The Philippine Adventure: Tarlac Strikes Back

Let's talk about sequels for a moment. They have a bad rap. Almost everyone would agree that the second in a series is usually worse than the first. It's just the nature of things. And I am willing to concede that there are some real stinkers out there. But not all sequels have to be bad. There's Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The Dark Knight. Umm... I'm sure there are others.

Look, the point is not to talk about movies. It's to say that this is part two of my trip to the Philippines. (Yes, the one way back in February. What's your point?) And I'm sure this will be even more entertaining than the first part. Even if we are changing the format entirely.

I'm not going to go day by day. Honestly, I've forgotten what happened on which day, and my expression

 rarely

changes.

I know. I look thrilled to be there. I promise you, I was. But I have really bad resting face. I don't understand those people who just naturally smile all the time. I don't trust them. It's not normal. 

So every day, we would start with worship. 

Our worship leader was a well-known Filipino radio personality and pastor. He lost everything in the typhoon a few years ago. His journey to joining the team in the Philippines showed great faith. 

Technically, the photo in the middle is of the after lunch stretch time in which we did the weirdest rendition of "Father Abraham" I have ever heard. But the limbs moved, so mission accomplished, I guess. 

I think I mentioned that we had a lot of people representing many countries. And to pay homage to this, the worship leader would have someone read the verse of the day in their native language. Do you know how long it takes to read 5-6 verses in some of these languages? We had Korean, Hindi, Spanish, Tagalog, English, Haitian Creole, and one I can't mention. I felt it was a good representation of what I go through in trying to fit languages of varying length into the same four inches of space. 

Then we seminar-ed. The look of this varied with each session. First, since it was a Train & Multiply workshop, we had to make sure everyone had access to T&M Online. That was a chore and a half. 

And can I just say that hotspots are your friend? They are beautiful things. Especially when you need forty people to be online in the middle of the Philippines. 

Part of why we were there was to share some best practices in working with T&M. So we heard how it's being used in the Philippines, in Colombia, Spain, on short-term teams, among children, with deaf communities, in prison, and adapting it to a university context. There were some incredible stories of faithful people. It was worth the trip just to hear how God has taken this small tool and done amazing things in communities and individuals!

At one point, I actually got up front to talk about my job and why it takes so long to take the translated text and turn it into something usable. I think the message got across. People really don't realize just how much work goes into making these booklets great. 

We transitioned then to talk about some challenges and opportunities facing T&M. Based on a survey we took on the bus ride, we were divided into teams. My first team tackled the challenge of working with oral learners. T&M is a text-based program. I create the booklets, for crying out loud. I know that it's an obstacle with non-literate people and oral cultures. We looked into ways that T&M could be adapted to reach more people.

That's my team. And here's what I loved about it: we all came at T&M from a different context. Yes, there were four Americans. But all of us work in different areas. And every team member could think of several examples of situations in which T&M doesn't work as text. We had to think outside the box. And you can't present solutions to non-literate learning via text. 

So we got creative. And yeah, some of these solutions are quite a way down the road. But I would love to hear T&M as a radio drama. And hey, it was out of this discussion that "T&M: The Musical" was conceived. But more on that later. 

My second team was looking at the opportunities (and challenges) in using T&M in Europe. 

Europe is often seen as the place where Christianity went to die. One of the most poignant descriptions of Europe that I use often is that they have forgotten that they've forgotten God. And yes, there are tremendous barriers. But there are also amazing opportunities! Don't dismiss Europe as a mission field just because it's hard. That's like saying God is incapable of changing hearts. And if you believe that, then what's the point of anything?

On the last day, we divided into regions. There's no point talking about best practices if you don't have a plan to implement them in your ministry. So each region got some time to come up with action plans for the next few months. And don't assume that the office staff was exempt from this. We made our own action plan for how we were going to take what we'd learned and incorporate it into the future of T&M. 

(I need to take a moment to talk about a truly profound moment I had in the Philippines. I experienced a moment of zen, people. And it's all about a pen. Yes, a common writing instrument to you. But to me, it was a thing of beauty. It wrote beautifully, it was comfortable to hold - I could compose sonnets to this pen. I asked Lois and Dez to find me a dozen more. I think they thought I was joking because they never showed up. But I'm not joking, guys. I'm a huge nerd about this stuff. I'd show you a picture, but it's become my church pen, and I don't want to remove it from its spot in case I lose it. That is all.)

