places I've been

duckpin bowling

Friday is date day for the Sumpters, so we took off this afternoon to Urdaneta. After lunch at Pizza Hut, we surmised our entertainment opportunities. Wesleyans here don't really go to movies, at least not the Wesleyans who teach at the college. Tiffany didn't feel like going swimming, so that left bowling. Urdaneta doesn't have a real bowling alley, but they do have duckpin bowling. Duckpin bowling uses smaller pins and smaller bowling balls, which makes it much harder. On the bright side, you get to roll three times per frame. Still, they say that any score higher than 100 is a good score. We didn't have any good scores today. The bright side is that it costs 15 pesos a game, so you can pretty much bowl to your heart's content.

Characteristics of a Healthy Friendship Relationship

We conducted an interview with one of our consultants to discover what a healthy friendship looks like in the Philippines. First, we looked at the broader picture of social structure in the Philippines. Power in the Philippines is centralized in the hands of the wealthy and the well-known. The powerful are known by the way they dress, the way they carry themselves, and the way they can easily converse on a wide range of topics. Power can be inherited; often, political leaders are elected because of family connections, even though they may not be qualified for the position. Sometimes, this practice even carries over into the church; community leaders or wealthy individuals may be treated with special honor by the church members. On the other end of the scale, some Filipinos feel that their fate is predetermined. Because they are poor and uneducated, they just accept whatever those above them say. They fill the role of helper, not able to determine their own destiny. It is possible, though, for someone to change in status. Sometimes, the powerful can lose their position because of corruption and “new money” can gain power through hard work and discipline. There is a value on equality in the Philippines, but those of higher status are often given a special place at gatherings, special meriendas (snacks) and special attention; while those of lower status may be ignored.
We as missionaries are free to associate with anyone of any status. While some might have varying opinions on this, generally speaking, we may even develop fairly close relationships with students or with colleagues of the opposite sex. Our status within the church is on par with the general officers of the church. Because of this, church members feel honored to have us visit their churches. Those who have observed us admire that we are “down to earth”—willing to eat what they eat, ride with them, attend events that are important to them, etc. So, we have an above average status in the church (and possibly in society at large), but people respect our willingness to set status aside and live alongside them.
We, to some degree, have been adopted by the Agapito family. They consider us their children and welcome us to any family event. Even their neighbors consider us to be a part of that family. There are no mandatory social obligations attached to that family membership, though.
Admirable qualities in a person in the Philippines are willingness to associate with anyone regardless of their status, willingness to help, and selflessness. In fact, a good person will not say “no” when they have it in their power to help someone. Friends are always available to help each other. When one prepares a viand, she shares it with her friend. They spend an above average amount of time together, playing games with each other and talking. One keeps in close contacts with his closest friends.
Very close friends will embrace as a part of their greeting, and beso-beso is a common greeting between female friends. Even strangers address older people as manong/manang (brother/sister) or tatang/nanang (father/mother). Within the church, we might address an older person as uncle or aunt. When in doubt about age relationship, it is kinder to refer to the person with the younger term of address; i.e. tita (aunt) is safer than lola (grandmother). Friends feel comfortable “dropping in” on friends without any advance warning. They may text ahead—not to ask permission, but merely to inform that they are on their way. When a friend visits, one should stop her activity and give full attention to her guest. If it is time for merienda, she should invite her friend to join her in eating. Friends can feel safe in borrowing anything from each other. If someone has something one needs to borrow, the general philosophy is, “She is a channel of that blessing for me.”

Rate My Life quiz

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	7.4
Mind:	7.8
Body:	6.3
Spirit:	7.6
Friends/Family:	6
Love:	7.3
Finance:	8.2
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

free concert

Sir, anything?

