BBQ and some rain

Last night we got to barbeque some baby back ribs. We were excited to see the ribs, and they were on sale so we bought some asparagus and corn to go with them and got ready to party. It started to rain when we were trying to get the coals going, but we were in a covered area so it didn't affect our plans. Then the wind started blowing and it began to rain a little harder. We just moved the grill further under the covering and cooked away. Then the wind started howling and the raining was pouring as it only can in the tropics. We ran for safety because we were getting soaked! We stood in the doorway that leads to the covered patio and watched the ribs cook, which we had fortunately covered with tinfoil so the rain didn't douse our fire and delicious smelling food. I decided that this meal was the best meal we've cooked in this country. Sometimes it's hard to find food that tastes like what you're used to while living overseas. You may be able to find all the ingredients but they don't taste like what you're expecting it to. Fortunately, we still have another rack of ribs, so the fun will continue!

Uche working hard on the grill.

The coals are getting hot...

Rain! I wish you could see, hear and feel the force of the rain storm. It's pretty cool.

Well, it was cool until we got back to the apartment and noticed watering running down out of our cabinet. We had had problems with this before but last week a guy came and "fixed" it. There was an open hole that had been cut out to put a fan in, but someone ended up building a cabinet over it, so they covered the hole with a board. Well, boards on outside walls don't hold it up so well in this climate, especially rainy season, so it was rotting and leaking on the food in the cabinet. So, the landlady arranged to have someone come fill it with cement. He came and whipped it up in a few minutes. We were a little suspicious since it didn't seem like the guy had totally sealed the hole up. We were right! So, water was pretty much coming in at a steady stream, so we cleared out all the food (fortunately we had everything sealed up so it wasn't ruined) and tried to clean up the water all over the cabinet, counter and floor. We have food and everything from the counter spread out on the floor of the living room, and hopefully the hole will be well sealed today. Sorry, no pictures of that excitement we were scrambling to soak up water and rescue everything from the cupboard!

Silver lining

I woke up this morning around 4:30, which is not unusual for me, because since we moved back to the Philippines I have been waking up too early. 4:30am is a little too early for me, even though I am an early riser. By the way, Sarah is a late riser.
This morning I wasn't sure I would go jogging because of the rain. I hate to jog in the rain and it's been raining rats and cockroaches since we came back from summer break. So, I was still contemplating about the rain when I looked outside our window and guess what I saw, a silver lining in the sky. I couldn't hold my excitement as I went jogging. I wasn't the only one excited about the weather. I think school kids were probably most excited about it as they walked druggedly to school. I always pity the kids that have to be in school at the crack of dawn (5.15 - 5.20am). Can you believe that? No matter what time I go jogging, I always meet kids, first grade to high school, heading to school.
I like to go jogging early because that's when the weather is cooler, and there are also fewer people outside especially at the mall where I jog. I jog around the mall in our neighborhood. I basically circle round the mall a few times. It's one of the biggest malls in the Philippines and one lap is probably about one mile.
On my way back from jogging I started thinking about the implication of the silver lining. To me it signifies the end of the rain at the moment. I thought about its application in my life at this moment and I came up with the fact that no matter how gloomy or even rainy life may be today, there will be a silver lining in my sky. Challenges and trials will come but the Lord will always give us the strength to overcome (Psalm. 91:9).
May we see our silver lining as we face the challenges of today.

This Semester

I thought you may want to know what classes we are taking this semester, and I guess if you don't want to know, you can scroll down to see pictures of Krispy Kreme!

• Introduction to Community Development- pretty self explanatory, but it's a little interesting to take this class after having other CD subjects last semester. We're looking forward to getting a good overivew of what CD is and maybe more importantly what it isn't.


• Being a Servant Leader- Seminaries train leaders, so we're going to learn how to serve like Christ, with a towel and basin instead of a crown and sword. For this class we're going to start and lead a young professionals group at our church.


