tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21497749358180715232024-03-12T20:06:15.838-06:00Following Where God LeadsKerrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17594373833783492388noreply@blogger.comBlogger96125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2149774935818071523.post-81144021147288274682012-05-27T23:39:00.000-06:002012-05-27T23:39:13.186-06:00Travel AdventuresSo a lot has happened since the last time I wrote. We have packed up our house, put stuff in storage, got on a plane, and returned home to Canada. Overall everything has gone smoothly. Well, almost everything.<br />
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We had a little incident during our travel from the Philippines. We left Davao with no problems. The check-in was smooth, clearing security was smooth, even the flight was smooth. We arrived in Manila and made the short walk from the domestic terminal to the international one (very quick and easy because we had flown Philippine Airlines from Davao and were flying Philippine Airlines out of Manila. Definitely a good way to go. We didn't have to worry about collecting our baggage in Manila!).<br />
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The immigration in Manila went quite smoothly, except that we had to pay more than expected to leave the country, due to our 9g Missionary Visas (contact me for more details if you are curious about the fees we paid...). Security was not a problem, and then we waited. For a long time. We had a 7 hour layover, and were expecting everything to be much more complicated and take much longer. So we were left with roughly 6 hours of sitting around waiting for our flight to go out. Not a big deal. We just sat and hung out.<br />
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We cleared the final security at the gate area about 90 minutes before our flight was to go out. Again, no hassles. Then, while we were waiting a the gate area there was an announcement: "Daniel Oishi, please go to Gate 22." So Daniel and I went to see the guy at the gate. On the walk over I was joking with Daniel that maybe they were upgrading him to Business Class. He thought that was a great idea.<br />
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It wasn't that. When we got to the gate I identified myself and Daniel to the attendant. He took our boarding passes and proceeded to speak into his radio to someone else, in Tagalog, so I had no idea what he was talking about. He then turned to me and told me that I needed to go and claim one of our bags. I asked him if Daniel needed to go or if I could go by myself. Daniel got to stay.<br />
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A security guy came, took my passport and boarding pass, and escorted me away from the gate area towards an elevator. On the walk there he asked me a vague question about whether I had packed any replicas in our bags. It took me a second to realize that he was asking about replica firearms, and I realized that there were toy guns in Daniel's duffel bag. I told him that there were toy guns in the bag and he smiled and explained that was probably what the issue was.<br />
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I was escorted by the security guy (and about 6 other people who had joined our entourage, including a customs person, a Manila Airport person, and several other official looking people who seemed to be tagging along out of curiosity) to a door marked "AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY. ONLY PEOPLE WEARING PROPER UNIFORMS ALLOWED PAST THIS POINT", guarded by a rather stern looking woman with a big gun.<br />
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They escorted me though the door and into the baggage handling area. It was actually pretty cool to see, as I have never actually seen that part of the airport. I was taken to an office which housed a rather large x-ray machine. I think they could have x-rayed me and told me what I had eaten for my last five meals with that machine. Sitting in this office was one of our duffel bags. A lady in the office asked me to identify the bag as being mine, which I did. She then asked if she could open it. (By this point I think that every person who was working in the baggage handling area, as well as most of the ground crews for all the airlines in the entire airport, had come over to investigate the white guy who had been escorted by security through the baggage area. They all had their faces pressed firmly against the glass windows of the office, not the least bit of concern for the necessity of tasks like loading luggage onto planes. For anyone who flew out around this time and didn't get your luggage, sorry. That's why. My bad.)<br />
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I was in no position to complain, so I agreed. She opened up the zipper and began to dig through, pulling out everything that remotely resembled a firearm. This included two Nerf dart guns, a SuperSoaker water gun, two silver cap guns, and a wooden elastic gun. They then x-rayed the bag about a billion times, making sure they didn't miss anything, and ensuring that every person in the room received their lifetime allotment of radiation. Once adequately crispy, we were allowed to leave, taking the suspicious objects with us. We proceeded out of the baggage area, and went back up the elevator.<br />
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The next stop was at another office, where I was invited to sit down in front of an official looking (but very friendly) lady. The security people chatted to her in Tagalog, and then one of them left with my passport and boarding pass. I was starting to wonder what would be on the menu in a Philippine jail. Probably rice. I like rice.<br />
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The lady looked over all of the guns, and made two piles. One, containing the Nerf guns and the water gun, she told me I could keep. The other, including the cap guns and the elastic gun, were going to be confiscated. I was okay with the cap guns being taken. They were easily replaceable. The elastic gun on the other hand, I had gotten when I was a kid, and had given to Daniel. I didn't want that one taken away. I calmly explained that to her, and she agreed to let me keep it too.<br />
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Once that decision was made I was again escorted down the elevator, through the scary door with the scary guard holding the scary gun, and back into the x-ray office. We put everything back into the duffel bag (minus the cap guns) and sealed it up.<br />
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I was then taken back up to the office I had been in upstairs, and had to sign a form and a photocopy of my passport and boarding pass. I was then given my passport and boarding pass back, and escorted back through security and to our gate. I explained the situation to Kerri and the kids (unfortunately, by telling Daniel that it was because of his guns that I almost didn't get to leave the country. He was upset to say the least. Dumb Dad Moment.). We got on the plane and left the Philippines.<br />
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All went smoothly from then on. Except for the incident in Vancouver...but that's for another blog.Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10391975672440048310noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2149774935818071523.post-64570910140595946162012-04-30T06:14:00.000-06:002012-04-30T06:14:52.958-06:00Our Uninvited VisitorI was recently asked to write a blog about a certain incident that occurred a while ago. I should issue a warning first though. Here it is:<br />
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<div style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">!!!!!!!!!!!!!!WARNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</span></div>
<div style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">The following blog post contains mature themes involving scary and potentially hazardous situations with animals. One animal was harmed in the making of this event. </span></div>
<div style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Reader Discretion Is Advised</span></div>
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Okay, still with me? Are you even more intrigued after reading the warning? Are you thinking "Man, I just have to keep reading now. I have to know what the warning is all about." I probably would be.<br />
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Here we go. The date was March 9, 2012. Kerri and I were relaxing after putting the kids to bed. We were sitting at our dining room table, talking over the events of the day. Suddenly we had an unexpected (and uninvited) visitor arrive at our house. A visitor of the slithery, scaly, forked-tongue, beady eyed type.<br />
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A bit of background first. Before we came here I did a bit of research into the wildlife in the area. I was thinking about having to go into the jungle to scout out potential climbing areas. I figured that knowing what kinds of animals I could face would help to determine the risk/reward ratio for a day out on the rocks. I wanted to know what kinds of bites and stings I could expect when I reached up over my head for that next handhold, unable to see over the lip of the rock I was about to grab... The idea of reaching into a hole filled with snakes, spiders, ants, or other segments of God's wonderful Creation that show their love for humanity by biting, stinging, or spitting venom was not really something I was looking forward to.<br />
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So in my research the first thing I did was Google it. I asked the brilliant magical Google fairies what they knew about snakes in the Philippines. They showed me a website that started with "<span class="st">The <em>Philippines</em> is home some of the deadliest snakes <em></em> in the world, including the much feared<em> Philippine </em>Cobra, the most toxic of all cobra species..." That's reassuring. Thanks magical Google fairies.</span><br />
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<span class="st">When we arrived here I asked one of the people who has been here much longer than us about the snakes. His response? "If you see a snake, stay away from it. There are a LOT of deadly venomous snakes here." We had another person recommend that we get a dog. Not for companionship. Rather, "so that your yard would smell like dog urine. That will keep the snakes out of your yard." So Philippine cobras, king cobras, pit vipers, and sea snakes in the ocean. Ahhh, life in a tropical paradise.</span><br />
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<span class="st">So with that in mind let me continue with the story. Up to this point we had dealt with ants (many many ants), a few cockroaches, some geckos, and the bats that would fly by outside at night. That was it. Nothing too scary or potentially harmful. </span><span class="st"> Kerri and I were sitting there, relaxing.</span><span class="st"> We noticed that our cat, Coconut, who was in the kitchen, was acting a bit strange. That's not saying much, because she tends to act strangely quite often. Especially when she spies a gecko crawling along the walls. She loves geckos. She loves to watch them, to chatter at them, and to catch them. She loves her gecko-snacks. So for her to be acting a bit strange is nothing new. We assumed at first that she had caught herself a gecko. Kerri went to investigate, because as much as she likes eating gecko-snacks, we like her to not eat them, because they eat the bugs. Having geckos in the house is a good thing.</span><br />
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<span class="st">Unfortunately this time it was not a gecko. It was a snake. She didn't know quite what to make of this long, skinny thing that had come into the house. She seemed to want to play with it, but she wasn't sure. She may have thought it would make a good snack too (a snake-snack?).</span><br />
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<span class="st">Kerri saw immediately that it was not a gecko that Coconut was playing with. Kerri grabbed Coconut to get her away from the snake, which Coconut didn't think was really fair. She scratched and squirmed to try to get down. I grabbed Coconut and locked her in out bedroom. Kerri stayed in the kitchen to keep an eye on the snake (from a distance of course).</span><br />
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<span class="st">My mind was racing. What was I going to do about this snake? How could I catch it? What should I do with it afterwards? What if there were more? I had visions of a whole nest full of deadly cunning snakes (imagine Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark), bent on ridding the world of humanity in order to assume their position as the dominant species on the planet. I realized that I was the last hope for humanity, the lone obstacle between life as we know it and a world ruled by reptiles (Planet of the Snakes?). It was my time to put on my cape and take my place among the superheros of the world. (Maybe I've watched a few too many movies, hey?)</span><br />
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<span class="st">Okay, maybe not, but I was concerned that there was a snake in the house. Mainly because I didn't know what kind of snake it was. For all I knew it could have been a young king cobra or Philippine cobra. I don't know what those look like necessarily. Snakes all kind of look the same, especially when the adrenaline is pumping through your body. The other thing that adrenaline can do is to skew how we view reality. In my mind that snake was at least a bazillion feet long, and probably ate whole cows for a snack. I knew I had to take care of it. And by "take care of it" I meant TAKE CARE OF IT.</span><br />
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<span class="st">So of course I did what any red-blooded Canadian man would do. I ran and hid.</span><br />
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<span class="st">Just kidding. I immediately went on a quick search for something weapon-like. I briefly considered grabbing a kitchen knife, but then I thought about how I hadn't sharpened them in a while, so it may just tickle the snake, or just make it mad. I thought about a frying pan, but the snake was right by the shelf where they were kept. I didn't think the snake would be too enthusiastic about moving out of the way so that I could grab one. "Excuse me Mr. Snake, could you move over so I can grab something heavy to flatten you with?"</span><br />
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<span class="st">I decided on something with a bit of length, enough weight to do the job, and with an ergonomic grip designed to facilitate a swinging motion. How about a hammer? Yeah! Great idea!</span><br />
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<span class="st">So I grabbed my hammer and faced off against my archenemy. It was a hard fought battle, but in the end I ended up with no wounds and the snake ended up with a very flat head.</span><br />
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<span class="st">Then I had to do something with a slightly flattened, but otherwise quite normal-looking, snake. It didn't seem quite so scary after being introduced to the business end of a hammer. And it didn't look so big anymore either. So I took it outside and inspected it to try to figure out what kind of snake it was. To this day I have no idea for sure. Turns out that much of snake identification is based on characteristics of its head, and since this particular snake had a somewhat distorted head it was hard to make a positive identification.</span><br />
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<span class="st">What I did learn from the magical Google fairies is that there is a way to determine if a snake is venomous or not. It involves inspecting some of the scales on the underside of its body. Good to know for next time, although I still don't think I will try to pick up a strange snake to try to inspect the scales on its underside.</span><br />
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<span class="st">So upon inspection of the snake postmortem, it was in fact non-venomous. I now have a bit of remorse about my harsh treatment of our uninvited visitor, but I have managed to keep the world safe from the perils of the reptilian uprising.</span>Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10391975672440048310noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2149774935818071523.post-61143455861549002202012-04-30T01:57:00.000-06:002012-04-30T01:57:55.102-06:00Shipping from the Philippines...done!So I managed to get our boxes sent. Finally.<br />
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I got them all packed up and ready to go (it ended up being 6 boxes at about 30kg each). I took them down to CTSI. I handed them over to the friendly staff there. I paid them to take care of everything. And I left feeling like a huge weight had been lifted off of my shoulders!<br />
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It was one of those times when it seemed like everything went really smoothly. It just worked. It was efficient and quite simple.<br />
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Of course that was not necessarily what I was expecting. I took lots of stuff with me for every possible contingency. I had a knife to cut open the boxes in case they needed to be inspected. I had a detailed list of every item I had packed in case there was any question about what was in them. I had tape (packing tape and duct tape) to reseal the boxes after opening them. I had my iPod in case I had to wait a while. I took a bottle of water in case I got thirsty while waiting. I had it all covered.<br />
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So it was almost a letdown when it all went so smoothly. I didn't need any of the stuff I had brought. All my time spent imagining possible delays and figuring out what to do to be prepared was unnecessary. It just went really smoothly.<br />
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So it's done. Our boxes are on a boat or truck or sitting in a warehouse somewhere between here and home. Now I can put that behind me and concentrate on the next thing in preparing to head home!Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10391975672440048310noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2149774935818071523.post-43064912594257861632012-04-16T08:31:00.000-06:002012-04-16T08:31:10.521-06:00Shipping from the Philippines...a solution?If you have read the last two blog posts you may have noticed that there has been one particular problem which has been plaguing me for that past few weeks. I have been trying to figure out how to ship our stuff back to Canada in a way which would be relatively quick (maybe 8-10 weeks?) and somewhat cost effective (I would prefer to not have to sell a kidney to afford it).<br />
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My attempts have been frustrating to say the least. It seems that every avenue I have tried has not met both of my criteria. I can send stuff relatively cheap if I don't mind waiting 6 months or a year or eternity for our stuff to show up. I'm sure that when the stuff finally arrives sometime in the next century that it will be just like Christmas getting to open the boxes.<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Imagination time: the year is 2066. Kerri and I are sitting in our rocking hover-chairs (c'mon, it's the future!) on our front porch watching the kids fly by on their hover-skateboards. An old beat-up cardboard box is teleported onto our doorstep. We open it up and dig through all the treasures contained within.<br />
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Kerri: "Hey Steve, look! All our stuff from when we lived in the Philippines!"<br />
Steve: "We lived in the Philippines?"</blockquote>