Well, as predicted, there was a brownout today, but we had to stick around here for a send-off chapel and a special lunch with the fourth years. After lunch, though, we decided to take a trip to Urdaneta, leaving Elijah with Manang Edita. Little did we know, the brownout affected Urdaneta, too. While Tiff went to the grocery store, I went to get a massage. Unfortunately, the spa was closed due to brownout. So I walked to the bank. The bank had its own generator, so the aircon was on, but not really keeping up with the heat. After finishing my business there, I walked on to the mall. No luck there either. The only place that offers massages said their aircon was out due to the brownout and I should come back tomorrow. I still had at least half an hour before I would meet Tiff, so I decided to walk through the market.

Now, I've walked through the market before, so I wasn't too surprised at the experience, although there were some new elements added, since I was walking through alone. As always, each merchant says, "Sir, anything? T-shirt? Shoes?" and so on. But today, I was hearing things like, "Sir, anything? T-shirt? Shorts? Polo shirt? Wife?" "I love you, sir." "Ohhh, handsome!" LOL Some were quite startled to see an American there. I'm guessing not too many Americans walk deep into the market (although I'm sure the prices are better there than in the mall next door).

last day of class

Well, this was the last class day of the year. Tomorrow is a send-off chapel, and then I'll give my final exams Thursday morning. The year really has gone pretty rapidly. In some ways, I'm glad it's over. That's mostly just because a new school year means a clean slate and a chance to be a better teacher. This first year, I spent a lot of time just trying to get acclimated, scrambling to put together lessons and learning how to communicate more effectively. I still have a lot of work to do in all of those areas, but hopefully I'll have a little less abrupt of a start to my next school year.

We have a scheduled power outage tomorrow. Usually, we use that as an excuse to get out of town. But we have the send-off chapel, a special lunch with the fourth-year students and Tiff has a final project to collect in the afternoon. Plus, we need to get this place cleaned up; Mom and Dad arrive in the Philippines on Friday night.

Invasion

For the second time in a month, our home was invaded by some insect, maybe termites?

Johari me!

Okay, so here's what people think of me so far. Have you weighed in yet? If not just go to this site, and let me know what I should know about myself. Some (all) people seem to consider me logical. Am I Mr. Spock? Or have you caught me slipping into ad hominem attacks or some other fatal error of logic? Let me know.

Arena (known to self and others) bold, intelligent, knowledgeable, logical, self-assertive	Blind Spot (known only to others) able, complex, dependable, helpful, introverted, nervous, observant, religious, responsive, searching, self-conscious, tense, wise, witty
Façade (known only to self) extroverted	Unknown (known to nobody) accepting, adaptable, brave, calm, caring, cheerful, clever, confident, dignified, energetic, friendly, giving, happy, idealistic, independent, ingenious, kind, loving, mature, modest, organised, patient, powerful, proud, quiet, reflective, relaxed, sensible, sentimental, shy, silly, spontaneous, sympathetic, trustworthy, warm

Dominant Traits

71% of people agree that sumpteretc is intelligent
57% of people agree that sumpteretc is knowledgeable
100% of people agree that sumpteretc is logical

All Percentages

able (28%) accepting (0%) adaptable (0%) bold (42%) brave (0%) calm (0%) caring (0%) cheerful (0%) clever (0%) complex (28%) confident (0%) dependable (14%) dignified (0%) energetic (0%) extroverted (0%) friendly (0%) giving (0%) happy (0%) helpful (14%) idealistic (0%) independent (0%) ingenious (0%) intelligent (71%) introverted (14%) kind (0%) knowledgeable (57%) logical (100%) loving (0%) mature (0%) modest (0%) nervous (14%) observant (14%) organised (0%) patient (0%) powerful (0%) proud (0%) quiet (0%) reflective (0%) relaxed (0%) religious (14%) responsive (14%) searching (14%) self-assertive (42%) self-conscious (14%) sensible (0%) sentimental (0%) shy (0%) silly (0%) spontaneous (0%) sympathetic (0%) tense (28%) trustworthy (0%) warm (0%) wise (14%) witty (14%)

Created by the Interactive Johari Window on 27.2.2006, using data from 7 respondents.
You can make your own Johari Window, or view sumpteretc's full data.

