Saturday evening was the George Washington Ball at the U.S. Embassy on Manila Bay. It was a beautiful evening with a nice breeze blowing in from the bay. The grounds and building were quite impressive and this was a unique evening because attendees were allowed to take pictures. On regular tour days no cameras are allowed inside or out. There was a silent auction, raffle, dinner, and dancing all to benefit the charities of the American Association of the Philippines. It was a very nice evening and we enjoyed the party and the company.

Mery, Betsy, Holly

Oh dear, what a day! Today, February 24, 2006 was a very strange day! Today is the 20th anniversary of the EDSA Revolution by the People's Power which overthrew Ferdinand Marcos and drove him out of power into seclusion in Hawaii. On this anniversary, tensions were high in Manila as 3 of the current president's generals were arrested and stripped of power because they were part of a coup trying to get her out of office. The coup was foiled and the president announced a state of emergency. Some political rallies were held, but all were peaceful and at worse caused traffic jams.

I chose to ignore the state of emergency and went to Freaky Friday Lunch with my friends before heading downtown to meet Terry and a few Info Techies for supper. No problems driving anywhere I wanted to go today!

Freaky Friday lunch at Y Tu Mama Tambien, B, Michelle, Kim, Cindy, Diane, Betsy, Celia


All of this is sort of surreal and going on around us, but not really affecting us much. We have bigger worries. The biggest being the health of our beloved driver Fred's daughter, Grace, who is suffering from Stevens-Johnson Syndrome. She is 18 and has been in the hospital for 3 weeks. She was released today, so we were telling Fred as he dropped us off this evening that she was welcome to use our spare room and bath until all of her wounds were healed. What we didn't know was that as we were talking to him, Imelda Marcos who lives in our building, and two of her attendants were right behind us. They passed us and then we caught up and got into the same elevator with her. I had been quite preoccupied, but then noticed Imelda walking in front of me and the next thing I know I am standing right next to her in an elevator! Her attendant was carrying an armful of beautiful flowers, so Terry commented on how great they smelled and I said something inane about it being a special occasion-UNBELIEVABLE-I can't believe I said that! Anyway as we got out of the elevator, she handed me a dozen red roses and said "God Bless You!" All I could say was "Oh my, thank you so much!" and the elevator door closed. Man am I ever conflicted! She really is a lovely woman and is still quite an icon here, but the fact remains that she and her husband stole millions from the Philippine government in the 20 years they were in power. She was wearing really pretty red shoes!

Roses from Imelda

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Today Michelle and I went to the University of Manila hospital to visit Grace Omec, our driver Fred's daughter. She is recovering from Stephens-Johnson Syndrome. The hospital was quite stark and simple with very old furniture and equipment, but it seems very clean.


Afterwards we were invited to visit the homes and Chinese Antique store of Marlene Aguilar, a designer and publisher of Art Books. She has built two homes using all Filipino materials and craftsmen. The outside and many of the inside walls of the two homes are hand laid stone. The homes are filled with her Chinese and Tibetan antiques. Everything is very Feng Shui with water elements, wood floors, stone walls and colors depicting earth, fire, air, and water.

Tonight was the Athletic Awards Ceremony at ISM. All of the sports from second season were featured. Here are some pictures from this nice event.




Sunday, February 19, 2006

Allison had a wonderful experience on her week long school trip to the northern mountains of Luzon. It was a thirteen hour bus ride through Banaue to Segada. The students worked doing community service building a sidewalk between the church and school. They also spent time with the local students in the classroom and in athletic competition. Here are a few of her pictures.
The cerimonial fire was started by sending balls of fire down strings from closeby buildings, when they hit the wood it ignited. I am guessing there must have been some fuel soaked wood.

Famous Hanging Coffins of Segada- Ancient tribal burial practice.

Anna, one of Allison's Basketball team mates, with local children

I gave her the speech about making good decisions.............

Community service building a sidewalk

Rice Terraces

Village and rice terraces

Today Terry and I went up to Marakina to visit the Noritake Bodega sale and found some pieces to add to our china collection. We went to lunch and to see Firewall. Allison returned home with great enthusiam and many stories about her wonderful trip to Segada.

Friday, February 17, 2006

Michelle and I played tennis this morning and then worked out at the amazing gym at the Manila Polo Club. This exclusive club is top notch. They have 12 covered tennis courts and 6 outdoor ones. The gym has every machine imaginable to work out and stretch every part of your body. They have a membership through Barry's company JPMorgan Chase and every now and then I get to tag along.

The AWCP Cocktail Party for newcomers was this evening. We are classified newcomers until we have lived here a year, so it is fun to attend the parties. Afterwards Barry, Michelle, Terry, and I went out to a club to listen to some live music. Fun time!

Betsy, Michelle, Celia, Christy

Michelle and Barry

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Papa flew out at 9:40 this morning. I went to the airport with him, then came back to meet my Thursdays for Others group. Today we made sack lunches to take to the caregivers at Concordia Orphanage. We delivered them and stayed to hold and feed the babies. I love this place! It is such a loving orphanage with many local neighborhood volunteers who come to help hold, love, and play with the children.
This little guy, Michael John ( MJ) stole my heart. I got to feed and hold him for about an hour until his nurse took him away from me. I think she was afraid I was going to leave with him! He is 3 months old and was abandoned a week ago at a local hospital. It takes 18 months for children to be declared legally abandoned and eligible for adoption. He has me seriously considering it!