Okay, so let's switch gears for a minute. We've spent a lot of time indoors, and to be honest, that's how we spent most of our time in the Philippines. I didn't get many chances to explore. But I did find a bit of the flora and fauna to share with you.

These cats were just about the only animals I saw in the country. 

There were far more of these.

One reason we didn't spend a lot of time outside is that they were constantly burning the fields. I have no idea why. We mostly saw sugar cane. But I could definitely smell it in the air. Sometimes I could taste it. 

And of course, nights are beautiful. (I think there was a super moon while we were there. Very big and bright.)

We did go out one night to a coffee shop. It was really nice, though I don't like coffee. So I had some kind of flavored drink that reminded me of moscato (but without alcohol) and tasted amazing.

Which brings us to food. I didn't take a lot of food photos, because how many times can you really take pictures of rice? It's no joke that every meal in the Philippines is served with rice. Because it is. Breakfast. Lunch. Dinner. And the thing that got me was that the Filipinos didn't seem to want to put anything on the rice. There was stuff on the side. But the rice was on its own most of the time. Very odd for someone who usually accompanies rice with and. Rice and...

Feed me, Seymour!

Lots of pork. The adobo flakes were interesting, though not my favorite. Lots of soup, too. Reminded me of Poland, though no potatoes.

Those skewered pork things were amazing. I would eat them all day every day.

That is fish on my plate. I tried it because I told Deb that I would. She failed to convince me that fish is worth eating. That sweet drink in the glass, though? BRILLIANT.

These little fish showed up for breakfast a couple of times. If there's one thing I don't need upon waking, it's beady eyes staring up at me from my plate. 

Now let's talk about Sunday. It was a standout day because we didn't do any of the normal seminar stuff. They split us up in small groups so we could visit as many of the local churches as possible. And we finally got to ride in a Jeepney!

If you know anything about the Philippines, you probably know about Jeepneys. They are crowded, they are kitchsy, they are at times terrifying, and they are sadly disappearing in the Philippines. We were told that there's a movement to get rid of them. I can sort of understand. But they are also a lot of fun.

I went to the Faith Fellowship Tarlac church. This is the denominational church in Tarlac City. It was lovely. Great worship, great people, and plenty of fans on the white people.

Did I mention great food? We ate an excellent lunch after the service with the pastor's family. Let me tell you something - I may hate cooking (though I'm warming up to it), but I love cooking shows. Especially "Parts Unknown" with Anthony Bourdain. Because food is so tied up in the culture of a place. People eat things they know and can find easily. And I love seeing how that plays out all over the world. Something exotic to you or I is extremely commonplace somewhere. We used to host Russian students at our house. They were flabbergasted by casseroles.

Try everything once. You really never know.

We met up with everyone else at Pastor Mar's house, which also happens to be where a house church is meeting. Before that, though, we picked up another group that was having church under a tree. They also happened to have avocado ice cream. Now, I can't eat ice cream. Bad things happen. But it was just too intriguing. And I can honestly attest that avocado ice cream is worth just about any bad thing that could result. It is the stuff of legends. I'm drooling just remembering it.

Eventually, we all ended up at Mar's home. His wife has a roadside restaurant, too. 

And it is there that I encountered another great Filipino tradition.

Halo-halo.

Literally, mix-mix. As in, mix up whatever you have and stick it in ice cream. The picture above is someone else's halo-halo (pronounced hollow hollow) because as I mentioned before, I can't eat ice cream. So they made me a special batch without it. And I have to say, you really miss out when there's no ice cream in it. It's just crushed ice and coconut and corn and jellied fruit - nothing to hold it together.

We also had these. They reminded me of tamales since they are wrapped up, but it's more desserty. I was not a fan. I can't remember what is in them now. Oh, and there was also flan. Because why not?

I wish I could show you the evolution of this picture. We started out with a few. Then we added another. Then two more. Then we pulled Let in on her phone. It was hilarious.

And it apparently started a trend.

Like I said, there were a lot of people there. And somehow that became this:

Aww. Don't we look great?

After dessert, we split up again. Some people wanted to go back to the hotel. Some people wanted to go to the mall. Some people wanted to see an open air market.

I would normally do the market. But seeing as I hadn't exchanged any money and I was feeling peopled-out, I should have just gone back to the hotel and had a lie down. But no. I picked the mall.

It's huge. And it's crowded. I think there were at least five floors. Dozens of stores. And not mom and pop shops. High-end designer places. I had a hard time reconciling the mall with the church I'd been to that morning.