Q-tip catastrophe

Yes, there was a mudslide in the Philippines lately, and yes, the President declared a national state of emergency yesterday, but what concerned me most this morning struck a little closer to home. I got a piece of cotton stuck in my ear. They have some cheap cotton swabs in the market, and Tiffany bought some when we ran out of the good kind. Since then, we've bought good ones and had others shipped to us. But . . . I was trying to use up the old ones and, lo and behold, I pulled the swab out of my ear and found myself staring at an empty stick. Apparently, the cotton was well inside my ear. Tiffany tried to get it out with tweezers and a flashlight but wasn't making much progress. I was already late to pick up church members in Casanicolasan, so I went ahead with my route. Tiff did some online investigating while I was gone and felt safer about going back in, so with a little digging around and pulling on my ear, she was finally able to retrieve the pesky bit of material.

We had a good crowd in church today. It seems to fluctuate a bit from week to week, but I think, all in all, the church is growing numerically. The youth group had a love fellowship yesterday, and I think more than 60 attended.

Not too much else out of the ordinary today. When I picked the students up in Imus, Joel told me that they had been invited to eat in the home of one of the church members but that Syrel and Arlene were too ashamed to eat. I'm not really sure what that means, (and I'm not really sure how to find out).

When the doctor needs a second opinion

This picture is really apropos of nothing. It's a couple of chickens that were roosting in our jackfruit tree this morning. I just have never posted a picture on my blog before, so I wanted to see what was involved.

Tomorrow, I'm going to Manila with Pastor Rheynil and Pastor Alex. We're going to attend the 2nd Annual Theological Forum, coordinated by Asian Theological Seminary. The topic is something along the lines of "Naming the Unknown God." I don't think I've heard of any of the keynote speakers before, but some of the breakout sessions look interesting.

At any rate, I've been hurrying around trying to get ready, since we need to leave at about 4:00 tomorrow morning. Registration is at 8:00 and the first plenary session is at 9:00, so that should give us enough time. Pastor Alex told me tonight, though, that there are supposed to be 20,000 protesters in the street tomorrow, so we may have to avoid EDSA, which will almost certainly complicate things. I'm not sure how I'll do going to a new place without my regular navigatrix (Tiffany). My GPSr doesn't do me any good when I'm going someplace I've never been before.

Getting ready has mostly consisted of copying some songs from CD to cassette, because our car doesn't have a CD player. No, actually, it's mostly been trying to get the smell of vomit out of the car. Elijah didn't do too well traveling up Kennon Road to Baguio on Saturday. I think it's maybe only the second time he's had motion sickness, but he did it up right this time.

There was an interesting discussion at faculty prayer meeting tonight. One teacher was requesting prayer for a man who is having some stomach pain but the doctors haven't been able to discover the cause. Another teacher jumped in, offering, "Oh, I know someone else who had that problem. And they did an endoscopy and X-ray and everything and found nothing. Then they cut her tummy open and found out that half of her intestines were--what's the word?--rotten." Ugh. Not too encouraging. Then she went on to tell how the doctors invited the patient's mother in to see the problem for herself. I think, if I were the mother, I would take the doctor's word for it. Tiff said it's like when a mechanic points to some thingamajig in your car and says, "That's your problem, right there." Personally, I think intestines always look wrong, so looking at "rotten" ones probably wouldn't help me too much.

After prayer meeting, we practiced singing the WBC hymn, since we're supposed to sing it at graduation. It's even clunkier than most school songs, but we change the words a little bit at each practice. With a few more weeks practice, it will be completely unrecognizable by the original author.

