Smiths in Manila

New Blog!

2010-06-19T03:20:00.000-07:00

It's only taken us two years, but we've finally started a new blog.
Check us out at www.smithfamilynz.wordpress.com

It's about time...

Farewell, Manila!

2008-07-03T07:09:00.000-07:00

It's taken me all day to decide what to write for our final post.
I had written 2 full pages worth, then decided I didn't like it. I still haven't decided how to express our feelings about going. They are very mixed. So my 2-page piece got edited down to half a page. This is what's left:

Tomorrow is our last day in Manila. Our two-year contract is up, and it’s time to go home. Life at home seems to be falling into place, which is great, but I’m sure there will be quite a bit of adjustment to go yet.

What are we looking forward to?

The cold weather.
Working again.
Having a smaller house.
Free things in NZ society – parks, playgrounds, libraries, playgroups, toy libraries, schools!
Automaticity of NZ Society – everything can be done online, or at least in the post!

What will definitely miss is people; Our friends here. Jenalyn.
The expat 'vibe'.
Our church.

Farewell, Manila.
It's been quite an adventure!

Emily's Birthday

2008-07-02T23:53:00.000-07:00

Yup. Our eldest has turned 5. Here are a few shots from her party. It was a joint effort for her and a classmate, whose birthday is about a month later. The whole class was invited to an indoor playground, and they had a fabulous time.

Getting Fit

2008-07-02T23:43:00.000-07:00

So I’ve been getting fit.
You might remember this entry, where I said I just decided to start running, and kept at it. Well, I kept keeping at it, and I even followed the “Couch Potato to 5Km” programme from Cool Running.com. I downloaded some podcasts that someone put together, to listen to music when I was training, and his voice would come over “start running now” or “you can go back to walking now” all throughout the run. The programme is supposed to take 9 weeks – I did it in about 12. It really is a great programme, and I’ve graduated! I can now officially run 5km. Non stop. Takes me a bit more than 30mins.
I finished about a week and a half ago, and I’ve still just been jogging every 2nd day, to keep it up. I found a fabulous site, called MapMyRun.com where you can plot a run onto a streetmap, and work out distances. So I have a 5km circuit ready to run for when we are staying at mum & dad’s, and I will work out one from our house in Mt. Albert.
It’s great being fit, and I’m now back in some clothes that I haven’t worn for almost 2 years! I’m hoping the increased fitness will help when we hit the ground running in New Zealand!
(Excuse the pun…)

Party party party

2008-06-25T17:14:00.000-07:00

It's end of year, here, being Northern Hemisphere schedule.

So people are celebrating.

The end of year School Leavers Ball was at the end of May, and Nigel and I went again. (The previous year, Tessa was a newborn, and it had been our first night out since the birth! I remember texting home every half an hour! This time I never checked in!)

Here's us looking all dressed up ready to go.

And some people are having farewell dos, too. One of Nigel's colleagues was thrown a farewell party by the parent of one of her students. Now this hosting family did not do things by halves - it was a theme party - Middle Eastern - and EVERYTHING had to be 'just right'. In order to get the attendees to dress up, they promised a trip to Hong Kong for the best dressed. That was enough motivation for us to get the sewing gear out! Here we are, all ready to go:

We arrived a bit late, after negotiating Manila traffic for about an hour and a half.

But when we got there, it was full on food, drink, decoration, service, even a Tarot Card reader was in operation for the night.

I even got up the guts (with a little help from the wine, maybe?) to join in the belly dancing later in the night...

It was a night and a half, and at the end of the night, imagine our surprise when Nigel was declared best dressed! He won a trip to Hong Kong!

Unfortunately, we really are unable to use it, so we have given the trip to some dear friends, who we know will appreciate it.

But what a night!

So much to catch up on...

2008-06-25T16:51:00.000-07:00

It's been months since I last wrote. For the sake of brevity, here's what's been going on:

1) Final decision - yes, we're going home! (We're leaving next week!)

2) Mulitple job applications - we finally have jobs! I will be working at Unitec Waitakere, and Nigel at AUT. Both of us are fortunate to be working less than full time. Nigel will continue with his psychology study, and I will also do a spot of study. (Just not sure exactly what yet.)

3) Emily turned 5! We had a party. She's all mature now!

4) We've been going to lots of farewell parties. Nigel even won best dressed at one of them!

5) Packing up house has been quite an effort. But it's done. The recent typhoon delayed our shipment, but it should be sailing now.

6) I've been getting fit.

7) Tessa's started talking, and hasn't stopped.

More on all of these points coming very soon.... Watch this space.

ANZAC Day

2008-04-30T06:05:00.000-07:00

On the 25th, we celebrated ANZAC day here in Manila. The NZ and AUS embassies put on a very dignified, solemn and actually quite moving service for us expats here. The Philippines helped with the ceremony by providing military salutes and escorts. Nigel and I and the two older girls went to the early morning gathering, but we left Tessa at home, knowing she wouldn’t be able to sit still for any length of time, let alone in the heat! The ceremony included guests from Turkish, British and Canadian embassies, and all attendees were welcome to wear military uniforms. We sat next to a man in his 70s, who was a veteran of WW2. He used to parachute out of airplanes! It was striking to see him, and a Canadian veteran in the row in front, salute each of the national anthems, and stand at full attention as required throughout.

Afterwards, we enjoyed a full breakfast provided for by the two embassies.

It's great to be able to have a piece of NZ away from home.

Triathlon

2008-04-24T05:38:00.000-07:00

Although Nigel and Emily only had 2 weeks’ holiday off school, we made our NZ holiday 3 weeks, in order to catch the annual Auckland woman’s triathlon. I did one 2 years ago, just over a year after Zoe’s birth, and the training for it helped me to get rid of the extra weight I had been carrying since pregnancy. I loved how fit I felt, and the race itself was great fun. This time, it was a year since Tessa’s birth, and definitely time to do a repeat.

My training regime this time around wasn’t quite as thorough as the last time, mainly because life in Manila is not as ‘outdoorsy’ as in New Zealand. We weren’t able to enjoy weeks of family bike rides, for example, as we didn’t have our bikes in Manila, and anyway, our new addition means that our family no longer fits on two bikes! Nigel and I did take up regular evening walking, however. On his part, he was training for a hike in the mountains, so it suited us both.

Mum was enrolled in the duathlon version of the event, which excludes the swim and replaces it with another walk. So the two of us also did some training together, on bikes, in the short time that we had in NZ before the event.

On race day, the whole family headed down to Okahu bay. We had a wonderful support crew of Pops, uncle Tony, Nigel and our 3 girls. Zoe and Emily had even made banners to wave which said “Go, Mum! Go, Grandma!” Each time we went through transition, we gave high-5s, and everybody cheered us on.

I caught up with Mum half way through the bike leg, and decided that the event would be much more fun if we stayed together, so we biked back and did the whole walk/run together to the finish line.

It was great fun, and both of us are already looking forward to next year’s event, which we have vowed to complete in under an hour.

Despite taking the training a little bit too ‘easy’, I have found that I am fitter, and have noticeably more energy. I even found myself wanting to go for a run around our village one day last week. So I did, and did again the day after that, and the day after that as well. It has certainly pushed me forward in the right direction.

The littlest's party

2008-04-24T05:32:00.001-07:00

… And Tessa turned 1 while we were in New Zealand! She also started walking, and therefore left her ‘babyhood’ behind, and entered the next phase of ‘toddler-hood’. We celebrated her first year by inviting all her aunties and uncles and both sets of grandparents over for a barbeque. Zoe was adamant that no kiddie birthday is complete without a game of “pass the parcel”, so Tessa, her 2 sisters and her 1 year old cousin had a game. While it wasn’t the most sophisticated of parties, we’re glad that Tessa’s photo album will now be able to boast a the obligatory baby sitting in a high chair reaching out to a lone candle.

The shortest Party

2008-04-24T05:26:00.000-07:00

“Grandma” turned 60 in March, so we decided to celebrate when we were in town. She decided that rather than having a big bash, she’s like to climb up Rangitoto Island, one of Auckland’s iconic volcanoes, as she’d never done it before.The immediate family all sailed over to the island on the ferry, and then we split up for the ascent. The two younger men (Nigel and Tony) climbed up together, while the grandparents helped me with the 3 girls as we rode up on a covered trailer.

The vehicle wasn’t able to go to the summit, so the last portion of it we had to walk, with backpacks, and carrying our picnic basket. Much to our surprise, the driver informed us that we’d have just 20 minutes at the top to look around and take pictures, and then we’d have to head back down again, so that there would be enough time to make the descent in time for the return ferry. Well, that didn’t deter us – as soon as we got to the top, we laid out our picnic, blew out the obligatory candles, and enjoyed the bottle of blubbly and snacks.

There was even time for a few family photos before we headed back down. Those 20 minutes were definitely the shortest birthday party we’ve ever had!

The Longest party...

2008-04-24T05:08:00.000-07:00

The main reason we went back to New Zealand for Easter was to celebrate the 90th birthday party of “Granddad Jack” – Nigel’s grandfather. Every single family member of his – his children, their children and their children – all 47 of us – came to celebrate the occasion,

and we stayed all together for 4 days at a conference centre near the beach. It was a fabulous time of re-connecting, and connecting for the first time, for some. The kids (all cousins of some sort!) had a great time running around together, and often, we didn’t really know where our children were. But we were confident there was someone keeping an eye on them, just as we kept our eyes on the other kids around. Apart from a few formal parts to the programme, we were lucky that Auckland put on an Indian Summer for us, so 3 of the 4 days we were able to enjoy the beach – making sandcastles, chasing waves, and swimming.

It was a great 4 days, and the longest birthday party we’ve ever attended!

Routeburn Track

2008-04-01T15:30:00.000-07:00

While we've been in NZ, Nigel went for a tramp with two of his cousins - here are the pics.

Back in New Zealand for Easter!

2008-04-01T15:17:00.000-07:00

Long time no Blog.

We've been in NZ for the last 2 weeks, mainly to celebreat Great-Grandad-Jack's 90th Birthday party.

More info (and photos) coming soon...

Slave Labour

2008-02-19T05:48:00.000-08:00

I like to read Paul Windsor's blog. He is known for his great preaching, and he is currently principal at Carey Baptist College in Auckland, NZ. His blog contains musings on life, critiques of New Zealand society - both secular and Christian, and some info about what's going on at Carey.

A while ago, I read this entry, about contemporary slavery, which mentioned Philippine Domestic Workers as one group of modern day slaves. At the time, I was surprised and almost offended, as we have domestic workers in our house, and they are certainly not slaves. Although I admitted that as westerners, we probably paid our helpers more than the local going rate, I thought the term 'slavery' was a bit rich.

I was wrong.

Abuse of domestic workers is rife here, and I don't have to look far to find it.

When we arrived, our helper (Jenalyn) had been chosen for us by the school, and we were free to draw up our own working contract with her after a recommended probation period. All her papers were in order - we had copies of her birth certificate (why did we need that?), her graduation from high school, references from former employers, and her personal information. I didn't take much of that seriously, we just figured out early on that we loved her, and we negotiated a good contract. We took advice from the school about what a good salary should be, and she asked for weekends off. Both parties have been very happy since then - she's still now an integral part of our Philippine household.

Since then, I've learned:
1) Jenalyn's last job allowed her one day off per month. The rest of the time, she was required to be "on call" in the house, day and night, for the children in her care. When we first heard about this, we were shocked. But I now know this is not uncommon, especially for nannies. The justification is that the children in the house 'need' their nannies every day, so even the one day a month is hard "for the children".

2) Many contracts include food and toiletries in the remuneration packages for household staff. I wondered why this should be. Jenalyn asked about food - we decided to give her a food allowance rather than buying food for her, and I told her she could buy her own toiletries. I now know the reason for the inclusion of these things. Many workers are simply not allowed out of the house! So they need their food and toiletries brought in. Even Jenalyn's former one monthly free day rendered her position as a job with freedom.

3) Further proof of this - when we employed Myrna as a second helper (common in a large house like ours) we were rung up by the village guard house the first time Myrna left the village. They had stopper her in her tracks, asked her for ID, where she had come from, and rang us up. Were we allowing Myrna to leave the house? Was she allowed out of the village? Were we sure? I was incredulous. What was the big deal? I thought perhaps it was because she didn't yet have a village ID. All domestic staff (but not residents) are required to wear their official IDs when out of the house. But we soon learned that even if a domestic worker has an ID, they have very strict 'rules of conduct'. They are only allowed in certian areas. They have a curfew. We have to provide "gate passes" for them between certain hours. Every time we forget a gate pass, we get rung up.

4) Many families don't trust their helpers. Of course there are stories about theft which get spread around. I take it as a reminder to 'use my common sense', but others use it as an excuse to demean their staff. On our official "gate passes" is a place for me to write down all of the belongings that my domestic helper is taking out. If I chose to, I can go through their handbag, and itemise every single thing, even the money in their wallet, and put it on the paper so that the guard can then also do the same ten minutes later. It sounds ridiculous, but I have friends who look through their helpers' hand bags every single morning when they arrive, and every single evening when they leave. My thought is - if you don't trust a person, don't hire them! Their thought is - No one can be trusted!

5) The issue of wages is a tricky one. Minimum wage here is about $10 per day. We like to pay a little more than that. It's still hard for us, though, to get our heads around the fact that labour here is just incredibly cheap. Discussions about how much one should pay one's helpers abound in expat circles. I have friends who pay more, and I have friends who pay less. Some considerably less. I've since found out also, that domestic workers are exempt from minimum wage requirements. In other words, it is perfectly legal to pay a domestic worker almost nothing. The justification? You are already providing lodging, electricity, water, food and toiletries. They don't need anything else.

So is it slave labour? In our case, it's not. Our two yayas are very happy working with us. Both of them have shed tears with me when we said we might be leaving the Philippines. Myrna has started an application to work in the USA with a family she knows (it's a huge dream here to get a job overseas), but when she heard that there was a slim possibility of us staying, she said she would cancel her application. She would rather stay here with us, than take an opportunity to work in the States. On our side, we feel they are part of our family, and I also count them as friends.

In many families, the situation is similar. One Filipina friend of mine has the same yaya for her boys that was her own yaya growing up. But unfortunately, for many domestic workers, life is not so happy.

Modern-day slavery is alive and well.

Paul was right.

