Hello everyone!
Well the adventure continues! God is good!We arrived safely and without any major problems. There was a delay in Vancouver, this gave us some problems in Japan with our connection flight to Manila. But, with all of us running and trying to find out how to get to the next plane we just made it in time. We were delayed in Japan as well because two passengers didn't show, so they had to dig to get their luggage out. Maybe this delay helped to get all our luggage ontoour flight, God knows!
When we flew into Manila around midnight, there was just a sea of lights,all across the horizon. As we looked out, Marijke peeped up: "Danieke, I can see the whole universe! It's showtime!" about 5 minutes later, Danieke: "I can see millions of lights just like twinkling stars!" It was really magical looking!We met a lot of nice Philippino people on the plane and one of them went over to the customs official and told him what we were doing in the Philippines and to "look after us" (unbeknownst to us!) So he directed us to go to a certain line and the official opened and looked at the top of a few of our boxes and sent us on our way!
At the airport we were greeted by Andy and Sarah from Mercy in Action. It was wonderful having them there and organizing getting us to our place. The ride was a new experience for us, with all the honking and not really paying attention to the lane dividers wow...However, the streets were clear and we were home in 30 minutes.
The weather here is really hot, even at midnight it's 26C.This, by far has been the biggest adjustment for us. Please pray that we and the kids will acclimate soon! In the meantime, it's extra deodorant for us! We are also getting used to a fair amount of pollution, and the fine layer of black that it leaves on surfaces in the house! It doesn't bother the kids at all, but as soon as they press their noses on the screen to look out the window, they have a black face!
Andy and his wife, Becky, have made all these adjustments easier for us by helping us get around and get the things we need to set up here. We bought a table and chairs yesterday and were able to get our bank account set up here. This was a huge thing! The first bank we went to, would not give us an account because we are not Philippino, so we went to Metrobank and now we are set up! This will help us a lot! To get a bank account, we needed to get passport photos to bring with us and we got 3 for 30 pesos. That's less than a dollar. They kept two and now I have one for my ID badge at the birth center.
We had some close encounters of the creature kind on our first night. We have some very large cockroaches (all the better to see them and get them!) and they are pretty brazen! They are about as long as a finger and move at the speed of light! We got about 4, and as most of you would recognize, Danieke was fascinated! ("no...you can't keep them!") We also had a rather large spider whom we evicted from under our kitchen sink (actually evicted then exterminated. He would have fit very nicely on a bread plate back home. Richard and I spent a few minutes plotting his death and mustering the courage to "execute"! Anyone who knows us, knows this was one of our fears...spiders, and it looks as though God has a sense of humour to get us over it in the first 24 hours!
We have some ants that are competing with us for food, so we now have a can of Raid and any ant is a marked ant! They love any kind of crumbs or sugar of any sort! They are really small, but bite leaving a mosquito type bite, so they are getting an eviction notice as well. Everyone else in the neighbourhood has been very friendly and there are a ton of kids on our street to play with! We have a "sari sari" right next door to us that sells pretty much all sorts of household stuff all in small packages. 1 cup servings of flour, sample sized dish soap, yummy mango juice, and sweets. It's very handy!
We took the receiving blankets and baby clothes to the clinic yesterday and they were delighted to get them! Thanks to all who donated. They will be made into "new baby" packages including a receiving blanket, an outfit, and some other baby items and will be distributed at the clinic to bless new moms.We'll take the vitamins and antibiotics over today!
We ate at the clinic yesterday for lunch and had a great Philippino style lunch with some of the other midwives. The Filipina midwives are very kind and I hope to get to know them soon! This morning we were up at 4:00 am with the kids and it feels much cooler! It's a much better time to work and the sun is just coming up as I write this...It's 6:00am now and we need to get going on clearing out some boxes and cleaning out some cupboards. Later today, our table and chairs will arrive, so we'll be ready! Mercy In Action set us up with a water dispenser and one burner stove, so we don't need to buy those...Thanks! We also have very comfortable beds thanks to them! We bought a bed for Matthijs (bamboo) yesterday from a neighbour. He had bought it a couple of days earlier from a street vendor, and we bought it from him at a $2 profit for him, so we were happy, (the whole bed cost a little over 10 dollars) and he was happy with his profit as well!
We so appreciate your prayers as we settle in here. There are many adjustments, but it feels so good to be here finally! We look forward to the adventures ahead and trust in His care.
Jetlagged and happy to be here...God bless. We love you.
Richard, Jocelyn, Danieke, Marijke and Matthijs Jelsma.
Family Ice Cream