Johari window

Okay, let's see what you really know about me. Not what my favorite soda is or the last movie I saw, but my personality. Actually, this isn't a quiz to test your knowledge. It's an exercise to help me learn more about myself. So, if you think you know me, have at it.

late notice

After chapel, I went up to Manang Becca to ask her about the JS fellowship, specifically about the financial status of the students, and whether we needed to sponsor some of them. Now that I think about it, I never really got the answer I was looking for.

Anyhow, she asked if we would be attending. I asked if the rest of the faculty were coming. She said, "Yes, please come." As the conversation proceeded, she informed me that I was scheduled to give an exhortation on Friday night and the topic was "Because of Love." So, they had already scheduled me to preach without knowing if I was attending.

Manang Becca said, "Didn't the students tell you that you were supposed to give an exhortation?"

I said, "First I've heard of it."

"Oh, I told them last night that they should go and ask you, because I was busy finalizing my sermon for today."

Hmm. My reluctance was pretty obvious. She said, "The students decided it must be you or Madam Tiffany. Anyhow, it's just a short exhoration."

"Like 10 minutes?"

"It can be more. 15, even 20 to 30."

"That's longer than I usually preach in chapel or church."

"It's just up to you."

"I'm trying to prepare to preach in chapel on Wednesday. I've never preached a sermon on love before."

"You can do it."

"Let me think about it."

In the course of the conversation, I also discovered that we are leaving at 4:00 AM on Friday ("to maximize the time"), that I will be driving my vehicle (and carrying some faculty members with me), and several details that didn't really interest or concern me regarding the schedules of other faculty members.

We went home and sat down to lunch. In a few minutes, some third year students came to the door with their best marketing hats on. Tiffany got the door.

"Because we like you so much, we are inviting you to be a part of our JS fellowship this weekend. Will you be able to attend? Oh, you will? Great! Will you be able to speak to us on Friday evening?"

Tiffany agreed to take the responsibility.

"And you will drive your car? And you will take some faculty with you so that you can have greater fellowship with each other?"

Oh, brother!

Monday: The Day We Lost Contact

It seems like I have almost no contact with Filipinos on Mondays now that I resigned my position as church core group coach.

I walked to the bakery this morning to buy pan de sal. I didn't really say anything to the girl, except "Good morning, po." She put down her paper and went and got 6 pan de sal. I said, "Thank you." End of conversation.

And I think that was about the only conversation I had with a Filipino today, other than telling Manang Edita that it was 6:00, so she could go home.

We did get the minutes of the disciplinary committe today. Permit me to share:
MINUTES OF THE DISCIPLINE COMMITTEE
February 5, 2006, 3rd Year Room 2:00 PM

OFFENSES OF ROBERTO MENDEZ* AND JULIA LATRINIDAD* even after they were sternly warned to be suspended they deliberately violated rules and regulations of the school.

1. Roberto and Julia LaTrinidad met at the SM Mall 2 times last Semestral break and the other was when both happened to be home for weekend, they decided to meet at the Mall by sending text message. They watch movie together, play together at the play station and eat together, which they should not be doing since they were warned not to have communication of any form as a disciplinary measure given to them when they first violated the social rule and the fact that they are not qualified yet.
2. They met at places like the classroom where Roberto first embraced and kissed Julia on the lips, then at the attic of the dining hall 2 times at the wee hours of the night and did the same thing, embracing and kissing each other.
3. Exchanging messages through the mobile phone.
4. Julia going to the house of Roberto on December 25, 2005 and the same thing happened, embracing and kissing.
5. Deliberately teling lies and denying to the Committee of the things they have done even when what they have done have reached the Committee already.
6. Receiving gifts in the form of a stuff toy and an identical ring, without informing her Dean.

DISCIPLINARY MEASURES:
1. They will be suspended from school for 1 week, from today February 6, 2006 until February 12, 2006. In the time of suspension, They are expected to do their requirements in the different subjects and review for the Comprehensive . . .

I couldn't make this stuff up.