Spinner wanted

2008-02-19T04:14:00.000-08:00

Further to my entry (when we first arrived in Manila), where I wondered why fabric softener was such a big thing here, I have now discovered another reason. Clothes without fabric softener get stiff when they have to drip dry.
Our washing machine (a beloved Fisher & Paykel) has broken down. It's been on the blink for a wee while now, and we've had a repairman in twice to check it out. Seems it needs a new fandangle, which will cost about $300. Whether or not we bother investing the money to repair it is one issue, but in any case, we have to wait till next month's paycheck to address the situation. In the meantime, the school has lent us another couple machines. Yes, two. The first one was small, and only semi-automatic. I thought it was very cute. It's size meant we had to do about 4 loads per day, instead of our regular 1-2. But then that one broke, too! So the school came (again!) and replaced that one with their next best, which was also a semi-automatic, but one that didn't work very well. In fact, it didn't spin, it didn't rinse, and it didn't drain automatically. It could probably better be described as an agitator.
Washing with this agitator goes something like this:
Put clothes in the tub, add washing powder.
Get a hose, and point it on the clothes.
Turn tap on manually.
Make sure drain hose is suspended higher than tub.
Wait till all clothes are wet, and water level looks reasonable.
Turn off hose.
Turn agitator on.
Wait till the timer has stopped.
Let drain hose down to a drain on the floor, and the water falls out.
Leave drain hose there, point water hose back onto clothes.
Turn on water hose again.
Fiddle with the clothes with one hand, while holding the water hose with the other hand. (Warning: Try not to get sopping wet during this 'rinse' phase.)
Turn off water tap when clothes look sufficiently sud-free.
Take each item of clothing out of tub, wring like hell, (see warning above) and hang up to dry.
There is not much wind in manila, so everything that we have washed this way ends up coming off the line looking as though it were still suspended. Our sheets are stiff, our T-shirts are rough, our socks are unrecognisably long and our underwear is scratchy. I never did get into fabric softener, but I think next week, it will be on our shopping list.
I am once again reminded that we live in a 3rd world country, and even the ability to contemplate having a fully automatic washing machine is a luxury. One which I no longer take for granted.

News Flash!

2008-02-05T15:52:00.000-08:00

Yes, the rumours are true. We've resigned from the British School Manila, effective July 08.

Although we had intended to renew Nigel's contract, changing exchange rates have made life here actually quite expensive! The exchange rates have affected many of the expat families here, and at playgroup yesterday, there were three families who already had definite plans for going home for that very reason. We personally have experienced a 20% drop in effective income, simply because we are living across three currencies!

However, even though we are resigning from BSM, we are not yet definite about going home. It will be our default, but because we feel like we've only just got settled here, and have some great friendships, we are open to the idea of finding other jobs here.

So in the next couple months, we are 'on the hunt'. If, however, we don't manage to find any AMAZING jobs, which would enable us to keep our girls at good schools, and keep our life manageable here, we'll be heading back to NZ.

So watch this space!

"Enjoy your breakfast"

2008-01-10T04:56:00.000-08:00

...She said as she handed me my change. It was 9:24am. Perhaps to her, I was a woman of leisure, coming in after a relaxing sleep-in to take a meal. I was smiling, but it was not for a carefree morning. It was because I was alone. There were no children wanting a piece of me, no disasters waiting to happen, just free space to catch up on my work. I had in fact woken a clear four hours beforehand. Tessa had woken up with a cry, as she had gone down the night before. She'd just had her (live) measles injection, and a hep B booster. That's what I attribute the night-time, hour-long tantrum to, anyway. The night had been further punctuated with text messages from friends who are clearly not in the baby stage anymore. Until I put my phone on silent mode. So I had given Tessa a bottle, and despite all of my will telling me to return to bed after she returned to hers, I went out for a walk. I desperately needed to get back into my routine. Later, I had battled to get Emily to eat her breakfast quickly enough so that we could leave for school. I had then helped in Emily's classroom, eagerly encouraging 4-year-olds to read the 6 page book that had a total of 8 vocabluary items. Some got it, some clearly still didn't. And then I had walked in the hot sun down the road to the only place open at this hour of the day - the Philippines still has a weird Spanish timetable, where shops don't open till at least 10am.

Officially, I was stranded without the car, as it was our restricted day. Unofficially, I was rejoicing that I had an excuse to be alone with my computer for a couple hours in a comfortable chair with cool aircon that I was not paying for. I smiled back at the cashier as I inhaled my latte and gratefully received my muffin. Breakfast it was not, but a good morning it was.

...And my favourite pics...

2008-01-10T04:49:00.001-08:00

These were taken in Baguio, at the hand of a wonderful friend, with a fancy camera, and a stunning talent for photography.

Maligayang Bagong Taon! 2008 is here!

2008-01-09T04:12:00.000-08:00

Nigel here (publishing a blog post on the sly)...

We're getting into the new year after a great holiday in the mountains. It was refreshing because of; cooler air, cleaner air, just generally more air, beautiful places, beautiful people (thats on the inside), just generally more beauty than is normal for Manila life. Here's my favourite pics:

Zoe and Emily enjoying some autumn leaves in Bagabag

With an Ifugao woman at the famous Banaue rice terraces

"Don't ya love the view mumma???"

Morning tea break high in the Cordillera - Nigel's adventure itch getting a bit of a scratch

Up close by photo

And up close by painting

Why jeepney is still the best way to travel

Coming across a community volleyball game at Mainit (means hot - we'd just sampled the natural springs)

Banana tree in the sugar plantation - Mainit

We saw in New Year's with these folks at Bontoc

Our little ponies - Baguio

Santa Claus is Coming!

2007-12-24T04:59:00.001-08:00

This year (for the first time in AGES - more than I can actually recall...) Santa Claus is visiting our house! Nigel and I debated for a little while whether Santa was in fact going to come. (We thought perhaps he "might not know our address, since we've moved so much...") But in the end, we decided he may as well come. And it's so exciting.

I made some stockings especially to hang up for him to fill. (Seemed odd, when we don't WEAR stockings and we certainly have no fireplace to hang them over. I'm sure originally the tradition came from the family's washing hanging to dry in the middle of winter...) Nevertheless, Emily helped me a little bit with the sewing and she says "I think Santa will like these stockings!"

So we hung them up, and she wanted hers at the top. Fine, only then she was worried: "What if Santa can't reach my stocking?" So she decided to put a stool next to them, just in case. And she wrote a note. It reads "Dear Santa, if you can't reach my stocking, here's a stool." We left some cookies for him, too. I wonder what will be inside the stockings when we wake up tomorrow morning!

Otherwise, the day holds our very first "nuclear-family only" Christmas. We have not gone home for Christmas this year, and no one is here with us. But we've had a great time preparing for it. Here's our tree. (A darn sight grander than the little one-foot white jobbie that we've had for the last 5 years!). Every single decoration on the tree (apart from the electric lights) has been hand made.

If you look closely, you'll find paper chains of different colours, a few pop corn chains, one chain of painted elbow macaroni, a gingerbread man made by Emily at school, a gold-coloured pasta star made by Emily last year at school, a couple of 'furry stars' made by the girls after opening a present early that had lots of plastic 'fluff' and a funny cone-shaped thing at the top which I think was supposed to be a tree, but we decided it would look good at the top.

There are a few other one-offs, but mostly we really enjoyed making the tree decorations together. And decorating the tree several times (especially after Tessa managed to get at the tree in her walker!)

As a family, we also designed a menu together for the day, and have bought all the ingredients we need to make our 3 meals. There are some great favourites in there, like breakfast pancakes (Dad's domain), self-saucing chocolate pudding for the desert at lunch, and pupmkin soup with home-made German Zopf (bread) for dinner to go with our lunch leftovers. Emily and Zoe took great care putting our "menu" on the fridge, so we wouldn't forget.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Christmas Productions

2007-12-17T17:45:00.000-08:00

The Silly Season is almost over here. It started back in September, which marks the beginning of the “-ber” months. The “-ber” months are the Christmas months here. So even before Halloween, some shops had started decorating with red and green. The twelve days of Christmas are taken quite literally here, too. Everywhere I go, I’m being wished a Merry Christmas. And our local village square is holding sunrise Masses each morning from the 16th till the 25th. So much for our School Holiday sleep-in. Bells are ringing to wake us up at 5:30 each morning!
Anyway, both girls’ schools naturally joined in with the festivities. Along with Christmas parties and decoration-making, Emily and Zoe have been involved in Christmas shows. Emily’s came first, and she wore (much to her delight) a golden Angel costume. Others were shepherds, sheep, wise men, or Mary & Joseph.
There were 8 different songs in the production, and Emily had been singing all 8 of them by heart around the house for about 4 weeks. Such was her ‘practice’ at home, that Zoe was able to sing along to many of the songs when she went to watch! Emily was one of the narrators of the play, and got to stand in front of the microphone to tell her part of the story. She enjoyed performing so much that the teachers let her stay in front of the microphone for the whole of the song prior to her narration part. To my surprise, our once shy girl (see this entry for proof) stood tall and sang with pride.

Zoe also enjoyed her production.

Although admittedly, hers, being a performance for 2-3 year olds, was much more chaotic. She was obviously told to go up on stage and find her name tag on the floor. So this she did, and promptly pulled it off the floor, and put it down where she decided she’d like to sit! It moved around every time she got on stage! Her class was asked to wear a costume of their favourite fruit or vegetable, so this, for Zoe, meant being a Banana. I enjoyed designing and making her costume, and she enjoyed wearing it.

(And by the way, in relation to my last blog, her ‘crocs’ came from a local market. I had been looking for bright yellow shoes, and found some imitation Crocs at a department store for about 1,400 pesos (about NZ$45). I kept searching, and found some in a market later, and paid just 100pesos. (NZ$3).

On Veggie Soup and differing economic markets

2007-12-17T17:40:00.000-08:00

One of the interesting/confusing/difficult/crazy/incomprehensible things here in the Philippines are the vastly different socio-economic sectors of society. Here, there are VERY poor people, surviving, as mentioned in the last blog, on the smell of a dirty rag. And there is also a group right at the other end of the scale. They are also filthy, just filthy rich. Corrupt politicians are known to have siphoned literally billions of $US into offshore bank accounts. And in between, there are numerous other levels. As Kiwis, we pride ourselves on not being too 'flashy'. Even the wealthy among us in general don't flaunt it. A classic example is Gareth Morgan, who was New Zealander of the year in 2007. With a multi-million dollar sale behind him, he still wore jeans and T-shirts, and in fact decided to give most of it away to those who needed it more than he.
Here in Manila, the wealthy don't aspire to hide their riches. In my morning walks around our village, I pass several households that have a more sports cars parked outside than there is room for occupants inside. And the cars are being dutifully washed and polished by the household staff each morning. And our village is by no means the most exclusive.
If one wanted to live an exclusive first world lifestyle here in this city, one could easily do so. There are the finest international brands being sold here; designer bags, clothes, shoes, toys, imported foods, cars, whatever. And next to these expensive outlets are also the cheap palengke (markets) selling anything and everything from little plastic toys, imitation shoes, fruits & vegetables, meat (with flies all over it) and so on.
So whatever your income level, there are shops to match your needs.
I was reminded of this yesterday, when we had lunch at one of the more exclusive malls. It's exclusive, because there is no public transport to it. This thereby restricts its market to those who own cars, or can afford taxi fares. (And by the way, taxis here are cheap compared to Western standards. An hour's taxi ride might cost NZ $7 or $8. Public jeepneys, on the other hand, cost about 15c for the first 4km). We like visiting this mall, as it is so much quieter than the others, and one can actually relax and enjoy the aircon there.
After eating lunch, I wanted to buy some vegetables to make some soup once we got home. So Emily, Zoe & I made a trip to the supermarket end of the mall, chose our veggies, and then went home. When I started to make the soup later that afternoon, I got out the Zucchini I had in the fridge, bought from our local supermarket, and saw that it had cost me 37pesos (NZ$1). The second Zucchini, bought at the exclusive mall that day, even though it was smaller, had cost me no less than 147 pesos. A threefold difference, simply because it was bought at a shop catering to a different economic market. And I'm positive if I had bought it at a palengke in a squatter area, it would have cost me about 15 pesos.

Nan & Grandad's visit.

2007-12-16T22:48:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in the last blog Nan & Grandad came to stay for a week recently. And what a week they had! On Monday, they visited both the girls' schools, and Emily and Zoe enjoyed handing out the little trinkets that had been brought for their classmates.
The following day we celebrated Zoe's birthday, and that, of course, was enough energy for the day!
On the wednesday, after a morning swim and a bit of shopping,

they caught 'bonfire night' at the British School. This was the annual Guy Fawkes celebration, complete with bonfire and "guy"s that kids had made, as well as food, drinks and a fireworks display to finish the evening.

Thursday held yet more intense experiences. They were guests a the school run by the Philippine Christian Foundation. The school exists to serve the children of a slum in the Tondo area, arguably the poorest community in Manila. While there are literally hundreds of other squatter communities around the city, this one is built upon stinking, rotten rubbish. One has to wear gumboots to walk through, and apparently, the worst is what can't be captured in photos - the rancid smell.

The adults (and children, unfortunately) of the community "work" the dump, trawling through the rubbish as it arrives, finding anything at all that can be used/sold/made into something else.

The school was set up a few years ago, to help the next generation get away from dependency on the rubbish. I'm sure the experience visiting the people there will not leave the Smiths any time soon.

Later that day, after leaving the slum, the Smiths also experienced Manila traffic first hand.

There was some political unrest in Makati, so they had to take the "long way home" in the taxi. They got home about 6 hours later. Luckily, they broke their journey up and had some afternoon tea in a mall they passed. The political unrest, the fact that it was a payday, and that it was raining, all contributed to a wonderful, "Manila live" experience. (No wonder Shriley told me that that evening she found it hard to sleep.)

After all that upheaval, the whole family joined Nan & Grandad on trip to the beach for 3 days. We'd been to Bohol before and decided that would be a nice place to relax and unwind a bit. We did manage to unwind, which was a good thing, as our journey there was another adventure.

Our plane to Cebu was delayed (after being cancelled the previous day, then re-scheduled earlier (very early start!), then cancelled again, then re-booked...) and so when we finally touched down on Cebu, we had only about 30 minutes to get to the Ferry that was taking us to Bohol. We told the taxi van driver to floor it, and that he did. Let's just say we were happy that we were no longer in Manila, the way he drove. Well, we arrived at the ferry terminal, literally RAN through to the departing boat, all three children in tow, and made it onboard just a few minutes before they lifted the boarding plank. A long boat ride and another taxi ride later, and we were finally at Alona Tropical, letting the tension melt away.

Luckily for us, the return journey to Manila was far less eventful, and we made it home in time for sleep on Sunday night.
Monday saw a visit to a large Christmas bazaar, and some other last-minute Christmas shopping on behalf of the extended family, then Derek & Shirley made their way back to the airport to return to Australia.
It was a great week, albeit exhausting. They managed to catch in 7 days what took us about 7 months to experience, so they really did get a look into 'real' life here. I hope that hasn't put them off coming back!

Zoe turns 3!

2007-12-11T17:25:00.000-08:00

She's a big girl now. (And hence asked for an "adult plate" at dinner the other day!)

We celebrated her birthday a week early, to coincide with the visit from Nan & Grandad.

We were rostered to host the MADS North playgroup that day, and so we invited everyone to dress up for our 'pyjama party'. It was utter chaos, as expected, with around 25 children (from 4 months up to 9 years) and then their associated adults.

We did manage to play some games for those children able & willing. We had a treasure hunt for glow-in-the-dark stars (which they could then keep), a game of musical pillows, and the ol' favourite, "pass the parcel". Even Granddad won a prize in that one!

My two superwomen cooked up a storm, and we were eating leftovers for a week.