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At the other extreme are the companies that can ship it no problem. But you either need to win a lottery to do so, or you need to ruthlessly eliminate things from the boxes that are denser than helium (every microgram counts!). That way the boxes have the privilege of being transported on a plane. I wanted to ask the people if the boxes receive free champagne and seats that fold flat. I figure for the price I was being asked to pay that they must be getting First Class seats. ("For all you boxes flying first class, you may board at your leisure. Enjoy your flight!")<br />
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Words cannot express the amount of stress and frustration that I was dealing with due to this seemingly simple task. After multiple stops at multiple shipping companies I was at the end of my patience and had come to the realization that I was beaten. I would pay the price and work three jobs to pay the bill when we got back. I even went so far as figuring out the weight vs. cost of buying a new one in Canada ratio to determine which things we should ship and which would be cheaper just to replace when we arrived home. Either way it was going to cost a smallish fortune.<br />
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We had heard a rumor that there was a company here that would ship to Canada by volume instead of weight. It was a set rate for a cubic meter of stuff. Sounded like a good way to go, if only I could figure out what company it was. We got our hands on a phone book and got a listing of different shipping companies, many of which I had contacted already. There were several more on the list though, so I decided to look some of them up online. I figured that I would have better luck with a company that had a website. In my eyes it lends a certain level of credibility if a company has a professional looking website (not necessarily true all the time, but I figured it was worth a shot). I found a couple, and sent emails requesting a quote.<br />
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The next day I received an email form one of the ones that looked very promising (they had a really nice website). I was disappointed to find out that they only ship domestically. This was actually a fairly common response to my inquiries. Seems that there are LOTS of companies that I could use to ship stuff to any of the hundreds of islands in the country, but as far as going east across the ocean, not so much. Which is frustrating, considering we live in a port city, where hundreds and hundreds of containers are loaded onto ships to be dispersed throughout the world. I figured that there must be one container that was going to Canada. I only needed enough room to put a few boxes in. Can't a guy get a break?<br />
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Well then I got a phone call from an angel. At least that's the only way I can explain it. My cell phone rang one morning. I answered it wondering who would be calling me (usually all phone communication is done through text messages here. In the time that we have been here I think I have received about 6 phone calls, 5 of those from people in Canada!).<br />
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The conversation which followed went something like this: (my thoughts in brackets)<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>The Angel: </b>"Is this Steve Oishi?"<br />
<b>Me: </b>"Yes it is. (Who is this?)"<br />
<b>The Angel:</b> "This is V**** from CTSI Logistics. I wanted to call you to talk to you about the quote request you sent in to us."<br />
<b>Me:</b> "Oh, okay. (Let me guess, you are very sorry but you don't ship internationally?)"<br />
<b>The Angel: </b>"How many boxes do you need to send and where are they going?"<br />
<b>Me:</b> "Umm, about 6 boxes, going to Canada. (Please say you can help with that!)"<br />
<b>The Angel:</b> "Where in Canada?"<br />
<b>Me:</b> "Alberta. (This is sounding hopeful)"<br />
<b>The Angel: </b>"Near Edmonton?"<br />
<b>Me:</b> "To Calgary, but that's not too far from Edmonton. (She knows Edmonton? This is sounding really good!)"<br />
<b>The Angel: </b>"Okay, we can send those boxes for you. Let me explain the details..."<br />
<b>Me: "</b>Okay. (But what is the price? That must be the catch!)"<br />
<b>The Angel:</b> "It is a price based on volume. I can send you a quote. We have a container leaving Davao next week that we could load your boxes into. If they are not ready by then there is another going out the next week."<br />
<b>Me: "</b>That sounds great! (I'm so happy I could weep!)"</blockquote>
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We worked out some of the details, and I hung up, waiting expectantly for the quote. It arrived in my inbox shortly after. I opened it up and was absolutely floored by the price. For a cubic meter of stuff, no weight restrictions, it was going to cost less than it would have to send 40kg through one of the other companies! And it should only take 6-8 weeks! I cannot express the relief that I have felt, knowing that this overly complicated, frustrating task was coming together.<br />
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So now I need to get some boxes packed up and ready to go, get them down to the drop-off point, and hope for the best! I will keep you posted to let you know how that goes!Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10391975672440048310noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2149774935818071523.post-58889897477291169192012-04-10T07:13:00.000-06:002012-04-10T07:13:56.059-06:00Shipping from the Philippines...the ongoing saga.If you haven't read my previous post then STOP READING and scroll down to the next one. It sets the stage for this update, without which there is little context for what is to come here.<br />
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So I am still trying to ship stuff. What has happened in the last couple of days? Well, just let me tell you! The adventure continued on Monday morning. I dropped the kids off at a morning activity, and decided to take a trip down to see if the post office was open. I figured that because it had been a holiday weekend that I had better make sure that there would be someone there to receive my boxes. So I drove down in the general direction of the post office. <br />
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As I got nearer I noticed traffic getting more and more congested. There were a couple of roads that were blocked off, so I tried to detour around them to get where I was going. Eventually though I had to give up my attempt. It would seem that there must have been some big festival or party going on on the street in front of the post office.<br />
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I probably could have gotten there, but that would have meant going around (or through) some of the barricades. That may have upset some of the police who were standing there holding guns the size of telephone poles. I thought to myself that maybe it would be best just to go home for the day, rather than face the pointy end of a gun that could bring down an elephant (or a dinosaur for that matter).<br />
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So I went back today. Amazingly I managed to get another miracle parking spot right in front. I figured this was a good sign. I already knew that I needed to go to window 20, having gained that tidbit of information on my futile attempt previously. So again I decided to leave the box in the van and just go and figure out the procedure (there is always a procedure).<br />
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I walked up to the window and was greeted by a very nice, albeit very quiet, woman. I explained that I needed to send a box to Canada. I specified that I wanted to send it surface, not air. She whispered a response, which I took to be, "Sure, we can take care of that for you." She then whispered something about 3 to 6 months. I was quite sure that I had heard her wrong, as the decibel level of the traffic whipping crazily by the post office far exceeded her nearly inaudible words. I had to get her to repeat herself, partly because I really don't hear well with background noise (such a great condition for life here!) and partly because I was stunned by this information. I think I could put the boxes in a raft, row it across the ocean, then push the boxes in a wheelbarrow the thousand kilometers through British Columbia, across the Rocky Mountains, to Calgary faster than that. Sure enough, 3 to 6 months to ship via surface.<br />
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I asked about a somewhat quicker method. She told me that I would have to ship them via air. I questioned her about the cost to do that, which amounted to roughly double the price. It would be over $300 per box.<br />
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Then it got even better.<br />
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She informed me that the maximum weight allowed was 20kg, not the 30kg I had so carefully packed into my boxes. I tried to explain that I had read on THEIR WEBSITE that the limit for shipment to Canada was 30kg. She did not agree. I think that I would have had a better chance to convince her that her hair was on fire. So to ship a 20kg box was going to cost $300. That's $15 per kg! I politely excused myself before my head exploded and walked back to my van. I managed to get in and shut the door before the rather extensive string of curses began to erupt from my mouth. I am sure that anyone walking past at that point still would have heard quite an earful, even over the traffic noise.<br />
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That string of curses continued for much of the drive home. I went inside and promptly washed my mouth out with soap.<br />
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Now what? I have no idea. I have a lead which I need to explore, mentioned to us by another couple who lived here. Hopefully that will work out. Otherwise I may be out buying a raft and a wheelbarrow.Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10391975672440048310noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2149774935818071523.post-32920383313263422662012-04-08T07:39:00.000-06:002012-04-08T07:39:20.545-06:00Shipping from the PhilippinesSo now that we have decided to head home to Canada there are a lot of logistical hurdles we have to figure out. One of those is what to do with all of our stuff here. Lots of our stuff we have arranged to sell already (HUGE blessing!), but there is still the issue of what to do with the things we want to take with us back to Canada. <br />
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When we came here we were able to pack some really big boxes and send them through a shipping company in Calgary. For $90 we were able to send a box loaded with as much as we could fit in, as long as it could be lifted. The boxes were provided by the shipping company for us to use. We loaded a total of five boxes to capacity and handed them over to the shippers. Pretty easy.<br />
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I had heard that shipping out of the Philippines would be a bit more complicated, so I figured I would get an early start on the shipping process. The first thing I did was check to see if the company we had used to send stuff here would also be able to help us send stuff back. No luck. They ship stuff here but not out. So I looked online to see what other options there were. I found quite a few companies that ship into the Philippines but not out. Hmmm...<br />
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I did manage to find a few choices that would be able to transport my stuff across the ocean. I began to price them out and found that it would be MUCH more expensive to send stuff home than it was to get stuff here. Several of the companies would allow boxes up to 20kg to be shipped, for a cost of around $300 per box. Wow! That was much more than I had been expecting.<br />
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Then I found that I could send boxes through the post office to Canada on a boat. And I was allowed 30kg per box. And it was only going to cost $150 per box. Still quite a bit, but better.<br />
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I couldn't find any other solutions, so I figure that will be the best (ie. cheapest) was to do it. If anyone out there knows of another solution please let me know!<br />
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So I went out and bought boxes. I went to the local grocery store because I had seen advertised that they sell boxes there. I got myself some nice new 20x20x20" boxes and came home quite pleased with myself. I began to pack some stuff into the boxes and quickly realized that you can fit a lot into a 20x20x20" box. And a lot of stuff means a lot of weight. So I figured that maybe I would be best with some boxes that were a bit smaller. I was thinking 20x20x15" or so.<br />
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I began my search for the right size boxes. My search began at one of the local malls, where I wandered around looking for somewhere that just might sell my desired cardboard boxes. I asked in a few stores and at a shipping company outlet there. No luck. I could get ones much smaller, but not ones around the right size. On to the next mall, where the story was the same. I went down to the main post office, but the boxes they had were too small as well.<br />
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I had checked on the internet before I went out and found that there was a listing for a box manufacturer nearby, so I decided to go looking for that. I drove out to where it should be and searched. By "searched" what I mean is that I tried to spot some kind of sign referring to the desired company amongst the thousands of other signs that tend to cover any wall, tree, or slow-moving person, all while trying to drive around potholes, chickens, other vehicles, and slow-moving people covered in signs. Needless to say, I did not find a sign for the place I was looking for. I came home feeling somewhat frustrated.<br />
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I went out a couple days later with an extra set of eyes, Julia, in search for the elusive box manufacturer. Sometimes two heads are better than one. Other times it makes no difference. This was one of those times. No luck. Again. I am wondering if that internet site is correct, or if the box place went out of business some time around the Dark Ages. Hmmm...<br />
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So I decided to make it work with what I had. I packed the boxes the best I could. I packed three full of various stuff, managing to fill them quite well, and got them taped securely and ready to go. A couple days later I loaded one of the boxes into the van and headed out to try to send it home. I figured I would start with just one to familiarize myself with the process.<br />
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Knowing I was going to send the boxes through the post office, I decided to try a location other than the busy main branch. I went to one of the local malls, where there is a post office branch. Before I hauled my 28kg box in I decided to make sure that I could do it there. But first I needed to stop by a bank machine to get money to pay for it. I walked through the mall to the far end where I discovered that the bank machines were down for maintenance. So I would have to go somewhere else first. I decided to go to the post office branch on the way out to see if I could even ship boxes from there.<br />
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I talked to a really nice lady who told me that I could bring my boxes there. She offered to check a price for me so I would know how much I would need to get from the bank machine. As she was looking up the information I noticed that she was looking at airmail prices. I mentioned to her that I was wanting to send them surface, because times was not a major concern and I wanted to send them the least expensive way. Well, apparently they don't do surface mail from that location. I would have to go to the main branch. Hmmm...<br />
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So I decided to stop at a bank branch on the way to the post office. I knew there was one that I would pass. As I approached the bank I noticed that the parking lot seemed to be pretty full. So full that I could not squeeze my van in anywhere. I decided to go to another bank, located at another mall nearby. What I failed to remember was that at this particular mall I would be parking in an underground parkade. No problem, right? Yeah, except that I failed to remember the big cardboard box in the back of the van. So what? Well, at this particular mall parkade they have security guards. Security guards who inspect every vehicle that goes in. Security guards inspecting every vehicle, I am assuming, for things like explosives. And I have a big cardboard box in the back of my van. See where this is going?<br />
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So I pull up to the guards and one of them speaks to me in rapid-fire Visayan, the only part I pick up on is "carton" (I tend to get a lot of people here who will just speak Visayan to me automatically. I guess the dark hair and dark tan make me look somewhat like a local!). I kind of understand what he is implying; that there is an issue with the large box in the back and he is concerned. I have visions of having to open up the box and unload everything to prove I am not interested in making the mall implode. Luckily, another of the security guards, who knows and recognizes me from my bazillion times in and out of the parkade, walked up. He said something to the other guard, who then waved me through. Sometimes it pays to smile and say hi to the security guards very time you go in and out of a parkade.<br />
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So I park the van, run into the mall, go to the bank machine, and leave. I head down to the main post office branch, really hoping to get a good parking spot. I didn't really like the idea of having to haul a 28kg box very far, especially trying to cross some really busy roads! As I pulled up it was like there was a beam of light from heaven, illuminating a perfect spot directly in front of the post office. I couldn't have gotten any closer unless I had driven my van right up the steps. So I parked and decided to go and find out where I needed to go before I brought out the box.<br />
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I went to the customer service desk and asked where to go. I was directed to go to window 1. I walked down there and waited patiently for the person to notice me. I explained to him that I wanted to ship a box to Canada. He directed me to window 7. Okay. So I went to window 7 and waited patiently to speak to the person there. I explained to him that I wanted to send a box to Canada. He told me that I could do that there. He began to look up a price for me, so I figured I would mention that I wanted to send it surface. When he found out that information he stopped what he was doing and directed me to window 20. Hmmm...<br />
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And as I was walking away he told me that I needed to make sure to not seal the boxes when I bring them to window 20, so they could inspect the contents. Of course I had already sealed the boxes. With duct tape. Lots of it. I didn't want the boxes to open due to anything short of a small nuclear explosion. And of course I didn't bring any tape with me to reseal the box after I opened it. I resigned myself to the fact that there were going to be no boxes sent for me today. I went home defeated.<br />
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All in all, that morning's adventure took me roughly 1 1/2 hours. 1 1/2 hours of driving around in the heat, and ended up with nothing to show for it but a sweaty back and a bit more information than I had before. Hopefully I will actually be able to send a box or two this coming week. I will keep you posted!Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10391975672440048310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2149774935818071523.post-67802727081958087832012-04-02T00:59:00.000-06:002012-04-02T00:59:52.868-06:00Some Important News...It has been a little while since I last posted on here. A lot has been happening in the last little while, but I didn't want to mention anything prematurely. I wanted to firm up some details first.<br />