This is the thing about the Philippines that constantly perplexed me. Parts of it are incredibly modern. There are luxury stores, luxury hotels, a vast network of highways, beautiful buildings, the occasional park, and just really neat architecture. And then right next to it - not down the street or around the block - next door would be a shack or a street vendor with no shoes. Extreme luxury right next to extreme poverty. And there are no apologies or explanations. It just is. Like there's no reason to find it odd. I'm used to very segmented living. You have your nice neighborhoods, you have your slums, you have your mansions - none of which are found anywhere near each other. At least not where I'm from. The dichotomy of it kept throwing me for a loop.

Here's the thing that makes it all worth it, though. Wherever I go, there's one constant.

The people are incredible.

Whether you're meeting for the first time or you only spend time together in other countries, the people you encounter are the best part of any trip. They all have a unique perspective on life, and for a few brief (or not so brief) moments, you can connect in ways you never imagined. These are people I will never forget, and when we see each other again, whether in this life or in heaven, we will reminisce fondly about these experiences. 

Just a few more random moments to talk about. 

First, my hair does this in humidity. This was very early. Before it got even bigger. This was fascinating to the Filipinos. They have very flat, straight hair. Mine is neither of those. So I kept it down a couple of days to provide entertainment.

I'm not 100% certain of this next thing. But this might have been the day they were playing the Super Bowl. See, it was happening Monday morning for us. And we were very carefully instructed to not be watching it while we were in meetings. And I adhered to that. But I may have been tracking the score in real time. I look diligent, right? And I was. I was diligently tracking the plays as a team I don't care about beat the pants off a team I loathe. It was truly beautiful. (Oh hey! That's the pen. Isn't it pretty?)

Now, imagine this is a Marvel movie. The credits are rolling, but you know better than to leave because this is a Marvel movie, for crying out loud! There are always post-credits scenes. And it's time for me to talk about the thing that I've alluded to but never fully explained. 

So, I talked about the challenge of reaching oral learners, right? Well, for the trip, all the participants were connected on WhatsApp. It's a great tool, and it really helped us keep organized. But it did so much more than that. Because after our presentation, a little message went out across the wire. And I never pass up an opportunity like this.

I don't think anyone took it seriously at first. It's one of those things you laugh at and then move on. Except I can't move on. So I started writing lyrics. And then Dean came up with categories of entries in a talent contest. And it really just ballooned from there. So from Friday afternoon until Monday evening, we formed our own little underground groups. We rehearsed. We wrote and rewrote. We composed power point presentations. 

And then it was time. 

Pictures really don't do it justice. 

Which is why there is video. 

I can now present to you the exclusive playlist of entries in the world premier of T&M: The Musical. There are seven videos. I really hope you enjoy them. (There was dual translation for our Spanish speakers.)

Seriously. This is pure GOLD.

(Please don't share these outside your immediate sphere of influence.)

And that's pretty much it. I could only begin to tell you everything I experienced on this trip. If you want to know more or see more photos (I have hundreds), I'd be happy to to share.

We left Tarlac at 1:30 pm on February 6 Philippines time. That's 12:30 AM February 6 in Greenwood. 

Remember that. It's important. Because this is about to become...

...a THREEQUEL.

The Weekly Wrap-Up: May 29-June 1, 2018

See, Ashleigh, this is why I write things down. Because when I don't, I don't remember the interesting little tidbits I tell myself I'll remember to share.

Short week. Last week was even shorter, because I took three days off to see my nephew graduate and spend some time with my sister and her family. We had a really nice time in Michigan, minus the MOUSs - Mosquitos of Unusual Size. I'm not sure there is a part of my body that didn't get eaten. Oh well. It was still a nice time. My dad and I stayed in our camper instead of enjoying the air conditioning (or heat in the evenings), soft beds, and lack of coyotes barking. But it was probably worth it.

Here's a lovely picture of my nephew and I:

I'm not sure how we ended up so off-center, but we're still adorable. (I am 100% certain on how we ended up off-center. I'm just trying to be nice.)

So, I rolled back into town on Monday. And look, I like that I have vacation hours. I like taking time off to visit family. It's nice to get away from work. But I don't ever take time off to just rest. It's always because I'm doing something. Whether it's visiting the family or celebrating a holiday or doing deputation, I have never just taken a week off and stayed put. And I'm starting to feel it. I desperately want to just take a week and relax. Maybe stay in a hotel and veg. Even just sit in the sun and read.

