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

Today we went on a tour of the Manila American Cemetery and WWII War Memorial. It was quite profound to see the 17,206 graves with crosses and the additional 36,285 names of the missing soldiers engraved on the walls.

25 beautiful hand tiled mosaic maps detail the story of
different battles in the Pacific during WWII

This chapel stands in the center of the memorial.
The image as well as all walls are covered in hand tiled mosaic.

36,285 names of missing and unidentified soldiers are engraved
on the 48 pairs of walls which are arranged in the two hemicycles of the memorial.

Each of the 17,206 graves are marked by name and the home state of the soldier buried there.

Sunday, February 5, 2006

After church we took Papa to our favorite restaurant, Pasto. It is a great little Italian Bistro that serves Crostini with delicious dips and pizza with really thin crust. Terry had to work so I took Dad on a driving tour of Chinatown, Tondo, Binondo, and Quiapo, some of the most populated, polluted, and poverty stricken areas of Manila.

In the evening we were so blessed to attend the birthday party of Mark Francis Rivera, one of Terry's employee's children. It was in Tondo in a community center. In this country the 7th birthday requires a special celebration consisting of presentations to the birthday child of 7 candles, 7 balloons, 7 presents, and 7 roses. 7 boys and 7 girls, all dressed in their finest, danced and entertained the partygoers. It was a wonderful cultural experience!




This game is like a pinata, the grid is lowered and a blindfolded child reaches up and grabs a toy


Saturday, February 4, 2006

Allison and team ISM played their final regular game of the season today against across town rivals Brent. ISM came away with the win by 2 points after a 5 minute overtime. It was an incredibly exciting game and a great way to start their journey to the IASIS tournament in Singapore. They will play teams from all over south east Asia, Feb. 9-11.


After the game, we took Papa to Green Hills which is a great place to find beautiful pearls and bargains of all kinds. Then we went to eat at Bubba Gumps before going to see "Walk the Line" It was a great day and Papa outlasted all of us, not a sign of jet lag! He is incredible!


Friday, February 3, 2006


Daddy/ Papa Ralph flew into Manila at 11:00 PM!

Allison won one game this week and lost two. She did very well and had 4 points in the first two and 6 in their close game today. She is playing great defense and is having a wonderful time. Everything is gearing up for next week's local playoff tournament and then the big trip to Singapore February 8-12.

January 27, 2006 AKA Freaky Friday

A group of fun, funny, fun loving ladies joined in a new monthly tradition dubbed Freaky Friday by our fearless founder and organizer, B. Laughter. This week found us visiting a favorite Mexican restaurant that has been changed to an Indian restaurant. We didn't let that bother us too much and enjoyed a great afternoon together.

Maricar, Maria, Betsy, B, Holly, Celia, Michelle, Diane, and Michelle

January 26, 2004 Happy Birthday Papa Ralph!

Thursdays for others visited the Habitat for Humanity community we support. Today we concentrated on beautification and took plants, soil, and seeds to help them plant. Esther came along and taught a few more women how to crochet. Several of the ladies kept the children occupied with books and a craft project. It felt great to get some planting done, everyone was so excited about starting new plants and making their homes look nice.


January 24, 2006

Today was the first AWCP Bazaar of the year. I worked and shopped there almost all day long. whew! Saw some pretty handmade quilts.

January 23, 2003

We are studying the Japanese American Period of Philippine History in my class. Today we had a wonderful speaker who shared many interesting facts with us about what went on during this time in history, especially the Philippine American War which doesn't take up much space in American history books, but in which it is estimated that up to 1,000,000 Filipino civilians died along with 4,000 American soldiers and 16,000 Filipino soldiers during the 3 year long war. After the lecture some of us went to Wasabi for lunch to enjoy some really good Japanese food.



January 21, 2006

Today we took a trip about 2 hours north of Manila to Angeles city where we shopped for handmade furniture. We found some very unique rataan and wicker pieces.


We also went to see the run down memorial to the soldiers who died in the famous death march of Bataan.


January 19, 2006

Today the women of the union church traveled to the province of Cavite to observe and serve in a world wide project called Food for the Hungry. A small church there is feeding 50 or so children every day and monitoring a core group's vital statistics to ensure nutritional needs are being met. The group met with us and sang songs for us. Lori read them the book "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" then each child received chocolate chip cookies along with their hot lunch.




On January 18, the Museum Volunteers of the Philippines took a tour of historic Pasig City. Our first stop was the Immaculate Conception Church which dates back to the 1500's. We explored the museum articles and beautiful sanctuary. I loved this cross depicting Mary's arms around Jesus. We also visited the Lopez Museum and the oldest home is Pasig city. Before heading home we had a great lunch then shopped at a new shopping center called Tiendisitas which is packed with local artifacts and handicrafts.

Very old Ceremonial garments

Inside of oldest home in Pasig City.
It is still being lived in by members of the family who built it 150 years ago.

We are back into the swing of things here. Allison is back into her basketball season. They won a game last week and now have tournaments the next three weekends. We are spending our weekends at basketball games so haven't had much time to see any more of the country.

I have been spending time sorting and delivering books. Thanks to everyone who contributed to my book drive! The people who have received them are so thankful and it is incredibly humbling to realize that something I take for granted every day, is such a luxury to so many people. One young mother told me "now I can read some new stories to my children!" She has a degree in computer programming and has 5 children under the age of 6. She is one of the lucky ones with a pretty good job, but people here don't spend money on books because living and eating are their priorities. Please keep saving your discarded books and children's magazines especially the picture books with easy reading, National Geographic World, and Highlights. The kids here really love the hidden pictures! I hope to bring back many more to share when I come home in May. So far 3 families, 3 preschools, and two elementary schools have received the books. There are many more children here who need books. Thanks!


On Thursday, January 11, I went to visit a preschool which feeds 30 preschool children every weekday. They have morning calendar activities, alphabet and number practice, and singing activities. The union church put together shoe boxes filled with gifts for them and we were able to deliver them and see the thrilled children as they opened their gifts.

The yoyos were a big hit!

Their lunch was served after they opened their boxes which contained toys, clothes, books, toothbrushes, toothpaste, sanitary wipes, combs, etc....

I was constantly amazed at the children's behavior. They were all polite and well behaved. There were 30 of them in a small area, and in the two hours we were there I didn't see any acting out or loud voices. Unbelievable! These are 4 year olds eating off of their laps after carefully replacing all their gifts in their boxes and putting them under their chairs with very little adult help. What are we doing wrong in the US? I have never seen anything like this in 20 years as an educator and mother of 4 children!