MRC laundry - helping with flood relief

This is one of the areas along the river hardest hit by the flooding.

Rinsing muddy clothes before we put in the washer.

One of the families we helped.

Tons of laundry to fold - Elder Boggan and Elder Salvadore help out.

Filling bags with relief supples at the Area Office building. They set up an are in the garage to receive donations.

MRC nex pix

Alan told me I didn't show our room very well - here is one with our windows open showing the trees - mostly palms.

The MRC

Here it is the MRC (Missionary Recovery Center) Our home for the next 2 years. It is literally a home in the White Plains subdivision that the church leases. Here is a "virtual" tour.

Welcome signs from the missionaries!

The house is behind another home so we drive down this alleyway. I haven't mastered backing down it...yet...

It is a two story home with four bedrooms. The front is all concrete with parking for the two vans we use. (Note the generator in case of typhoons)

This is the living room/dining room looking towards the front door.

This kitchen was added to an existing back patio/porch area. The old kitchen is used for storage and prep.

This is our room. It is the master suite of the house. We are on call 24/7 so we live right at the MRC.

These are shoots looking down our street. Every house seems to have 3-4 cars so the street is crowded.

The houses are vey close together. This view from our bedroom shows three neighbor houses.

There are many large homes in our neighborhood but there are other neighborhoods close by with even larger homes.

This is a small private school up the street from us. I believe it is K-4.

Some of the houses have their own water towers.

Look at all the wiring. My father was an electrician - I'm not sure he would appreciate the tangle of wires surrounded by trees.

First Impressions of Manila, Philippines

This is an area of great contrasts. Here are my first impressions from our first two weeks here.

Many highrise apartment buildings and huge houses in gated communities next to shanties of abandoned buildings with pieces of metal for roofing and famlies living under trees and bridges

Mega-mall shopping next to street vendors and tiny shops

Beggars at all the stop lights

American stores and restaurants - McDonalds, KFC, Wendys, Outback, Chilis, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Subway

Crowded streets of cars, vans, buses, jeepneys, trikes, pedicabs, scooters, bikes, people and an occasional ox cart

Torrential rain or beautiful bright skies or smog and hazy skies

Security guards with guns and rifles at all the stores and banks and on the streets

Trees, flowers and plants in abundance

No trash and very little graffitti

Smiling faces everywhere!!

4 Airports, 3 Countries, 24 Hours

OK so here's an update - Packing to leave for the Philippines was a trip!! We had to have every suitcase at 50#s or less or pay alot in overweight fees. We finally did it - with one box being mailed to us. We kept checking the weight every time we put something in.

It was a chore - but did it!

Here's Alan waiting at the first airport - Salt Lake City - going to San Francisco. (9:30PM on Monday Aug 31)

Then we had four hours to wait in SF for our flight to Taipe Taiwan on EVA air - a Taiwan based airlines. We left SF at 1:30AM on Sept 1. EVA Air is wonderful. We were in middle class seating. Every seat had a quilted blanket, pillow, slippers, personal pack with toothbrush and paste, lotion and a headset. The personal TVs had touch screen with on-demand movies and games. The flight attendants were very attentive. Each of the 5 sections of the plane had 4 flight attendants each. They were dressed in identical suits, shoes, bags and suitcases. They came on to the plane in lines two-by-two following the pilot, co-pilot and navigator.

Here I am in Taipe Taiwan after a 13 hour flight. The airport has artwork and many displays about Taiwan. They will host the 2009 Deaf Olympics so there were displays everywhere. We arrived at 5:30AM local time on Wed Sept 3 - we lost a day crossing the international date line.

The airport was like a mall with all kinds of stores. Even the gate terminals had a theme.

The last airport was Manila. We arrived at 11:30am on Wed. Sept 2. It was a 2 hour flight from Taipe.

On our way to the MRC (our new home for the next 2 years) we stopped by the American Memorial and Cemetery. You could see it from the air as we flew in.