For the 'goodie bags', I dusted off my sewing skills, and made up 22 drawstring bags for the children as 'going-to-sleep bags'. They had a box of milk, some homemade star cookies (thanks, Emily), a good-night prayer and a night-light inside, to get them started. We also printed off some instructions about what kind of things one can keep in a 'going-to-sleep bag' beside one's bed.
After all the time, planning & work, (...and let's just say it was not a small effort), the party felt like a huge success... Or was it?

Zoe was quite overwhelmed at the beginning, and was very clingy to her father. She got into the games, though, and after a bit of food, she was well & truly warmed up. The next morning over breakfast, we were talking with Zoe about her party, and we asked her whether she enjoyed it. She said 'Becca was there' (Becca is the big sister of one of her pre-school buddies). I said 'yes she was!'. She was very pleased about this. Then she asked me "Were you there, mummy?"
Well, despite the urge to wring the child's neck and say "Yes, of course I was, and I worked for two weeks solid to make it happen"...

...I just smiled and said "Yes, I was there, too, Zoe! Remember, I helped do the games?" "Oh!" she said. "And I got two prizes in Pass-the-Parcel!"

Perhaps next time I won't bother inviting any friends... I might just make a huge Pass-the-Parcel, and let Emily and Zoe pass it back and forth between themselves. She'd be in heaven.

Another fancy pointsman

2007-12-11T16:42:00.000-08:00

I told you (here) about the dancing pointsman who is quite a hoot here in Manila. He works in Fort Bonifacio, where the British School is located. Well, yesterday, driving out of the Fort, I saw another fancy pointsman. He was dressed in a Santa Costume! I had a good, out-loud chuckle to myself, and then felt very sorry for him, wearing red velvet & a white wig/beard combo in this tropical heat!
Pity I didn't have a camera on me...
I admire those who aspire to make other people smile.

..."We've got a loverrrly bunch of COCONUTS..."

2007-11-28T21:34:00.000-08:00

This is the tree that grows out back.

This is the woman who climbed the tree that grows out back.

This is the girl who was given the coconut from the woman who climbed the tree that grows out back.

This is the frown on the face of the girl who was given the coconut by the woman who climbed the tree that grows out back.

What a shame she doesn't like coconut!

Not taking ourselves too seriously...

2007-11-27T17:51:00.000-08:00

I'm reading through one of my favourite books again. It's called "Soul Survivor" by Philip Yancey (The by-line is "How my faith survived the church".) Yancey goes through several people who have been influential in his life, and his faith, and dedicates one chapter each to them. It's fascinating. There is Martin Luther King, Jr, Ghandi, Tolstoy & Dostoevsky, John Donne, and others. This latest chapter I've read is about Annie Dillard, a modern-day pulitzer prize winning author. I haven't read any of Dillard's work first hand, but he quotes some of her work in the chapter.

I had to laugh out loud as I read the other night, as she captured so well what happens on Sundays at church. Some of the "fatigued Bible readings, dilution of the liturgy, the horrifying vacuity of the sermon..." She goes on to say "Week after week we witness the same miracle: that God is so mighty he can stifle his own laughter"!

I love it!

(Have to admit, I've been to many church services that could be described like that, but currently loving our international, interdenominational church in Manila.)

Languages, Languages everywhere!

2007-11-23T04:36:00.000-08:00

Another reason I love living in the Philippines is the multilingualism. While New Zealand is far from monolingual, my daily life in the ‘mainstream’ culture (apart from teaching & researching linguistics) was very much a monolingual one.

Here, our house is home to three daily languages! (Four, if you count the German grace that the girls love to sing before meals.) Coring, our driver, and our two yayas, Jenalyn and Myrna, are all trilingual. With us, they use English, but with each other, they use a mixture of Tagalog (the Philippine national language – also called Filipino) and Visayan. They all originate from the middle section of the country, where Visayan (also called Cebuano) is the lingua franca. Jenalyn actually comes from a different island from the other two, so her dialect of Visayan is sometimes called Boholano, but it’s close enough to the Visayan dialect spoken in Davao, where the other two are from, so there’s no barrier to understanding.

Both of the ladies speak Tagalog and Visayan with Tessa when they’re looking after her. Yesterday, Emily got quite concerned about this and said “Jenalyn, the baby doesn’t understand Tagalog!” We all laughed! I explained to Emily that babies don’t actually understand ANY language, unless they hear it often enough, so in fact, Tessa didn’t understand English yet either! I explained that Tessa was growing up hearing other languages, so when she starts speaking, she will be able to speak Tagalog, too, and not just English.

Well, Emily was quite taken by this idea, and asked Jenalyn to talk to her in Tagalog as well! So last night, over desert, we learned how to say ‘Do you like papaya?’ and ‘Yes, I do like papaya’ or (as in Zoe’s case) ‘No, I don’t like Papaya.’

I’m also enjoying being a (volunteer) guest-editor for a journal published by SIL and the Linguistic Society of the Philippines. I’ve worked on 3 articles thus far, and have enjoyed immersing myself in the linguistic research going on in different parts of the country. What I find fascinating is how the political history of a country is reflected in its current linguistic landscape.

The Philippines was a port for Portugese and Spanish traders for hundreds of years, and was also a key trading portal for the Malays and other Asians, like the Chinese. In some coastal areas, a creole survives (Chabacano), which originated from a trade language spoken by Portugese/Spanish traders in their ships. It has become ‘nativised’, now being a living language, and even has its own dialects in different parts of the country.

Some statistics show the Philippines to be one of the largest English-speaking countries in the world. The lingering status of English as an ‘official language’ in the Philippines reflects the fact that their latest colonizer still happens to dominate the world’s political landscape. Sure, English is spoken, but only in the big cities, and only as another lingua-franca on top of all the other languages. So rather than describing the actual linguistic practice of the people, such flashy statistics reflect more the Catholic approach to birth control here. (…for which the Spanish can be thanked!)

It’s a small world after all…

2007-11-15T18:40:00.000-08:00

I love living internationally. We might live in the Philippines, but we’re very much a part of the expat arena, and have friends from all over the world. This became particularly apparent when Zoe’s preschool celebrated United Nations day a couple weeks ago. The children dressed up in their national costumes, made the flags of their home country and sang songs in a performance for the parents. We didn’t have any Maori costumes, or even black T-shirts, so Zoe dressed in colours to match her flag. (And her little sister dressed to match!)

As for the singing, if you’ve been to Disneyland as many times as I have (don’t forget, I grew up in LA) then “It’s a small world” never loses its association with little mechanical dollies dancing in the caves of the boat ride. However, I actually found it quite moving, watching these real, live ‘dolls’ singing that song together all dressed up.

At the British school, too, where Emily goes, the international influence is not restricted to Britain. They recently celebrated the Indian festival of Dwali, and made little candle-holders with glitter. They also recently had a cooking lesson with one Italian boy’s mother, where they made “Biscotti dela Nonna” (Grandma’s cookies).

And at the end of the day, even though they come from all over the world, they are still children who love to play with each other..

Bathrooms, bathrooms everywhere, but not a place to …

2007-10-17T04:12:00.001-07:00

Our new house has eight bathrooms. It’s a Philippine thing – every bedroom has its own bathroom. We have four bedrooms. There’s also a guest bathroom, a bathroom in the playroom, a bathroom for our household helpers inside, and a bathroom for workers outside. God forbid that anyone should need to share.

One of the advantages of living in a place like the Philippines is, of course, the household help, so I don’t need to clean these many bathrooms myself. I’m not averse to doing a spot of cleaning here and there - I certainly did it readily in New Zealand, and have even held a job cleaning other people’s bathrooms (ok, as a teenager). But really, I don’t want to spend my ‘spare’ time now, as a mother of 3 under 5, cleaning 8 bathrooms when I don’t have to.

You’d think that with so many bathrooms, and helpers cleaning them almost daily, we’d all be fresh and squeaky clean all the time. It is, in fact, our habit to wash at least twice a day here. The heat, humidity and air pollution combo makes for quite grimy skin. There’s nothing quite like a cold shower on a hot, sticky afternoon, to calm the nerves and refresh the senses.

Lately, however, we’ve all been a little bit less than squeaky. Manila Water, (“We don’t just Lay Pipes, we Improve Lives.”) has been re-working the pipes in the entire village over the past two months. We have regularly been getting notices that the water will be turned off for 6 hours on such and such a day. To cope with that, we’ve been filling up buckets and containers when the water is ON, to last us when the water is OFF. And when it’s off, we all have Bucket Washes. I’ve perfected the art of the Bucket Wash. I can do all 3 children and myself with less than one bucket of water.

Today, however, has been pretty rough. We got a notice at the weekend informing us of the water outage yesterday. It was to be for 24 hours this time. So we did our usual water storage, and yesterday, when it got turned off, we used our Buckets, and we refrained from doing our laundry (that’s tough in a family of 5!) And we didn’t mop the floors. We got quite low on water, being longer than our usual ‘down time’, but we sent everyone off to school today (with unwashed hair), anticipating the arrival of the Water for 8am, so that we could catch up on the laundry, mop the floors and wash our hair – those of us left in the house. Well, 8am came and went, and still no water. It is now mid afternoon; some of us in the house have not had a wash today, our laundry pile is getting bigger and bigger and our floors and feet are even more grimy than usual. The bathrooms are pretty gross (use your imagination) and our drinking filter is just about dry. Manila Water is no where to be seen.

There is one working tap at the village gate which now has a long queue of people wielding buckets and bins. Our helpers have been and brought back some water for us, and I’m sure they’ll be there again if the water doesn’t come back soon.

Sometimes I really feel like I’m in a third world country. And then I realize – I am! And then I remember there are literally millions of people in this city living in squatter areas where there simply IS no piped water. They live out of buckets every day.

And I am grateful that I at least have the luxury of looking forward to a long, hot shower in a clean bathroom.

(In one of eight, at that.)

Manila Traffic - a crack of sunshine

2007-09-23T04:28:00.000-07:00

In a city of 15-20 million - ish (who can ever know for sure?...), as you can imagine, traffic can be a bit of a problem sometimes. Like the first weekend we were here last year, when we attended a 'new staff' party. A journey that might have otherwise taken 15-20 minutes from our apartment took close to 2 hours. It was a Friday night - the worst traffic night. It was also raining, AND it happened to be the last working day of the month - pay day. (This always makes the traffic bad). And by the time we got to the village, the gates had 'closed' for public vehicles, so our bus (although private) was given a hard time, and some got out to walk the last few hundred metres.

Well, Manila has a few funny ways to deal with its traffic problem.

One attempt to reduce the volume of traffic is called 'colour coding'. Every car has one weekday where it's not allowed on the roads. While this sounds like a good idea, this system is fraught with difficulties. Our restricted day is Thursday, so all our trips between the "coding" hours are simply taken by taxi. Whether or not 'coding' increases the volume of taxis on the road is the first issue.

Another complication is that Metro Manila is divided into several 'cities'. Some cities (like Makati, where our apartment was) have 'coding' from 7am til 7pm. Easy to remember. However, now we live in Pasig city, and the coding is only during 'official' rush hour times, which is 7am - 10am, and then again 3pm-7pm. So if we can manage to do a school pick up at 2:15 and get home by 3pm, we theoretically don't need to use a taxi. Unfortunately, our trip from home in Pasig city to school in Fort Bonifacio city crosses one major road which is technically Makati city, so we could get caught out and be liable to a fine. (although I'm told the Makati traffic enforcers don't worry about that intersection from 10-3. We have certainly not had a problem yet.)

A third issue is that the traffic enforcers are particularly prone to corruption. So the only time when we've been caught out on 'coding day' (which was when we were driving home from holiday, and we forgot that it was Thursday when we returned to Manila), we were able to 'pay the fine here' with the traffic enforcer.

The other way that people get around 'coding' - for families with more than one car - is by simply driving a different vehicle that day. :)

Another (also very debatable) method used to help traffic problems is turning off the traffic lights. Yes, you read that right. Half the time, the traffic lights around the city are not working. Sometimes, it's clear they don't work, as they are either totally off, or flashing yellow, other times they are still 'going' but are to be ignored. Instead of traffic lights, a pointsman is on duty to guide the traffic. The idea is that the pointsman will be able to decide better than a traffic light which cars need to go through. You get used to pointsmen quite quickly, and there are all sorts of gadgets that they use to help them be seen. Most frequently, they wear a large reflective 'glove' that has red on the 'palm' side, and green on the 'back' side.

Well needless to say, sitting in traffic can be quite a negative experience. Frustration at being late, boredom at the time-wasting, even anger sometimes at the other drivers (or the pointsman himself!). This is why, when I first saw him, the 'dancing pointsman' totally made my day. In the middle of a 'negative' time, this pointsman put a huge grin on my face, and really did change my outlook. I've driven past the same intersection several times, and have been delighted to see him on duty many times, and he even has an apprentice - a young guy doing other shifts, who is imitating his ways by dancing his time away.

I was delighted to see a friend's blog about this dancing pointsman, so if you want to see him yourself, take a look here. It speaks for itself.

...and the grand finale... Brendan & Frances' wedding!

2007-09-18T18:18:00.000-07:00

Yes, the REAL reason why we had scheduled yet another trip to NZ was to participate in the wedding of Nigel's brother. So after all the preparation, the day finally arrived, on the last Saturday of our trip.

Brendan & Frances had organised 2 cute dresses for the girls, and even had them altered, Nan (Shirley) had made some cute little bolero jackets for them to wear on top (being winter!) and we went hunting for some stockings & shoes. (Which was MUCH harder than you think!) So the day arrived, and ...

Whoops! There were still a few glitches to iron out. Emily's dress was STILL too long, so Grandma did some loose hand-stitching to take it up, and ensure she wouldn't trip on her big journey down the aisle....

The HAIR took a while to achieve. It had to be 'just right' and show off both Emily's long hair, and Zoe's beautiful curls...

We found out that the track pants the girls wore 'in the meantime' left nasty blue fuzz marks all over the stockings!!!

But we thought they scrubbed up pretty nicely!!! Just like the groom himself, and Daddy.

We had to keep them occupied for a while, before their big moment...

But when it came, they did fantastic! They were told to walk slowly and smile, and they did both of those things very well!!!

Emily was brave enough to stay on the stage during most of the ceremony...

Zoe, on the other hand, needed some familiar arms to keep her happy...

All in all, we were VERY proud of them!

The whole wedding was a brilliant success, and a very special occasion. We wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Then off to Australia!

2007-09-18T06:20:00.001-07:00

The weekend after our Taupo visit, Nigel and I went (with only Tessa) to Australia for a very quick visit. (Yes, more long travel for Tessa- thank goodness for that sling, huh?) My cousin was getting married, and it was a fabulous opportunity to meet up with that side of the family. It had been nearly 10 years since we'd all been together.

While we were there, we also managed to hook up with some good friends of ours, who moved away from NZ not long after we did. They now live in the Sunshine Coast, but came down to the Gold Coast, to see us, and meet Tessa! We enjoyed ourselves alot, and from the looks of their blog, I think they did too!

After our fun 48 hours, it was back to NZ to get ready for the MAIN purpose of our big trip - Nige's brother's wedding. That will have to wait for another blog...

Off to New Zealand!

