Philippines: Day 2

June 2nd: Visiting in Talisay

After a good night sleep, or at least it wasn't sleeping upright in an airplane seat, Kari and I headed out for the day. As mentioned in the previously, Kari's friend Glen who we had run into at the temple the day before offered to take us around Talisay to try and visit members from Kari's second area on her mission. We had decided to meet Glen at the this mall not far from the area at 10am. Not knowing how long it would take to get there from Central Cebu we left early to make sure we got there on time, and to also get some breakfast. We ended up getting there with plenty of time to spare and the mall wasn't quite open yet, so we ended up at a McDonald's that was next door to grab some food. The two of us were enjoying our breakfast when all of a sudden this old white guy (and kind of creepy) came over to talk to us, because hey, we are the only white girls to be seen around (like anywhere). Turns out the guy had moved to the Philippines early in the year from the states and spends much of his time hanging out around the mall. We were friendly and listened to him talk about how he takes out Filipina women and such and that he would be willing to support one if they were in a relationship, but he would never support her family (basically the reason Filipina women go for the white men in their country). Needless to say, creepy and we were more than happy to excuse ourselves to go meet up with Glen.

After meeting up with Glen we headed to our first stop, to visit Rowena, one of Kari's converts.

Here I am riding my first trycicade .

 We meet up with Rowena at her place of work. While she finished up a meeting we chatted with her coworkers for a bit and then ended up sharing facebook photos with each other on the computer they had in the front area of the office. I didn't always really understand what was going on, which would be a theme for the trip, but they were good and would talk in English every once in a while to I could understand, or Kari would translate for me. Once Rowena was done with her meeting, she ended up inviting us over to her house to have lunch with her family. So all of us, included the coworkers (there was only 2 of them) joined us and we ended over to Rowena's home.

There we had a really delicious lunch and we got to visit with Rowena, her husband Rene and their four children. We would end up spending a bit of time with the Canada family over the course of our trip, including a trip out to Kawasan Falls the following week. They were so good to us and even provided Kari with a cell phone for us to use during our stay in the Philippines.

 Kari with Rowena and Rene.

 Three of the four Canada kids--Rens, Abish and Holly.

 After our visit at with the Canada family (and getting some minutes put on the cell phone) we headed over to visit Aida and Ailen - other converts of Kari's and Glen's aunt and cousin. During our visit we planned to meet with the the next day to attend the temple open house.

Kari with Aida, Aida's husband and Ailen.

After our visit with Aida and Ailen we went on a great search to find sister that Kari had really connected with on her mission. After a long search we found the place where this sister and her family lived, but unfortunately the sister had just moved a week or so earlier to Manila for a new job. 

The following are some pictures from our walk after finding the family and heading back to highway to get a taxi.

 Kari and Glen walking.

 Everywhere we went throughout the country there always seemed to be goats.

This goat on a leash made me think of my brother Phillip
as he once said that he wanted a goat on a leash.

 

 Once we got to the highway we got a taxi and headed over visit with Sister Buchie and her family. We had seen them the day before at the temple and spent some time visiting with them. I particularly enjoyed this visit and Sister Buchie treated us to mango roll and egg pie, both very yummy desserts. Although I will say that similar to Cambodia, no matter where we went everyone always wanted to give us something to eat or drink. So nice. Well after a nice visit with this family it was starting to get dark so it was time to head back to hotel. Glen was such a great guide and we definitely wouldn't have been as successful as we were without him. We would see him later on, too, as he would join us on our trip to the falls with the Canada family.

And so we proceed to day 3...