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Well, details have been firmed up, so here it comes.<br />
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We have made the decision to move back to Canada sooner than we had originally intended. We will be leaving here close to the end of May, 2012. This is much sooner than the 2 1/2 years we had been planning.<br />
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This decision has not been one we have made lightly. A great deal of thought, discussion, and prayer has gone into the process, as well as some really good discussion with some of our closest friends back in Canada. For right now we need to do what is in the best interests of our family.<br />
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So what is next? For right now, moving back to Calgary and settling back into life in Canada. Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10391975672440048310noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2149774935818071523.post-34750542060507066392012-03-13T00:59:00.000-06:002012-03-13T00:59:24.162-06:00Visitors from CanadaWe recently had the opportunity to have Kerri's parents come and visit us from Canada. They arrived on February 24 in Davao, after a pretty long couple of days of travel.<br />
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While the travel went quite smoothly for them it was not without some drama. They had booked their flights from Calgary through Manila, but had not included the Manila-Davao leg in their original booking. It was considerably cheaper to book only through to Manila. I booked regional flights for them from Manila to Davao on one of the smaller local airlines instead, which was quite inexpensive. I booked the tickets in their names and paid for them on my credit card, for which they would reimburse me. The bookings were all good, and everything seemed to to going smoothly. We planned to pick them up at the airport at around 6AM on the 24th, so we went to bed a bit earlier the night before.<br />
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At around 1AM my phone started to ring. I immediately grabbed it and answered with my head in a fog from being woken from a deep sleep. The person on the other end identified herself as being from the regional airline that I had booked with, and she told me that Kerri's parents were trying to check in or their flight from Manila to Davao, but they needed me to confirm my identity and credit card number for them. Right away I was wary, thinking it must be some kind of a scam, so I asked to speak to Kerri's dad. He got on the phone and confirmed that it was legit, so I talked to the lady again. She wanted me to fax a copy of my identification and credit card to her. That would have been fine if I had a fax machine.<br />
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So she suggested that I take a picture of the cards and email it to her. I agreed that this would work, so she hung up, telling me she would call back when she received the picture. I got up, grabbed the camera, and fired up my computer. I took a picture and went to send it, but no internet. So I went over and reset the modem, which is a fairly common requirement here. I waited for it to come online. And waited. And waited some more. I tried resetting it again. No luck. I tried again. I think I tried it about 10 times in the next 15 minutes, but it simply would not work. Of all the times for our internet to be down!<br />
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In my just-got-woken-from-a-really-good-sleep-to-the-sound-of-my-cell-phone-ringing fog I hadn't bothered to get her phone number to be able to call, and I couldn't exactly look it up. So I tried calling the number which had shown up on my phone, which ended up connecting me to a fax machine (don't you love that sound in your ear?). So I had no way to contact them, and just had to wait.<br />
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Eventually I received another call. The lady explained that she hadn't received an email from me. I calmly explained to her that my internet was not working, but that seeing as how the names on the booking matched the names of the passports of the people who were standing right in front of her could she not just let them through. I offered to give my credit card number over the phone. I figured this would be a reasonable compromise. She had to check with her manager, so she hung up (after I got her contact information). She called back in a couple of minutes, saying that the manager agreed to do it that way. I gave her the number over the phone, and as easy as that everything was okay and Kerri's parents were free to check in, and Kerri and I could try to salvage a few more hours of sleep. (Seemed like a pretty long process for such a simple solution, but what can you do? I read the fine print later on the flight booking and it did actually say that Kerri's parents did need to have a copy of my ID and credit card. Moral of the story: READ THE FINE PRINT ALWAYS!)<br />
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So they got here early in the morning on the 24, after leaving the sub-freezing temperatures of Calgary, to arrive to one of the hottest days we have had for a while. We were all very excited to see them, and a few tears were shed when they finally stepped out of the airport and we saw them coming. We headed back to our house and showed them around. We relaxed for that day, to give them a chance to rest and get used to the heat. Then it was pretty much non-stop from then.<br />
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Over the next two weeks we kept them pretty busy. The kids had a list of things that they wanted to do with Nanny and Poppy while they were here, and there was a lot on the list. We took them swimming at the local pool, to the beach on three separate days (to two different resorts), to Jack's Ridge, to the Crocodile Park, bowling, fishing at another resort, and on the zipline at Outland Adventure. In addition to all that we went to lots of different malls and stores.<br />
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It was an eye-opening experience for them; to see life here, to see the poverty and the struggles of the average person, to see the way people drive, to try new foods (including durian!), to experience the sights, smells and sounds of Davao City. It was great for us as well to be able to experience the newness and fascination with the culture through their eyes. For us it has simply become life here, and many of the things which were new and exciting and fascinating when we first arrived here have become normal. I guess that is what happens after a period of time.<br />
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So they saw lots, experienced lots, and then headed home. We certainly enjoyed having them here, but now I need to take a couple of weeks to recover from being a tour guide!<br />
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<br />Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10391975672440048310noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2149774935818071523.post-23365311856458870782012-02-16T18:13:00.000-07:002012-02-16T18:13:50.731-07:00Love in Action<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">"Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth</span></i>" <i><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> </span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">I John 3:18</span></i></span><br />
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<div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">I saw this verse in action this morning at a coffee shop that I frequent. When I arrived, there was a man sitting at one of the tables outside, yelling and muttering to anyone who was around. All I could understand of his Visayan was "don't enter" after that I was lost. I gathered my backpack and my computer, ignored him and walked into the coffee shop and began to set up at a table. I could still hear him as I was inside as could the employees. As I watched, one of the employees went over to the window to take a look at him and then did something that surprised me - he walked outside and gave the man a coffee. I have to admit that I thought he was going to tell him to leave the area or something similar, but instead he chose to show love to this man by his actions. </span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">It was a good reminder to me of the importance of showing Jesus to those around me through both my actions and my words.</span>Kerrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17594373833783492388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2149774935818071523.post-58928210643697717172012-02-10T05:50:00.000-07:002012-02-10T05:50:09.044-07:00The Pursuit of Slurpee-nessIf you have been paying any attention to my blog posts, Facebook status updates, newsletters, etc, you may have noticed a slight trend in my train of thought. Since moving to the Philippines I have developed a bit of an obsession...with Slurpees, or more specifically the severe lack of Slurpees in Davao City.<br />
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I have had a few comments in my discussion of Slurpees which make me feel that I need to clarify a basic Slurpee truth. For those of you who are not familiar with Slurpees, the simplest way to explain a Slurpee is to say that a Slurpee is a blend of crushed ice and pop syrup. Sounds pretty simple, right? One would think so.<br />
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A true Slurpee is not quite that simple. It is more than just some ice and pop thrown into a glass garnished with a straw for ease of consumption. This is no Sno-Cone. No, a Slurpee is so much more than that. A Slurpee is a perfect blend of ice which has been lovingly shaved by a Slurpee machine off of a chilled stainless steel core, which is done continuously in order to attain the proper size and consistency of the ice particles in the Slurpee. The rotating drum, in addition to shaving the ice perfectly, also performs the task of mixing the exact proportion of pop syrup into the shaved ice. It is a delicate balance which can only be attained through the use of modern technology.<br />
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There are a wide variety of Slurpee-type drinks available from various convenience stores and gas stations around the world. They may go by a variety of names, such as Slushie, Icee, Froster, and a plethora of others. However, for me, there is only one true Slurpee. And it can only be found at 7-Eleven stores. That is a Slurpee.<br />
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I wouldn't say that I was addicted to Slurpees back in Canada. I actually was able to moderate my Slurpee cravings quite well and was able to live a normal life in spite of only having a Slurpee once a week or so. I just really liked them. Trust me, there is nothing better after a long hot day working construction to take a really big drink of ice cold Slurpee to cool you off (Ow, ow, ow. Brain Freeze!). The problem came when I was faced with the reality of not being able to indulge in one of my favorite summertime (or springtime, wintertime, or autumntime (?)) activities; a trip to the store for a Slurpee. I was cut off, forced to go cold turkey.<br />
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To make matters worse, I was relocated to a hot, humid climate which would perfectly lend itself to Slurpee consumption. For the first 6 months I craved the cold sweet perfection that is a Slurpee. I searched for one. I consulted people who have lived here for years as to where I could locate one. No luck.<br />
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So I tried to make my own. I tried every combination of Coke, ice and water I could think of trying to find that magical formula which would yield homemade Slurpee perfection. I tried grinding up ice and adding Coke, I tried freezing Coke into icecubes and grinding those up, I tried adding a bit of water to make the consistency better, I added extra Coke to improve the taste. All those attempts resulted in bitter disappointment.<br />
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I eventually searched the internet, hoping that the geniuses at Google would be able to tell me where I could go to satisfy my longings.<br />
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I was hopeful when I discovered that they do in fact have 7-Eleven stores in the Philippines. My heart raced as I waited for our painfully slow internet connection to give me a list of store locations, only to have my hopes dashed when it revealed that there were none on this island. I tried to figure out how to justify a weekend trip to Manila to get a Slurpee. But the costs were too much. To buy a plane ticket, to fly there, to hire a taxi, to search out a 7-Eleven store - it was just too much. I was distraught.<br />
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Then it seemed like my prayers were answered. I was required to make a trip to Manila to go to Immigration. Hurray! So off I went to Manila, accompanied by a couple of other guys. Our first day there I was pleased to see about half a dozen 7-Elevens in a fairly short time. I could almost taste that Slurpee. I decided to wait until the next day to get one though. The next day we got up, went and did our stuff at Immigration, and then had a bit of time to kill before we headed back to Davao. So we looked for a 7-Eleven. And couldn't find any. After a bit of driving around we found one. So we stopped, I ran in, anticipating the icy bliss that can only be found in a Slurpee. What did I see?<br />
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Needless to say I was a bit disappointed.<br />
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Unfortunately we did not have a chance to continue to search out other 7-Eleven stores, so I was denied my Slurpee.<br />
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I was coming to the realization that I simply was not going to have a Slurpee the entire time we were here. So I found an alternative. Instead of the cold, refreshing goodness of a Slurpee, instead I began to drink iced coffee type drinks. While it was still cold and contained more than its fair share of caffeine, it lacked in the ability to satisfy my Slurpee cravings. But it worked.<br />
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The sympathy which was shown to me from friends and family was great. People made suggestions for Slurpee making and offered to send me one in the mail. Oh, how I wish that would work! I even received a big refillable Slurpee cup from my nieces and nephews back in Canada, which I use every day for water or Coke. Not quite a Slurpee, but that's okay.<br />
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Fast forward a couple of months later, when out of the blue Kerri was informed from a reliable source that there were indeed Slurpee-type beverages to be had in Davao. Our friend happened to be in a local convenience store and noticed a Slurpee-type machine. She immediately thought of me and let Kerri know what she had discovered.<br />
<br />
I was intrigued and made a plan to investigate. I was told that the supposed Slurpees could be found at a particular location of the Central Convenience Store chain. I did not know exactly which one, so I needed to investigate a bit more. I narrowed the possibilities down to two likely locations, and Daniel and I set out to discover this secret bounty of icy joy.<br />
<br />
The first store we went into was a bust. No Slurpees to be found there. I was banking on the next location to have the long anticipated beverage. As soon as we walked in it was like a light shone down from Heaven, illuminating the treasure that I had long dreamed of finding. King Arthur, upon discovering the resting place of Excalibur, could not have felt more elation and satisfaction than I did in that moment. My quest was at an end!<br />
<br />
(Oh, and it was right around the corner from our community the whole time. Less than a 10 minute walk and I would have been there. Ironic, no?)<br />
<br />
Our choices for flavor were a bit lacking, only orange or mocha, but I certainly wasn't complaining. We bought a couple of orange Freezes (their name for a Slurpee-like drink) and headed home. I wish I could say that it was the best Slurpee I have ever had, but that would not be true. It was pretty good (especially for orange), but it failed to live up to the expectation I had for it. I have resigned myself that I will not get a really good Slurpee until I get back to Canada, but at least in the meantime I have found a decent imitation.<br />
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And I still managed to give myself a pretty severe brain freeze!Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10391975672440048310noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2149774935818071523.post-90138467322196519442012-01-25T04:50:00.000-07:002012-01-25T04:50:18.398-07:00Our Holiday PlansOne of the questions that we were asked frequently before we came to the Philippines was whether Kerri was going to have any holiday time from clinic shifts, birth room shifts, and all the other stuff that would keep her occupied during our time here. The answer was (and still is) yes, she has the whole month of July off from all her various responsibilities here in Davao.<br />
<br />
The next question we would be asked was whether we would come back to Canada during that month off. Our answer, invariably was that we would not be coming back for the month, for several reasons. The biggest reason was the cost of travel. For one person it is not too bad, but for a family of four it gets quite pricey. The other reason was that we would be in ASIA! This would be our opportunity to see a part of the world that we may never be back to, so why wouldn't we want to take that time to check out some of the other fascinating places nearby?<br />
<br />
So after arriving here, getting settled in, dealing with culture shock and the busyness of a really intense program, we began to really miss home, and to think about how nice it would be to be able to go back in July. The thought of relaxation while surrounded by friends and family and familiar places was quite tempting. Kerri mentioned to me offhandedly one day that she was really hoping to be able to go back to visit in the summer. My reaction was to kind of ignore the suggestion. I didn't want to get her hopes up with the idea of going back.<br />
<br />
Why?<br />
<br />
Finances. I have been looking after our finances during our time here, and I knew very well that coming up with the thousands of dollars that we would need just for plane tickets was pretty unlikely. At the time we were getting by. The bills were getting paid. We could eat. We managed to come up with the money when we were faced with a larger expense that we hadn't been counting on. But to try to save up approximately $6000 we would need for plane tickets? Unlikely.<br />
<br />
But Kerri was persistent about it, and I began to see how a trip back to Canada would be a great chance for us to recharge to be able to push through the rest of our time here. We have seen over and over how God has provided for our financial needs. But was this a need or a want? Would God really provide that kind of money just for us to take a holiday? I wasn't sure. So I prayed about it.<br />
<br />
I had mentioned to Kerri that if there was any way that we were going to do it, it would have to be a case where we were in a better monthly financial situation, and that we would have to be given the money over and above what we needed for our monthly expenses. So I prayed (and I know that Kerri was praying for it as well!) that somehow we would be given the money to buy plane tickets, and it would have to happen pretty fast so we could book tickets and make some plans. And I wanted to have the money in-hand before we went ahead with booking anything. The last thing I wanted was to have to carry a balance on our credit card and try to pay it off when we got back here. Oh, and I wasn't going to ask anyone for the money to do it. It had to be a totally voluntary thing.<br />