2007-09-18T05:53:00.000-07:00

Next stop in our holidays was New Zealand. Before we left, though, we spent a week back at our apartment and packed it all up. With these 3 tricksters hanging around, it really did take us all week!

Back in New Zealand, we relished the company of family. Grandma & Pops' house was once again our 'home-base' and the girls enjoyed just playing, both with them and around their house.

We had a very special long weekend away in Taupo at a holiday home with our siblings and nephew. We rented a holiday house for several days, and just hung out together.

Taupo also offers fabulous outdoor play. The 'boys' had a go at shooting their holes in one at the barge on the lake. And the playground was a hit, too.

Taupo is also very close to the mountains in the North Island, so one morning was dedicated to visiting the snow.

Baguio

2007-09-18T05:23:00.000-07:00

Our 6-week summer holiday started with a fizz. We were all sick. They say that teachers crash at the end of term, while mothers crash at the end of the holidays. Well in our family, the teacher crashes at the end of term (and last year, he didn't quite make it through the last week!) and then the rest of the family gets the sickness too. So our first week "off school" was spent pretty much in bed or at least not doing a heluva lot.

Our second week, we went up to Baguio, which is in a mountainous area of Luzon, so it's cool! It's only 200kms north of Manila, but with the state of the roads here, and needing to have 'family friendly breaks' every couple hours, it took us more than 6 hours to get there.

Some highlights from our time in Baguio were:

Visiting the 'Easter weaving room'. Here, we got to see weaving in action. To be honest, I think we were as much an attraction to the weaving ladies as they were to us. Tessa sleeping in the sling was quite a talking point for the ladies. We ended up buying a few woven pieces for the walls in our new house.

We also went to 'Tamawan village', which is a hang-out for several local artists. They have re-assembled some traditional houses there, and they also exhibit and sell their artwork. The girls posed for some sketch portraits, and we got to keep those.

And generally, we just loved being able to play outdoors because it wasn't stinkin' hot! Check out the long pants and long sleeves!
There was also a butterfly sanctuary close to our 'inn', where the girls enjoyed getting 'upclose and personal' with the winged creatures.

And the other highlight of our trip? Sleep. It was dark, cool and quiet. Because we were sharing one room, the lights went out at 7:30. And stayed out. Our cards and magazines stayed in the suitcase. It was such a relief to be away from our inner-city apartment, where traffic noise and streetlights were our nighttime companions. And it was lucky we did go to bed so early, because Tessa's reflux really started kicking in here, so we were up several times a night, trying to prevent her from waking the rest of the inn's guests.

All in all, we liked Baguio so much, we're thinking of going back again for Christmas. But we'll see. We're told it can go down to 5 degrees at night in December. Seems awfully chilly to us...

Back into “real life”

2007-09-18T04:15:00.000-07:00

It’s been AGES since we’ve posted a new blog! We've had our 6-week “summer” holiday from school, and it was a very full time!

In the next few blogs, I'll show you about our holidays. For now, here's basically where we're at:

Upon arrival back in Manila (end of August) we went straight into our new place. Luckily for us, our house helpers had unpacked EVERYTHING! We felt so spoilt, and very grateful, as Nigel was back to work the following day!

We’ve now had 3 weeks back in Manila, and life has (thankfully) acquired some sort of regular routine. We’re slowly getting our (very large) new house into shape, although our travels have left us broke, so we’re waiting till next month’s payday to get some of the big things we still need. Like a dining table. See the 'vast emptiness' behind Zoe here... She's having breakfast on one of her play tables. We use the coffee table...

We also still need to get some more fans & air-con units to make the house more comfortable. Apart from that, we’re really enjoying living in our new house. There are NO cockroaches! We have fresh air-flow, and LOTS of space to play, both indoors and out.

Emily has now started ‘real’ school. Being the British system, her first year of school starts when she’s four, turning 5. She is one of the youngest in her year group, but she’s absolutely loving school. What a huge difference from her first day at the nursery class last year! (see last year's blog entry here) This year there have been no tears whatsoever, and she says one favourite part of her school is having lunch in the canteen.

Zoe has started preschool at the local ‘Cambridge’. She has the same uniform and very similar routines to her last pre-school, which was the ‘Cambridge’ by our apartment. She enjoys this, and has also had no tears at all. She’s even made a new friend already, who we’ve had over to our house for a play date. She attends 4 mornings per week.

Tessa is doing well, but is still not sleeping through the night, at nearly 6 months. (the older 2 were sleeping through regularly by 3 months!) She’s had some issues with reflux, a little bit of teething (although no teeth yet), changing time-zones several times(!), changing beds and changing climates. However, she’s generally a happy, chubby baby, and she loves smiling at everyone she meets. (Here she is practising her dancing, and showing you the new playroom...)

We’ve also acquired a new family member, named “Freddo”. He’s about 4 months old, has 4 legs, and short, orange fur. He’s a real rascal, and we nearly gave him right back, but in the time we were ‘stuck’ looking for a new family, we have grown to like him. Zoe in particular, has gone from being frightened of him, to nearly loving him to death. She loves to pick him up, but hasn’t quite mastered the art of knowing where to put her hands. Surprisingly, he purrs whenever he is picked up.

Nigel’s well back into the swing of working life, although getting back the momentum was quite tiring! He’s also found a tennis partner (Zoe's friend's Dad), whom he plays with every Friday afternoon. We live just across the road from the village park, which has a tennis court in it, so it’s very handy!

I (Joanna) am starting to enjoy our regular weekly routines. With Emily gone during the whole school day, Zoe at preschool 4 mornings, there’s only Tessa to worry about, and so with a little help from Jenalyn (aka ‘Superwoman’) I’m finally getting some time to myself! I’ve joined two women’s groups –one on a Monday night, (with Zoe's friend's mum) which meets at a café just up the road, and one on a Tuesday morning, which is back closer to the city centre, but it’s with some precious friends I made last year. Both are proving very stimulating and energizing – exactly what the doctor ordered.

You know your child is just 2 when she...

2007-07-25T04:54:00.000-07:00

... can still fall into the toilet.
... declares unreservedly whether she likes what people are wearing. Or not.
... asks every stranger how old they are.
... can't tell when her sandals are on the wrong feet.
... asks the lady at McDonalds why she has a necklace on her teeth (braces).
... sometimes forgets to take off her underwear when she sits on the toilet.
... asks for a "chiuaua" to be put on her head (Tiara).
... manages to get food ALL over her face, no matter what is offered.
... makes you late because she wants to "do it all by meself".
... sings Hi-5 songs to herself in bed at night.

We love you, Zoe!

Michelin Baby

2007-07-15T23:41:00.001-07:00

Just couldn't resist this one - have you ever seen such a chubby bubby? We're currently winning the "fattest baby I've ever seen" competition here in Manila.

(And yes, she's exclusively breast-fed.)

Doin' the sling thing.

2007-07-15T23:24:00.000-07:00

Tessa's a bit sick.

She either caught it from her Dad, or her sister, or her Mum. We've all had it (or have it).

Unfortunately, even though she had been nearly sleeping through the night, her snuffles have now made her reluctant to sleep at ALL! All our usual 'get baby to sleep' tricks have not worked, and at present, the only way she will drop off is while hanging in the sling next to mum. (Coz she's much more upright, and of course tightly snuggled!) Ah well - at least I have my hands free! And usually, by the 3rd attempt, I can take the sling off and lay her in the cot.

This has generated a few cute pictures, and the girls have also gotten in on the 'slinging thing'.

Enjoy.

Packages from home

2007-07-11T05:20:00.000-07:00

It's always good to get parcels from home. But each time we do, we are reminded that we are NOT at home. We miss the NZ postal service.

When we get a package here, it is not delivered to our apartment. It is held at the central post office. We get a little slip of paper informing us that we are to go pick it up.

Obstacle number one: Find the little slip of paper in the apartment pigeon hole.

To overcome obstacle number one, the post office thankfully sends a second notice after a certain period of time. We recently received a second notice, having waited more than 6 weeks for a package to arrive.

Obstacle number two: Find time to go to the post office.

To overcome obstacle number two, I like to send our househelper. This is, of course, quite a common thing, so there is a form to fill in on the back of the little slip of paper where the 'representative' can be named and the adressee can sign for authorisation. But even this is not enough - As well as this form, one has to write a seperate letter informing the post office of the authorisation, AND send along with the representative some ID of the addressee.

Obstacle number three: Philippine beaurocracy.

To overcome obstacle number three, I fill in the form, write the letter and send the ID.

Once, when a parcel arrived for Emily, I assumed that the usual steps were to be taken, so I wrote the letter, signed my name, as parent, and gave my ID, AND (thinking ahead) Emily's ID - i.e. passport. Jenalyn arrived back an hour later empty-handed. She could not pick up a parcel addressed to Emily, with the authorisation from Emily's parent. Being a 3rd party, she was simply too far removed from the addressee. I had to go in myself.

Obstacle number four: Dogmatic Philippine postal workers.

To overcome obstacle number four, the next time a package was addressed to Emily, I decided to send Emily herself, along with her ID (thinking ahead) along with Jenalyn (of course) and a letter from me (just in case) and my ID (should my status as parent be questioned). An hour later, Emily and Jenalyn arrived back home, the latter looking rather exasperated. She had presented the little slip of paper, the addressee herself, along with her passport, the fee for picking up the package (did I mention this earlier?) and the letter from Emily's parent, authorising Jenalyn to assist Emily in recieving the package, and my ID as parent of the addressee.

Well, according to "the beaurocracy", an addressee cannot receive a parcel if the addressee is younger than seven years old. Now this one had us stumped. We were back at obstacle number three, where the solution was for the parent to come in. Jenalyn explained to the postal worker that Emily's mother had a newborn baby to look after and hence had sent her househelper, and in fact had authorised this with a letter and ID. The postal worker proceeded to ask where Emily's father was. Jenalyn then told him that he was at work, as it was early afternoon, and he wouldn't get home until late afternoon, at which time the post office was, in fact, closed. The worker must have taken a minute to absorb this information, and so Jenalyn jumped at the opportunity to ask "Why does the addressee have to be seven years old?" To this, the worker decided that it was related to the signing of the log book, which records that in fact the parcel has been claimed (by the correct person). So Jenalyn brazenly said to the worker "She can sign her own name already! Let her do it!" Presumably because he didn't know what else to do, the worker then proceded to hand over the pen and log book to Emily. She couldn't do it very well initially, as she was being suspended in mid air by Jenalyn, seeing as she couldn't even see the top of the bench. They decided to let her have another try, over at a table with a chair, so the precious log book was handed over the counter, taken to a table, and Emily was seated in front of it. It took almost a whole minute, but she managed (aparently) to stay pretty much to her own 'line' on the page, and she confidently wrote "E M I L Y".

Having navigated all the obstacles, Emily proudly carried her package home, and in doing so, became the youngest person ever to have claimed a parcel at the Makati Central Post Office.

Phonetic Fun

2007-07-06T18:52:00.000-07:00

Tagalog speakers often confuse 'f' and 'p' when they are speaking English. Tagalog doesn't have an 'f' sound. So Emily knows that we live in the "Philippines" if we speak English, but we live in the "Pilipines" if we speak Tagalog. Most Tagalog speakers know that they need to make the 'f' sound when speaking English, so often what you find is that they 'overproduce' the 'f', and use it even when it genuinely is a 'p' sound in English. So while a very good English speaker would have 'pork on a fork', a Tagalog novice English speaker might have 'pork on a pork' or if they're trying really hard, they might have 'fork on a fork'. One could just as easily hear 'fork on a pork'.

Tagalog speakers also have trouble saying the "open a" sound, as in 'hat' or 'mat'. They instead use a 'darker a' sound, like we find in 'father' or 'car'. So 'hat' can sometimes end up sounding a bit like 'hot' or 'hut' if you aren't paying too much attention, and 'bag' like 'bug'.

While none of this usually causes too much confusion, especially if there is a clear context for the conversation, the other day I did do a double-take. Zoe had had a friend over for playtime, and she came with her Filipina 'yaya' (nanny). They had been playing for a while, and there was a big mess in the living room. When it was time to start leaving, The yaya was wanting to encourage the child to clean away the toys. What she aimed at saying was

'Come on, help me "pack up" the toys',

but what came out was something quite different!

Grandma in Manila

2007-06-25T05:35:00.000-07:00

We've had a lovely 12 days with Grandma. She arrived on Emily's birthday, and we sent her off this morning. I think she appreciated seeing the family in action. She came to school with Emily, preschool with Zoe, church with the family, dentist visits with the girls, birthday parties (Emily's, and friends) playgroup, out to dinner, and shopping.

It was great having her here. She helped with the housework on the weekends, she did a spot of editing of the next MADS magazine, she was an enthusiastic exercise partner for in the evenings, and she was great at keeping the girls entertained when we needed an extra pair of hands.

We'll miss you, Grandma!

Emily's 4th Birthday party

2007-06-25T05:29:00.001-07:00

Yes, it's true. Our firstborn has turned 4. To celebrate, we invited the girls from her class over for a bit of a party. (The boys are "silly"). Here are a few shots.

The cake.

The food.

The crowd.

The stash!

Some pictures of late

2007-06-06T23:29:00.001-07:00

The older girls having a 'fluffy' with their little cup sets that Great-Nanny-Joan gave them a while ago.
Emily & Tessa share a moment next to our living room window.

(One of those bizarre shots!)

Tessa getting a look at herself in the mirror!

Emily and Zoe with their 'Shrek' masks from McDonalds!

Tessa asleep - my favourite sight...

Zoe at School!

2007-05-31T17:21:00.000-07:00

Zoe has settled in to her new preschool thee mornings per week, and is thriving there. It's called Cambridge - at least I'll be able to say one of my children has attended Cambridge! ;)

Zoe has great concentration span, and is apparently very well behaved during the 2 hour sessions. (Which is why she's probably so tired afterwards, and 'loses it' when she gets home!)

Here are some pics that the teachers gave us at our parent-teacher conference yesterday.

An UP time!

2007-05-31T17:07:00.000-07:00

Last Friday night, Nigel and I had our first 'night out' since Tessa was born. This school year at BSM is nearly over, and the senior school students had put on a graduation dinner/dance.

IT WAS FLASH!

A real black tie event. (We felt under-dressed, as many had ball gowns...)

It was held at the Shangri-La here in Manila, and the students had secured quite a bit of sponsorship, as WELL as charging an arm and a leg per ticket. I was incredibly impressed with the decor in the ball room - fresh flowers everywhere, including hanging some 10 feet from the ceiling, ending in a big ball of flowers just over the table, with fairy lights interspersed! All the women got a 3-foot long red rose upon entry. The dinner was no less than 6 courses, and every single morsel was delicious, including a lobster bisque, and the best eye fillet steak I've ever tasted, which is something, as I usually don't like steak! The waiting staff were even dressed better than us, and showed off their waiting talents, as the food was 'presented' at the beginning of the evening.

The students had organised a formal ceremony to acknowledge those who were leaving and several of the teachers took part, including Nigel, who was roped in to play the piano for a newly-written version of the school song performed by two other staff members.

Here's a picture of us at the end of the night - looking a bit jaded. It's almost midnight, WELL past our bedtime!