But I won't. Because I have five projects in queue in addition to the one I'm working on now. And that's not likely to change anytime soon. (Do you all realize that the word queue is just the letter q with four useless letters 'lined up' behind it?)

This week's project is Hakha Chin. Do you ever get tired of hearing me talk about Hakha Chin? It's a good thing I look at other languages in between working on groups of Hakha Chin, because if I didn't, I might go a little stir crazy. Er. Crazier.

We're entering the people months. Whole months where people come and go like we're a revolving door. It's unsettling. At least for someone like me. It was worse when I was in Communications. In ECC, my job largely doesn't change. Except there are people. And it's a conference year. So I'm actually required to interact with them.

We shall prevail. 

The Weekly Wrap-Up: May 14-18, 2018

Chinese is done!

Man, of all the languages I've worked with, I never thought this one would have so many issues. Character languages are supposed to be simpler. It's certainly shorter. But the spacing is really odd.

PSA: Don't put pictures in Word documents.

So I actually work in InDesign. But it's still a pain. I don't understand why this language behaves so
inconsistently from booklet to booklet. But it's my job to make it look good. So that's what I did.

(Okay, do you want to know something frustrating? I was told this week not to worry about making the booklets look perfect because the proofreaders are going to change a lot. Fine. I get that. But that's literally the case every time I send them back to the translators. If I can make them look great now, that's less I have to change later. And this is after I asked what the priority project was and was told to finish Chinese. Don't tell me not to do my job as well as I usually do.)

Whatever. It's done.

For something completely different, I published the first group of Tagalog. It's an interesting process, because you have to split two of the booklets. We publish the whole thing and then the individual studies. I'm really pleased with how they came out, and the Philippines will be happy to have the booklets.

Now, I'm back into Hakha Chin. I've just barely started, and I have no idea when it will actually be finished. I'm only in two days next week. My nephew is graduating, so we're headed up to Michigan so I can thoroughly embarrass him as is my duty as his Aunt. Plus, I'll be manning the front desk in the afternoon. If you want to hear me butcher the job of receptionist, call Monday or Tuesday from 3-5. 317.888.3333

That's about it for the week. It's been fairly quiet. The only odd thing is that I had lunch plans every single day. That's very unusual. Often, I only have plans once a week, with the rare stretch to two days. But this week, I didn't go home for lunch once. Which is slightly annoying because I had food that needed to be eaten. But it's also nice because I don't have to make anything. (So if you're ever in town, feel free to call me up. There are a lot of great places to eat around here.)

After one of these meals, though, I took the Pic of the Week. I'm pretty sure it's to scale. Anyone know what it is? (Lori, you aren't allowed to guess since you were sitting next to me.)

Zechariah and the Not Yet Principle

Luke 1:5-255 In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. 6 Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. 7 But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old.

8 Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, 9 he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10 And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.

11 Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12 When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear.13 But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. 14 He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, 15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. 16 He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. 17 And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

18 Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”

19 The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. 20 And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.”

21 Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. 22 When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak.

23 When his time of service was completed, he returned home. 24 After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. 25 “The Lord has done this for me,” she said. “In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”

Here's a little secret for you: I am both intrigued and annoyed by finding new things in old Scriptures.

It's intriguing because it often comes out of left field. I can read a passage a hundred times, and it feels fairly straightforward. The narrative is solid, there's an obvious application, and we can nod at the rightness of it and move on.

But then it's also annoying. Because is this actually a new thing? Why am I finding it now? What does it mean? Was it intentional? Am I reading too much into this? Am I just saying that I'm reading too much into this so that I don't have to pay attention? It's annoying because I can't let it go until I have all the answers.

I've read the book of Luke a dozen times, and parts of it even more. I've always liked the first chapter, but it feels like filler before we get to the good stuff. It's a Gospel, for crying out loud. It's about Jesus. Why get stuck on this pre-Jesus stuff about John the Baptist? And not even John. His dad. 

I've focused on Elizabeth before, mostly because I was trying to figure out how she and Mary could be related. Elizabeth is a Levite. Mary is from the tribe of Judah. Sure, marrying between tribes happened. But we don't really get a clear answer. (I had to eventually abandon that line of inquiry. But it's on my list of questions.)

But I don't usually focus on Zechariah. He's kind of the goat here. He questioned God, lost his voice, blah blah blah. We know the story.

But then I looked closer at verse 23. "When his time of service was completed, he returned home."