<br />
So what happened? Well, God really does listen when we pray. Sometimes He says no, and sometimes He says yes. This time He said yes.<br />
<br />
Very soon after we received notification that our monthly support was going to increase to an amount that would make us more comfortable financially here. Now instead of having to watch every peso, wondering if we would be able to afford to stay here for the whole time, we have a little bit of breathing space.<br />
<br />
Then the extra donations started to come in. Over the space of the next couple of months we were given several sizable donations which were totally unexpected. As the finances came in we started to look more seriously at the possibility. We checked out prices of plane tickets so we had an estimate in mind. Then we looked at the extra donations we had received and the amount we had in our bank accounts. Somehow the numbers worked out. We actually had the money. After picking ourselves up off the floor we decided to go for it. We booked the tickets the week before Christmas.<br />
<br />
Then, for a Christmas present for the kids, we sent them on a scavenger hunt through the house, collecting puzzle pieces from a puzzle we had made up. When assembled, the puzzle was a note informing them that we were going back to Canada for a whole month. They didn't really get it right away, but once they finally realized what it was they were both absolutely thrilled with the idea.<br />
<br />
So anyways, that was a really long way to say that we are coming back to Canada for our holiday! And we are really looking forward to it. A month of relaxing, Slurpees, visiting with friends and family, going for Slurpees, lots of rock climbing, post-climbing Slurpees, taking the kids to a park, getting Slurpees, going on dates with Kerri (like going for a walk by the river with a Slurpee...), and lots more stuff that we used to do and have been missing since coming here. (Can you tell what I have been missing?)<br />
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And speaking of Slurpees, I received what I think is one of the best Christmas gifts I have ever received:<br />
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A great big refillable Slurpee cup! I love it! I use it pretty much every day (but unfortunately have to fill it with Coke or water, not Slurpee!).<br />
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This was a gift from my nieces and nephews back in Canada. How did they know that I would like it? Hmm...Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10391975672440048310noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2149774935818071523.post-82804599944896286692012-01-18T18:38:00.001-07:002012-01-18T18:38:27.999-07:00Printer Frustrations Part 2I realized that I didn't update everyone with the follow-up to my printer ordeal. If you don't know what I mean please read the post below this one first!<br />
<br />
So after everything that happened previously, the ink company sent someone from their company to my house to see if they could get the old cartridge to work. She came in, I put the old cartridge in the printer, did a test print, and guess what?<br />
<br />
It still didn't work. Big surprise.<br />
<br />
So I put the new cartridge in and did a test print to show her that it wasn't a problem with the printer. She then sent a text message to her boss, and had to wait for a reply. Eventually she received a reply, packed up the old cartridge, and told me that I would be getting a refund.<br />
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At this point I have no idea when that will be. Ahh, frustration.Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10391975672440048310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2149774935818071523.post-51178052288478083612012-01-08T07:21:00.000-07:002012-01-09T08:52:53.641-07:00Printer FrustrationsHaving been here for 6 months now I have pretty much become used to the way that things work here. Grocery shopping? No problem. Driving? No problem (until I get back to Canada!). Paying bills? Got it figured out.<br />
<br />
So I was a bit surprised recently when I went to get toner for our printer.<br />
<br />
A bit of background first though. When we arrived we knew that we would be printing out lots of stuff. So obviously we needed to buy a printer. We went out to check out our options. Thankfully in several of the malls here they have whole sections of stores all grouped together all selling electronics, so it was pretty quick to do so. We hit a few different stores, all of which seem to sell the exact same products, and discovered that our options were a bit more limited than we had been accustomed to in Canada. Cumulatively between all the stores we had a choice of about a dozen popular models. As expected, most of these models were fairly inexpensive inkjet printers. Unexpectedly there were also several options to convert those inkjet printers to use refillable tanks for the ink, rather than having to buy new ink cartridges. Seems like a really good idea (if it works properly). Can you imagine what the printer manufacturers think of that? There go their profit margins! No more ridiculously overpriced ink cartridges! (I have heard a statistic that ink jet ink is the highest price consumer product on the market per mL!)<br />
<br />
There was also the choice of several laser printers, including one particular fairly inexpensive model from a reputable manufacturer (available in pretty much every store). Back in Canada we had gotten used to the speed and convenience of a laser printer, and seeing as how all of our printing would be in black and white it seemed like a good idea. So we bought the laser printer.<br />
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It worked great for the past 6 months. We printed out hundreds of pages without an issue. Then the toner started to run out. One of the tricks that the printer manufacturer used in selling this printer was that the cartridge that comes with the printer only contains about half the toner that you would get if you were to buy a new cartridge. I guess it helps to keep the costs down and the profit margins up. So I didn't really think anything of it when it started to print lighter and lighter.<br />
<br />
Well, I figured I would get back at the printer manufacturer and not buy a new cartridge. Instead I would go to one of those places in every mall that offer to refill printer cartridges. I can just imagine the shock on the face of the CEO when he hears about that! I am sure that he immediately sent out a memo, something like this:<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #666666; text-align: center;">
<b>PRIVATE INTERNAL COMPANY MEMO</b></div>
<div style="color: #666666; text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="color: #666666; text-align: center;">
<b>TO ALL EMPLOYEES</b></div>
<div style="color: #666666; text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="color: #666666; text-align: center;">
<b>EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!</b></div>
<div style="color: #666666; text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="color: #666666; text-align: center;">
<b>IT HAS COME TO OUR ATTENTION THAT STEVEN OISHI HAS REFUSED TO BUY A NEW PRINTER CARTRIDGE, CHOOSING INSTEAD TO GET THE OLD ONE REFILLED. BECAUSE OF THIS I MAY BE FORCED TO SELL MY PRIVATE JET AND MY PORSCHE (the red one, not the black one, the green one or the yellow one). THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!</b></div>
<div style="color: #666666; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #666666; text-align: center;">
<b>THERE WILL BE AN EMERGENCY MEETING OF ALL STAFF THIS AFTERNOON TO COME UP WITH STRATEGIES TO GET HIM TO CHANGE HIS MIND. ATTENDANCE IS MANDATORY!</b></div>
<br />
Okay, maybe not. But I still figured that I could save myself a few thousand pesos and have one less thing to go in the garbage. So I took it to the place to get it filled. The ladies working there told me the price and asked me to come back in about an hour. I was a bit surprised. I figured that you just need to pull out the plug on the cartridge and pour in more toner. I thought it would be really simple.<br />
<br />
So I went and wandered around in the mall for a while. After about an hour I went back to pick up the cartridge. They weren't done, so they asked me to come back in about 15 minutes. No problem. So I wandered some more. I came back in 15 minutes and they still weren't done. And my printer cartridge was in pieces and they didn't seem too confident that they knew how to get it back together. Hmmm. By this point I needed to get home, so I told them I would come back later to get it.<br />
<br />
A couple of hours later I received a text from them saying that it was all done. By this point they had been working on it for about 4 hours. I went in a bit later to pick it up. Everything seemed fine, so I paid and went home. I put the cartridge back in the printer, turned it on, did a test print, and discovered that the test print looked horrible! There were black streaks all over the page (front and back) and the writing was difficult to read. So I took the cartridge out to find that there was now toner all over the inside of the printer. I'm not sure if they overfilled it or what happened, but I was not impressed.<br />
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I spent about 2 hours that evening cleaning out the printer, cleaning the printer drum, and trying everything I could to get it to work properly. In the end I was unsuccessful. And mad.<br />
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So the next day I went back to the store and showed them the test pages I had printed. They took the cartridge and cleaned it off a bit. They told me that should fix the problem and to take it home and try it. So I did. I drove back home, put it in the printer, and guess what? No change.<br />
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Very frustrated I went back, figuring that this cartridge was shot and planning to just go buy a new one. I would even leave the old cartridge with the ink people so they could recover the toner they had just put in. I just wanted a refund and I would leave relatively happy.<br />
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Yeah, it doesn't work that way. They would be happy to refund my money, but in order to do that I had to fill out a form, then the cartridge gets sent off to their head office in Manila (I guess to see what the problem is?) and I can expect to get a cheque in about a month. Not impressed, but what can you do?<br />
<br />
So I filled out the form, left the cartridge with her, and left skeptical that I will ever see that money in my lifetime. But we still needed our printer to work, so off to the electronics stores we went. As I mentioned, there are lots of electronics stores all grouped together all selling roughly the same things, so finding a new cartridge wasn't a problem. The first store we went into had them. I asked the price. Now thankfully I had gone into another store the day before to check the price, because this store was a lot more expensive. Unfortunately the other one didn't have any in stock. Go figure, the place with the lower price is sold out.<br />
<br />
I politely declined and proceeded to the next store, where they again had the right one, this time at a much better price (400 pesos saved just by walking to the next store). We went home after a quick stress relief ice cream sundae at McDonald's (not a Slurpee, but it was okay), put the brand new cartridge in the printer, did a test print, and discovered that it worked perfectly!<br />
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Moral of the story? <b><u>Don't mess with the CEO's Porsche.</u></b><br />
<br />
<div style="color: #666666; text-align: center;">
<b>PRIVATE INTERNAL COMPANY MEMO</b></div>
<div style="color: #666666; text-align: center;">
<b><br />
</b></div>
<div style="color: #666666; text-align: center;">
<b>TO THE CEO:</b></div>
<div style="color: #666666; text-align: center;">
<b><br />
</b></div>
<div style="color: #666666; text-align: center;">
<b>I MAY HAVE FIGURED OUT A WAY TO SOLVE OUR PROBLEM. THE CLERK AT THE INK STORE IS MY COUSIN. SHE WILL TAKE CARE OF IT FOR US. HER ONLY REQUEST IS A RIDE IN YOUR PORSCHE AND A FLIGHT TO MANILA ON YOUR PRIVATE JET.</b><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><span style="color: #cc0000;">Steve's Post Script: The day after writing this post, but before I got it posted, I received a text message from the ink people. Apparently they want to bring the cartridge, which I had left for them to send to Manila, to my house to try it in my printer and see if they can fix it. I figure they are either being extra diligent about their customer service, or they think I am trying to scam them out of 1400 pesos. Either way it's really annoying. I just want a refund. Not a repaired toner cartridge. I already bought a brand new one! Just a refund. I will keep you posted when I find out what happens! </span></b></div>
</div>Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10391975672440048310noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2149774935818071523.post-4382926667624727112011-12-30T06:06:00.001-07:002011-12-30T06:06:45.048-07:00Davao Weather Forecast<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">One of the more common questions that I get asked by friends and family back in Canada has to do with the weather here. That question has both a simple answer and a more complicated one. I will start with the simple answer.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: orange; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">It is hot and sunny. Always.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Seriously, it is. Weather forecasters are the butt of many jokes in Canada, because it seems practically impossible there to forecast what the weather will be the next day, let alone the next week. Here it is a bit different. The forecast looks like this all the time:</span></div>
<br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;">Hot and sunny. High of 33C. Possibility of limited cloud cover. Chance of late day rain or thunderstorm. Little wind. Humidity between 80-95%.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><br />
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">This goes for pretty much any day. There are some days which vary a bit. Some days it only gets up to 31C. Other days it may rain a bit for most of the day. Some days it is cloudy all day. Those are the days that we look forward to because 33C with 90% humidity feels pretty hot at times. (There was one day that I can remember that I considered taking a sweater with me when I went out, but by the time I left it had warmed up!). </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">We have actually gotten so used to the heat here that it has just become normal. The other day Kerri was telling me that she was feeling a bit cold. It was a cloudy day and was noticeably cooler then normal. I checked the temperature on a thermometer to discover that it had cooled down to... (wait for it...) 29 DEGREES CELSIUS! I think she even had goosebumps. I ran to get her a sweater (okay, not really, but she was quite comfortable wearing jeans that day).</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">As for typhoons and tropical storms, we are located close enough to the equator that we are not located in a typhoon-prone area. We did have a tropical storm warning here recently, but it turned out to just be one day of rain for us. Usually when there is a typhoon or tropical storm in the Philippines it is quite a ways north of where we are. In fact, for us here it seems that when a typhoon is passing through the northern Philippines our weather is not bad at all, often it is warmer and less rain than normal (which is a different kind of bad weather!).</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Now, I can totally understand the curiosity which people back in Canada have about the weather here. Coming from a temperate climate (which really means a cold climate, but they can't call it that or no one would live there!) one of the most noticeable differences here is the lack of variation in the weather. It is the same day in and day out, week after week, month after month. The concept of seasons is difficult to apply here. It's like perpetual summer (which is mostly good...).</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Back in Canada we had seasons. It went from Summer (a week or so of hot dry weather) to Fall (becoming cold) to Winter (COLD! How cold? How does -40 sound?) to Spring (still cold, but with lots of snow too!). There was a bit of a pattern to it every year, unless Spring didn't feel like showing up, or sometimes Summer stayed for 2 weeks. Some years it snowed lots before Christmas, other years it all waited until after. But regardless there was a change of the seasons.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The change of the seasons brought a whole topic of conversation. How many times have you had a conversation that went something like this: (fill in the blanks)</span></div>
<br /><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Me: Sure is (hot/cold/rainy/windy) today, eh?</span><br />
<div style="color: #666666;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #666666;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">You: Yes it is. Nice change from last week though. It was too (hot/cold/rainy/windy) last week.</span></div>
<div style="color: #666666;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #666666;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Me: I agree. Hard to believe that it is already the end of (spring/summer/fall/winter).</span></div>
<div style="color: #666666;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #666666;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">You: No kidding. (Spring/Summer/Fall/Winter) is just around the corner, eh?</span></div>
<div style="color: #666666;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #666666;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Me: Sure hope it is better than last year. Remember how (hot/cold/rainy/dry/windy) it was last year?</span></div>
<div style="color: #666666;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #666666;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">You: Yeah. I heard that this year they are saying it is supposed to be a (long/short) (hot/cold/rainy/dry/windy) (spring/summer/fall/winter).</span></div>
<div style="color: #666666;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #666666;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Me: (Hope so/Hope not). After the (spring/summer/fall/winter) we have had it would be nice if it would (warm up/cool off/dry out/rain more).</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </span><br />
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">That type of conversation is one which takes place in every Canadian workplace, social gathering, family get together, and church function. Put two Canadians in a room and they always have something to talk about (and often complain about!). I would imagine it would be similar in many other countries as well (except substitute "eh?" with the local catchphrase).</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">That kind of conversation doesn't seem to be as popular here. Probably because it would go something like this:</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="color: #666666;">Toto: Sure is hot today.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Tata: Yes it is. Just like yesterday. and the day before. And last week.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Toto: Now what do we talk about?</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">So please feel free to ask how the weather has been for us, but know that inside I am (laughing/crying/rolling my eyes).</span></span></span>Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10391975672440048310noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2149774935818071523.post-68807046281685361162011-12-19T07:02:00.000-07:002011-12-19T07:02:18.592-07:00It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...or not.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIryTgpd820K4Vefj2bcoW1qQbk4F1cecZWgdfwm4j0qP0SbsQ_0KGU4bawny5AF27Mun_EbHrgCN14yslDmlqCuOCvZx4WzxFpwJL2gsTAx0mArdQ8nndrAeBl-2lT_Y660Nk2Q38m3E/s1600/DSCF3289%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIryTgpd820K4Vefj2bcoW1qQbk4F1cecZWgdfwm4j0qP0SbsQ_0KGU4bawny5AF27Mun_EbHrgCN14yslDmlqCuOCvZx4WzxFpwJL2gsTAx0mArdQ8nndrAeBl-2lT_Y660Nk2Q38m3E/s320/DSCF3289%25282%2529.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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Seems hard to believe that it is the middle of December already. That means that we have been here for 5 1/2 months. In many ways that time has flown by, in other ways it feels like a lifetime. <br />
