A baptism, a wedding and a funeral

The whole cycle of life in 2 months. First was the celebration of baptism for my friend Zofia's baby girl Diana. Zofia lives in Sydney, Australia so it was also a chance to catch up with her as she visited Wellington. The baby was very cute and it was interesting to see a baptism as many of my friends are not Christians at the moment and therefore don't take this step for their children.
The wedding took place several days ago in the Wairarapa (a rural area about an hour north of Wellington). Friends and family celebrated over two days the marriage of Tim and Katie. It was an extremely entertaining wedding as many of Tim's friends are musically inclined. Performances ranged from opera to jazz and even a very funny rendition of the Muppet's classic 'Manamana (Do do do do do)'.
The BBQ the next day was a chance to relax in the sun and play a little croquet in Tim and Katie's huge garden.
Lastly a very sad event in the death and funeral of my friend Glenn (age 33). He had been battling brain tumors for the last 2 - 3 years and died peacefully (although fairly suddenly) on Tuesday 23rd January. His funeral was attended by many young people as he was involved in the Catholic youth ministry 'Lifeteen' for years.
The funeral was both a mourning time and a celebration as we know Glenn must now be with God.

Merry Christmas from Wellington, NZ

Well I made it back to New Zealand in one piece. After a short stop in Singapore to see friends and eat lots of yummy food I arrived back in Wellington on the 11th Dec.
Reverse culture shock? Where are all the people?
Apart from that it was pretty easy to come home and great to catch up with lots of friends before Christmas. A summer BBQ on the weekend was a great way to get back into the swing of things - even if I did have to assemble the BBQ myself.
Wellington may not have as many exciting stories for me to write about but I'll do my best. The politcal situation seems rather tame compared to Manila (thank goodness), Helen (PM) is down in the polls and Tau has been named bad boy of the year. The local newspaper is supporting a campaign to ban whale fishing by Japan. No typhoons yet but a lot of rain - good for the farmers.
Hello to my friends in Manila - I miss you. Merry Christmas!

Storms and Political Storms

Well we survived the typhoons (there were two of them in the end) but there were casualties in some parts of the Philippines due to severe flooding. I think about 26 people may have died over the last few weeks due to typhoon weather. In Manila we had a day of gusty wind and several days of heavy rain. We also had a 'brown out' (as opposed to a 'black out' - not entirely sure why the distinction actually) for about an hour one night. We did have some emergency lighting in the stairwells - I'm guessing that's why it was a 'brown out' not 'black out'.

Anyway just when I thought things were getting back to 'normal' here in Manila, the action started heating up on the political front. Apparently some senator/general guy was in court for some reason and walked out with his supporters. They proceeded to storm into a nearby 5 star hotel and occupy it with the intent of starting a popular uprising against the current president. They hoped the army and civilians would join them but unfortunately they drastically misread the mood of the population and the government succeeded in evicting them from the hotel and arresting them all.
We first learnt of this on Thursday evening when we tried to go to a 9.30pm movie and were told it was not showing due to a 12pm curfew imposed on Metro Manila. Actually everyone was going about their business in our part of the city and things remained calm.
My favourite headline in recent days is 'What were they thinking?'.
A storm in a teacup it seems.

Take the pressure down

Does anyone else remember that song from the 80s/90s? (See blog title). That just about sums up the weather patterns here in the last week. We are having some typhoons sweep across the area (so far not a direct hit) and as the weather changes the barometric pressure changes suddenly. This can have range of strange effects on how we all feel. When the pressure drops you can feel tired, grumpy, lethargic, even a bit sick. Headaches and dizziness have also been reported. So far not many of the Filipinos I have met admit to feeling any of these symptoms so I may have to conclude it's a foreign visitor phenomenon.
Typhoon Mina was supposed to have hit a part of the Philippines badly over the weekend but thankfully changed course and we only had a bit of wind and scattered rain. I'm secretly disappointed because I wanted to see what a typhoon looks like but I suspect the millions of people who still have their houses intact are quite pleased.

Octoberfest on the hill

Well I never thought I would get to experience Octoberfest in the Philippines but it seems I brought a little bit of Germany with me when I came.
It all happened at a big Catholic retreat centre in Antipolo on the outskirts of Manila. We (the ICPE community plus about 20 others) were there for a course on Pastoral Care (PCS). Half way through our course one of the resident priests who happened to be German organised his annual Octoberfest. Somehow we managed to get invited - free beer and food with singing and drinking games! The highlight was when they took the empty keg out in funeral procession style and then we had to pray to San Miguel (type of beer and saint) for a new 'resurrected' keg. All in good fun. The PCS course was also very good.
Now I have less than one month left in the Philippines. I head back to NZ via Singapore so hope to see some of you on the way or in NZ.