It makes sense. He encounters an angel. Loses the power of speech. Goes home.

Except he didn't.

He completed his time of service.

I'm going to get very technical here. The priests were split into 24 divisions. Each division was responsible for service at the temple in Jerusalem twice a year. They would also all be required for service together for the three big festivals - Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. They would serve for a week and then rotate out to the next division.

(Incidentally, this can help us pinpoint a little bit when Luke 1 takes place. Zechariah is from the division of Abijah. They would have served during Passover (March-April), Pentecost (May-June), and Tabernacles (September-October). But this likely wasn't during a holiday. So if we assume that the divisions served in the same order and at roughly the same time every year, then this happened either during the tenth week of the year (May-June) or the 34th week (September-October). If you're still wondering where the 52nd week comes in, congratulations for noticing that, and you can rest assured that they added a week every three years to keep the calendar fairly even.)

So Zechariah's job is to serve in the temple two weeks a year. Every morning during the week of service, the division would cast lots to see who was doing which job that day. At some point in one of these weeks, Zechariah got the job of burning the incense.

It's a cool job. You had to make sure that the incense was always going, and you also had to burn incense before the burnt offering was presented. And there were a ton of priests, so your chances of being chosen for this particular job were quite small.

We don't know which day Zechariah was chosen. It could have been early in the week. It could have been later. But it was probably earlier. Because of that niggling little phrase when his time of service was completed. It implies that he stuck around for a little while after his angelic visitation. And if he was serving in the 34th week, then he likely stayed on for the Feast of Tabernacles. So for anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, Zechariah was mute and still serving, living with this knowledge of what was about to happen and unable to tell his wife, who, we presume, would be most impacted by it.

Can you imagine that? You know something incredible is coming. You've been told about it, and you've been deeply affected by it. Do you tell someone? He couldn't speak, but he could still write. Did he try to explain it? How do you even begin to do that? Do you just sit with it, letting it inform your every thought and action? I'm sure all he wanted to do was run home to Elizabeth and share that their dreams were about to come true. You just need to get with the program already!

Except you can't. Because you still have a job to do. Just because you've been told that something amazing is coming, you don't automatically get a pass to ignore your current circumstances. Jobs still have to be done. Life continues to move around you.

Maybe that's why this stood out to me this time. I've been sitting in the Valley of Not Yet. Kinda feels like I've been here for years. And a few things have come along that made me question, "Is this it? Is this the thing?" And every time, the answer is "Not yet. Keep doing what you're doing. You're getting closer, I promise."

And it's hard. I like what it do. It's a cool job. But I keep getting glimpses of what's coming. I can taste it sometimes. It's hard to keep living in the present and take care of business. To be patient. I hate being patient. I am the worst at it. Sometimes I feel like my heart is going to beat out of my chest because I'm so ready to get to The Thing.

But I think this time is valuable. I need to keep doing my job and do it well. I need to pay attention to each moment. Because if I don't, who's to say I'll be ready for The Thing when it happens?

There's a reason the answer is Not Yet. It will keep being Not Yet until I finish what I'm supposed to be doing now.

What do you think? Reading too much into it? Or just another example of God putting the right words in the right order for the right time?

The Weekly Wrap-Up: May 7-11, 2018

I've been making up for lost time. So it's been all Chinese, all week. Minus this afternoon, when I finally finished the first installment of my Philippines blog. You should probably read that instead. I don't even have a Pic of the Week for you. Sorry.

Seriously, though. So much Chinese. And the booklets were all tampered with. By that, I mean they didn't match English at all. In one instance, that resulted in four pages having been deleted. This makes my job a million times harder.

Actually, you know what? I do have a Pic of the Week. It just seemed apropos for some reason.

The Philippine Adventure: Part One

I know you've all been waiting with bated breath. (And if you haven't, you can sling yer 'ook and not tell me.) But I can finally reveal the gigantic, epic, so-long-it-needs-an-intermission post about my trip to the Philippines. (I wrote that before I turned it into a multi-arc post. It's like when we thought The Hobbit was going to be two movies and were a little incredulous, but then they turned it into three and that was just needlessly excessive.) I can't promise it will always be coherent. (Obviously.) I have a vague idea about how I want to organize it. But we'll just carry on and see how it goes, yeah?

Let's do this.

So me going to the Philippines was a vague notion until it very quickly became a reality. I've been wanting to travel for a while now, and especially to see how T&M is being used in the field. Moreover, as much as I bang on about homeland missionaries being real missionaries (which we are, thank you very much), there are times when we feel the need to get out of the office and see how the other half live.