Gillian with Jay Jay. Gillian fought long and hard to get JJ cataract surgery before Christmas. She spent hours that led into days in the basement of clinics trying to get doctors to see JJ. He is also deaf. Thanks to Gillian's hard work, he can now see! Nobody is sure how clearly, and he doesn't much like the glasses, but you can tell that he recognizes her!
This is Felicity, one of the babies who benefited from the bottles and nipples sent to us from Candy Sullivan and Ginny Fonvielle. She has been able to gain enough weight and is scheduled to be flown to the US for her cleft palate surgery as well as surgery to correct a heart defect.
Aga, another cleft palate baby who is using a donated nipple! Thanks Candy and Ginny! He has gained so much weight. Look at the rolls on his arms!


Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Papa's last day here so we took a little road trip down to Tagaytay to see Taal Lake and Volcano.



Tuesday, February 14, 2006 Happy Valentine's Day!

Today Papa, Diane, and I went to the AWCP Bazaar then out to lunch at a favorite Thai restaurant, The People's Palace. Papa didn't want hot food so I suggested the fried lapu lapu which is grouper. I forgot to ask them to put the chili sauce on the side... oops... it was hot! So we placed another order.

Terry and I went to the Shangri La for their "Love is in the Air" patio event for Valentine's Day. Excellent food and so pretty! Our 24th Valentine's Day. Papa didn't want to come with us so he stayed home and watched "The Great Raid" on DVD, the perfect wrap up to his history lesson started at Corregidor on Monday.


Monday, February 13, 2006

Today Papa toured Corregidor while Michelle and I hosted a Valentine's Champagne Luncheon to benefit The House of Refuge Orphanage in Marakina. Donations helped provide new sheet sets for the 15 girls and 15 boys as well a big basketful of toiletry items. We spent a few hours making valentines and enjoying great conversation!

Janet, Michelle,Cindy, Gillian, Betsy, Celia and Maricar (seated) Paula, Kim, B, and Pat.



Sunday, February 12, 2006

Singapore is a beautiful, clean, well groomed, efficient city. The differences between Manila and Singapore could not be more vast. One has 4 million people and zero population growth, no pollution or poverty, while the other has 15 million in a country with 86 million people and a population that doubles every 25 years. The pollution, poverty (60% live on less than $2 a day), and population growth are major challenges that Manila must face.

View of Singapore coastline as we flew out on Sunday afternoon.

View of Manila coastline flying in on Sunday afternoon.

Once we all arrived back in Manila, we took Papa out to eat at the Seafood Club where we enjoyed a really big crab meal.

Allison packed and had to be at the school for her 1:30 AM departure for Segada, a small city in the northern mountains. The next week will be spent in volunteer service to the native people of that region.

Saturday, February 11, 2006

Today's first game was a win over International School Khuala Lampur! Allison had some great offensive rebounds which she turned into points. She also hit most of her foul shots throughout the tournament. The boys also won their game so both got to play in the final rounds in the afternoon. The rest of the day was rather disappointing for both teams. The girls ended up in fourth place after losing to TAS by 6 after leading for most of the game. The boys lost to
SAS in the finals so took home 2nd place. At the end of the day there was a very nice award ceremony where both of our teams took the Sportsmanship Awards for the tournament.
Once back at our hotels all of the parents went out to Murphy's Pub along with the coaches. It was a great trip to a beautiful city.



Friday, February 10, 2006

Today the girls lost two heartbreaking games to Jakarda International School and Singapore American School. The boys won both of their games. Each team has one more game to play on Saturday. The girls must win to play for 3rd place. The boys are on track to play for 1st. Our last game was over at 4:30 so Christiane, Papa, and I went out to eat at a very authentic Chinese Restaurant. The food was great. Only one person in the place spoke English so it was quite an experience. After dinner we went to the Singapore Zoo and enjoyed the Night Safari. A great way to see some very exotic animals from all over Asia, India and Africa in a clean natural setting. The animals were quite active, but no pictures were allowed so I took some of the big lions and elephants that were lit up outside the zoo!


Thursday, February 9, 2006

The first game of the tournament for our boys was at 10:15. They won in a close game against Singapore American School handing them their first loss in 7 years! What a game! Our girls won their first game against International School Bangkok at 12:30. They didn't play again until 6 PM so we went back to Arab street looking for more fabric shops, which we found and each of us bought some silk fabric. I was completely impressed by a Persian rug dealer and all of his gorgeous hand knotted rugs, but they were entirely too expensive for me even at "wholesale prices." We ventured back out to the SAS and watched our girls lose a really close game to Taipei American School. The boys went on to win their second game of the day. Dad and I went to eat pizza at a great little place near our hotel called Modestos.

Demonstration of hand tied silk Persian rug making

Wednesday, February 8, 2006

Today we were up early and at the airport for our flight to Singapore. We arrived around noon and spent the afternoon exploring the areas of Little India and Arab Street where we found an abundance of fabric shops specializing in Indian Silk and Sari fabric. We were lucky enough to be in Singapore during the Chinese New Year's Celebration and as we walked we happened upon street entertainers doing the "Lion Dance" where 2 people, one as the head and one as the rear of the lion, dance and do acrobatics on small stool like pedestals. They jumped and danced and did everything except fall off to the sound of drums beating wildly. When they finished the Lion Dance they performed a Dragon Dance! We also saw two Mosques and even went inside one of them. The architecture is beautiful.

More fabric than I have ever seen in my life all in one place!
There were blocks and blocks of stores like this!

Meg, Christiane, and Betsy in Little India in Singapore

Papa in front of Mosque

Lion Dance
Dragon Dance
Another beautiful Mosque
Funny Sumo wrestling taxi