"hey joe"
the two most common word that i'll hear on my mission. so far i've been "hey joe"-d at least 10 times a day. i don't know exactly why they say it, i just know that it originated from the GI's who came to the Philippines during world war 2.
a mission is just like one big camping trip, it's true. everything i do feels like something i'd do while i'm camping, except i'm camping in a city. i do everything that a mission is, but when i come home, it definitely feels like i'm camping. i'm sure it'll feel more like that when i leave the city and go out into the bush.
which by the way, i'm living in barangay 32 which is inside bacolod city. i have no idea where that is but i'm there. maybe you'll be able to find it in google maps, i donno. i'm about a 20 minute walk from the sea, so it's wayyyyy humid. and supposedly, this isn't even as bad as it gets. oh and it's hot, which also sucks. especially for someone from phoenix. coming from Arizona going into the jungle/city of bacolod is a big change. i miss the desert.
i may be transfered to a sibuano speaking area next transfer, which is in a week. i hear that it's colder over there and i'm hoping and praying for relief from this heat. it wouldn't be too bad if it wasnt for the humidity. the humidity here really makes clothes stick to you no matter what. i'm wondering if cotton shirts would stick less... let me know if you know. i have no way of cooling off, i'm always out and there isn't any AC in the house.
since i'm in barangay 32, i'm kinda in the middle of the rich and poor sections. in the poor sections, you'll see cock fights every now and then. i haven't watched one but you can tell who raises them to fight if they have a really high roost. they have the chickens jump up there to sleep so they're stronger and better able to fight. there are a lot of stray animals too and beggars, it's really sad to see a lot of that. these people have no way of escaping the situation that they are in because they were born into it and that's all they know.
we mainly try to look for the rich/learned/wise people in order to find future leaders of the church here. the church is still young here, so they need the best leaders available. which isn't to say that we don't speak to the poor. we definitely do all we can to bring them to the gospel, but unfortunately for many, their situation keeps them working everyday to live. i've taught a lot of my lessons in the poorer sections and it's really humbling to see the difference of lifestyle that these people have. it really makes you appreciative of all the things that you have in america. like washer machines and showers AC(my most missed appliance) and full sized things. many of the food and other essentials are miniaturized. by that, i mean that if you took something from the travel sized area and made it just a little bigger, you'd get what they have here. everything is small.
i'm grateful that i have things here like electricity and water and internet access and a decent bed. hopefully i'll have that come next transfer.
a little bit more about it in bacolod, the police are pretty much nonexistent. they have security guards, which i assume are also police, but they always stay in places like banks and McDonalds and the supermarket (which kinda feels like America) so i'm not sure if they are actual police. the traffic here is decent, there are no lanes and no laws and people walk in the middle of the street all the time. whenever i'm walking, we always have to be in the street (because there aren't really sidewalks) and i feel like im gonna get ran over every ten seconds. there was this one member, karen, who had her brother die in a motorcycle accident in manilla and didn't have the money to travel or an id. so elder gruninger and elder topete bought her a ticket and made her and a fake id and off she went.
so far, i have yet to try balut. but am going to this week. balut is a chicken egg that has a dead chick inside of it and then it's smoked in peanuts (sometimes) i've tried different fruits, like this one sour apple tasting one, it's basically like shoving ten sour apple warheads into your mouth. don't know the name though. pretty much every meal here has rice, coconut oil, soy sauce, and vinegar.
i'm no longer sick. i had to stay inside for a while because of my illness, which i didn't think was too bad, but the doctor ordered it and then sister tobias said that i had to adhere to it so i did. it definitely helped me to recover because i've been sick for the longest time and i've been unable to get any rest.
they think that the rain here might be contaminated by the Japanese nuclear power plants (mainly rumors) i think we might be a little far off for it to affect us, even with the wind currents. there are also rumors of soda companies putting magic sugar into their drinks, which apparently is really sweet and only needs like a few drops to flavor something, but it's bad for the kidneys. again probably just rumors.
oh and on my way here to the internets cafe (al gore invented that) i saw part of the panaad parade. which is a big festival that lasts for a few days. the floats were nice but i think we missed a bit because we were riding in a jeepney.
i found a nice little music box thing from cd-r king because i fried my adapter to my cd player (put a 120 volt into a 220 volt socket, didn't realize because my other adapter worked 120-240). i need to put music on my flash drive though. violin string quartet is really good, elder topete has a lot of songs by them. they are basically a cover band which doesn't do the lyrics, but rather uses violins for everything and they do good bands like taking back sunday (before everyone started liking them)
by the way, dear elders do still work here. i learned that the other day. also, if anyone could send a football (preferably NFL or NCAA type, possibly 1005 style) i would love you forever.
well that's about it for now. i wrote a lot and it's about time for me to head out of here.
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