Miracle in Montalban

Just a wee note about our children's ministry. It has been great to be part of the team here in the Philippines working with children in Montalban. Week by week I am slowly learning names and getting to know some of children. It's hard because they don't really speak English and I don't speak Tagalog (although I am learning).
Working with the community means joining in their ups and downs. A few weeks ago a 3 year old boy died of (I think) infected tonsils. The parents either did not have the money to go to the doctor or did not realise how serious the illness was. The funeral cost around 15000 Pesos ($300 NZ) which was a huge amount for family to pay. We ended up helping them with some of the money but it was so difficult because we can not afford to help with it all and it is not our position to give out money. Some people here think we are a foundation with money to spare, they do not realise we are voluntary missionaries living on providence and fund raising. To many of them we are rich foreigners.

A long running problem for us is a place to hold our Saturday ministry. We were originally in a school building but this is currently being renovated and we cannot use it. Then we tried using a half-built chapel before being given a smallish room used by another community group. However when it rained we had a waterfall running down one wall and a third of the room became unusable. A few weeks ago it rained heavily and we decided not to go but to spend the time praying about the ministry and for another venue to hold it in.
We also needed to find somewhere to hold our Christmas party.
As we prayed we felt inspired to pray for the parish priest who until this time has not for whatever reason been very interested in our work. We also felt God wanted to involve the children in a mass (pretty hard if you have no priest!). Many of the children may never have been to mass or have any connection with the church, they simply like to come along to our session on Saturday. Our director had been in contact with the priest about a new place and he told her we should talk to someone else. The situation seemed impossible and I began to wonder what God was up to.

So last Saturday we went early to Montalban to look around the community for a new building. We found a temporary place after talking to various people and then decided to pay the priest a social call - just to introduce ourselves and say hello.
I also held out some hope that somehow he might be able to help us.
Intially he was reserved but as we talked (about 5 of us) he warmed up and after we told him about our christmas party he, out of the blue, offered to say mass for the children before the party and agreed we could use the church gardens for the party! We were stunned - we had not even mentioned mass and the gardens are very nice.
Thank you God!
We are still hoping for a permanent home for our children's ministry. Please pray for us if you are the praying sort.

Culture Shock Top Ten

I have been in Manila for over a month now and have been mentally compiling a list of the many things in the Philippines that took some (or a lot of) getting used too when I arrived. I hope I can find ten 'cause that sounds better than Top 7. Somehow I don't think I will have a problem.

10. Jolibee - The Philippine answer to McDonalds. It's just everywhere and has a big plastic bee outside looking very - jolly. You can buy hamburgers, fried chicken or Philippine traditional food served fast-food style.


9. So many malls - just down the road are the following - Robinsons Mall, Mega Mall, Shangri-La Mall, St Francis Square - the list goes on. Everyone hangs out in the malls, you can even....

8. ....go to church in a mall. Yes if you wanted to combine a spot of shopping and a mass you can in Manila. I have heard of at least four malls which have daily mass - sometimes just between the shops they will set up chairs and an altar.

7.Jeepneys, FX and tricycle transport. Getting around in Manila has it's own whole culture. It's easy-ish if you know a few things. Tricyles (usually motorised with a side cab) are quick and are for short distances. In the heavy traffic they can be a hazard to your lungs and general safety. Who needs bungy jumpy when you can risk your life travelling down the street. Jeepneys and FX are extended Jeeps or FWDs - you call them over and jump in. FX have the advantage of airconditioning and cost slightly more. Usually they are packed and you pass your money up the row of people to the driver who will then pass your change back. It works amazingly well as far as I can see - the driver often has a helper to gather passengers and keep an eye on who gets on and off.

6. Food - I haven't tried the 'ballot' yet - a unhatched chick cooked in it's shell or the 'day old chick' fried in batter. Yum! Where I live we eat a lot of rice, meat and fruit. Fish is often served with head and tail on so you can eat the eye if you really want to!! Take out food varies a lot but tends to be a bit plasticy - although Chow King (restaurant chain like McDonalds) does OK Chinese take out and there's always Jolibee. You can eat a lot of Western food here but not always tasting like I'm used to.

5. Traffic - "How will I get across the road??" was one of my first thoughts in Manila. The traffic is a bit crazy and wont stop for you at pedestrian crossings. If they stop at the lights - Thank God and quickly crossly the street. Otherwise step out and hope for the best.

4. Having your bag searched by armed security guards when entering a shopping mall or a metro train station. They also sometimes give you a quick search or 'free massage' as you enter - fortunately there is usually a separate womens and mens entrance.

3. As you walk down the street you may hear 'Hello Ma'am',or 'Good morning Ma'am' from some Philippine men. This is because you're white and a woman. White men sometimes get called 'Joe' after GI Joe.

2. You can't flush your toilet paper down the toilet here, even in your own house - you just put it in the rubbish bin provided. It's a bit yukky but somehow you do get used to it. Also don't expect public toilets (even in shopping malls) to have toilet paper - you must provide your own.

1. Poverty - ah yes the big one. It shocked me when I first arrived and I still find it shocking. The imbalance of wealth is incredible - there are people living in big houses with huge walls and tight security and then there are possibly millions of people living in little more that shacks. There is a middle class I guess - people who look pretty ordinary with normal jobs - the malls (particularly the cheaper ones) are full of people shopping. Manila is a strange place - I'm beginning to think it has more layers than an onion.