*Names changed to protect the guilty

Democide

We hear a lot about the death toll in Iraq, and those deaths concern me. But I came across this site today that tells an even scarier story. Soviet Russia, particularly the Communist Party, murdered more than 61,000,000 people, more than 54,000,000 of them Soviet citizens. The People's Republic of China has been responsible for more than 76,000,000. Even in our fallen world, how can a nation become so callous?

not much help

Saturdays are always a little tricky, because we usually don't have anything scheduled but we never are quite sure how the day will go. The students have a four-hour work period on Saturday morning, so if you have students assigned to work at your house, you can get a lot done. We were talking about making a longer trip today, maybe exploring Clark Special Economic Zone or something like that, but we were hoping to get some student help this morning, so we decided to at least hang around for a little while.

I needed one of the men to come and help with some yardwork. I've never had a yard before, so I generally don't have any idea what to do with our yard. Nevertheless, I got out for several hours yesterday and did quite a bit. I took out all of our potted bouganvillas and gave them away to the Clarks and the Gacals. I spent a long time pulling out creeping vines, trimming the other bouganvillas and other plants, and doing various other tasks. I decided to leave some of the brush to be hauled away in our front yard until a student came to help. Naturally, no men were assigned to us today. We did have one of the ladies come for half of the work period, so we stayed around while she worked.

wedding

I still haven't really been to a Filipino wedding, but there was one held on campus today, so I kinda crashed it. Apparently, it was just some neighborhood Pentecostals who had rented the building. I wasn't really certain if the wedding was happening today or not. We heard some people rehearsing wedding songs this morning, and then we did see a lot of people dressed up in barongs and nice dresses. I wandered over to the tabernacle and watched through the back window along with several of the students. The processional was, um, proceeding. I think the sponsors were being seated when I arrived. I'm not sure how many sponsors there were--maybe 15 or 20 couples. There were also 8 or 9 attendants on each side. As the sponsors and attendants walked down the aisle, there were two girls at a microphone on the platform reading a piece of paper stating who each person was. They seemed to be giving stage directions, so I thought maybe this was still the rehearsal. I asked one of the students, and he said, "No, this is the wedding."

Another reason that I thought this might be the rehearsal was that, besides the wedding party and sponsors, there were probably fewer than 2 dozen people in attendance. Yes, the number of people actually participating in the wedding far outnumbered the rest of the crowd. There were also very few decorations, except on the car.

Most of the processional went as I expected, including some traditional Western classical pieces. Before the bride came down the aisle, though, there was a dance number by one of the bridesmaids and a young man on an oriental carpet spread in the aisle at the front of the tabernacle. Then, during the bride's procession, someone was singing a song. I was kind of in and out, so I didn't really catch all the details of the ceremony. From time to time, though, I heard snippets that were very familiar to me from American weddings. When it came time for the preacher to wax eloquent, all of the wedding party went to their seats in the front and sat down. What a wonderful idea!

Glenbert told me that usually each of the sponsor couples will give 100 pesos to the presider. In a big wedding, he mentioned, that can mean an extra 4-5,000 pesos. We also discussed who pays for weddings. I still don't have all the breakdown on this, but as far as I can tell, the groom and his family basically shoulder all of the financial responsibilities. I would guess the sponsors probably help in some way, but I'm not really sure to what extent.

I saw that they had a traditional Western ring ceremony. Glenbert said they sometimes light a unity candle, but I'm not sure if they did that today. I think the bride and groom signed their marriage license and it was read by the presider, but I was really too far away to determine most of the rest of what was going on. I actually left before the end of the wedding, so I will have to wait for an occasion where I'm actually invited, before I can study it in more depth.