Three kids under four!!!

2007-05-28T22:56:00.000-07:00

Tessa is now 8 weeks old, and the novelty of having a new baby has worn off. Lots of people ask us how we're going with our three kids under four. The answer?

So far, it's been a wild roller-coaster ride!

We've had some "down" times.

The worst time was 2 weeks after returning to Manila. Our household helper, Jenalyn (aka "Superwoman") suddenly had to leave to visit her dying grandfather in her home province. She wasn't able to say when she'd be back. After the initial "Oh my goodness, how am I going to cope with a new baby and the whole household by myself", I actually enjoyed the novelty of doing everything myself again.

Then I got exhausted!

Here in the Philippines, we have no labour-saving devices. No dishwasher or drier, or vacuum cleaner. Labour is cheap enough, there's no need to 'save' it! So the work of an ordinary day just doesn't stop! Emily up, fed, dressed, coiffed, packed & out of the house by 7am with Nigel. Zoe (ditto) and to her new preschool by 9 (walking with Tessa in pram in mid-30s degree heat!) and home again at 11. Lunch cooked in the sweltering kitchen by midday. Four + loads of washing per day, keeping kids happy in the afternoon, preparing dinner, baths, etc. Oh, and of course fitting in 8+ feeding/burping/changing/settling sessions with my newborn all throughout the day & night! Oh, and washing myself 3 times daily, and changing the dressing on my c-section wound, as it had become infected.

After two days of this, I rang up a friend, and pleaded with her to borrow her housekeeper for a few days per week. The lady came the next day, and gave me a break! She cooked the main meal, did our day's laundry for us, and did a much-needed clean of the bathrooms & floors.

We were probably going to cope just fine with some borrowed help a few days per week, but then, acute gastroenteritis came & swept through our entire family! It hit Zoe first on the Monday, and as she's just too little to know when she was going to vomit, she did so all over the house. Our 4 loads of washing per day became 6. It hit me on the Wednesday morning, and as I'm breastfeeding, and it's so hot, I quickly became dehydrated, not being able to take any fluids, and had to go to the hospital. Thankfully, Nigel had taken the day off, so he could take me, and look after Tessa (who had to be bottle-fed) in the waiting room. We had to leave the two older girls in the care of our new borrowed helper, whom they hardly knew. I lay in the E.R. bed, watching the slow 'drip...drip...drip', wishing I could skull that litre and 3 more besides, as I was just SOOOO thirsty. I hoped the older girls would be okay with their care-giver, I hoped Tessa would take a bottle, and I wondered how long I'd have to be in the hospital for.

That was my lowest point of all.

Thankfully, my hospital stay was over late that afternoon, I was able to return home, and all 3 of my girls were okay. Then, later that night, Emily got the bug, and the following day, lucky last, Nigel got it.

Since then, things have got better! Jenalyn (superwoman) returned, to pick up the pieces, and we've even hired another lady part-time, to ease Jenalyn's load, whom we caught ironing well past midnight on several occasions.

We've also had some "up" times.

Tessa, still being in the newborn stage, is pretty portable, really, so as a family we've still been able to enjoy outings, such as to a restaurant after church on a Sunday. Our current favourite place is 'Pancake House' (which sells more than pancakes) where we all have a nice meal for about the equivalent of $NZ 20. And even 'round two' of the tummy bug, which prompted Emily to 'grace' the lunch table on Mother's Day, still couldn't dampen our spirits. Luckily our fellow-kiwi friends and we had all just about finished our fish & chips before the ungraceful event.

Now that my c-section wound is completely healed, we've also enjoyed whole-family outings to the pool again. It's lovely this time of year - almost as warm as bath water - no 'chill factor' at all when you get in. Tessa even joins us, asleep in her pram in the shade by the pool.

Night-times are still pretty harsh. Tessa sleeps a regular 7 solid hours now, which is just fabulous, but her 'night' starts at 7:30pm! She's then up at 2:30 for her midnight snack, and then she sleeps till 5:30, which is the start of our day. One wake up per night like this would be just great, actually, but unfortunately, the older two have been pretty unsettled. They've had a lot to cope with, so they still wake up a lot. There are bad dreams, drinks of water, toilet stops (if we're lucky), bed-wets (if we're not), Emily even fell out of bed once!!! Last night, after a very busy day, Nigel and I crawled into bed at 7:45pm. We would have had nearly 7 hours' sleep (by Tessa), but by 10:30, Nigel still hadn't slept one wink, as the older 2 girls were very demanding.

So that's how we're going!

If you're waiting for an email reply or something, bear with us - we'll get to it sooner or later...

Settling in to the new rhythm

2007-04-24T04:49:00.000-07:00

Well three weeks on and we are back in Manila again. I wouldn't say that life is yet back to normal, unless you consider nightly strategic moves between bedrooms with a particular very small and beloved human in order for each of us to get enough sleep (gasp) normal.. :-)

Emily and Zoe seem to be flourishing being back - Zoe has begun attending a preschool 3 mornings a week and Emily continues to amaze with her curiosity and insight. Pops asked her the deep question "What's important in life?" while we were in NZ, and she came straight back with "talking about God"... Blew us away...

It was a special time in NZ with family and friends, welcoming our new addition to the world. Thanks to everyone who made our recent visit so special. And our friends here in Manila have been welcoming too. Here are a few pics from the last few weeks.

And now we are 5!!!

2007-04-02T22:50:00.000-07:00

HI all,

Its been quite a day.

All went well with the delivery by C-section of our third daughter, Tessa Grace Smith. She arrived at 9:43 this morning (NZ time) weighing in at 3.79 kg (8 lb 6 oz), which puts her on a par with her sisters given that she was 'taken out' ten days early... Mum and bubba are well and enjoying the care at Waitakere hospital. Visitors hours are 90 minutes from each of 10am, 2pm and 6pm, if you are around and want to drop by.

The most surreal moment was trying to get a picture of her that satisfied Internal Affairs requirements for a passport application.... have to get that sorted pronto to make sure we all get back into the Philippines!!! - here are a few shots:

A few thoughts from Nigel

2007-03-15T04:12:00.000-07:00

It's been a good few days.

Last week I finally left my twenties as I turned 31 (I had been arguing that each decade ends with the multiple of ten...). It was a really great day, despite being at work for much of it. Partly I was stoked I managed to find a place to deliver some pavlova to my colleagues for the customary morning tea shout, introducing it by email as 'good kiwi kai' - I enjoyed the howls of protest from the Australians on staff about stealing 'their' national dish.... But mostly it actually felt like a notable event because my two daughters were so excited about having a birthday to celebrate and their enthusiasm was infectious. Joanna had spent some time with them making cards and wrapping little presents so we played pass the parcel, opened the presents, ate some cake and generally had a birthday party. It was nice to go out after they went to bed to do a little music shopping - its been a long long while since I listened properly to anything new.

All good.

I reached something of a milestone today as well. My first conversation that went for more than a few phrases in Tagalog! What a great feeling that I could actually handle a basic, normal conversation for a number of minutes with a friendly taxi driver who was very patient with my mangled attempts to use his language.

And we have gotten even closer to arrival day. Joanna's suitcase lies ominously ready in the bedroom, reminding me that I am flying solo next week... now it is my turn to be grateful for Jenalyn, our helper, who will be doing a lot of the kid-minding while I am at work.

Being here I get reminded so often about how interconnected the world is. At work this week, the net has washed my way with uncanny timing. First I became aware of the Loose Change doco on 9/11, at the same time as a strangely comprehensive confession from the main 9/11 bomber was publicised. Secondly, and on a less political angle, this week has seen me trying to convey to my students the way that for advanced mathematicians, maths can be an elegant, beautiful thing. Unbeknownst to me until a random group email, that very day was International Pi Day, celebrated by those who love Pi around the world. And people say there's nothing to coincidences...

Well, there's another little snapshot of our life. We put it out there to stay connected with you.

Those of you in NZ - see you soon :-)

Zoe's playgroups

2007-03-10T15:44:00.000-08:00

Zoe and I (Joanna) belong to a MADS (Mothers and Darlings Support group) here in Manila, which exists specifically for expat women and their preschool children. Zoe enjoys her twice-weekly playgroups, which rotate around people's houses, and sometimes includes activities at other places. I've got involved on the committee by volunteering to be editor of the bimontly magazine. We have a membership of close to 250 families here in Manila.

Here are a few shots of zoe enjoying herself with her friends.

These two girls below are probably Zoe's closest friends. Daniela is British/American, who spent her first 2 years of life in Brazil (diplomat kid). Rysha is Indian, and lives just across the road from us, so we often carpool together to the playgroup activities.

Here is a fairly recent shot of our playgroup. Our group is one of about 8 that exist in the organisation (grouped by ages and locations around the city). The mothers in the picture come from all over! Check Republic, Korea, America, Germany, India, Philippines, Japan, and of course New Zealand!
...And this is what Zoe often looks like after lunch on a playgroup day...

A house helper with a "J" personality...

2007-03-04T16:35:00.000-08:00

I've always known we had a good househelper. We've been very pleased with her since we first arrived, but I'm appreciating her more and more. I keep hearning stories from friends & colleagues about problems they've had with their household help. One BSM family here was recently deserted by their helper. She didn't even wait till the next pay day, she just left! A friend from playgroup has had about 4 different helpers since I've known her - which is only about 7 months. Each time, there was a good enough reason to fire the helper. Her new one seems to get on well with her daughter, but is "fresh" from the province, and so speaks limited English, and needs to be taught how to use a washing machine.

Our Jenalyn is truly a God send. Not only does she get along well with our children and keep the house in good order, she's started taking her own initiative in looking after us. We ran out of cereal the other morning, and when this has happened in the past, either Nigel or I have made porridge or toast. Last week, we woke up to a big steaming pot of fresh porridge! She's also helped keep our grocery shopping on track. The list I left for her last week was clearly missing a few key items, and as I had left her plenty of money, she went ahead and bought those necessary goods anyway.

Today, however, I really appreciated her personality afresh. Nigel was looking for some small money for his Monday morning taxi ride to work, and I suggested he look in our little "change" basket. I routinely put my coins in there, and use them as necessary. As he was opening it, I said "But it might be hard to find the bigger coins amongst all the little tiny ones that I never use. When he opened the lid, we both got a big surprise. Jenalyn had sorted out all the coins, and sello-taped them together in lots of 10. So it was that both of us realised that Jenalyn's personality is a definite "J" on the Meyers-Briggs scale. Her order-keeping around the house is not only because we pay her to keep us in line, but because it comes naturally!

Both Nigel and I are very grateful that SOMEONE is keeping order around here!

Emergent reading

2007-02-24T23:28:00.000-08:00

Emily has started reading. It’s hard to say exactly when one can ‘read’, as there are many different levels of reading. It’s kind of like saying that one can speak another language. This ability is sometimes claimed on the basis of one phrase, sometimes only when one is native-speaker-like, let alone all the different shades in between!

Emily’s reading ability has been growing over the last 2 years, ever since ‘Grandma’ made sure she knew all the letters of the alphabet. The first signs of word recognition came over a year ago, when she read “emergency” as her own name – it had the correct letters on the edges! Then, she gradually learned her name, and other familiar words. All the while, she was learning what sounds the letters make, and spelling things out in signs that she saw, and asking what things meant. Some of the first words she recognized included ‘toyota’ and ‘honda’– from trips in the car! (Like father, like daughter…)

At nursery school, they are not teaching ‘reading’ in the narrow, traditional interpretation of the word. One of the nursery teachers is the school’s literacy specialist, and she informed us parents of the ideas behind the “whole language approach” that the school uses. At this stage, they are emphasizing verbal literacy (including pronunciation) and vocabulary development, and this includes lots of singing and chanting. She stressed that rhyming is an important concept for literacy, as it encourages children to recognize familiar ‘parts’ of words, both aurally and eventually in writing. (Yay! – and a little “no kidding” - for us Dr. Seuss lovers!). The idea behind the “whole language approach” is that with a little bit of input on lots of levels (vocabulary, pronunciation, being read to, singing, chanting, rhyming, as well as (eventually) the traditional phonics and alphabet work), children will eventually actually teach themselves to read.

And in Emily’s case, this is true! It’s happening right before our eyes. She has really cottoned on to rhyming, and enjoys playing ‘make up rhymes’ on our trips in the car. She’ll say something she sees out the window, and then see how many other words she knows that rhyme with it. She knows that the rhymes come from the spelling being the same. So on our calendar, she knows that the “ember” part of the month is the same in September, November and December. She recognizes all of the children’s names in her class (from artwork posted randomly around her classroom) and she can read instructions in a little exercise book that she got for Christmas. (I had to do a double-take the day I caught myself saying to her “Now you can do the next page – just make sure you read the instructions first.” I realized she had been reading the instructions for a while!) Her memory assists her in knowing what the words are in her favourite books, and this helps her associate the sounds of the words she knows with their writing on the page.

So, Emily can now read some simple baby books to her sister. Is she reading, or reciting from memory? A bit of both, I’m sure. Sometimes she stops and asks me what a word is. And, in the last couple months, she’s started sight reading. Funny thing is, she’s probably been doing it a while, but we have only noticed it when she gets things wrong! She said to me the other day “Mum, where’s your other croak?” I didn’t know what she was talking about, till she lifted up my shoe – the one with the brand name “Croc” written on the front. To her, it was such a natural thing to have read the word, that she didn’t even understand my funny expression.

The end of an era

2007-02-23T20:53:00.000-08:00

This last week was a mid term break at the British School, so we took the opportunity to take one last little holiday as a family of four before our newest addition joins us. We headed down to Bohol, an island in the southern part of the Visayas – the central province of the Philippines – any further south, we’d be in Mindanao!

It was a beautiful place to spend a few days and we really enjoyed the chance to kick back as a family. Zoe and Emily had a great time playing in the sand, mostly in the morning before the sun got too hot and in the afternoon. They even ran around at night once we’d finished dinner while their parents drank in the atmosphere.

Popular with European tourists, the place had a nice ambience, not so much a party scene as a place to chill out. One if the highlights for me was snorkeling out off the beach to where the reef dropped away, just floating over many colourful fish and beautiful coral formations.

One afternoon we hired a car and driver and went for a drive to the Chocolate Hills, a series of brownish hillocks that stretch away to the horizon in central Bohol. Apparently there are 1268 of them, although Emily didn’t quite get up to that number in her efforts to count them. What was for sure was many many steps to get to the top of the viewing hill.

On the way, we stopped off to have a look at the endangered Tarsier a tiny monkey with eyes that are very large for the size of its face. Zoe wanted to go live with them before we got there, but she wasn’t so sure on getting aquainted – I think she got freaked out when one turned its head around nearly 360 degrees!

We also went on a small trip up the Loboc river. One one side, the residents have to walk out (3 hrs) or use river craft for access. At the falls that were our destination, a classic Filipino scene emerged round the coconut palms. A floating café of sorts, with all manner of young Filipinos lounging around with oversized Spanish guitars, just waiting to entertain tourists hankering after even more ambience!