But there's a big difference between wanting to go and actually going. Firstly, there's the matter of paying for it. My support account is in the green, but it wouldn't be for long if I went haring off all the time. Second, there aren't many trips that qualify as work-related. For example, I've been wanting to go on the prayer trip to Israel for a couple of years now. But it's not really my field, and they aren't using T&M, so while it's ministry, it would count as more of a personal trip as far as work is concerned. Third, it's time away from doing my job. So I'd have to justify that.

This is an ECC trip, though, and that makes all the difference in the world. There are still expenses, of course, but it's a T&M event, so I'm useful, and everyone else is going, so it's not like I'm missing much in the office. But actually deciding I should go happened over a weekend, so it was a rather quick process.

I still wasn't sure what exactly I was going to be doing there. The title of the event was "Strategic Enhancement Workshop," which is really just a lot of fancy words strung together that happen to spell out SEW. It doesn't really tell you what the purpose is or what you'll be doing. The purpose, it turned out, was to bring together our best users of Train & Multiply. These people have been in the trenches, worked with the material, and figured out how to adapt it to their context. ECC wanted everyone together to see how we could help each other and come up with some best practices to help new users and also address some challenges that we might be facing in the future. As a producer of T&M, my role was to answer some questions about the process and glean from people's comments some ways that we could improve the material and possibly revamp things for different audiences. Plus, I'd get to hear loads of stories from several different fields.

So, on to the trip.

We were scheduled to leave Monday, January 29, at 5:54 in the morning. This prompted an internal debate, namely, what time do we leave for the airport, and should I sleep the night before we leave even if it's just for a couple of hours? Since there were several of us leaving from OMS, the first question was fairly easy to answer. We all decided to head out around 3:30. In the morning. It's way too early. But sacrifices must be made.

As for the second question, I had to take into consideration the travel time and the time difference in the Philippines. I knew we had a couple of long flights in the wings (natch!) and that we'd be 13 hours ahead. I also know that jet lag is a pain, and nothing really prepares you for flip-flopping your schedule. Nevertheless, I decided not to sleep the night before. I probably should have taken a nap, but I can't really sleep on planes, so I knew I needed to be as tired as possible in order to get a bit of kip. So I stayed up reading. And I guess the adrenaline of a trip ahead helped me stay awake. Didn't help me not be a total spaz, though. I get a little dictatorial when I travel. I try to tamp it down, but I'm not great at going with the flow when it comes to international travel. For the record, I did apologize to my traveling companions before we started out.

I was traveling with Paula, Vicki, and Greg. I was also traveling with Brian, but he hadn't arrived yet, and we met up with Dick in Philadelphia. We thought a before photo would be useful. We do look all bright eyed and bushy tailed, don't we?

Yeah, that didn't last very long. Our first flight was to Philadelphia. I've never flown through Philly. I guess it's nice. Nothing really stood out to me as a distinguishing feature from any other airport I've been in. We flew on American, though that really only came into play on the short hops.

That is the first and only shot from the window I got on a plane. I was only in a window seat for that first flight, and really, I'm okay with that. A window seat is nice if it's a short flight or your first flight or you plan to sleep the whole time. It's less nice when you're trying to prevent blood clots in your legs or you have to pee every few hours. No one likes climbing over someone else to get out. I don't mind being the one climbed over as it usually forces me to get up and stretch. It's a personal preference. No disrespect to my window-seaters.

Now, when traveling to Asia, you usually fly in a general westerly direction, right? It just makes sense. Sure, it's a giant ocean under you, but I just think it's closer. Especially when you're in the easternmost part of Asia. I mean, come on. Christopher Columbus went West to get East. Surely we could follow his example.

But no. We flew East.

To Qatar.

Not sure what you've heard about Qatar. But I'm sure most of whatever you've heard has been a little sketchy. More on that later. Here's one thing I know, though. Qatar Airways is really nice. Nice planes. Nice flight crew. Nice food (for airplane fare). Nice entertainment selection (with built-in censoring of swear words and sex scenes). Just all around nice. And do you know the really great thing about flying to Qatar from the United States? There aren't many people who want to go there. Which meant I had an entire center row to myself. It was beautiful. And on an 11+ hour flight, that's important. This was the flight I really needed to sleep on. And sleep I did. Sort of. Mostly dozing. But it worked well enough that I wasn't a zombie when we arrived in Qatar.

