 10 bags and 3 car seats and 5 carry ons and dragged it all over to our Little Home in the Sky. The usual madness that always ensues when you move happened, of course. Just about nothing in the kitchen or laundry room worked, all for different reasons, but 3 different sets of people from the building came up throughout the day, and we got it sorted out. I figured it would happen, so I was pretty resigned.

I'm learning that the Embassy community is a great thing. We get alerted when new people move into the building, and two families came over right away to meet us. One family brought muffins, and the other brought a book of paper airplanes. We've had multiple offers for playdates. Traffic is so bad in Manila that there is very little going on for kids after school hours or in the evenings, so kids wander these buildings, swimming, riding their scooters around the pool, kicking balls. It is it's own neighborhood, and I am really grateful that God provided this spot for us. The boys can make friends, even without being at the local international school. 

We're eating out more than we usually do as a way to learn our local neighborhood and get used to the food. This area is very urban, but it's a newer part of Manila, and its been designed to be pretty walkable. We can walk to more than one mall, a ton of restaurants, and some little parks and trails. There are very few playgrounds, and I'm resigning myself to that. The only traditional playground we've seen is at a church we've attended. 

Because so many people speak English here, and the signage is in English, it can be disorienting. I am almost more likely to get irritated because I will expect something to be the same, and it just isn't. The first day that we got here, I had accidentally left our lunch stuff at the hotel, so I decided to walk us around the corner to the local McDonalds. We got there, and I immediately realized I'd made a mistake. I was tired, and this was going to take more adjustment.

Thought a lot on the menu is the same, some of it is different. The prices are in Filipino pesos, and the kids could pick their happy meal toy from a selection of something like 10 toys. It was crowded, and I was overwhelmed, but at this moment, the boys came through. Seth found a seat for everyone, and Evan helped me carry things. I was reminded why we can do this in a way that would've been unthinkable even a year ago. 

The boys are being troopers, and I'm so grateful for that. They are rising to the challenge, and sometimes they put me to shame with their flexibility and excitement. Other times, there are tears from all of us, and it's hard to get the day on track. But hey, one day at at time.