All in all, it was a special few days. Joanna and I were mulling it over as we finished our last meal at one of the beachside restaurants on Thursday evening – this is the last holiday of the two plus two family that we have grown accustomed to. Soon we will be five… which will take just that little bit more organization to handle. We are looking forward to the new dynamic, but we will look back at these days fondly.

Learning Tagalog!

2007-01-23T23:26:00.000-08:00

When we found out we were moving to the Philippines, I bought a ‘teach yourself Tagalog’ book. I was already up to chapter four before we even left NZ! Oh, the motivation that I had. Couldn’t wait to be fluent within a year of arriving…

And then we moved. And the book collected dust. The first week Jenalyn worked with us, I asked her to teach us and the children Tagalog. I think she taught us that first night how to say ‘we’re going to bed now’ and that was pretty much the extent of her educator role. (Oh, we also figured out ‘thank you’.)

Life happened. There seemed to be plenty on my plate. I was disappointed in myself for not making more of an effort with the language.

When back in NZ over Christmas, I caught up with my former boss, who is also a keen language learner and teacher. She totally understood my surprise at how little of the language I had learned in 4 whole months. She had spent several years in India as a young mother, and had exactly the same experience there. Despite the fact that we considered ourselves pretty good language learners, neither of us really had the time/opportunity/energy to devote to the large task. It made us appreciate the difficulties that our students (mostly adults) have when faced with not only learning another language, but living in a new country, and bringing up children at the same time. No wonder they struggled sometimes! And they were still doing much better than I had done!

So, we’re in Manila again, and we still want to learn Tagalog. This time, we’ve got ourselves a tutor! Once a week, Lisa comes to our apartment building and has a lesson with Nigel, me and another (language) teacher from the school. We’ve had two lessons so far, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s an evening of ‘adult time’ a week, we’re actually learning a bit of Tagalog. AND Lisa has an excellent knowledge of grammar! (This is not to be taken for granted, even when someone calls herself a language teacher!) Not only does Lisa know grammar, but she knows the linguistic terms appropriate for Austronesian grammar. i.e she’s not trying to ‘fit’ this language into the grammatical labels that are used for other languages. The others find some of the terms a bit tricky to get a hold of, but the linguist in me is absolutely delighted. She’s exactly what I want in a teacher!

So, Tuesday nights are becoming a highlight of the week. And my attitude is a bit more manageable. I don’t expect to be fluent after a year. I certainly don’t need to be. An insight into the language will do me for now. Language learning is one of my favourite activities, and I’m simply enjoying having the opportunity to do it.

Lovely weekend

2007-01-21T17:16:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday was a good day. I had a meeting with the co-editor of the MADs magazine in the early morning. We all drove over, and while I met with my colleague, Nigel took the girls to a playground nearby her house. Afterwards, Nigel & the girls came into the house too, and all the adults had some morning tea, while the two lots of children played together. It was nice to get to know another family a bit better.

In the afternoon, after we had returned, had our lunch and naps, we went to the kids’ museum which is located down by the waterfront. Our girls loved it! They spent 2 hours easily experimenting with all sorts of things. Emily found the crawl through mouth/throat a bit scary, Zoe loved the fire-truck with the real lights!

As evening approached, we had dinner oustside in our favourite area by the waterfront, and enjoyed watching the sunset against the buildings in Manila Bay. The weather is lovely at this time of year – doesn’t quite make it up to 30, and with a bit of a breeze, it’s very comfortable! We relaxed in the conversation with the waitress, who doubled as a temporary nanny for the girls. As is often the case in restaurants, the girls were well-entertained by the staff, and got to look in the kitchen etc.

As we get to know our way around, and learn about more things to do, we are feeling much more comfortable in our new city.

Few pics from NZ holiday

2007-01-18T21:24:00.000-08:00

Our 'home' in Orewa for a week. Check out the beautiful Pohutakawa trees in red bloom overhead!

Emily helps Nan and Grandad walk back up the hill after a long walk along the coast.

Building sand castles at the beach in Orewa. Where did the girls go?

All dressed up for the wedding - the day after we arrived home!

Here, the girls are helping Nan and great-grandad Jack pull some weeds in the garden.

We got some cool towels for christmas!

Return to Manila

2007-01-09T21:15:00.000-08:00

It’s very nice to be back in our own place, with our own routines, etc, but I have to say, our 3 weeks in New Zealand definitely make it on our ‘faviourite holidays’ list!

Phase one was “hanging out at Grandma & Pop’s house”. That first week, while we were getting over our jetlag, we attended a wedding, had lots of get-togethers with people (including meeting our new nephew/cousin!), meetings with tentants (old and new), and getting our mail sorted. We were surprised with how cold the weather was, with temperatures sometimes in the low ‘teens. We were grateful for our winter clothes which we had stored there!

Phase two involved hanging out in the classic Kiwi ‘bach’ with Nan and Grandad and great-grandad Jack. This was a lovely, relaxing time, with lots of reading, and a few leisurely bike-rides, not to mention the late-night card games. The weather in the Coromandel was jus a bit warmer and drier- we enjoyed several outings to the sandy beach, and even enjoyed a swim in lagoon!

Phase three was a family camping trip. Our family tent (new last season) got good use, as we not only made it our own home, but had several lots of visitors throughout the week. One day had three different families at once! This week, the weather finally did its thing, and we all got a bit of a tan!

Our trip back went very well, with the girls showcasing their much-appreciated talent for sleeping on planes after meals.

Coming back to Manila was fantastic – it was so much easier than arriving here ‘new’ like last time. Now, we have our own place all set up, we know the traffic, the streets, we know where to go for shopping etc, and we’re not totally knackered. In fact, we’re all quite refreshed, and keen to get back into the swing of things. We are even loving the warm weather!.

Pics of late

2006-12-10T20:40:00.000-08:00

The birthday girl asks for help with the 2nd candle from her big sister, who happily obliges.

The two of them enjoying the birthday snacks...

Emily and Zoe's Christmas hats, made at the MADS Christmas party.

Emily's sports day - her turn to throw the little bean bag into the rings...

'Dad' helping the girls decorate the gingerbread men at the MADS Christmas party - see their painted faces...

Crazy Christmas Season in Manila

2006-12-10T18:29:00.000-08:00

Haven’t blogged for a while – we’ve been busy! The Christmas season is crazy busy here in Manila, but beautiful also. Almost all of the buildings in the CBD have been decorated with Christmas lights, there are nativity scenes all around, and Christmas music blares out of stereos everywhere. (Okay, so the last bit does get a bit tedious…) Christmas started here just as soon as Halloween was over. So we’ve been ‘in the season’ for almost 6 weeks now! We started our Christmas shopping around about then, and are now thankfully finished (the malls are just getting busier…).

In expat circles, all the parties etc. are scheduled quite early on as many, like our family, leave town for the Christmas period. The MADS group (Mothers and Darlings) hosted a Christmas party the first weekend of December for all the 0-5 year olds. There was face painting, cookie decorating, hat making, card making, a bouncy castle, and of course a visit from the ‘man’ himself to give all the kiddies a present.

Last Saturday night, the primary school choir (and their pianist, Nigel) performed some Christmas carols at a local hotel. As a thank you from the hotel, we were all given an evening meal. The previous week, the senior school had a Christmas concert, which was very well done, and of high quality.

This week, Emily has two performances of her Nursery class Christmas pageant. She’s a sheep (quite appropriate for a Kiwi…) and she has known all the words of the songs off by heart for weeks now. The last day of school (Friday) she also has a Christmas party, which we’re all invited to. And the staff at school have a party on the Thursday evening, with the theme ‘Glitter’.

Amidst all of this, Emily had a sports day at school. This was quite good entertainment, actually. The school hall was full of 3-5 year olds running, jumping, throwing, balancing and resting. One funny part was when Emily’s group had to do relay races around two cones. Well, the first student didn’t know where to run, and ran off sideways. The next student ran straight (as he was told) but all the way to the other side of the hall. Emily, being 3rd, obeyed the order to just run around the cone, but she ran around the first one, which was all of a metre away! I think the 5th student finally got it right!

Oh, and we hosted a party for Zoe’s birthday, too. Our ‘baby’ has turned two! There were 8 little ones in our living room celebrating together. We even had a fairly successful game of pass the parcel. Zoe needed a bit of help blowing her 2nd candle out, and Emily was more than willing to do the honours. We finished off the afternoon by going down to the pool, which has become one of Zoe’s favourite things to do.

This week is our last week in Manila before we head home for even more Christmas celebrations and a couple week’s holiday. We decided that we’d have a small, nuclear family Christmas here first, so we didn’t need to bring presents around the world and back again. So we did this on Sunday after church, and enjoyed a fairly quiet afternoon & evning in. And now, the countdown begins! FOUR days to go!

Trip to Intramuros

2006-11-10T00:26:00.000-08:00

This is most of an article I wrote for the MADS (Mothers and Darlings) magazine, (which I will actually be editing next year!) I thought there was no point in re-inventing the wheel, so here is an account of our recent trip to “Intramuros”:

We’re still fairly new to Manila, and although we are attracted to the idea of leaving the ‘big smoke’ at weekends, our budget doesn’t allow that too often, so we are constantly trying to find ways to fill our Saturday mornings with family friendly ‘discovery outings’ around town. I thought I’d share with you one trip we did recently that turned out to be quite successful.

We went to Intramuros. It’s by no means a ‘secret’ place, in fact it’s in any tourist brochure about Manila worth it’s printing cost. If you’ve been here any length of time, this is probably old news, but for those fairly new, it’s definitely worth a visit, and CAN be family friendly!

We left early on a Saturday, due to the pleasantly surprising early opening time of Fort Santiago, where the tourist information is. At about 8:30, we parked our car for free just outside, which wouldn’t have been possible much later, as several busses arrived shortly after. There was a small entrance fee.

Fort Santiago itself is beautiful, and for very young children, would have made a sufficient outing in itself. There are manicured lawns and trees for a bit of shade, and from mum’s perspective, best of all is the wee ‘café’ (label used loosely) that served coffee on the cobblestone pavements. I think was just instant, but as we hadn’t passed any Starbucks or Coffee Bean on the way that was actually open, it would have to do. (and from Dad’s perspective, it had better do – mum was desperately in need of a caffeine fix!) While seated at our table enjoying the drinks and plastic-wrapped snack food, watching the girls running around blowing bubbles, we were approached and asked whether we wanted a guided tour of Intramuros by horse-drawn carriage. We decided that for our children’s sake, we’d accept. As they are still quite young, they wouldn’t handle much walking, and Dad was very keen to explore the history of the place, so this killed several birds with one stone – one of which was simply giving the children a ride in vehicle they have never experienced before!

Our guide/host was very entertaining! He was obviously a veteran at giving tours, and his memorized knowledge was impressive. He threw in several jokes, and even threw in a few songs and voice impressions of cartoon characters – all of which unfortunately were lost on our two children, who have never seen a Popeye cartoon, and couldn’t join in with the Beatles songs, but mum and dad appreciated the light relief.

Intramuros, as you are probably aware, is what’s left of a walled city, which had its heyday in the Spanish occupation. If you have ever been on a British or European “ABC tour” (Another Bl**dy Castle/Church/Cathedral), you will know about walled cities. The thing is, it’s the only one of its kind here in the Philippines (and Asia?). It really does seem out of place, but it helps you to imagine what life would have been like under the Spanish rule, where they tried to make Manila into a far away piece of Spain. There are cathedrals, convents, secret tunnels, and all the other stuff that makes walled-cities what they are. Some things just didn’t work here in Asia, however. The former moat, which in Europe would have hosted crocodiles, and killed anyone who tried to cross it, ended up causing a malaria epidemic, killing those inside the city as well as outside! (Today, the moat has been transformed into a golf course, going right around the city.) For older children, touring intramurous would be made more interesting, no doubt, if you prepare them by reading fairy tales about walled cities, castles and moats and secret tunnels etc. Make history come alive for them!

At the end of our tour, we returned back to Fort Santiago, and saw the museum dedicated to Jose Rizal’s life, including the room that he was captive in for his last days. Rizal was a highly educated, intelligent Filipino, who dedicated his life to stirring up a revolution, and freeing the Philippines from colonial powers. He lost his life for the cause, but it was not in vain, as the Philippines became independent just a few years later. The exhibition on Rizal is actually quite touching. His famous ‘final farewell’ (“Mi Ultimo Adios”) is available translated into English, and is incredibly moving; “Farewell, my adored Land, region of the sun caressed, Pearl of the Orient Sea, our Eden lost, with gladness I give you my Life…”

While we didn’t have a heck of a lot of time to spend at this part of the tour, due to the kid’s tethers, we decided that as a couple, we’d like to come back another time to appreciate it more. It piqued our interest so much, in fact, that the other day, we bought a DVD about Rizal’s life (“Jose Rizal”) We haven’t watched it yet, so I can’t tell you whether it was any good, but it did win 70 local and international awards, so I’m feeling confident.

Some pics from our wee holiday..

2006-11-04T21:03:00.000-08:00

We have a selection of photos here from the trip away:

First, the expected: a nice place to swim!

...and the unexpected: a rain dance in the typhoon rain (we were 500km away from the eye of the storm, so not dangerous! Just very WET and WINDY!) And yes, Emily is wearing goggles!

Nigel showing us how big some of the trees in the forest get.

Some strange "fish" we found at Ocean Adventure.
Emily having a turn at touching a Baby python.
"Ramses" The siberian Tiger watching us.

And Zoe trying to understand why those people were so small and so hairy...

Getting out of the big smoke

2006-11-03T21:09:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we headed out of Manila on our first proper ‘holiday’ – a few days at a beach ‘resort’ on the Zambales coast north of Manila. (Nigel typing by the way). We all needed a break from the daily grind as our efforts to get established in Manila had left us pretty worn out. The trip went pretty well in general, although missing the right offramp from the expressway and then a subsequent poor decision (mine) to take the more direct (on the map) back road to retrace our steps meant we were on the road for a couple of hours longer than intended.

When we arrived it became clear that the meaning of the word ‘resort’ is different here. While there was a swimming pool and a restaurant (with great food, as we found out), the place was a bit run down and we would have been better equipped had we brought a few of our camping bits and pieces with us. But all that notwithstanding, the next day was as promised – an empty beach, safe swimming, a siesta and a quiet afternoon by the pool.

The second day proper began with a 6:30am power cut as the local authorities turned the power off for safety reasons – a typhoon was headed our way! It was a rainy and windy day – actually the typhoon was much bigger than the recent Milenyo that destroyed so much of Central Luzon – but it hit the northern part of the country which is more used to typhoons and is thus better prepared.

We had a nice time another morning at a wildlife park run by an expat Swiss zoologist and his wife, but then decided to leave a bit early and check out another area on our way back to Manila. So we stayed a night in Subic Bay – where the US Navy used to be based. Being the last night of the Halloween festival and with a US aircraft carrier in port, the evening was a colourful expose of Filipino entertainment, gangs of US sailors with Filipino girls in tow, and live bands, ranging from quite impressive to loud and bad. It was a very lively experience – I’m glad we had had a few days of chill out to prepare ourselves – WOW…

We also visited a marine park with a very entertaining dolphin/sealion show and managed all of 25 minutes on a walk in the tropical rainforest nearby. Then back to Manila – in such a carefree mood from a nice few days that we forgot our car’s licence plates forbid us driving on Thursdays in Makati city. First cop was impressed by my Tagalog, the second accepted my offer to ‘pay the fine here’…… I didn’t want to have to go to the central police office to get my licence back on Monday….