The airport is really nice. Like, really nice. Also, there's a giant bear right in the middle. Propped up against a lamp. I have no idea why.

There are also screens everywhere. Bright screens that could sear your face off if you stood too close.

But we mostly did this. People, if you're traveling abroad, please let me stress to you how important it is to make sure you do two things. First, check your phone service in each country, whether you are just traveling through or you're staying there a while. Connecting to the internet in the airport is not easy. It's also probably monitored in certain places. Know before you go.

Secondly, make sure you have greenlisted these countries with your bank. You don't want to freeze your accounts because you forgot and used your credit card when they can't be sure you authorized it. And if you don't have phone service, when they call to ask, you can't tell them it was actually you.

Not that I did much shopping at this time. No point buying stuff you'll just have to lug through the rest of your trip. More on that later. But I did make a new friend.

This is Boris. If you're ever in the Qatar airport, please say hello. And send me a photo. I need to know he's okay.

Now, the great thing about traveling from Qatar to the Philippines is that, again, not many people are heading in that direction. So once again, on my nine hour flight (also on Qatar Airways - can't say enough good things about them), I had a row to myself. Except here's where the good entertainment part comes into play. Because at this point, although I've only advanced about six hours into the future in my personal timeline, I was trying to operate on Philippine time. And that meant staying awake. The whole flight.

I'm fairly certain I managed to do it. I watched a lot of movies. But my tether was nearing its end when we finally landed in Manila.

If you've been to Manila, then you will immediately understand that my use of the word chaos is entirely appropriate. I don't actually remember most of it. I must have made it through immigration and into the country because the next thing I remember is debating whether or not to get some pesos. I'd been assured that credit cards would be fine, and we wouldn't be doing much shopping anyway. So I didn't get any pesos. More on that later.

Then I remember trying to figure out how we were going to get to the hotel. We knew there would be a shuttle on the hour. We weren't sure if we had arrived in time for the next one or if we'd have to wait a whole hour. But then, a bright spot appeared! There, like an oasis in the desert, was Lois Pannabecker. She was in charge of putting the event together, and like the lovely lady she is, she'd basically commandeered the hotel shuttle to come get us.

Seeing as it was around 11 pm when we actually left the airport, I couldn't really tell you much about my first impressions of Manila. I just remember it took at least 30 minutes for us to actually leave the airport complex. And that's not because we were stuck in traffic. That airport is just huge. So many parts to it. It's insane. More on that later.

Our hotel that night was just a quick layover, but it was still quite nice. Here's the lobby:

I know, right? Very swanky. But before you get too excited, here's the view from the window:

There is no shortage of hotels in Manila. There's no shortage of anything in Manila. People, cars, buildings, roads - you name it, they got it. Except green space. That is strictly reserved for Not Manila.

It was not hard to fall asleep that night. I wasn't even really sure what night it was. Maybe Tuesday. Yeah. Tuesday. Because we'd been in transit for about 28 hours and then we gained 13 hours. So we left early Monday morning and arrived late Tuesday. Sleep was definitely not a problem.

On Wednesday, then, we got ready to make the trip north to Tarlac. Miraculously, everyone had arrived mostly on time and in the right place. So we threw all our junk into a greyhound bus and headed out of the city.

Now Tarlac is about 80 miles north of Manila. It's really not that far. It's slightly less than the distance from Indy to Huntington. And yet, it took us 2.5 hours to get there. And I kid you not, more than an hour of that was getting out of Manila.

The map really doesn't do it justice. But no joke, once you're out of Manila, it's smooth sailing to Tarlac.

Along the way, we saw some lovely sights. (Keep in mind that I took these through a bus window, please.)

Honestly, there were times when I couldn't even tell if I had left Indiana. And then a mountain would appear. Definitely not Indiana. It reminded me a lot of Spain, too, actually.

On the way to Tarlac, we were given a survey to complete. On it was a list of challenges facing T&M and dreams we'd like to explore. We had to rank them based on our own preferences and needs. With that done, we were free to eat the lovely lunch the hotel provided (I'm really bad at taking pictures of stuff like that, sorry) and take in the glorious countryside.

Soon, though, we arrived at our new home for the next few days.

I highly recommend the Luisita Microtel. It was brand new. And it was lovely.

I really couldn't have asked for a better place to spend my time in the Philippines. I had all this space to myself. And for an introvert, that is primo real estate. Especially when you're at a conference where you know there will be multiple group projects.