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It also means that Christmas is just around the corner. Is it just me or did it seem to sneak up this year? Perhaps it has been the busyness of life that has made it seem like that. I mean, our life right now is crazy busy. We were told before we came that the program would be intense. That is the understatement of the year. It's like saying that the Titanic had a little leak. We are just managing to keep up with the pace of life that we are faced with. So maybe that has something to do with it not feeling like Christmas should be here already.<br />
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Or, perhaps it is because outside it doesn't look at all like what Christmas has always looked like for us. It is so strange to look outside and see palm trees every day. There is no change. No fall leading into winter. No shorter days and colder mornings. No frost on the car windows. No snow, winter clothes, shoveling sidewalks, putting snow tires on the car, warming up the car, plugging in the car so it will start the next day, digging the car out of a snowdrift, getting your tongue stuck to a frozen pole. All those wonderful memories of winter, Canadian-style (okay, maybe not all of them are fond memories...). It has been really strange to anticipate the "winter" months, thinking that there are lots of things to get done before the snow comes, only to realize "Hey, wait. I'm in the tropics."<br />
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Perhaps it is partly due to the extended Christmas season here. I have been hearing Christmas music in the malls since August (seriously!). Christmas displays have been up since September. There have been Christmas lights up since at least then as well. Kids have been out caroling on the streets for at least a month. Don't get me wrong, I really appreciate how much Christmas is loved and celebrated here, but I am so used to the progression from back-to-school season into Halloween season into Christmas season. I know that as of November 1 Christmas stuff will start appearing in the stores, Christmas songs and carols will start to be played on the radio, and Christmas lights and decorations will start to be displayed on people's houses. This year it has been very different, and I think the length of time has something to do with it.<br />
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Maybe it is because our house doesn't look Christmas-y like it has every year for the past decade. We have a tree up (a 3' tall sad looking Charlie Brown tree) with some of our decorations on it. The kids have made a few decorations as well. But otherwise it doesn't look all that festive. We used to have boxes (and boxes and boxes) of Christmas decorations which I had to haul out of storage each year (not my favorite day of the year!). We would decorate the whole house with lots of stuff accumulated over the years, some more sentimental than others, but all of it was ours. It was a part of what made it feel like Christmas in our house.<br />
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Or perhaps it has to do with the distance that we are separated from family and friends. Because that was always the most important part of the Christmas celebration - time with family and friends. Our Christmas traditions changed a few times over the years, but even when the traditions changed the people stayed the same (with a few additions due to marriages and births). Whether it was Christmas Eve at our house after church, Christmas day spent at various locations, Boxing Day with Kerri's family, or any of the family get-togethers leading up to Christmas, it was all about the family and friends; the quality time together. This year that cannot happen. It is not a matter of a quick trip in the car to visit. No, instead we are oceans and worlds apart.<br />
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Christmas this year will look very different. I know that it will be good - the four of us are here together - but it will be different.Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10391975672440048310noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2149774935818071523.post-32868018098474289452011-12-05T07:03:00.001-07:002011-12-05T08:10:44.434-07:00Cost of Living in Davao Part 2Statistically, the most viewed blog post on our website has been the one I wrote a while back about the cost of living here in Davao City. In fact, it is still getting regular hits from people who, I assume, are looking for more information before they come to live or visit here.<br />
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Now that we have been here for 5 months, I feel that I have an even better grasp of what things cost here, so I present a continuing list of prices here. These prices will vary somewhat, depending on circumstances of course, but it should give you a pretty good idea of what to expect. (All prices are in Philippine Pesos, and converted to Canadian Dollars. For those of you in other countries the exchange will be a bit different. Sorry!)<br />
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Monthly electricity bill (using aircon some of the time): Approx <span style="color: red;">P3500</span> ($82)<br />
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Monthly water bill: Approx <span style="color: red;">P250</span> ($5.86)<br />
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Monthly internet (kind of high speed, sometimes reliable):<span style="color: red;"> P995</span> ($23.32)<br />
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A used vehicle (obviously will vary considerably, but we bought pretty much the cheapest vehicle we could find, so that is our reference point. See our post from August 2011, <a href="http://followingwheregodleads.blogspot.com/2011/08/catching-unicorn.html">http://followingwheregodleads.blogspot.com/2011/08/catching-unicorn.html</a>, for more details): <span style="color: red;">P120000+</span> ($2818.89. This was much more than we had expected. Vehicle prices seem to be even higher than back in Canada...)<br />
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Gas for a vehicle: <span style="color: red;">P55/liter</span> ($1.29/liter). Diesel: <span style="color: red;">P44/liter</span> ($1.03). While this is cheaper than we had been used to in Canada it was higher than we expected, and a shock for our American friends who were used to much less!<br />
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Two games of bowing for a family of four:<span style="color: red;"> P120 </span>($2.82)<br />
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2 liters of Coke: <span style="color: red;">P44.55</span> ($1.04)<br />
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2 pizzas from a really great pizza place (delivered, including a tip): <span style="color: red;">P600</span> ($14.05)<br />
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Tires for our van (pretty much the smallest tires ever made): <span style="color: red;">P2000/each</span> ($46.83)<br />
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Cost to get a wheel removed from the van, tire removed from the rim, new tire installed, and wheel put back on the van:<span style="color: red;"> P30/each</span> ($0.70. Yes, that is right.)<br />
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Starbucks Peppermint Mocha Frappuccino (tall): <span style="color: red;">P160 </span>($3.74)<br />
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Movie admission at one of the nicest theaters in Davao: <span style="color: red;">P135/person</span> ($3.16)<br />
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Men's haircut (complete with shampoo, scalp and neck massage, straight-blade razor shave - best haircut ever. Including a tip): <span style="color: red;">P150</span> ($3.51)<br />
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A small jar of Cheez Whiz: <span style="color: red;">P70.05</span> ($1.64)<br />
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1 liter of milk (processed for a longer shelf life, the most common stuff here): <span style="color: red;">P62.70</span> ($1.47)<br />
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Jello pudding powder:<span style="color: red;"> P51.75</span> ($1.21)<br />
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Chicken breast (bone-in):<span style="color: red;"> P116/kg </span>($2.71/kg)<br />
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Kitten food (1.4kg): <span style="color: red;">P274.15 </span>($6.41)<br />
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Loaf of good bread: <span style="color: red;">P26.00</span> ($0.61)<br />
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All purpose flour: <span style="color: red;">P48.50/kg</span> ($1.13/kg)<br />
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Good quality rice (2kg bag):<span style="color: red;"> P78.50</span> ($1.84)<br />
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As you can see, some things here are quite a bit less expensive than back in Canada, especially when it comes to services. Other things are a lot more than we had expected before we came here, most notably vehicles and imported consumer goods. <br />
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I will continue to list various prices every so often. If there are any particular things you are interested in knowing prices for please feel free to send me a message below!Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10391975672440048310noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2149774935818071523.post-6283142698439754592011-11-24T23:50:00.001-07:002011-11-28T08:09:53.991-07:00Construction, Philippines style!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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As many of you know, I have a construction work background from back in Canada. So, of course seeing how construction is done here fascinates me. I will say right from the start, that after seeing how things are done here compared to how they are done in Canada I have come to the conclusion that one place is not necessarily better than the other, the methods and materials are just different.<br />
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However the differences are pretty huge at times. So here I present my take on some of the major differences between what I am used to in Canadian single-family residential construction and what I have observed here.<br />
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Difference #1 - Materials</div>
One of the first things I noticed was the difference in building materials that are used in single family residential construction. I am used to seeing concrete basements/foundations, wood framing (sometimes metal instead of wood), fiberglass batt insulation, drywall panels on the walls, carpet/hardwood/laminate/linoleum/tile floors, laminate/granite countertops, asphalt shingles, vinyl siding, and wood/composite decks. This is pretty much standard, no matter whether a starter home or a higher-end house. Granted, in really high-end houses higher quality materials are often used, but overall the materials are roughly the same. And the best thing - all of it can be found in one place if necessary (Hello Home Depot!).<br />
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Here, it's a bit different. In a middle-to-upper class house the main structural material is concrete. Concrete walls, concrete floors, concrete everywhere. That makes for some very strong buildings! Then, to dress up the concrete there are a variety of materials used. Tile is extremely common here. Almost any horizontal surface (and some vertical ones) get covered in tile. Lots of marble. That seems to be the most common kind of stonework here.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLqvRLWrNAsQc9OwkXYvj6EsUa_01k6d_5v1-yxPotdYxyfiHtjLj_74RLbFZzCYqcYKJSxa67StibxTc9AJKOs137xqlwemfsEH6MbHx6bWwT0I-KDdPBxDipGXZgxUxdNC3sKMvaUEs/s1600/DSC_5108.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLqvRLWrNAsQc9OwkXYvj6EsUa_01k6d_5v1-yxPotdYxyfiHtjLj_74RLbFZzCYqcYKJSxa67StibxTc9AJKOs137xqlwemfsEH6MbHx6bWwT0I-KDdPBxDipGXZgxUxdNC3sKMvaUEs/s200/DSC_5108.jpg" width="132" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEpFNiQRUFxT_BSGmjPOXUOmKAnVeBj-nlHJojb8iUXYcT1SQDhHfovSh_c0TM9xmMwCB1kR8p00IGiP6HFATD6eS65YP6eVGSQozdlaPN3QfR_1jm5XbEE6mzP8dNAP_jRSF6UxXECqE/s1600/DSC_5107.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEpFNiQRUFxT_BSGmjPOXUOmKAnVeBj-nlHJojb8iUXYcT1SQDhHfovSh_c0TM9xmMwCB1kR8p00IGiP6HFATD6eS65YP6eVGSQozdlaPN3QfR_1jm5XbEE6mzP8dNAP_jRSF6UxXECqE/s320/DSC_5107.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfd3EjCnAtwsuwAhVUUwDc_Lf1ZFYClXvfH3jw16s9hQSQnWvjbfRE1q5KrLnM4L0NVProSfj9mNblLXn79s6di2yLUXoTHO6zAfyZV6G2xAFjnO4dh0zi0wfqMXHh-jr91K2vXwfSObE/s1600/DSCF2358.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfd3EjCnAtwsuwAhVUUwDc_Lf1ZFYClXvfH3jw16s9hQSQnWvjbfRE1q5KrLnM4L0NVProSfj9mNblLXn79s6di2yLUXoTHO6zAfyZV6G2xAFjnO4dh0zi0wfqMXHh-jr91K2vXwfSObE/s200/DSCF2358.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3kuSkQZ9JotWmCcoXfzLQhELnSDvNEmC9BnneF6Mjcz_hxFEWsnQpMjvQzHGGhDX_SLxTB1ISuMncP3VEhyh0Z5VGiiyjq7wAtjWtGsEayC47jBBhbGe0pOdtmHq8uTVj1rEFKtav5w0/s1600/DSCF2356.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3kuSkQZ9JotWmCcoXfzLQhELnSDvNEmC9BnneF6Mjcz_hxFEWsnQpMjvQzHGGhDX_SLxTB1ISuMncP3VEhyh0Z5VGiiyjq7wAtjWtGsEayC47jBBhbGe0pOdtmHq8uTVj1rEFKtav5w0/s200/DSCF2356.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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The other main material is metal. Metal is used to reinforce the concrete and for the roofing material. Metal bars on the windows and metal spikes on the top of the fences and gates (very welcoming and inviting isn't it?).<br />
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Wood is used sometimes too. Wood for the kitchen cabinets (if they aren't concrete!). Wood trimwork. Our whole house is done up in wood paneling and wood tongue-and-groove on the ceilings. It's kind of like being in a log cabin. Feels like we're back in Canada!<br />
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Now, that is a mid-to-upper class house (mainly expats and rich Filipinos). A typical Filipino house is built a bit differently. The main building material used is wood. The wood for the structure is generally rough-sawn coconut lumber which can be found at many different lumber shops throughout the city. It is relatively inexpensive and very sustainable. Coconut trees tend to grow quite quickly. The other type of wood used extensively is bamboo. Bamboo is quite strong, especially for the weight of it. It grows insanely quickly, and can be found all over the place. It can be used as a whole log for structure (best part - it can be pretty much any length. Try finding a 20' long 2x4 at Home Depot!), or split and nailed for use as walls and floors. It is probably the most environmentally friendly building material on the planet, as it is super-renewable and extremely versatile. If only we could figure out a way to grow it in our cold Canadian climate...<br />
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The rest of the house is usually a mixture of other materials. And when I say a mixture, I mean it can be quite a conglomeration of different things. Corrugated metal sheeting is often used for the roof and frequently the walls. Plastic sheets, or even cardboard, can be substituted if metal sheets are not available or prohibitively expensive. In some places many of the houses are quite colorful due to the reuse of old plastic banners as material for the walls. Cost effective and environmentally friendly! <br />
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Difference #2 -Tools</div>
Coming from a construction contractor background, tools were a VERY important part of my job. If the tools didn't work then neither did I, so generally I would buy top quality. Having the right tool for the job was not just a luxury but a necessity. My partner and I, between the two of us, had pretty much every tool imaginable, and needed a truck and trailer to haul them all around in. That way whether we were faced with needing to modify a cabinet for a custom fit, redo a bunch of plumbing to reinstall a sink in a new countertop, or simply to get a job done as quickly and efficiently as possible, we had the tool we needed. In addition to my work tools though, I also had a pretty extensive set of tools just for doing jobs around the house. My tools were a big part of my life.<br />
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It was not an uncommon occurrence to find myself in one of the local hardware stores looking at new tools, testing new tools, and buying new tools. Some we found were not worth the money, while others proved their worth the first time we used them. And, of course, being a tool guy there was always something new that would be really nice to have. Especially if it was cordless. Cordless tools are great. Everything should be cordless. Cordless drills, cordless impact drivers, cordless jigsaws, cordless routers, cordless vacuums, cordless miter saws, cordless reciprocating saws...if only they could come up with a cordless battery charger!<br />
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So coming here I had to sell all my tools. I miss my tools. I know they have found a good home, but it still is so hard to say goodbye. I still cry myself to sleep over that. Being a tool guy I did send over a small toolkit in one of the boxes we shipped. That has been a lifesaver at times! But needless to say, my tool selection has become a whole lot more limited than I am used to.<br />
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I have discovered that having very few tools seems to be the norm. When we first got settled into our house the landlord had a couple of minor maintenance issues to take care of. He told me that his handyman would stop by to take care of it. I assumed that the person coming would be well equipped to handle the small jobs that were to be done. Imagine my shock when the handyman arrived riding his bike, just a small backpack on his back! Out of that backpack he pulled a hammer, pliers, and a couple of screwdrivers. That was it. It was enough to get the job done.<br />
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After seeing that I figured that I should get a few tools myself, so off to the hardware store I went. Now I am used to very well stocked hardware stores. Walking into Hillhurst Hardware in Calgary (the greatest hardware store in the entire city, perhaps the world! <a href="http://www.hillhursthardware.com/">www.hillhursthardware.com</a>. Check them out!) is like going to Tool Disneyland. Their wall of tools, mostly cordless ones, is breathtaking. Just thinking of it is making me weep. Anyways, so I go into one of the hardware stores close by to buy a few basic tools. First thing I noticed: no cordless tools! Then I noticed that the entire power tool section was a bit smaller than I am used to seeing. Which was fine for me, as I didn't actually need to get power tools. <br />
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So I went an aisle over where the hand tools are. Again, not as much selection as I expected but a hammer is a hammer right? Wrong. Back in Calgary I actually had four different hammers, not including my favorite one which I lost tragically at work one day. Each hammer not only had a different role, but each had a special place in my heart. Each one was hand picked after holding and testing many different ones. I knew each one by feel, knew the weight and balance and how it would swing. My hammers had become an extension of my arm in so many ways. So here I was faced with the dilemma of finding a new hammer. Do I get the really good imported one similar to what I had? Or should I be more sensible and buy an inexpensive basic hammer, because that should be adequate for what I will be using it for? In the end I went with the less expensive one. It's okay, but it's not the same. Then I repeated the same process for pliers, adjustable wrenches, and screwdrivers. In the end I put together a very basic toolkit:<br />
