July 24, 2011 - July 26, 2011 A Sunday evening flight to L.A., Hong Kong and Manila totaling 28 hours from SLC. Arrived in a rain storm, very tired on Tuesday morning. Carolyn slept all the way through Monday. :o}
Rain, low clouds and more rain. And overwhelming, moist heat. Make a note. Stay indoors with A/C whenever possible. After a week of this, our impression was that we might never see the sun or be cool again. We learned that 2 typhoons were bearing down on the Philippines, flooding roads and closing schools and offices. But to us it just seemed like our new life. We stayed 4 nights on the 18th floor of the Holiday Inn.
Spent our daytime hours in the Manila church offices. Wonderful. New experiences. This is what we wanted...what life is all about!!
July 28, 2011 Thursday we were chauffeured 2 hours south of the Manila mega-city to San Pablo, a country town, for a temporary visit to our new home. We traveled on a "highway" with unending huts (homes) doubling as roadside vending stalls. It seems everyone is selling something. Car parts, fruits, candy, vegetables, papers, coconuts, bar-b-qued meat, frappes, soda....you name it. And it goes on and on and on.
The introduction to our house was shocking. Dirty, bug-infested, with garish decor, and lacking most of the furniture you would expect in a "furnished" apartment or home. Chandeliers with cobwebs that would be acceptable in the Tower of Terror, broken windows, windows rusted open, a tub with no faucet or handles, plumbing leaks onto the floors, and roof leaks in multiple areas. The prior tenants had been the caretakers. To our amazement, they are building an attachment to the carport where they will live and become our closest neighbors. But they are sweet, generous and caring people.
On the other side, actually attached to our house, is a tin shed with no real windows and doors, housing a family of 5 in a space no bigger than a large, two-car garage. The father has been bedridden for 8 years. Extremely nice people.
The area is beautiful, tropical and many streets are quite overgrown with jungle plants, narrowing the pavement and hanging low overhead.
July 30th, 2011 Today checked out of the Manila Holiday Inn and made San Pablo our home! First order of business - find a mattress and bedding and figure out how to get ready for church the next morning. And then, figuring out what to do with our unusual housing.
But, thankfully, I am married to a creative wonder-woman. With the help of church contractors, a neighborhood handy-man, and a little hired cleaning help, Carolyn has done her magic. We moved the solid wood bed and mattress outside, hoisted it up and over the 2nd floor balcony to the light, bright, abandoned upper room, which looks out through the trees, all because the interior spiral stairs are only 2 feet wide.
We brought in fumigators (twice), painted, scrubbed, repeatedly cleaned up termite chewings, bought some new furniture, made multiple trips to the hardware store and the "SM Mall", obtained light bulbs, new window coverings (drapes), and clear plastic sheeting to cover the open windows. Then, more cleaning, catching lizards, sweeping up cockroaches, fighting giant flying ants coming in toward the light at night, and we finally felt like we had a home we could live in. In fact, it is now quite nice. Another senior missionary couple that has been looking for housing for 5 weeks came by and stood astonished at our good fortune and how beautiful and nice our home is. We just smiled, knowing what it was like 10 days prior.
~ Lane
Here is our home for the next 23 months.
Four bedrooms and three bathrooms.
Rental rate is p10,000 per month ($250)
August 31, 2011 One month later, we are about 99% settled in. My caulking gun ran dry after 3 tubes of caulk, the wall putty container is empty, and my gallon of white paint is gone. (Can you believe I chose white!?)
I have 2 kitchens with a total of 3 sinks. And 3 bathrooms with a total of 2 sinks. Our master bathroom is very small with only a toilet and shower. This is alright because we brush our teeth in the kitchen where we have a 5 gallon purified water dispenser. Our water heater is connected only in the master shower.
We retiled the master bath, added a toilet seat, rotated the commode and generally gutted the place.
(before)
(during)
In the Philippines the restroom is known as the Comfort Room, or C.R. Now, our master bath space fits it's name.
(after)
I get propane tanks delivered for the stove which has 4 gas burners, one electric burner and an electric oven. We have no washer and dryer but have hired a house helper who comes once a week to hand wash our laundry, hangs it out on the 11 clothes lines we've hung and she irons while she waits for the clothes to dry.
Living area: before and after
Dining area; before and after
To cool the space we have 3 air conditioners now. And we added a dual water filter on the main kitchen tap for washing dishes and fresh produce.
before and after
Lane had the crazy brilliant idea to hoist the bed over the balcony and into our 'treehouse bedroom'. We love the bright, open feel, fresh air, and the option to pick coconuts from the balcony.
One other note of interest. For garbage collection we hang bags of garbage in the trees.
We are starting to travel quite a bit to meet church leaders, students, missionaries and teachers. The humid weather is quite nice. I even enjoy the rain. I have decided to name the lizards. We get along best when they stay on the walls and avoid the ceiling and floors. I have decided that everything in my life has prepared me to be here...moving, traveling, painting, rainy Washington, creepy and crawly creatures and humidity in Florida, the traffic in NYC, Mexico, and Italy.
We purchased a Philippines GPS app yesterday for the ipad. It works best with latitude and longitude coordinates. I am not quite sure of our address. We don't have a house number or even a mail box. I will find out our province and postal code.
We slip home in September for Callie, Rayson and Raylie's temple sealing. I am sooo excited!
I am Carolyn