We had some time on Wednesday to relax a bit. I didn't want to take a nap because I wasn't sure I'd wake up again if I fell asleep. (Like, in time for the evening events. Obviously, I didn't think I was going to die.)

We had a welcome service that evening. Not gonna lie, I was fading fast. But I persevered. There was a lovely performance to kick things off.

They were really great. But I couldn't tell you the first thing that Larry talked about that night. I just know he had five points. I know he had five points because I was counting them down. And then when the five points were done, he kept talking. I might as well have been on drugs. When you're that tired, it's almost like having an out of body experience. You just cannot comprehend anything.

I tried to be personable. I really did. But there was no way that any socializing was going to be beneficial to anyone. So I walked back through the frog-filled woods (did I mention those?) from the Aquino Museum. And then I assume I made it back to my room and fell into bed, because I don't remember anything else until the next morning.

And that's where we're ending this one. The next installment will hopefully come soon. But I make no guarantees. 

The Weekly Wrap-Up: April 30 - May 4, 2018

First of all, happy Star Wars day!

Second, I think I've spent just as much time out of my office this week as I've spent in it. It's pretty much exactly what I didn't need, especially after spending so much time last week back and forth from the seminar. Fortunately, I have a nice boss who let me reprioritize some of my work.

Let's start with Monday. I was responsible for Monday morning devotions this week. I usually try to do something fun and out of the ordinary. I didn't quite make it that far this time. But I'd like to think we still had a good discussion of 1 Samuel 3.

We had our weekly Monday Ops meeting as usual. But since it was such a nice day, we decided to have it outside at the picnic pavilion. It was lovely. It also took three times as long as it normally does. Weird how that works. It is from this meeting that we get our first Pic of the Week.

This is Buddy. Buddy began this life as a simple styrofoam cup. But through persistence on the part of moi in sticking a straw through his body and expertly rendering a face through the medium of ink, Buddy became something more. And he was thrilled.

Did I mention how little motivation we had on Monday? We were all feeling the effects of last week, I think. It tends to make people a little crazy.

On to Tuesday. Twice a year, we have a work day around OMS. Tuesday happened to be the day. For some reason, I was assigned to the #GutterCrew. I mean, we're awesome, no doubt. But I don't do ladders. So it was interesting.

This was my view for most of the day. Two guys would be up on the roof, blowing crap out of the gutters. I'd be on the ground, blowing the stuff away from the buildings and walkways. I was also Chief Schlepper. I'm great at schlepping. (The whole morning made me think of Jack Harkness. He's good on roofs. If you understand this reference, we need to be better friends.) We cleared off every roof on campus, minus the main building because I don't think it actually has gutters. That's 21 roofs of varying heights. And we did it all in about 4 hours.

Then, because no one sits idly for long around here, I found myself in possession of a golf cart and a friend.

That's Renee. She was attempting to back into the creek so we could dump some excess dirt. Then I attempted it. As you can see, it didn't go well. We may have broken a hitch. I blame metal fatigue. But we got the job done. Then we did some more schlepping. Golf carts are great for that.

Tuesday night was the single's dinner that I complained about last week. I don't mind getting together once a month. But I do mind it being on the same day as a work day. But we had a good time. I made a May Pole. I dressed up. I made food. I cleaned up.

Then I collapsed. Schlepping is hard work. My back still hasn't forgiven me.

On Wednesday, we had a half day of prayer. And look, praying is great. But it's killer when you have lots of projects due and you've already spent one day not working on them. Still, it was a good morning.

Finally, that afternoon, I had some time to work on a couple Chinese booklets. I also wrote my latest prayer letter, which should be in your hot little hands sometime next week. Can I just say that it's a real labor of love to write those and get them out every couple of months? I'm never quite sure what people will be interested in hearing, and I don't want to overlap with my blog too much because I really don't know how many people read it nor if those same people are receiving my letters. There are a lot of unknowns in this business.

Thursday was fairly quiet, though the heavy rainstorm was quite inconvenient when I had to leave mid-morning for a doctor's appointment. I don't think my shoes will ever be the same.

Finally, today, our department had lunch at the president's house. We had a very nice time. It's cool that they wanted to spend some time with each department getting to know people in a more informal setting.

And that's my week. It's slightly more than what fits in a nutshell, but I trust you'll forgive me. I do seem to alternate between short and long. Just depends on how my Friday is going, really. And how tired I am.

May the fourth be with you.