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Not quite what I am used to, but it works. Kind of. Most of the time.<br /><br />
One complaint though. I try not to complain about things, but I hate Phillips head screws. For those of you who are not tool people, Phillips is the cross-shaped screw head and matching screwdriver. It is the most common type of screw in the world. But it shouldn't be. I miss Robertson screws! This great CANADIAN invention features a square hole in the screw head and a square tip on the screwdriver to match it. The screwdriver does not slip and does not strip the head. It should be the worldwide standard, but unfortunately they cannot be found here, at least nowhere I have found. I got some shipped to me (along with my beloved Makita 18v lithium ion cordless drill and impact driver!) just because I was getting really frustrated with the ones I was forced to work with. ROBERTSON IS THE BEST! GO CANADA!<br />
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Difference #3 -Safety</div>
The other big difference I noticed here has been the refreshingly relaxed attitude towards jobsite safety. Not that safety isn't a concern, but that people here seem to have a more balanced approach to safety. Back in Canada I was used to some very strict safety requirements. Most of them make sense; eye protection, hearing protection, steel toed boots. Even fall protection when the potential for a dangerous fall exists. Unfortunately it seems to be taken too far sometimes. Wearing a hard hat while standing in the middle of an open field with nothing even remotely close to being suspended above you? Yes, it is required on some sites. Filling out site hazard reports detailing every possible contingency, no matter how remote the chance? What happened to common sense?<br />
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Here safety is much more of a fluid concept. While on the bigger jobsites it seems like the safety standards are quite high, other places it is not the case. Some of the things I have seen here would have Occupational Health and Safety officers crying in their coffees. I was watching some guys moving large concrete bricks wearing open toed sandals or flip-flops. People walking on the tops of walls 30+ feet up with no fall protection. And my favorite: a guy painting the outside trim on the house across the street, up on about a 12' scaffold with only a thin plank spanning the opening, stood up on a rickety chair trying to reach just a bit higher...<br />
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Or, leaning a ladder against overhead power lines to get up to do work on them...<br />
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Ahhh, the differences!<br />
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<br />Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10391975672440048310noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2149774935818071523.post-57665668915042514112011-11-17T01:55:00.001-07:002012-01-25T05:05:22.867-07:00BirthBefore we moved to the Philippines and I began volunteering at Mercy Maternity Center, I had the privilege of being a birth doula and attending four births, three of whom were friends of mine. Each of the births were different but all went well with good outcomes. In the three months that I have been at the clinic I have seen 24 births and not all have been as smooth and easy as the ones I first attended.<br />
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I have come to realize that birth is not always neat and tidy with good outcomes. Most of the time babies are born healthy, and crying and all is well with both them and the mom, however sometimes it's not so good. I have seen a woman who labored so beautifully and delivered a healthy baby boy only to be faced with retained placental membranes and have to be transported to the hospital while her baby boy stayed with us until his bantay (the mom's "watcher" or labor support) was able to take him to see her later on. There was another mama who again labored well but delivered a very blue baby boy due to thick meconium aspiration and this time it was him to had to be transported to the hospital while his mama stayed with us. There was a third woman who labored long and hard and the baby ended up with a shoulder dystocia (the head is born but the body is firmly stuck) that lasted over two minutes. Thankfully in the end each of these babies and their mamas were okay, but it was pretty scary when everything was going on. That's when the adrenaline is pumping like crazy, the intense praying is happening and the thoughts of "please God don't let this baby die" or "come on baby just breathe" are racing through your mind.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJk79Yo5y4bOl8aaEw-G3-zdgkeABbMz32wMk_Gycy6zpd7U_sXGUyt3RSJy8gLIy82tsG-HcRw4WKbMSdrIMx-NHvBYVSHDbAPxtYmzr77-PtIeohnP1lwZr9sC8TTB89k6TWH0XIrTWb/s1600/087.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"> </a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJk79Yo5y4bOl8aaEw-G3-zdgkeABbMz32wMk_Gycy6zpd7U_sXGUyt3RSJy8gLIy82tsG-HcRw4WKbMSdrIMx-NHvBYVSHDbAPxtYmzr77-PtIeohnP1lwZr9sC8TTB89k6TWH0XIrTWb/s1600/087.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"> </a><br />
I am so thankful that during all of the craziness we have amazing midwives, who although faced with intense pressure, are able to stay calm and make wise decisions for both the moms and the babies in each situation.<br />
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As scary and intense as birth can be, I'm always amazed and in awe at how God created life and the miracle that it really truly is.<br />
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Kerri<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4rCnVffhieEER1naDVtCQAj3C5kUP5CIhdqzShUj-k9sH9POIniRwBtF7SoSFl1Pcr7ZEkkqT4s3U-VZYnrh_eJXboUgnkoIgbw5mGVIytxg4QbX_TjZYSGmEnQt6sYI37Lpzye9sR1u5/s1600/058.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4rCnVffhieEER1naDVtCQAj3C5kUP5CIhdqzShUj-k9sH9POIniRwBtF7SoSFl1Pcr7ZEkkqT4s3U-VZYnrh_eJXboUgnkoIgbw5mGVIytxg4QbX_TjZYSGmEnQt6sYI37Lpzye9sR1u5/s320/058.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Doula-ing" this woman through her contractions</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJjyO_rVEgY93BeRny0a3gjDhaZ2HBuP6sHyZYX4Rjgi24iUhOMw8fKDFjGbAPn94xFyikxCHPlP5AzY5SCq_oGXo4YUqyFeM_QJl8rZ2AZx_MBqCFuCFyjpfZkI-GC30rgnF5C-Nn9YwP/s1600/069.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJjyO_rVEgY93BeRny0a3gjDhaZ2HBuP6sHyZYX4Rjgi24iUhOMw8fKDFjGbAPn94xFyikxCHPlP5AzY5SCq_oGXo4YUqyFeM_QJl8rZ2AZx_MBqCFuCFyjpfZkI-GC30rgnF5C-Nn9YwP/s320/069.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This little one scared us by being blue and floppy, but thankfully came around</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNLI45z6lTumoZ65kbWDm6Rro7Ib7ZhwUIbMxQBYvXtxu8cQuCMskuXhwFCeeb5cWdHgCsK6UYtwj9c-HUEh8TU8bvv5MAOjlgl6Zbjo3RoOEd9CYLUadaccsnGWBJLX8fjTQSLVQcrNF1/s1600/095.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNLI45z6lTumoZ65kbWDm6Rro7Ib7ZhwUIbMxQBYvXtxu8cQuCMskuXhwFCeeb5cWdHgCsK6UYtwj9c-HUEh8TU8bvv5MAOjlgl6Zbjo3RoOEd9CYLUadaccsnGWBJLX8fjTQSLVQcrNF1/s320/095.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Helping this woman through labor</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWr8N8wKO60wTFWXFaxlC6xHrFM07Yr5e74jqBFLyC08nRGQMM4Uh715U3Ub_yFItAj4fadbt-ywaXpKSBMSbIkALPdKkcGP1Mxm66a77xAkyXK4D9bfOjLHxjqBqHLfhNWWI7K2d6382t/s1600/102.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWr8N8wKO60wTFWXFaxlC6xHrFM07Yr5e74jqBFLyC08nRGQMM4Uh715U3Ub_yFItAj4fadbt-ywaXpKSBMSbIkALPdKkcGP1Mxm66a77xAkyXK4D9bfOjLHxjqBqHLfhNWWI7K2d6382t/s320/102.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The power team with our shoulder dystocia baby</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyzsuZ_tO6hixElhmAkSR7bW60nWvbeshcJP_8FW54ctDrX6oRYyMGAU1EOXVb0FuZW9zqrdLEFlQbYzgksUm4LR1zTsLZ6UTnEHwD5VEjop87nDWN8VXo3GiviWAXDFl9QihB5XTwVE-q/s1600/104.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyzsuZ_tO6hixElhmAkSR7bW60nWvbeshcJP_8FW54ctDrX6oRYyMGAU1EOXVb0FuZW9zqrdLEFlQbYzgksUm4LR1zTsLZ6UTnEHwD5VEjop87nDWN8VXo3GiviWAXDFl9QihB5XTwVE-q/s320/104.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The mama, bata (baby), bantay (watcher), lola (grandma) and the power team!</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span id="goog_1541634020"></span><span id="goog_1541634021"></span></div>Kerrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17594373833783492388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2149774935818071523.post-30499835929126496352011-11-02T07:04:00.000-06:002011-11-02T07:04:59.388-06:00Slapping, squishing and sprayingWe knew that when we came here we would be leaving the temperate (read: bitterly cold) climate of western Canada and would be arriving in a tropical (read: hot and humid) climate of Davao City. Of course, going along with the change in climate come changes in the wildlife endemic to the region. Some of that wildlife is quite fascinating. The aquatic life is like you see in diving videos and those really crazy expensive hard to maintain salt water aquariums back in Canada - bright colors, beautiful designs, huge variety. I have had the opportunity to be chased by a couple of the largest clownfish I have ever seen. They were defending their home, which they felt I was getting too close to. I have fed parrotfish right out of my hand while snorkeling. I have poked myself with a sea urchin and had starfish clinging to my hands. Pretty cool stuff. Others are a bit more mundane, but still different than I am used to. Water buffalo, stray dogs, geckos, rats.<br />
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And then there is the insect population here. For those of you who may not be aware of it, I don't like bugs all that much. Most I can put up with as long as I know that I can simply step on them. They are a nuisance, but not too bad. Some bugs though, I cannot stand. Mainly spiders. I'm not sure where my hatred of spiders came from, but I think it has something to do with watching the movie Arachnophobia when I was a kid. Since then I have hated to see a spider or to even know that spiders are around. So of course, coming here I had to come to terms with the fact that not only would there be spiders, but they would probably be a bit bigger than I was used to.<br />
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I am happy to report that up to this point I have not come across any big spiders. I have heard stories of ones that others have seen. Ones big enough to carry off a small water buffalo. Ones with legs longer than my arm span. Ones that are so quick that you hardly see them until they are close enough to leap at you and sink their big long fangs into your neck. Okay, I am going to give myself nightmares. As you can imagine, I really appreciate hearing all these stories (insert sarcasm here) and feel so much better knowing that they are harmless (Yeah, I believe that! They are just waiting for me to drift off to sleep so they can leap out and sink their big long fangs into...okay I really need to stop that).<br />
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However, there is one thing that I have noticed about the spiders here. They jump. I don't mean they hop a bit. I mean that when you try to squish them they are able to leap out of the way, preserving their sorry little spider life. It's almost like they have this ability to see the future and they already know that there is a shoe hurtling through space on a collision course with them. They then have the ability to slow down the passage of time around themselves in order to gather their strength to make a tremendous leap out of the way. And it seems that all spiders there are able to do this, whether big or small. They can all jump.<br />
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Well, in addition to the spiders there are several other types of bugs which have become an ongoing frustration to me. One of those is ants. Apparently there are 400 species of ants in the Philippines (I have no idea how they would have figured that out, or why they would bother). I think that about 398 species live in our yard, and the other two prefer to stay inside our house out of the elements. Now I don't fear ants like I fear spiders, but I still don't want them in my house. We have two main types that I am constantly battling to keep out. The first is the normal reddish type. These aren't usually a big deal. I try to be diligent to spray around the doors with bug killer to keep them from coming in. Every so often they like to show up and let me know that I have been too lax in doing that. Not a big problem though.<br />
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The other kind are the little tiny ones. These are the smallest ants I have ever seen. They are about 1/10 the size of a typical ant, and they seem to appear out of nowhere. They like to hang around the kitchen, waiting for one of us to be foolish enough to leave some food out. They aren't too particular. They appear to eat just about anything. Leave a few bread crumbs on the cutting board, ants. Leave some food on a plate from supper, ants. Forget to tightly close a container, ants. They are very frustrating, but because of their size they don't move very fast, so it is easy to clean up a whole trail of them with a paper towel.<br />
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In addition to the ants we also have another type of bug that likes to be inside our house. I don't know what they are, but they look like a really small beetle. Unfortunately it was kind of my fault that they are in the house. Let me explain. When we moved in our landlord had left a bed frame in the master bedroom. We certainly appreciated that so we didn't have to go out and buy one. Unfortunately the section on which the mattress rests is a woven material, and over the years it had stretched out a bit. Okay, a lot. So every night it would feel like we were sleeping on the side of a hill. Imagine sleeping in a hammock with your spouse. That is kind of the way it felt. It's not that I don't like to cuddle with Kerri, but I like a bit of space too. So after waking up day after day with a sore back and neck (from sleeping all night trying to roll myself uphill) I decided it was time to do something about it.<br />
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Now, back in Canada we had a great bed. It was the most comfortable, supportive, amazing bed in the history of sleep systems. We had gotten it from IKEA. It consisted of a polyurethane foam mattress and a bed base instead of a box spring. It was so amazing that had we had an IKEA here that would have been our first purchase. But alas, no IKEA. Or anything really close to it. So we got a foam mattress, which is actually pretty good. I figured that being kind of a handy guy, that I could build some kind of bed base like we had before. I figured that all I would need would be a couple of good supportive 2x4's for a frame and some thinner slats for the mattress to rest on. So I went down to the neighborhood Home Depot equivalent, a store which advertises lumber for sale. Their selection was a bit smaller than I was expecting, but I found some bundles of split bamboo that I thought would work quite nicely (and it was cheap!). So I came home with a bunch of bamboo and some 1.5" nails. I cut the bamboo with my saw (a hacksaw) and then proceeded to nail it all together. I found my tools a bit lacking compared to what I was accustomed to, but I got it done.<br />
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Fast forward a month or so. I began to notice that there was a lot of dust in our room, especially under the bed. I didn't give it too much thought at the time. It continued for a while and I thought that I should investigate. I checked under the bed and found little piles of sawdust on the bed frame. Then I noticed these tiny little brown beetle type bugs. I put two and two together and figured out what had happened. You may recall from a previous blog that we had gotten bamboo furniture for our house, which I was encouraged to douse in diesel fuel and let sit for a couple days before bringing into the house. I knew that was to prevent bugs from eating the bamboo. It never occurred to me that it might be a good idea to do the same with the bamboo I was using for the bed. Oops. So now I am fighting an ongoing battle with these dumb little beetles. I spray them with bug killer, they die, they are gone for a few days, then they come back. I think I might have to break down and take apart the bed and diesel it. The beetles need to go.<br />
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In addition to these, we also have mosquitoes. Again, these are not like Canadian mosquitoes, even Winnipeg-summertime mosquitoes. The ones here are tiny, so you don't even feel them bite you. They are hard to see and harder to kill because they are very quick. And, unlike the ones I am used to that will bite you, sit there while they drink their fill, then proceed to fly away to have babies, the ones here bite you, drink a bit, bite you again in a different spot, drink a bit more, bite you again, laugh at you for a while, then bite you again just because they can. Just today I got bitten by the same mosquito 4 times before I managed to kill it. Aargh!<br />
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Add in cockroaches (which we rarely have in our house thankfully!), wasps, flies, centipedes, and these little bug things that like to collect bits of grass which they then stick to themselves until they look like little porcupines, and you have lots of slapping, squishing and spraying going on here. The joys of the tropics!<br />
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P.S. I was going to try to get pictures of some of these bugs to post here, but would rather just squish the bugs when I see them than go search for the camera. Sorry! Maybe later...Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10391975672440048310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2149774935818071523.post-1339255300584188802011-10-24T05:03:00.001-06:002011-10-24T05:03:55.999-06:00Steve's Weight Loss PlanThere have been many things about living in the Philippines which we had not anticipated before we came here. One of the most unexpected, unintended results was weight loss.<br />
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Now, for those of you reading this who know Kerri and I you know that we have never been big people. Being overweight has never been a big issue for us. That being said, over the years each of us has managed to slowly increase our body mass. Nothing really noticeable, just a steady gain.<br />
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At first, when we got married, I attributed my gradual weight gain to being married and having a wonderful wife who was preparing an abundance of tasty meals. I was not the least bit concerned with it.<br />
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Then, later on I began to work in construction, and found that because I was working a physical job I needed to eat more. I calculated my calorie intake for a typical day to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 million calories, mainly in the form of Slurpees and Wendy's double cheeseburger meals. Thankfully, I have been blessed with a fast metabolism and actually managed to burn off all 3 million of those calories each day.<br />
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Then, when I decided to quit construction and go back to school I had to reign in the Slurpee/fast food consumption. What I didn't realize was that all the exercise I was getting while working was helping to keep everything in good shape. Take away the exercise and muscles begin to droop. Who knew?<br />
