We moved of this last weekend from unit #2809 to unit #2505 in the same building. This unit is far nicer and far more welcoming to us and begins to make our stay here much more livable. The Bailey’s (one of the other senior couples) serving here had to return home for a family emergency with one of the adult children and his grandson. Their departure was last Friday morning at 4:30am with flights leaving at 7:15am going to Japan, Seattle, WA & lastly onto Salt Lake City, UT. Their flights were uneventful with a warm family greeting upon their arrival. Their son is on the mend from extensive surgery to his colon from cancer, preparing for additional chemo and radiation treatments as soon as his body will allow. Their presence to support their son and help with the raising of the grandson was the key to them returning home early, and it appears things have been going well for them thus far.
And now onto our busy schedule front – After the move, we had to stay around the apartment all day on Monday (although we had been promised morning visits from our Internet and Cable TV providers). In typical Filipino style, they arrived mid-afternoon to move these services from our old place to the new unit. Their removal/re-installation were uneventful and getting things working was rather easy, but following the Internet re-installation the technician left the old modem on our kitchen table, and thinking we might be charged for it, I traveled to Mega Mall (45 minutes for a 8 mile ride by taxi there and 15 minutes coming home). I waited for two-and-a-half hours in line to have a ten minute visit with the Service Center staffer to officially return the hardware. This event after a long day of mainly sitting around was the perfect cap to a totally wasted day in the Philippines. We could not access Internet nor Cable TV most of the day, and when we finally did get their services re-connected I was off to waste the night in traveling, sitting, waiting, returning, and returning the old hardware. At 9:30pm (in the dark) I finally returned home and was totally spent.
On Tuesday we started the printing of envelopes (addressing) and personal delivery of invitations for our Family Value Awards banquet (scheduled for a few weeks out) among our fellow Church Leaders around our complex. It went generally without any challenge, but on Wednesday we again traveled into the office to have the other senior couple, our Director, and Pauli to run off for the day in delivering additional invitations all around Manila plus shopping for dresses for the event for the three ladies, not to return until after 9pm directly to the apartment. I was left at the office all alone, which I have found to be a very lonely place without the activity of the others we work with. The Christmas music our Director had loaded onto her CD player was mostly the only companion I had for the day. I went to the MTC to give away extra items the Bailey’s were giving to missionaries, picked up the mail from the mailroom, and visited with a few others on pending upcoming activities, but generally the best thing I did was to load videos, pictures, and other items from CD’s onto the portable hard drive we use for larger computer files. These items were from the disasters of the Southern Philippines earthquakes of the past few weeks, which were needed to document the relief efforts of our Church members helping others in the region.
On Thursday we repeated this delivering of invitations by the two of us (senior couples) around the region with the help of a driver with a mini-van with various opinion leaders who want to join us for these important happenings. In the late afternoon we met with the awardee on the details and finalizing everything to make this event successful and enjoyable to everyone. It looks like a great night of fun for everyone attending and participating.
If it isn’t a typhoon or an earthquake or some other type of disaster, life in the Philippines might be strangely normal, but the Super Typhoon Haiyan – hitting the Philippines as I write this update - is the third one thus far while we have been here, plus the earthquake might say something about the challenges these people see on a day-to-day basis. Living in a tent-like housing shelter, a typhoon (or super typhoon) is near to the last thing one would want to see and/or experience. The country was far better prepared for this disaster, but the water (tide) surge was near to two-story tall on the coastal islands on the SSE part of the Philippines. The real challenge is all of the debris in the water going in and out because most of the destruction. We saw an eighteen wheeler truck trailer floating – down the middle of the streets - in the tide surge on one of the broadcast shots from the first locations of the typhoon making first landfall. Can you imagine the destruction something like a truck would be to people and/or homes (built rather lightly) coming in and then going back out the sea?? It was reported that many thousands of people were re-located to attempt to protect them from the destruction, damage, and loss of life from this major climatic event.
As I sit at the kitchen table writing this we are still awaiting the arrival of the worst of the storm to the Greater Manila Region in the next few hours and overnight. It has been reported that the storm is dumping tons of rain (more than normal) plus winds up to 200 mph as the worst of things hit. Needless to say we traveled the 8 miles (which takes anywhere between thirty minutes to over an hours) back to our apartment early today to stay out of the heaviest of the rain and possible worst of things today.
The one thing we can say for sure is that life here in the Philippines thus far has been nothing like boring! Challenging, busy, and learning new things every day would much better describe our time here.
I may write more later, but this is far enough for now!
Love to everyone, Elder Morello
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