And now I am in McDs in Singapore! – Flew out the day after we got back from holiday – happened to sit next to some old acquaintances from NZ who were on the same flight and am ensconced in the pinnacle of First World Asia, where you can’t chew gum, spit, litter, cross the street other than at traffic lights…. Quite a different experience. The conference I’m at seemed very interesting so far – exploring the Theory of Knowledge course I teach – some great thinkers and interesting discussion so far. And Singapore is an exciting colourful mix of Chinese, Malay, Indian and British influences all mixed together…

Till next time! – some pics to come…

The faith of a 3-year-old

2006-10-24T20:01:00.000-07:00

As I write this blog, I’m sitting in McDonalds. In New Zealand, McDonalds was a place we didn’t visit much, and when we did, it was usually the McCafe which was a good distance from our house, which made the ideal place to ‘turn around’ on a morning walk. (after a nice cappuccino, of course). But here in the Philippines, it’s one of the few places that are open at 8am. The malls don’t open till about 11am (probably a legacy of the Spanish influence) and even Starbucks, which I would actually prefer, in terms of comfortable seats to sit down with a laptop, is only open at 9:30. This morning, as I have to be back at Emily’s nursery school by 9:30 for a field trip, I decided it wasn’t worth fighting the traffic back to our apartment. My only other choice here closeby was ‘Jollibee’, which is the Filippine version of McDonalds. It’s a very similar concept, but instead of a tall, cherry-headed man with big red shoes, their mascot is a big fat bumble bee with a white chef’s cap. This morning, familiarity won out, so my blogging companions are Ronald in plastic and Karen Carpenter though the loud Muzak.

We’ve really been enjoying the international church here in the Manila. Part of the reason is probably that when you’re dealing with culture shock and just plain stress, your desire to connect with God seems to increase. Another part of the equation is that Emily and Zoe have settled very well into their Sunday School classes, so we actually get to sit through a whole service with no interruptions. This hasn’t been the case for about 3 ½ years!

Emily’s been paying attention in Sunday School. She’s been asking all sorts of fabulous questions about God, as she tries to assimilate the things she’s being taught. “Does God live in our chest?” “Why can’t we see God?” “When are we going to die?” “My sore is better – isn’t God clever to make our body heal itself!” “Sometimes I’m naughty.”

I’ve really enjoyed the challenge of talking with her about spiritual matters. While I find them far from easy, and I know I don’t have all the answers, I’m glad she’s at least interested in our creator. I was touched the other day when Emily declared “When I die, I’m going to give God a great big cuddle!” I was very proud of her budding faith, but then was promptly reminded that she is only three when she added “And Jollibee!”

A guest editorial...

2006-10-15T05:38:00.000-07:00

Hi all, Nigel typing today.

Thought a contribution from me was overdue although a disclaimer before I begin: I suspect my literary style isn’t quite up to the standards established by my lovely wife thus far. J but I’ll give it a shot.

This weekend has been a milestone in a number of ways. The search for a house into which to move has moved from ‘the hunt’ to ‘the negotiation’. The details are in the capable hands of the admin staff at school who handle the intricacies of the Philippine legal framework, which weaves a web of intrigue around even the simplest thing. For example, the process of moving from a condo (apartment) into a house is governed by a 37 step process, each step of which will no doubt involve various forms signed the standard seven times plus a thumbprint for good measure (well I might be exaggerating a little…)

Secondly, after dragging Joanna around the city looking at a couple of vehicles which weren’t really us, I came up with the idea of deciding on the type of vehicle we wanted by going to a dealership – then buying privately afterwards. We’ve settled on a Toyota Tamaraw Revo, which is classed as an AUV (Asian Utility Vehicle) – named after the indigenous water buffalo of the Philippines…. I prefer the name it has in Indonesia – Kijang – which at least is a deer.. somewhat more graceful. But here this is THE family vehicle of choice… so hopefully by tomorrow, all inspections going well, we will be mobile without being subject to the whims of Manila taxi drivers.

Thirdly, yesterday we found a veritable Garden of Eden in the form of the La Mesa Ecopark. It was a bit of a trek out to the northern edge of Manila but worthwhile – a clean, VERY green

forested area with picnic areas, play equipment, a fitness trail (we didn’t make it all the way round… well we stopped after 20 m….) a huge bank of flowers, something we didn’t investigate called an orchidarium… and a boating lagoon. We’ll definitely be back – the large swimming pool setup was wonderful – no city noises or smells, and surrounded by tropical forest. The kids were something of an attraction with the locals – but it wasn’t too packed and we were able to relax. A valuable recharge!

I’m obviously working too hard – can’t get away from the old three point essay even here…. Thanks for reading!

And for the BIG news...

2006-10-15T05:22:00.000-07:00

We're gonna have another baby!

Yes, baby #3 is well on the way. (Although from the size of my tummy, you might think he/she was further than only 14 weeks... I chalk it down to being my body's 3rd time at this - it knows where it's going, and has been pre-stretched!)

Emily understands quite well what it all means, and is very interested in it. She wants us to take the baby out now, just so she can have a look. She's quite concerned that the baby have his/her own 'blankie' as she and Zoe have. So next week sometime, Emily and I are going to make a special trip to the fabric store to buy some cotton blankie material and some satin edging, and together we're going to sew a wee blankie for the baby.

This is Emily giving 'baby' a cuddle :)

pics of Puerto Galera Weekend

2006-10-15T05:06:00.000-07:00

Visit to Puerto Gallera

2006-10-15T04:52:00.000-07:00

(This blog is two weeks old – we got distracted by the typhoon, so I haven’t managed to put this on yet, but we have some nice photos, so I thought it was better late than never…)

We met just after school on the Friday afternoon. Most of the new staff plus some others then loaded our gear onto the bus, and headed south. We arrived at Batangas, on the southern coast of Luzon around 6pm, then hopped on a few ‘Banca’s in the dark to take us across to Mindoro. We were staying at Sabang, not far from the town of Puerto Gallera.

It was a rough crossing, and bancas are designed to sit on top of the water, so we were up and down like a yo-yo for an hour. To my amazement and relief, the girls were so tired by that stage, that they fell asleep in our arms! (The passengers on one of the other Bancas were not as lucky – they were accompanied by one of the children screaming the whole way! His mum was glad that he was at least screaming in Spanish, so most of the others couldn’t understand what was coming from his mouth!)

We arrived at the resort, put our bags away, went down to the water-front restaurant for a light meal, then headed straight to bed. (Suffice it to say the single staff members did not go straight to bed. I believe the local pub got quite the workout that night, but hey – it’s not really our scene.)

Actually, the whole area around Puerto Gallera is a diving haven, so come Saturday, most people were off on boats to take them for a dive, or else having diving lessons in the pool. Diving is not ‘our thing’ right now, and the girls were perfectly happy playing in the sand by the resort, and learning how their new water-wings and goggles work. We didn’t enjoy the hecklers, though, who wanted to sell us things, or take us to other beaches etc, so for the Sunday morning, we booked a small boat to take us to a more secluded beach. There was some nice snorkeling to be done there, just offshore, so Nigel and I took turns looking at the underwater world and looking after the girls.

Saturday afternoon, after the girls’ rest time, we put the backpacks on and headed inland to explore Puerto Gallera township. We caught a local jeepney, and got quite a nice intro to the place from a local school teacher who was squashed up next to us. She recommended we go look at the church, so we did that, and were pleasantly surprised to see a wedding had just taken place. The neat thing was that for the wedding cars, there were a couple of decorated Jeepneys! We witnessed the Bride & Groom sit up front, while other guests/wedding party members squashed in the back, and some even on the roof! IT was quite a sight, but we felt it inappropriate to take pictures.

After our wee wander around, we hired a tricycle to take us back to Sabang. Nigel and I squashed in and put the girls’ backpacks on the floor in front. And held on tight! Back at the resort, we again ‘chilled out’ and had an early night. Holiday time when the girls are asleep in bed is the perfect opportunity for Nigel and I to catch up on our reading.

Sunday afternoon we headed back. The sailing was much smoother, and the ride fine, but long, due to the rain. We got back around 8pm, had just enough time to get the girls to bed, the bags unpacked, clothes in the wash and to bed at a reasonable time.

...And on the lighter side...

2006-10-08T00:32:00.000-07:00

Having just moved to the other side of the world, we don't have the large musical instruments that we have had in the past. We were lucky enough to 'babysit' a piano for a few years, and more recently, we've had a guitar in the house. Here, we have just a harmonica. Nigel's been encouraging the girls to have a go playing it, and this afternoon, Emily was getting the hang of sucking in and out, and trying to push the button at the same time. Well, she'd been doing quite well, and when all of a sudden there was a very strange noise. Nigel and I just cracked up laughing, and Emily wasn't sure what to do. She'd been trying so hard to blow. Then she realised what happened, smiled, and said "Hey - I did a farty at the same time!"

Typhoon pics

2006-10-01T17:21:00.000-07:00

These pics are from our street in downtown Manila, the day after the Typhoon.

And This is Nigel making the most of our one working power socket which had generator power!

2006-10-01T04:17:00.000-07:00

Who would have thought that we would spend our 5th wedding anniversary living in the aftermath of Typhoon Milenya. Despite the fact that we had only one power socket working from the emergency generator, on Friday morning I got a cappucino in bed. Nigel had carried the coffee maker out to our one working socket (via extension cord in the hallway), and made my coffee. It was very much appreciated.

Nigel had a half day at work. The typhoon, which turned out to be the worst the Philippines had seen since about 1995, had badly affected the school. The new senior block, where Nigel's classroom is, and which was finished only a week before school started last month, had a roof collapse and it flooded. Trees were also everywhere, shade-sails had been shredded by the 160km winds, and of course there was only generator power.

The girls and I spent the morning visiting a family from church. As we drove there, we saw trees and debris everywhere. In the tree-lined village where our friends live, those same trees had wreaked havoc on the streets, power-lines, fences, and in some sad cases, houses. Our friends had a huge mango tree lying in their swimming pool, on top of the felled fence. While I was shocked to see this, they were pleased it had gone into the pool, not through their living room window. They, like the rest of Manila, and in fact the whole island of Luzon, had no electricity, but they also had no running water. While there was bottled water to drink, we couldn't flush the toilets. It would be three days before they would be able to take a shower again. (which, in the heat, with no air-con, is quite something.)

We were actually very lucky in our apartment. At least we had one power socket running off generator. This meant we could plug in a fan, and have some moving air. And we had plenty of running water, for cold showers, which was fine, especially when it was 30 degrees. We have never bathed so often!

Friday night, leaving Jenalyn in charge of the girls, Nigel and I went out to celebrate our anniversay. We found the big malls had plenty of generator electricity. We had a nice mediterranean dinner (cooked by a Filipino chef, who had trained in London) and then we went to a movie.

We didn't get power back till tonight, Sunday. In the end, we got off very lucky. The worst it got for us was heat rashes and bad moods. Some 100+ people lost their lives around the country, crops were destroyed, houses and cars. It really makes you think how quickly things can change, and lets you appreciate what you've got.

Typhoon

2006-09-28T04:47:00.000-07:00

We were woken at 5:45am this morning (Thursday) by a text message beep from Nigel's phone. Teacher message chain: No school today. At 6am, Jenalyn answered our housephone - parent message chain - no school for Emily today. There was a typhoon over the whole country. We had breakfast in the living room, looking out our glass wall at the weather outside. It was stormy, but as far as I could tell, just a bit of wind and rain. What's this typhoon business? As the day went on, it became clear. Winds rushed through the area, and I even witnessed a tree fall over into a ditch. Around the city, other trees fell over in the streets. One teacher had moved his car into his garage just in time. An hour later, a tree fell right where his car had been. The fence in the plot next to our building fell over onto the parked cars. At one stage, I saw something fly past our window. What was that? I heard a mighty crash, and looked on the ground - it looked like the bonnet from a car, but I couldn't tell, as we're 11 stories up. Someone picked it up off the road. Luckily no one was under it! Looking out the window the other way, we saw some curtains from 2 floors up fluttering in the wind. Either the wind had sucked them out the small open windows at the top of their living room glass wall, or a whole pane of glass had fallen out of their living room! I hope it was the former, because the thought of one of our glass panes falling out scared the pants off me, especially as the girls love to put their noses on the glass when they look out.

Mid-morning, the power went off, and stayed off. No air-con. No TV. No fans. Things were getting hot & sticky at home, so we thought we'd go out for lunch. Brave the weather, grab a taxi to a mall. Surely they'd have power. Well, we never got to tell, as our lifts were not working. We were literally stuck in our apartment. (In an emergency, we could've carried the girls down 11 flights of stairs in the dark to the back of the building, but I didn't fancy that now.) Luckily we didn't go out. We later heard stories of cars trying to get through metre deep water in places. And most of the shops just closed. The 7-11, open 24 hours, was open, and selling by candlelight!

By dinner time, the lifts were working, (but still no electricity) and we went for a walk in the much calmer, but still windy weather. We found somewhere to eat dinner - Good old McD's. They had generators going, so we enjoyed the air-con, and didn't mind that we had to wait in the queue for half an hour! Seems lots of others had the same idea.

The walk there, only a couple of blocks away, was eye-opening. Street-lights and traffic lights were out. Most shops shut, mangled umbrellas lying in the streets, branches and whole trees everywhere. While we were out, we got another txt on the teacher chain: school cancelled tomorrow again for students, but teachers are to come in anyway, for a late start.

Now here we are, in the evening, still no power. The girls have gone to sleep in their underwear, and Nigel's managed to hook the fan up to the emergency generator switch, which the fridge is connected to. So we'll at least have some airflow tonight, and hopefully, Zoe's heat rash won't get any worse. Luckily, the typhoon has cooled the air a bit, it's only 28 degrees.

Doctor Jo

2006-09-25T01:53:00.000-07:00

"I did buy some pita bread, but the ants have got into it through the plastic," she said. "So if you don't mind waiting - if you're not too hungry, can I just whip something up?"

"Sure" I say, taking a seat on one of the plastic chairs in her "sitting room", directly in front of the fan. I wipe the sweat from my brow and watch Jo "whip up" some fresh chipatis. She deftly mixes flour, yeast, whatever else, rolls it with a drinking glass on her small "bench" and then throws it into a hot wok on her 2-burner gas stove. She's actually baked a cake, too, which REALLY impresses me. I find baking hard at the best of times, but she has baked a cake WITH NO OVEN! She showed me her clever contraption that involves heating a round stone thing on the gas burner, then putting a metal container on it, which has a tray for the cake tin inside it. She said she picked it up in Nepal. Having no fridge, she had carefully mounted it on a container with a 'moat' of water so the ants couldn't get it. She says sometimes the ants get together and form a 'bridge' over the water! But we were in luck today.

