Called to Serve in the Philippines Bacolod Mission

What did you expect?

Besides our regular activities of medical and finances we have enjoyed visits with friends we have made in the Philippines. Ina Deyro is attending the University of La Salle and will graduate in December in culinary arts. Friday evening we attended a dinner prepared by “Batch 15” and enjoyed some of the dishes they have mastered. We see Ina at least once a month to have a meal and ask her to critique the food. Filipinos take their food seriously and she shares what could have been done to make the dishes more palatable. No she is not judging food I have prepared; I have not made friends with the kitchen here. We enjoyed the eggplant parmesan and pasta with chicken. George enjoyed the dory fish; after seeing “Finding Nemo”, I just couldn’t eat dory! It was a fun evening.

Ina, Karen & Jane Anne

Temporary rickety bridge on national highway towards Sipalay

Workers harvesting the rice fields along the road

Several times we have been invited to Sipalay and we have talked many times about making the trip, but finally on Saturday morning we left early and finally made it to the bottom of the mission after 16 months! The approximately 100 mile drive took over four hours with road constructions and driving here. George mentioned more than once, “have you noticed that the yellow dividing lines on the roads are not to be taken seriously?” Hmmmm. Once we left Kabankalan the traffic improved and the landscape was breathtaking. We finally saw beautiful blue ocean waters and areas known for good diving. We loved the million dollar views with bamboo houses on prime property.

Beautiful ocean views along the coast

Later after a baptism we went to dinner with the missionaries. We said let’s go to your favorite place. We went to a small open air eating establishment overlooking the ocean. It was a place I would have never considered entering, but the chicken and rice and orange soda tasted pretty good. No need for forks or spoons, hands will do.

Missionary's favorite place for chicken inasal--a wonderful local dish

Sunday we drove north to Cauayan to attend Church; we were the only ones who spoke English in the meeting, but we were treated like honored guests. After the meeting the branch presidency walked us to the truck to bid us farewell.