• Community Organizing- This class takes on a new meaning for us Americans who experienced last year's election... We established last night in class that if we're a community organizer we should be prepared to become President or martyred (like the greatest community organizer, Jesus) and maybe everything in between!


• New Testament I- This class will focus on the synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke.


• Theology I- This class studies systematic theology, theology proper (study of God), revelation and bibliology.


• I (Sarah) am also taking Doing Theology in Asia- Most of theology has been done from a Western perspective, but the church has grown and is growing more so in the 2/3rds world and the way they do theology is different, so I'm going to learn about the Asian perspective. Though we don't plan to live and work in Asia, I think African theology will probably be more similiar to Asian than to Western thought.


• Uche is taking Transformational Learning and Teaching- We learn how to teach in a way that will change the lives and thinking of the people we are teaching. This is different from giving out or downloading information to learners.

So, there you have it our 18 units for this semester. This is how we'll spend our Monday-Thursday. Friday will become a day we spend in poor communities getting to know people there and see what kind of work is being done in these communities. We're super excited about the semester and after all our different first classes we decided that class was going to be a good class. We're so grateful that we have the opportunity to be here and study.

6 years and counting...

On Tuesday we celebrated our 6th anniversary. It's kind of fun to be back in the country where we met, fell in love and married. While we would've loved to go back to the island (Boracay) where we spent our honeymoon we had class all afternoon and evening, so we had to just have fun at the mall before going to class. We went to one Sarah's favorite places for our date.

Sarah got the chocolate custard filled and Uche got the lemon cheesecake. It's dangerous how close Krispy Kreme is to our house. Of course, we have to walk in the blazing heat to get there, so it's probably a good thing we don't have a car....

Malling

Did you know that "malling" is a word? It's a verb, meaning to go hang out at the mall, as in, "When my sister came to town we went malling." I think it's fair to say it's the Filipino national past time. Of course, the malls are huge, air conditioned and fantastic here, so why not.

Last week we went to the mall to pick up a couple things at the hardware store and a birthday present. We went into Mi to look for the present. All the sudden a song came on in the store and the employees started singing and dancing. We'd never seen such a thing. But if you're familiar with the Philippines you're not surprised that such a thing exists. They all did the choreographed dance moves through out the song and once it ended went back to what they were doing before.

Can you see what the sign says on the far right? Happy Shopping indeed.

I love that the security guard isn't even watching them. I wonder how many times he's witnessed the show....

While purchasing our items at the hardware store Uche saw something behind my shoulder. Can you guess what it was??

What hardware store doesn't have a karaoke machine that the employees practice on??

Some of our Favorite Things

Just thought I'd share some photos of what we've been enjoying being back in the States.

We love to ride our bikes, so we've managed to do it a couple times. Of course, our bodies aren't used to it yet, so we're always a little sore... There are crazy people who actually ride in Manila, we know some, but we're not them!! We'll stay on the back country roads thank you very much.

Kool April Nites cruise, a classic car cruise. This is annual event in Redding, and we've done with our great friends the past few years. We were excited to be back in the country for this event.

Fresh air, mountains, clean beautiful water, not always something we get to enjoy in Manila, so we're soaking it up as much as possible.

This is me cutting some lettuce out of my mom's garden. We've been eating salad a lot here. We can get lettuce in Manila, but it's a little spendy and not fabulous. It's been great to walk outside and cut lunch!

Tea Party

Tonight Uche and I headed down with friends and family to the local Tea Party here in Redding. The tea parties were held all over the country to protest wasteful spending by the federal government in Washington. It was a beautiful evening and fun to be part of. It was held at the Sundial Bridge along the Sacramento River.

Here's everybody gathering to cross the bridge. There were many homemade signs and flags being displayed.

Here's everyone crossing the bridge. The bridge started shaking because of all the people on it so we stumbled more than walked across the bridge.

I just like this picture with the people lined up on the bridge. As we walked along the path people were reading quotes about taxation from our founding fathers.

The crowd gathered under the bridge to put their tea bags in cases that were thrown in the river.