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So I was beginning to develop what we term a "Ministry Gut". This condition is something which has been known to affect both pastors and Bible college students. It is similar to other common conditions, including the "Accountant Gut", the "Computer Technician Gut", and others in the "Sit at a desk all day" family of gut conditions. It can be recognized by a steady increase in pant size and the need to buy new, longer belts. It is often assumed by sufferers of this condition that their clothes have begun to shrink. (While often confused with the common condition of "Where-did-this-gut-appear-from?-I-used-to-be-able-to-drink-lots-of-beer-without-gaining-an-ounce Gut", Ministry Gut has been verified by modern science to be an unrelated issue. Usually. But that's for another blog.)<br />
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So over time, my physique gradually morphed from a skinny one (albeit with good muscle tone if I do say so myself) to a somewhat softer, slightly rounder one. I can remember several times during Bible college thinking to myself, "Self, maybe you should get out and get some exercise while I say here and finish reading the 4000 pages that I have to have read for tomorrow." It never worked.<br />
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So, I came to the Philippines at the highest weight of my entire 33 years on this planet.<br />
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Well, over the next couple of months I noticed that my clothes were getting a bit baggy. I assumed that they were stretching out from being hung on the clothesline to dry. (Seriously - this is what I assumed) Then in a moment of brilliance, I realized that even if they were stretching somewhat in length, they probably wouldn't stretch in width. Especially the waist size in the shorts. Not something that usually gets bigger. That is when I came to the realization that maybe I was getting smaller. (Go ahead, insert the jokes about my height here)<br />
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So, I have decided to share with the world my weight loss plan. I have titled it "Steve's Weight Loss Plan". I realize that is not a very creative title, but it does kind of sum up what it's all about. I am hoping that it will become the next fad diet, the next Air Diet or Three-Day Hot Dog Diet (those really do exist). I am thinking of marketing my plan. If you would be interested in a franchise please let me know. Maybe this will solve all our concerns with raising support for our time here...<br />
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Here, for the first time ever in the history of the universe, I present <br />
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<u><i><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">STEVE'S WEIGHT LOSS PLAN</span></b></i></u></div>
(You have to use your imagination for the deep, booming announcer voice and the flashing lights and fireworks, sorry. I can't find the button to insert those into my blog. I did the best I could. Yes, that is red, bold, underlined AND italicized!)<br />
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<li>Step 1: Sell everything you own and move yourself (and family if applicable) halfway around the world to a place that you have never been to. The stress which you are faced with will help to curb your appetite. Note: for the weight loss to be fully effective you must choose a hot, humid location, preferably a third world country - more on that later.</li>
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<li>Step 2: Do NOT buy a vehicle for the first couple of months that you live in the new locale. This will ensure that you get plenty of exercise when you have to walk everywhere.</li>
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<li>Step 3: Sweat constantly. Try to stay hydrated - this will be an ongoing battle which you probably will lose. This is kind of the point behind choosing a hot, humid environment.</li>
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<li>Step 4: Eat a local diet. Living in a third world country is kind of key here. Here in the Philippines that consists of rice, fresh fruit, rice, fresh vegetables, rice, eggs, rice, fish, and maybe some more rice. (I have heard people say that rice is fattening. Perhaps it's the stuff with the rice that is the problem. Just saying...) The specifics of the food selection will vary depending on region. That is why this diet may be less effective if you move to somewhere like Italy or Britain. A diet consisting of large meals of pasta or lots of deep fried foods may not have the desired effect.</li>
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<li>Step 5: Sweat some more. That can help to kill any sort of appetite you may still have left.</li>
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<li>Step 6: Continue the above steps for the next several years.</li>
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So far this plan has worked well for me. Perhaps too well. I need to go buy some new shorts and have begun to use a new hole in my belt. Except it's smaller this time.<br />
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Oh, and if you are interested in a franchise let me know. I even have a satisfied customer. Here is her unsolicited endorsement of STEVE'S WEIGHT LOSS PLAN:<br />
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"Steve, none of my clothes fit anymore. They are all too big! I need to go buy new clothes." - Kerri from Davao City<br />
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Need I say more?Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10391975672440048310noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2149774935818071523.post-87215791545528155212011-10-17T06:50:00.001-06:002011-10-24T05:01:38.871-06:00A rough weekendWe all tend to have expectations about things. We make assumptions based on what we know, even when what we know is not very much. Sometimes those assumptions are conscious, other times they are subconscious. Sometimes it can be difficult to verbalize those assumptions. Sometimes those assumptions come back to bite you in the butt.<br />
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By this point you are probably thinking, "Okay, so what? What does this have to do with a rough weekend?" I realize you probably don't read this blog to necessarily hear my philosophizing, so should probably just get on with it and explain about our weekend.<br />
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Kerri and I celebrated our 13th anniversary a week ago. In the past we have gone away for at least one night to celebrate every anniversary. Often it was somewhere close to home, but other times it has involved a longer trip. We have been blessed to have family close by who have been more than willing to look after the kids for us. Obviously this year it is a bit different. We couldn't very well expect that anyone would make the trip here (20+ hours of flying) just so that Kerri and I could go away overnight. So we figured we would take the kids with us. No problem. Instead of a nice relaxing romantic getaway, it would be a nice relaxing family getaway.<br />
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I began to make plans a while ago, but right from the start found it to be quite difficult to plan for a couple reasons.<br />
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First, it can be very hard to find information about things here. Back in Canada I had a real knack for finding the best little obscure hotels that you wouldn't normally find, and some great places to go and visit and spend a weekend. I found some absolutely amazing hotels at great prices. Some of our best memories from the last 13 years have been those trips. It was just a matter of knowing where to look online to find them. After a couple of hours on the internet I could have a whole weekend planned out; a great hotel booked, a good idea of what activities and restaurants there were close by, and an expectation of what it would all cost. Very quickly into my planning here I found that would not be the case. While there are many great places to go and explore in the Davao area, I kept finding it difficult to find information about them. There are many resorts which would probably be great to go to and stay at, but either they don't have websites or the websites they have don't have as much information as I am accustomed to.<br />
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Second, I have known in previous years what Kerri has been expecting from a getaway. It has generally involved a nice, quiet hotel, good choices for food, and relaxing activities (rock climbing, window shopping, walking around, etc.). I was able to plan some great times because I knew that was her expectation. This year I really had no idea what she was wanting, because she didn't really know what she was wanting. She had a picture in her mind of a quiet resort, a nice beach, and a hammock, but other details were a bit more obscure. (Kerri and I have already discussed this, so hopefully I won't get myself in too much trouble for putting it in here!)<br />
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So with those things as obstacles, I attempted to plan a nice, relaxing family getaway weekend. I looked into several different resorts close to Davao, got recommendations from several people about where to go, and checked reviews of different places online. I sent out emails and text messages to different places to see what was available and to check prices. About the only thing I did not do was to go out to each place I was considering to check it out. Perhaps in hindsight that would have been good, but I decided not to because of the cost to go, the time required, and the lack of a clear idea what I was looking for, it probably would have been a waste. I would have come back with a list like this:<br />
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Resort #1 - Nice scenery, lots of palm trees, nice beach, warm ocean to swim in.</div>
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Resort #2 - Nice scenery, lots of palm trees, nice beach, warm ocean to swim in.</div>
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Resort #3 - Nice scenery, lots of palm trees, nice beach, warm ocean to swim in.</div>
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You get the point.<br />
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So I booked a resort (or thought I did - keep reading!). I chose based on some good reviews, a decent website with what looked like good pictures, and a list of good amenities. After packing up what we needed on Saturday morning we set out to go. We drove to the ferry port and crossed over to Samal Island, the place where the resort was located. We got off the ferry and went in search of the resort. We turned right. We drove down the main road around the island, searching for signs for this particular resort. We came to a place that I knew was further down than where we wanted to go. We turned around, thinking that maybe we should have turned left. We drove some more. We came to another place that I knew was further than our resort was. We stopped to ask a local person where it was. She told us to go back to the ferry port. It should be right there. We turned around. We drove back to the ferry port. We asked someone else where it was. They pointed it out. We had driven right by it, but before we had turned right or left. Need to pay more attention I guess (to be fair, as we were driving by it Julia did mention a sign, but I assumed that it was just an advertisement, not the actual place!).<br />
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We stopped and went in to check in out. We went to the front desk to check in, but they had record of a reservation being made. However, they did have several rooms available that we could stay in. The staff very graciously showed us the different rooms so that we could choose which we would like. I could tell from Kerri's reaction that this particular resort was not what she was expecting. It was busier than she was hoping for, and did not want to stay there. Considering that we didn't actually have a reservation, we left to find something else. (For any Davaoenos who may be reading this and can figure out which resort I am referring to, I want to say that we have nothing against that particular resort. It seems like a great place, the rooms were quite nice, and everything was clean and well maintained. It just was not what we were looking for!)<br />
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So we decided to head to another resort a little ways away which had been highly recommended to us by several different people (for our friends who recommended this resort, we understand why you would recommend it, but it just wasn't what we were looking for). By this point it was getting late in the afternoon, and I figured that we had better decide on a place soon, or it would be getting dark. We arrived at the next resort, which seemed like a really nice place. We were the only people there, so they had plenty of rooms available for us. We agreed to stay there and went for a swim while the resort staff set up our room. By this point it was getting to be supper time, and we were all getting hungry. I asked one of the staff about a menu, and was told that they don't have a menu for us to choose from. The food selection is set for us. And it would take about an hour and a half until dinner was to be served. This would be fine, had it been just Kerri and I, but our kids were a bit more selective about what they wanted to eat and wanted to eat right away. After explaining to them the way it was we went and showered off and got dressed.<br />
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This led to the next little problem. Before any of us had a chance to take a shower a cockroach was found in our bathroom. Now I know that cockroaches are harmless, and that you can find them pretty much anywhere, but that was not something we wanted to see. It was in the toilet. Who knew that cockroaches could swim so well? It took quite a while to get it injured enough that it couldn't swim so that we could actually flush it down the toilet. Then a bit later another was found. And another. Each was about 3" long. The kids were very concerned about this and informed us that they were not going to sleep on the floor. Instead they decided that it would be a good idea to share our bed. I didn't agree, but knew very well that my opinion did not really count at that point.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHUl5rvrtvxZvHjCEOxP-SssvVCbB_jtoz3LioGZSquldjrYJaLZHLIR1V4c3W9oC4usUCCFT9e5SqGIEzp8KGq3udiLbsjRaRpBcGO6TelhyphenhyphenSW74XbVM9W9GN2uXG5u1CYPYcq6yzGn4/s1600/DSCF2889.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHUl5rvrtvxZvHjCEOxP-SssvVCbB_jtoz3LioGZSquldjrYJaLZHLIR1V4c3W9oC4usUCCFT9e5SqGIEzp8KGq3udiLbsjRaRpBcGO6TelhyphenhyphenSW74XbVM9W9GN2uXG5u1CYPYcq6yzGn4/s320/DSCF2889.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our family bed that night!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Trying to flush a cockroach down the toilet!</td></tr>
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Supper came a bit later. Next problem. The meal which was served to us consisted of a delicious chicken soup, bread, rice, cucumber/tomato salad, bananas, and as the main course: freshly caught fish, fried and served whole; head and everything. This was not at all what Daniel wanted to eat, and he was quite upset with the idea that this was to be his supper. We did get him to eat some of it, but none of us really loved the meal.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI42PBEJOf8OAg9bapK1SztDBQdI3zbHRuafMDOZr0-g3ErW1uZjIKM6SGaNpsaqA-ezDY0DdYICJU-6ENhiUCsezbREfVtm05iXIdEw47dyH3XC0eIHWM2Ax7CNtFjFvvgNfSCwYG4FE/s1600/DSCF2881.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI42PBEJOf8OAg9bapK1SztDBQdI3zbHRuafMDOZr0-g3ErW1uZjIKM6SGaNpsaqA-ezDY0DdYICJU-6ENhiUCsezbREfVtm05iXIdEw47dyH3XC0eIHWM2Ax7CNtFjFvvgNfSCwYG4FE/s320/DSCF2881.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our meal, complete with fish heads.</td></tr>
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After supper we sat outside and watched as a really big group of people arrived. They seemed to keep coming and coming. By the time they all arrived there must have been 5000 of them (okay, maybe 30, but it seemed like 5000). Unfortunately they were not the quietest group of people. We heard them up until quite late. It was very annoying.<br />
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When we went in to get ready for bed I was sent into the bathroom to check for cockroaches. I found three more. Not what I was hoping for. Two were in the sink (eating the soap) and one was on the floor. I tried to kill them, but they are very fast and they all found a place to hide. Dumb cockroaches. It was all we could do to get the kids to go into the bathroom to brush their teeth and use the toilet. Then we all piled into the bed and fell asleep listening to the soothing sounds of people partying, crickets chirping incessantly, and the air conditioner getting ready to take off to orbit the Earth. Not the ingredients for the most restful night's sleep.<br />
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The next morning, after brief periods of blissful sleep, we were awoken to the sounds of people starting to party again. At 6:00. Not happy. They all left shortly after though. Breakfast was served. Again, a set menu. This time though it was more appealing to all of us. While at breakfast we decided as a family to leave the resort to go to another that we had been to before and spend the day there. We knew that there was a great beach and a great restaurant there. So we packed up and left. Or tried to leave.<br />
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On the way in we had gone down a really steep, really loose road. I hadn't thought much of it at the time. We made it down fine. Going up was another story. For those of you who have read our previous blog post about our lovely vehicle, which we have dubbed our unicorn, you will know that it doesn't have much power. Or traction apparently. We started up the hill, got a little ways up, and the back wheels (the drive wheels) slipped. No more momentum. We backed down and took a bit of a run at it. We made it a bit higher when the same thing happened. Back down again, and back up again. By this point most of the staff were there watching, cheering us on, probably laughing at the crazy white people who couldn't get up the hill. Two of them waited halfway up the hill for us to help push us when we stopped. We did eventually make it up and were able to leave. I guess unicorns aren't mountain goats.<br />
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We went to the other resort (the third of the weekend) and had a great time. Nice and relaxing, great food, and some of the loudest bad karaoke we have ever heard. By this point we were just happy to be able to salvage a bit of the weekend for the kids. We stayed for a while and then headed back. The trip back was pretty uneventful, thankfully.<br />
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The end of the story? I wish. I realize that this is quite a long blog post. I really didn't plan to make it a long post. Normally I am a man of few words, but for whatever reason I can go on and on when I blog. Sorry. I understand if you want to be done reading this. Please come back later and finish the story though.<br />
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On the way back we decided that it would be a good idea to order pizza and watch a movie with the kids before they had to go to bed, then Kerri and I planned to relax and watch a few episodes of one of our favorite TV shows that we have on DVD. To go along with this Kerri really wanted peanut M&M's and crunchy cheezies. Instead of getting pizza from the great little pizza place we normally get it from, we decided to get it from Pizza Hut (yes, we do have a Pizza Hut here). Since the Pizza Hut is at one of the malls which is close to home, I decided rather than getting it delivered I would go pick it up. That way I could go to the grocery store to get the other goodies while it was being prepared.<br />
