LEARNING TO DANCE IN THE RAIN: Manila

Thursday, August 7, 2014

JUNE 15, 2014: MANILLA PHILIPPINES part 8

TRAVEL HOME FROM THE PHILIPPINES

JUNE 15, 2014

I woke up at 9pm, after 3 hours of sleep, and laid there and tossed and turned. I finally got up about 10:30pm and worked on my computer. At midnight I showered and at 1:00am we left to check out and get a taxi.

We learned something about our taxi ride to the airport. When we arrived in Manila, a man offered us a ride to the hotel for 1500 Philippine Pesos. WE thought we did great because we only paid 680 Pesos to get to the hotel in a metered taxi. Well, this morning, it only took us about 20 minutes to get to the airport and we pad 183 Pesos. We really got “taken for a ride” on our trip from the airport!!! I don’t know where that first taxi drive took us, but we must have gone all around for it to cost 3 times what the ride back cost! Oh well.

We are sitting at our gate and I am anxious to get back home to the family.

It was fun to watch the people at the airport at 2am.

These men were putting a vinyl piece up on the ad board.

This woman was zonked out. Her head was wrapped in a cardigan and her legs guarded her backpack.

The monk was folded over in a seep and the woman on the floor did the splits to sleep in her suitcase.

We arrived in Shanghai and rode the subway back to the train station and then had to find the train ticket office to purchase our tickets to Suzhou. About 10 fights of stairs later, with our heavy suitcases, we had our tickets in hand.

SUNDAY, JUNE 15: Today is Father’s Day. Dad is speaking in church and I am sad to miss it. We just couldn’t swing it with the flights. I am so grateful for Dad and all that he does for our family. He works tirelessly to try to take care of everyone. He works very hard and is trying so hard to help our family grow and to have fun along the way. We are very blessed to have our Dad!!

I will finish off my letter with a report that we made it back to Suzhou safely.

We left our hotel in the Philippines at 1am Sunday morning and arrived back to our apartment at about 12:45pm on Sunday. Our airplane flight was 3 ½ hours but the Shanghai subway, train and subway in Suzhou took 4 ½ hours.

It is good to be home and it was fun to hear all about the adventures of the week. The kids told it all much to Dad’s worry! What matters is that they are all alive and I am grateful!!! Rachel and Bethany did most of the cooking and cleaning and Rebecca washed lots and lots of dishes. We had fun working a couple of puzzles, playing card games and then the kids watched Saturday’s Warriors. We love that movie!!!

JUNE 14, 2014: MANILA, PHILIPPINES part 7

LAST VISIT TO THE TEMPLE

JUNE 14, 2014

After being in the temple all day yesterday, we just didn't want to leave, so we went back for a few more hours on Saturday, our last day in the Philippines.

Amy and I got up early this morning to get to the temple early. I got a bit delayed because I had to fix a few things on the Sunday program for church in Suzhou, but we left and were able to make it to an 8:30am session at the Manila Temple. It was a beautiful day. We participated in 2 endowment sessions and a sealing session.

After the sealing session, we talked with one of the ladies that was with us and she asked where in the USA we were from. Amy visited with her and found out that this woman, Sister Duran, has a daughter that just received a call to the Mesa Temple Visitor’s Center! She took our emails and we are going to connect. I am hoping that we can get some of our family in Mesa area to go see her and visit her!

OUR PICTURE SESSION AT THE TEMPLE

This is what happens when you pull out your camera in a very humid place! It takes a few minutes to get the lens adjusted to the air!!!!

The clouds here remind me of Panama.

We love to see the colorfully painted "Jeepneys"

These were all in the temple parking lot. Ward/branch units must rent them to bring them to the temple.

After our time in the temple, we went back to the hotel for Amy to change her shoes and then walked to a Pasta restaurant that we have been wanting to eat at all week.

Taxi ride in some stand still traffic

Today, Dunkin' Donuts was giving away a free donut. We got one and took a picture with the fun workers outside promoting their deal!

We walked there and found out that they were closed until dinner. Sad day – we were starving because we hadn’t eaten all day! WE decided to use our 20% off coupon at Chillis and have a good ol’ American hamburger. We were tempted by a couple of appetizers so by the time our hamburgers arrived, we were full. We took our sandwiches back to our hotel to eat just before we leave for the airport.

We arrived back to the hotel, packed our suitcases and then tried to sleep for a few hours.