Just a couple of side notes. Glenbert and I were talking about bachelor parties. He said he'd seen them in movies. He noted that they sometimes rented a girl to dance; he asked if I had done that for mine. :) He also asked if we really have wedding crashers in the US. I don't know about the movies these kids are seeing (shakes head in disbelief). I guess we were actually crashing this one.

rude awakening

We were awakened earlier than usual today. The timekeeper, Paeng, set his alarm clock for 5:00. Another student, Jeff, needed to get up at 3:00 to study. So he changed the time on Paeng's clock without telling him. At 3:00 AM, the alarm went off. Paeng didn't even look at the time on the clock; he just assumed it was 5:00, so he went out and rang the bell . . . loudly and repeatedly.

The Saguds had all of the faculty over for lunch today. I'm not sure exactly what the occasion was. I know several of their family members are visiting right now. I think it may have been Pastor Rheynil's birthday, or possibly his mother's birthday or both. I know when they asked Pastor Bong to ask the blessing on the food, they als0 asked him to pray for Rheynil and his mother. I think Rheynil's mom is working abroad in Hong Kong, so she must have come back to visit for the holidays.

At any rate, the meal was served buffet style. We heard a goat in apparent pain early this morning. Evidence of that was on the table. Besides rice, naturally, there were two dishes of kilawan (?), one with papaitan and one without. Kilawan, according to Pastor Alex, is the goat's skin. There was also caldatera and pancit bihon. Finally, there was a large stockpot of what I assume was pinapaitan. I tried everything but the pinapaitan. As one might suppose, the kilawan was not my favorite, especially the one with papaitan included. I just don't seem to be able to acquire a taste for intestines and bile. The caldatera was pretty good; I went back for seconds. It was, however, very difficult to eat, since every chunk is more than 50% bone and even the meat has little chips of bone in it. It almost requires you to eat kamayan. The pancit was good too, but I don't think I've really had bad pancit.

I spent some time talking to Pastor Alex during the meal. We talked about cowboys and Indians among other things. I was telling him how Tiffany and I each have trace amounts of Indian blood in our ancestry. He told me that his paternal grandmother was full-blooded Kalinga. As a consequence of that upbringing, Pastor Alex experienced an unusual discipline as a child. I'm not positive I have this 100% correct, but as I understand it: Alex was tied in a sack and hung upside down from a tree. His hands and feet were tied, so he could not get away. Then his father hit him with a stick. I don't know anything about the Kalinga, but apparently they are notorious for their "savagery."

phonemes and stuff

Most people hate Mondays, but this semester it's Tuesdays that really get to me. Classes here start way too early. And somehow, I ended up with my classes being the first two hours on Tuesday/Thursday. The first class is at 7:15; it's church growth 2. My eight fourth year students meet on our back porch. Apparently, though, one of my students hasn't made it back from Christmas yet. And all the rest of them were late to class. Today, we were discussing how to recruit a team for church planting. I didn't quite finish all I needed to say, so I guess we'll continue talking about team recruiting and developing next time.

As soon as I finish that class, I have to grab my missions stuff and dash across campus to the third year classroom. There, I have 11 BTh students for missions 2. Today, we began our discussion of cultural anthropology, which is one of my favorite topics. It's so fascinating to see the rainbow of cultural diversity on our planet. In this session, we discussed language and communication. When we talked about phonology, I explained that phonemes are the small units of sound that make a difference in a language. For example, l & r are phonemes in English, because "lake" is different than "rake." In some languages, however, they are not phonemes, which is why we always get asked about eating "flied lice" when we go to Chinese restaurants in the US. I was speculating that maybe p and f were not phonemes in Tagalog because they seem to be used interchangeably but the students assured me that they are. Apparently, they're just not very careful about choosing one or the other when speaking English. I told them that I notice this everytime someone talks about "frayer and pasting" (prayer and fasting).

extra pan de sal

Well, I guess I'm a regular enough customer at the bakery now that the girl can just say, "How many?" And I answer "5" as I do most mornings. But, as always, when I get home, there are 6 pan de sal in the bag. I guess that's one of the benefits of having a suki (sp?).

Today, Mdm. Merly asked me to be involved in tonight's school promotion at the CLD youth camp.