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I made my way to the mall, fighting the typical Sunday evening traffic. I arrived there and proceeded to drive into the parkade to park. Now you must understand that I hate the parkade at this particular mall. No, hate is not a strong enough word. I despise that parkade. I abhor that parkade. I detest that parkade. It is an abomination of vehicular storage. Why? Because you cannot see if there are empty spots unless you go down an aisle. But if you get down an aisle and find that there are no spots you are forced to back out of the aisle because they are so narrow you cannot turn around. Even a unicorn cannot turn around in that amount of space. Which is okay, provided the person behind you has not turned down the same aisle. Normally I just forget trying to get a space on a lower level and go up to the top level and can find a spot fairly easily. That works if it happens to be a weekday at 10:00AM when the mall opens. Otherwise good luck. So after finding a spot way up on the roof and making my way back down and into the mall, I then had to descend from the 4th floor to the basement and then go all the way across the mall to get to the Pizza Hut. I think that some of you in North America are actually closer to that particular Pizza Hut than I was when I parked my van!<br />
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I got into the mall to find it was absolutely packed. I don't mean there were a few people window shopping. I mean push-and-shove-if-you-want-to-ever-get-through-and-ever-hope-to-leave-before-Christmas packed. Imagine the busiest mall in your city on the last Saturday before Christmas and take all those people and squeeze them into a phone booth. That is what it felt like. Now I don't like crowds all that much, so I was a bit edgy (okay, truthfully I really felt like I was going to punch someone). I ordered the pizza and went to the grocery store (thankfully not quite so busy there). I found a big bag of M&M's and a bag of cheezies (but not the right ones - they were sold out of those). I went to the cashier, and after waiting in line for what felt like an eternity, my 2 items were scanned. The M&M's, to my surprise, rang in at almost 1200 pesos. To put that in perspective, that is about $28. I just about choked on my tongue. I told the cashier that I didn't want to pay that much for those. She had to get a supervisor to void that from the transaction, which took another eternity. By this point I could feel by blood pressure getting ready to cause my head to pop right off.<br />
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I went and picked up the pizzas, which turned out to be just slightly larger than a postage stamp. By this point I didn't care at all. I just wanted to be anywhere but there. So then I had to try to cross through the hordes of people to get back to my van. I was really hoping that God would either part the people like He parted the Red Sea for Moses, or at least let me walk on people's heads like Jesus walking on water. Neither happened. I had to push my way through the crowds carrying pizza boxes to get out.<br />
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I got to my van and decided to go to another mall, which I prefer, in order to get M&M's and maybe the right kind of cheezies. I made my way there in a foul mood. I had heard that there are times, when it is just not a good day, that you should avoid the malls. It's just best for everyone involved. But, I just had to go to one more. I went into the grocery store there, got the things I needed, and left, just daring anyone to say the wrong thing to me. I am not an aggressive person, but I just needed to unload on someone. By God's grace everyone around me left me alone and I was able to get home with my Christian integrity intact (although I am sure people could tell I was having a bad day). I came home and things improved (thankfully). I talked with Kerri while the kids watched their movie, then we got them to bed and were able to just relax, watch some TV shows, eat tiny pizza and hard-fought M&M's and cheezies. It was a good end to a bad weekend.<br />
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I know that one day we will look back on all this and laugh. Today is not that day.Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10391975672440048310noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2149774935818071523.post-50016236327165422692011-10-09T06:29:00.000-06:002011-10-09T06:29:35.478-06:00Looking BackIt has now been three months since we arrived here in Davao City and it's kind of fun to look back and reflect on our time here. I remember stepping out of the Davao airport and looking across the street at the security guards holding very large guns, and instinctively pulling the kids a little closer and trying to walk a little closer to Steve, not sure if I should make eye contact with the guards or not. Now three months later, guards with guns are just a normal part of life anywhere we go, really not a big deal. <br />
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I remember the drive from the airport to our friends' house and thinking how there was no way on earth that I was ever going to attempt driving here and really didn't know if I even wanted to leave the house and have to be in a vehicle even if I wasn't the one driving. That one took a little longer, however now I'm the one behind the wheel, honking my horn, moving into oncoming traffic in order to get around another vehicle and not really giving it a second thought.<br />
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I remember my first time on a jeepney trying to figure out how it worked - how do you know which jeepney to take? where do you pay the fare? how do you know where to get off? how do you let the driver know where you want to get off? Now I know which jeepney I want to take, I know how to pay and make sure I get my change, I know where to get off and I know how to let the drive know I need him to stop.<br />
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I remember hearing Visayan all around me and thinking it's going to take forever before I can actually understand and speak any little bit of this language. Now I'm the one using (limited)Visayan in the birth room and clinic and the best part is that for the most part my Visayan is understood. I'm still working on understanding the answers I get to my questions, but I know it will come.<br />
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I remember getting a tour of the prenatal room and seeing one of the interns casually get a tetanus injection to give to one of the buntis and thinking, wow I wonder how long it will take for me to feel that comfortable doing that, and now that's me, doing prenatal check ups on my own and giving injections.<br />
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It's amazing to look back and see how much I've learned in these last three months and knowing that there's a lot more to learn, but knowing that it too will come.<br />
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KerriKerrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17594373833783492388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2149774935818071523.post-49420963955777852762011-10-06T23:37:00.002-06:002011-10-06T23:38:01.679-06:00Water WoesOne thing which I kind of assumed before coming here was that certain things would just be the same as it is in Canada. After all, that is the only place I have lived, so that was all I knew. Upon getting here I discovered that is not necessarily the case. Things which were simply everyday things were suddenly done in a whole new way. One of those things, which I came to discover, was having a shower.<br />
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For those of you who are reading this who may have never been to Canada or the USA, let me describe a typical plumbing setup. First, you have a really big hot water tank in the house.<br />
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This is used to warm the water which comes into the house, because it is very cold, especially in the winter! The hot water tank has a gas or electric heater to warm the water up until it is quite hot. The hot water is then stored in the tank until it is needed for washing dishes, doing laundry, or having a shower. Not the most efficient system, but that is how it is in most homes.<br />
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When it is time for a shower you have both cold and hot water which come out of the faucet and can be adjusted to control the temperature. One of the greatest pleasures in life in Canada is a hot shower on a cold day!<br />
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Now, when I came to Davao I just assumed it would be the same. I quickly discovered that I was wrong. Here, hot water is not really necessary. Why would you want to have a hot shower when it is always hot outside? So here water comes into the house cold (relatively), dishes are washed in cold water, clothes are washed in cold water, and usually people are washed in cold water as well! One of the greatest pleasures in Davao is a cold shower on a hot day!<br />
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Sometimes though, it is nice to have a slightly lukewarm shower instead of a really cold one. In that case you need to have a water heater. That is a small box which attaches to your shower and plugs in, which heats the water before it leaves the shower head. On the right is a picture of the shower in our ensuite bathroom. You can see the water heater mounted on the wall next to the shower head. It plugs into an outlet up above (I know that water and electricity shouldn't mix, but it seems safe enough!). The temperature is controlled by the knob on the heater. Down below is a simple on/off valve to control the water. (The three knobs partway up don't actually do anything. I assume they used to work, but they don't now.) The only problem with this system is that the heater is activated only if there is a certain amount of water pressure present (more on that below!)<br />
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Note also the extra faucet at the bottom. That serves a couple purposes - it makes a great foot wash, it is good for using when cleaning the bathroom, and it works well to fill buckets. Why is filling buckets important?<br />
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I had read online before coming to Davao to check the water pressure in the house before renting it. Low water pressure is a common thing here, especially in the mornings when more people are using water. We hadn't had any real issues with water pressure (except when someone would flush the toilet when the shower was in use!) until recently. We had a really big thunderstorm with lots of lightning. I don't know what happened, but the next morning we had no water pressure. None at all. I assume that the lightning knocked out a pump somewhere. So that morning we had to do what most people here do - have a bucket shower.<br />
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As you can see, it is a bucket of water with a dipper to pour it on yourself. The water is cold (unless you heat up some water in a pot or kettle and add it to the bucket). It certainly wakes you up in the morning!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDjDqRblkcEO-jevuw0eRys5tFR-eGJoihtzPP1_mTYetgBhZUPr5qmEvEZ-InQuO__f76P9ywYExVlTTaU1-KccXC2lT77uRxk0zcZfuUTVa9ccfw_7DNsAkrcAFEJm1obcV_gJ4V1U8/s1600/Water+Tower.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDjDqRblkcEO-jevuw0eRys5tFR-eGJoihtzPP1_mTYetgBhZUPr5qmEvEZ-InQuO__f76P9ywYExVlTTaU1-KccXC2lT77uRxk0zcZfuUTVa9ccfw_7DNsAkrcAFEJm1obcV_gJ4V1U8/s320/Water+Tower.jpg" width="240" /></a>The other thing we were able to do was to open the valves on our water tower tank. We are fortunate to have a backup water supply in our yard. Most people do not. It is enough for a couple of days if necessary, and because it is elevated gravity provides some pressure to get it through the pipes. Not enough pressure for a decent shower though, certainly not enough for the water heater to operate, so it is still often a bucket shower in the morning!<br />
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The tank will automatically refill later in the day when the water pressure is higher, so it stays full unless the city water is shut down completely. Thankfully, they have somewhat fixed the problem, although we still do not have the same amount of pressure that we used to have, I guess that is something we will have to get used to!<br />
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I have learned to take a shower every evening, when the water pressure is good and I can actually turn on the water heater.<br />
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As you can see, it is a very different system from Canada - frustrating at times, but a lot more efficient than in Canada. Who would have thought that having a shower would be a cause for culture shock? I guess I would rather have culture shock in the shower than a shock in the shower from the water heater!<br />
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<br />Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10391975672440048310noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2149774935818071523.post-43995591664044874802011-09-26T01:13:00.000-06:002011-09-26T01:13:35.880-06:00Driving in Davao<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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One of the first things that I noticed upon arriving in Davao was the traffic. Not so much the amount of it, but rather the way that traffic operates here. We got off the plane, were picked up by some friends, and then were taken to their house. By the time we got there I was a bit tense from the drive. The way people drive here seemed crazy to me! Now, we hadn't planned to buy a vehicle before we came here, and after seeing the way traffic operates here I was very glad! I didn't want to even attempt to drive in what seemed to me to be chaotic and confusing.<br />
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That was two months ago. Since then I have had ample opportunity to observe traffic patterns and driving styles, and have come to understand a few things about driving here. I came to realize that drivers here are quite good. Accidents rarely happen, considerably less often than back in Canada. Drivers are quite aware of everything that is going on around them. There simply are a different set of rules that need to be followed here. I think I have figured out most of those rules now.<br />
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When we got our van a few weeks ago I felt I was ready to try my luck at driving. I had ridden in taxis and jeepneys a lot. I had been a passenger in vehicles driven by people who have been here a long time. I saw what to do and what not to do. So after several weeks of experience I present to you the Rules of Driving in Davao (or at least what I have gathered so far!):<br />
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<i><u>Rule 1</u></i><br />
If there is a space available you are free to place your vehicle there.<br />
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<u><i>Rule 2</i></u><br />
The vehicle that gets into a space first has the right of way (see Rule 8 below for exceptions).<br />
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<u><i>Rule 3</i></u><br />
If the space which you wish to occupy is currently occupied you may ease your way into that space to encourage the other vehicle to depart from said space.<br />
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<u><i>Rule 4</i></u><br />
If the space is open in a lane normally used by oncoming traffic you may use that space.<br />
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<u><i> </i><i>Rule 5</i></u><br />
If the space is in between two vehicles that are utilizing the lane markings painted on the road you may disregard the lane markings and occupy that space between the other vehicles.<br />
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<u><i>Rule 6</i></u><br />
If the space is on the sidewalk you may occupy it, providing you give warning to the pedestrians which may be occupying that space.<br />
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<u><i>Rule 7</i></u><br />
You shall give warning to other vehicles of your intent to occupy a given space by honking of your horn.<br />
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<u><i>Rule 8</i></u><br />
Size matters. The bigger the vehicle the more it has right-of-way. The pecking order goes something like this: Buses - large trucks - large jeepneys - large SUV's - smaller trucks - smaller jeepneys - taxis - cars - tricycabs - motorcycles - bikes - pedestrians.<br />
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<u><i>Rule 9</i></u><br />
Pedestrians have no rights, except that you must avoid hitting one at all costs.<br />
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<u><i>Rule 10</i></u><br />
Pedestrians may appear from anywhere and be in any given space at any given time. This often includes standing on a lane marker line in the middle of the road. Avoid them.<br />
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<u><i>Rule 11 </i></u><br />
Crosswalks are simply pretty designs painted on the roads and do not endow any form of right-of-way. The same goes for traffic signals. Just because the "walk" light is on does not mean that a pedestrian can walk, unless they happen to occupy that space before you do. (See Rule 2)<br />
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<u><i>Rule 12</i></u><br />
Seatbelts are optional. Especially in the back seats where seatbelts may not even be present.<br />
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<u><i>Rule 13</i></u><br />
Passengers in a vehicle (including children) may occupy any seat, or where seats are not present, may occupy any space available. The occupancy limit of any vehicle is based on the internal volume of the vehicle, the size of the passengers, and the availability of suitable locations on the external surfaces of the vehicle to allow passengers to sit, stand, or cling desperately to the sides.<br />
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<u><i>Rule 14 </i></u><br />
All above rules are subject to multiple exceptions based on circumstance. Be aware at all times of everything that is going on around you.<br />
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What seemed like chaos a few months ago has simply become normal now. It is amazing to see how well traffic works here, especially since there are few traffic lights and fewer traffic signs. I have yet to see a stop sign, and have seen few yield or merge signs. <br />
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But it really does work. Everyone knows the rules and everyone abides by them. I would say that traffic operates more smoothly and with less problems here than back in Canada. Drivers here are much more laid back and aren't in such a hurry. If the person in front of you is going really slow, you simply pull around them when you get a chance. If someone squeezes into a space in front of you, you let them have that space. Road rage may occur here, but if it does I have yet to see it.<br />
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I would suggest that drivers in North America could learn a few lessons from drivers here (Please leave your angry comments below).<br />
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I for one have learned to love the way that people drive here (mostly), and am interested to see how I handle driving back in Canada when we come back to visit. I will be the guy ignoring the lines on the road and squeezing between the cars in the lanes.Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10391975672440048310noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2149774935818071523.post-68244620410924494882011-09-12T22:16:00.000-06:002011-09-12T22:16:35.335-06:00Backyard Photo Shoot<div style="text-align: center;">
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I decided to take a few pictures this morning, as it was rainy and overcast today, so the light was quite good. All these shots are from our yard. Seeing as how a picture is worth a thousand words, I will let them speak for themselves.</div>
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