During our delicious lunch, I decide that it's quite like camping. But luxury camping - there's electricity and a "toilet" right inside. I actually really enjoy camping, and find Jo's place quite cozy, even though it's smaller than our family tent. It is roughly the size of the combined area of our apartment's walk-in wardrobe and ensuite. It has everything one needs. But then, I realise, I only go camping for a couple of weeks a year. And the worst pests I have ever had to deal with while camping are the cheeky wekas in the South Island. We had to actually zip up the tent. Jo deals regularly with mice. She said she doesn't even need to bait the traps.

Jo, a fellow Kiwi, lives in one of the squatter areas in the north of Metro Manila. She's lived in the area on & off for the last 17-odd years. She's involved with a medical project up there - mainly education about basic health care. And from her stories, it seems that it's really needed. She lives with the people she has come to serve. She knows them. They know her. Only one person called out to us when we were walking through the squatter area. Jo commented that he must've been new.

I spent the day visiting with Jo, and she taught me some very practical things, like how to catch a jeepney, as well as a few attitudinal things. When it was time to go, I made a freudian slip, and instead of saying 'apartment', I said 'hotel'.

Curly Zo

2006-09-12T23:21:00.000-07:00

Zoe's enjoying going to the local park (i.e. small patch of open space with a few trees and some pathways) with Jenalyn. Today, they went for about 2 hours in the morning, and they had a fabulous time. Although there is no play equipment there, the culture here is very sharing, so and all the yayas and children who are there just seem to share toys and snacks and play all together. She managed to join in kicking a ball around, and also even riding someone's bike. I hope she shared her bubbles, too, but to be honest I wouldn't be surprised if she just shouted her favourite word. ("MINE!").

Apart from Zoe having a good time, it's good for Jenalyn to get out and 'hang' with the other yayas. They all know each other in the area, and they have a good old natter about what's going on. Apparently, Zoe's quite the star amongst all the yayas, due to her blonde, curly hair. In NZ, when she finally did grow hair, it was pretty straight, apart from the odd wave, but here, with the humidity, it's gone very curly. Attached is the latest picture of our 'barbie doll', both her curls at the back, an her cheeky grin that she has been sporting lately! Although Zoe still misses Emily in the mornings, I think she's revelling in all the attention she's getting for herself! Spot the extrovert!

Maid-free weekends

2006-09-11T04:37:00.000-07:00

Jenalyn lives in with us Mondays-Fridays. She comes in early on Monday, and goes home in the afternoon on Friday, depending on what's going on. Sometimes early, sometimes after an evg of babysitting. She keeps herself amazingly busy during the week, both with housework and sharing with childcare. We decided to have maid-free weekends for two reasons. 1) Because she asked for weekends off (even though the norm here is 6-day weeks) and 2) We decided that we needed to stay somewhat realistic about our family life. Having househelp is fabulous, but very much a priviledge that we don't want to take for granted.
At the weekends, we do laundry, but that's pretty much it. Our apartment gets messy. We leave the girls toys exactly where they have landed. (mostly). The beds don't get made. We just pull the sheet up when we hop in the next night. We leave the washed dishes un-put-away until they need to be used again. And ZERO cleaning gets done. The funny thing is, this is exactly how we live in New Zealand! I never really "did" beds - what's the point with a duvet that just needs pulling up? And the dishwasher would usually get un-loaded only when necessary. And cleaning got done just when it seemed REALLY necessary.

We've had three maid-free weekends like this so far, and all seemed well, till last night (Sunday night). In the middle of the night, I asked Nigel to get me a glass of water from the kitchen (he was up anyway). Well, what a commotion! He came back a bit weary and said "Be glad it wasn't you who got the water". Aparently, when he turned the light on, he spotted a VERY LARGE cockroach scuttling to safety. He managed to win the ensuing battle, but he came back muttering that "that thing did NOT crawl in from the drains" (All the other cockroaches we've seen so far have been little ones (in retrospect, anyway!) on the bathroom floor, near the drains, and after 3 days of Jenalyn working for us, we hadn't seen anymore).
SO. We told Jenalyn the story, and she spent a large amount of time today scrubbing the kitchen floor, all the surfaces and all the cabinets with bleach. There is not a single germ in there, and I'm sure that's how she's been keeping us critter-free the whole time. What seems 'excessive' cleaning from my NZ perspective is actually really kinda 'necessary' cleaning here.

Are we going to change the way we do our weekends? Well, I'm going to give the stove and benchtops that EXTRA wipe down after use. And I think I'm going to make more of an effort to actually put away the dishes after they've been washed. Because if there ARE night visitors, I'd rather they not dance on my clean plates.

And not forgetting Zoe...

2006-09-11T04:01:00.000-07:00

Although a lot of focus and energy has been directed towards Emily, in her big new adventure of school, Zoe has certainly not been forgotten. I'm actually very proud of her, because even though she's been through a lot of changes - moving country, getting used to not having her sister around in the mornings, she's also managed to truck on in her own development. She's in the middle of potty training, which is going very well. AND she's managed to give up the dummy. And hardly a protest at that. Both of these things I was wanting to do for a while, but thought we'd better wait till our long process of shifting was finished. Well, that time has come, and she's handled it pretty well. She's even managed to mimic some Tagalog words that Jenalyn is teaching her. Go Zoe!

Getting into the swing of things

2006-09-11T00:01:00.000-07:00

Well, the first week of our new routine was pretty hard. Not as hard as the first day (see last entry) but still pretty exhausting. I spent a lot of the weekend just lazing around being tired! We all went to bed pretty early both nights.
Today (1st day of week 2) things were MUCH better. Zoe didn't cry when we left (amazing!) and also, EMILY DIDN'T CRY! Just as I was about to leave, she put on a sad face, then she had a lightbulb moment, and said "Hey Mum - I don't think I'll cry today." I thought that was a very good idea, so we agreed that she wouldn't. And she didn't! She did get a fright at one stage from a school bell and cried then, apparently, but she said she only cried for a short time. She seems to enjoy school and she likes her teachers. On the way to school, she said "Maybe Miss Truscott and Miss Annelee will be there again this week." I said "Yes, Emily, they are your teachers, they will be there." "Oh good!" She said. ;)
Here are a couple of pictures of her at school.

2006-09-05T19:24:00.000-07:00

Emily has started school. It’s only nursery school, and only in the mornings, but it’s every day, and she has a uniform, and goes to a ‘real’ school.
Here’s a picture of her in her new uniform.
And later another one of Jenalyn and Zoe with her on her first morning.

The first day really didn’t go all that well.

First, I had to leave Zoe at home by herself (with Jenalyn). Now Zoe has ALWAYS had Emily with her. They went to playgroup together, to mainly music together, and they sleep in the same room. This is the first time in Zoe’s life that Emily had to go somewhere but she wasn’t allowed to go. So of course when mummy and Emily left in the morning, (and Daddy had already left) we had to just shut the door on the bawling, and go down the lift. Heart blow number one.

Then there was the school separation. Knowing Emily, I had promised her that I’d stay with her the whole first day, but I found I was the only mother there after the first mat-time session, and I wondered whether I was doing the right thing. And so, despite my promise, when the teacher suggested I try to leave her, I said I would. She said ‘walk out and give me 10 minutes, and I’ll send someone to you’. So I walked out and listened to nearly 10 minutes of screaming. At about 9 mins 30 seconds, the screams calmed down, and the teacher helper came out to get Emily’s water bottle. She said Emily would be fine, so I could just leave. Hmm. I thought I’d better, so I walked to the nearest café, and decided to come back in an hour to see how things were.

I left, and as I walked down the street, I bawled. I had, in the space of a couple of hours, abandoned both of my children. It was a very lonely walk to the café!

I had my (iced) coffee, and tried to keep myself occupied for a whole hour. Then, I found two text messages from Nigel. There had been a whole school fire alarm, and knowing what we know about Emily (i.e. that she is petrified of loud noises) he had found her nursery class at the assembly point, and had indeed found her in distress. His presence calmed her down, and he was able to walk her back to her room. But then, of course, he had to go back to his class, so that again caused another separation. And she started screaming again. That’s where he left her, that’s when he texted me. So I walked quickly back to the school, again crying most of the way.

I got back to the room, saw in the window that she was on a lap, and NOT screaming, so I sat outside, after letting someone know I was there. But lo and behold, 5 minutes later, the teacher came out with a crying Emily and said “See, there’s Mummy – I told you she’d be back!” And Emily smiled. I convinced her to go back in the classroom with me, and once inside, all the other children said to the teacher “she’s not crying anymore!”

We had a fairly good last hour of the day, and I stayed firmly in the classroom. No one even hinted that I leave!

Emily’s recollection of her first day at school surprises me, however. Despite her mother breaking her promise and leaving her, despite her crying most of the day, despite the terror of a fire alarm, AND despite getting bitten by mozzies all over her legs (and those who know her know that she’s allergic to bites, so she has huge welts covering her legs now), when asked how her first day at school was, she said “Good!”!

Today, her second day, went much better. There were no fire alarms, and I had prepared her beforehand exactly when I would leave. At said time, (and also a few times before that) she did scream, but her first words when I got her after school were “Mummy – I didn’t cry anymore!” According to the teacher, she did have a few crying sessions, but if she was proud of her non-crying, then so was I.

The pool!

2006-08-31T21:44:00.000-07:00

After nearly two weeks of living in our apartment building, we finally got a swim in the pool! The day before we arrived, it had been drained for annual cleaning, but today it was all go, and I think the girls and I were the first ones in! We were there by 8am, and it was a very pleasant time indeed. The sun wasn't high enough to be directly on us, but it was definitely warm enough to swim! We brought some toys, snacks, sunscreen, all that jazz, and had a FAB time. The kiddie pool is shallow enough for the girls to stand easily in it, and the adult area is big enough for lap swimming. We just played and swam for about 2 hours, and made our way back home once the sun started to shine on the pool (nearly 10). With the lack of green space generally in the city, it was a relief to find somewhere pleasant and cool enough to just hang around and have fun.

The honest taxi driver

2006-08-31T21:43:00.000-07:00

When we got here, we had to buy new cell phones. Our NZ phones, being the very cheapest you could get at the time of buying, were not capable of working internationally. So we spent some money, and got a couple of nice phones here - ones we could actually use back home again, too, and I decided to get one that could take pictures, so that I'd always be 'ready' when those precious moments pop up.
Well, a week after buying my new phone, I left it in a taxi.
Just minutes after the car drove off, I was sick to my stomach as I realised what I had done. I had been dropped at the school, to meet Emily's new teacher, and later some of the other new staff for some more orientation. I went back to the school guards, and told them what had happened, and asked them to contact me, should the driver decide to come back to the school with my phone. A few of the guards sort of nodded politely, but I saw some of them just shake their heads. Why on earth would a taxi driver bother to return a perfectly black-market-saleable phone? I met Nigel, got him to ring the phone (this was about 15 minutes later), and sure enough, the taxi driver answered it. Nigel asked him to bring it back, and the driver said he couldn't get there straight away, but he would try later. Well, what else was he going to say? Meanwhile, back at the guards station, they were rewinding the security cameras, to see whether they could read the number plate of the taxi that had dropped me off. We left some money with the guards, and rang the phone again and said that if the driver brought it back, there was some money waiting for him. We didn't say how much, because it wasn't much, really, but it was twice the amount of money that my taxi fare had originally cost - basically just enough to pay for his petrol and time in returning it. And that's where we left it.
Two hours later, as we were about to leave school, the guards came and found us and said the phone was back! A miracle! The taxi driver was honest (or motivated by a cash reward, at least!) and had come back to return the phone.
It honestly restored my faith in the human race! Some people will still bother to do the right thing.

What you can learn from a women's magazine.

2006-08-23T05:24:00.000-07:00

I picked up a Filipino "Good Housekeeping" magazine from the shop yesterday. After getting over what that said about my age (i.e. I didn't choose Girlfriend or Cleo or whatever) I started reading through it to see what I could learn about life in this country.

The ads are different.

There are ads for Fabric Softener. Have I ever seen an ad for F.S. in my NZ magazines? Judging by my total lack of interest in said F.S., probably not. Not only their presence interested me, but the thing about the F.S. in these ads are that they are anti-bacterial. Why, I asked myself, would one need anti-bacterial fabric softener? Surely if you are using F. S., you have just washed your clothes, and they are therefore clean. Then it dawned on me. The "anti-bak" is not for cleaning the clothes, but it is in prep for the huge amount of sweat you and your family members are about to pour into the clothes when you put them on again. And we all know that it's not the sweat itself that is a problem (fresh sweat doesn't smell) but it's the bacteria that get into it that make the smell. SO "anti-bak" is a smell-prevention thing!

Welcome to tropical living 1: I need to start getting into fabric softener.

There are ads for diarrhoea medicines. Now I'm quite aware that such things exist, but I have to say they are definitely not an every-day item in my NZ household. But it seems that in the Philippines, they are a regular part of life.

Welcome to tropical living 2: Stock up the medicine cabinet.

There are ads for New Zealand milk. I smile. In NZ, we buy according to different brands of milk, but here, they advertise according to different countries of origin. But I see that the company which imports it is Nestle. Nestle is not a NZ company, or is it? How does that work? Ah well, at least the farmers in NZ will be getting something for the milk that is currently in my fridge.

Welcome to tropical living 3: Question: Do they not have cows in the Philippines?

Arrival in the Philippines: The good, the bad and the ugly.

2006-08-23T05:22:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe we're here. After months of preparation, we've finally made it to Manila, our home for at least the next two years.

It was quite a journey - we left Auckland on a Friday, had two nights in Brisbane (family visit), one night in Taipei (stopover) then arrived in Manila on the Monday.

The good:
The flying went pretty well - even with our mountain of luggage - 13 pcs total. The girls coped pretty well with the long flights. Zoe kept watching a 20-minute Mickey Mouse cartoon (without the sound), and Emily learned how to use the seat control to play games!
We were met off the plane by one of the BSM staff, and were driven directly to our new apartment in downtown Manila (Makati). Our household helper was in the building foyer to meet us and help us with our stuff. She's a friendly woman, with two kids of her own, and her last job was full-time nanny to a pair of 3-year-old twins, so she knows her way around toddlers!.

The bad (well, just a little):
Our apartment was pretty bare - (minimally) furnished, but lacking lots of things, including curtains! (But we later found out that the curtains had been removed for cleaning.) As far as apartments go, I think this is a pretty good one - marble floors, each room has its own bathroom, we have helpers' quarters, a large kitchen, and lots of windows for big views of the city. However, at the end of the day, it really is just a box in the sky, and we will definitely miss the little patch of grass that came with our house in NZ!

And the ugly:
In our three days here, I've met 6 cockroaches. Killed 4 of those. Now if this was a stand alone house, I'd be fumigating the place, but there seems to be no point here, as the apartment is connected to an enormous network of pipes and drains throughout its 40 floors. For every cockroach I kill in our apartment, there will be at least 100 more in the drainpipes. YUCK! Anyone have tips on how to deal with the critters?
.....

You're at the right place...

2006-07-12T17:13:00.000-07:00

Yes, this is our new blog - The Smith family moving to Manila.
We've just set it up, at "Departure minus 5 weeks", but haven't yet posted anything!
Watch this space...