Our Life

Life in Calape - that is where we live.  I put off getting my hair done but this turned out to be a very nice experience.  

 

When I first saw this picture I thought it was Betty

And this is the bathroom sink.  There is no such thing as hot and cold water.  There is just one facet and that is water.  The medicine cabinet is underneath.

This is the kitchen facet.  The turn on thing is the short silver thing about 2 inches high.  The bottles in back purify the water which we use for vegetables.  We can't drink this water but we do brush our teeth with it.  The black knob on the facet determines if you are using purified water or regular.

Our clothes drier.  Haven't used a drier in  4 1/2 months.  The chair in the background is totally useless and that is my garbage container.

Clothes didn't dry today so had to sleep under them.

Cream on a shelf in the grocery store.  No refrigeration.

This is our milk we drink - not too bad if you get it cold.

Just had to include a public restroom.  You will notice no seat and no paper.  The rest is left up to your imagination.

This is where we buy our meat - a little pork but mostly chicken.  Not too far from our apartment and it is very clean.

Our landlord owns this bakery.  His wife's name is Aileen.  They are the nicest people.

The market is behind his store.

We buy mangos, bananas, the watermelon looked good but aren't very tasty. Walk down the aisle between the two and they have vegetables.  We find good squash, potatoes, carrots and onions.  That is our diet.  Oh, and they have cabbage and cucumbers too.  No lettuce.  We buy eggs here too - never refrigerated and we have no idea how long they have been there.

Standing on our front step - our neighbor is remodeling.

Elder and Sister Wieland from Oregon work in the Family History Department in Cebu.  The temple was closed for 2 weeks for cleaning  so they came to our island and did workshops and helped people.  They were amazingly wonderful.  We fell in love with them and wish we knew what they know about family history.  This is their second mission.  He is a retired pharmacist.  Their first mission they went to Malaysia as MLS like we are and they have quite the stories.  They hope to go on a third mission in a few years to China.  They will be through here the end of April.  I feel like everyone is going home and it is making me sad.

We took them to see the chocolate hills and he stopped and talked to these sisters.  They teach young people.  He sang I am a Child of God to them and they exchanged email addresses.  We really enjoyed being with the Wielands.

The sisters we go visiting with - we are on our way to see Brother and Sister Lanzaderas and a cow was stationed along the way. The path is totally non driveable and mostly muddy.

President and Sister Tanner came over for the weekend with the two senior couples who serve in the office with them.  We had a meeting in the church here in Tagbilaran and then we went out to eat.    It is very special to be with these good people. Sorry it is so dark but it was a beautiful setting.

Sister Tanner, Sister Caycayon from Hawaii who goes home the first of March and Sister Boothe from the office who goes home the first of March as well. They have no replacements for either of these couples.  I think they are bringing in Elders to serve in the office and we will be the only Senior Couple on Bohol.  We are nervous about that.  The Caycayons are responsible for half the island and we have really relied on them.

Early the next morning, like up at 4:30 (how is that for spending a nice night in a motel ?) so we could leave at 5:15 to catch the boat to go see dolphins.  It was the worst weather.  Totally rained the whole day.  The wind blew and we bumped along for an hour and 20 minutes and saw no dolphins.  This is the office crew and President and Sister Tanner.

Going in and out to the boat.  We all actually went surfing.  I just stuck my head in shortly but it was so beautiful.  We fed the fish and it was like in a different world.  It was raining and I had no towel because I wasn't going to get in the water and no change of clothes and it was cold.  The first at being cold in the Philippines.  I was more than miserable.  Just shivering and gravel/sand between every toe.  I thought I would never be the same.  We had taken a lunch which was delicious but too cold to enjoy.  The rest of them were such troopers.

On the way back President Tanner was catching a few winks.  We used umbrellas to protect us from the wind and rain.  It took only 45 minutes to get back as we weren't looking for dolphins.  I was actually glad to get back to our apartment.

Sister Caycayon from Hawaii and Sister Robertson from the office.  The Robertsons leave in April.

This is our boat and I was so happy to be docked.  Brother Caycayon is in the front, then Sister Tanner.  President Tanner has his back to us.

Yours truly doing I don't know what - Norm just likes to take pictures.  I always sport the best hairdos. And that is how I looked all day.  I was just soaked through and through.