Our Family

Lollo

2011-10-05T12:17:00.000+08:00

Before Zac could say much, we'd been wondering what his word for Holly would be. In the last month or two, we've discovered it's Lollo. Sounds very cute when he says it.

Now that he can say it he uses it a lot. It's clear just how much he adores his big sister. The other night Holly stayed at her Oma's house, and in the morning, Zac kept walking into Holly's bedroom, calling out Lollo, Lollo, looking for his sister.

A couple of weeks ago, I got a bit cross with Holly right before she was going to go to the toilet, and she was crying and crying in the bathroom, and Zac was just standing at the door saying Lollo, with a worried little expression on his face. I pointed out to Holly that Zac was concerned for her, and she went over to him and he was touching her face. He then took her hand and they walked into the toilet together. She instructed me to go away, as Zac was taking her to the toilet!

dolls house continued

2011-10-03T12:27:00.000+08:00

It's fun listening to the conversations Holly makes up between her dolls in their dolls house. Gives you quite an insight into her world. One the other day went like this:

Little girl - Daddy, we've finished our breakfast, can we have some milk?
Daddy - No.
Little girl - Okay, Mummy, we've finished our breakfast can we have some milk?
Mummy - Yes you can have milk.

Is this how she sees us?!!

dolls house

2011-09-14T13:14:00.000+08:00

We gave Holly a second hand dolls house and some furniture for her 3rd b'day recently. It's been so much fun to watch her playing with it. She totally immerses herself in the beautiful world of pretend play. I hope it's going to be a present that stays popular for a while.

I love you

2011-08-29T11:45:00.000+08:00

Stefan and Holly's dinner conversation the other night:

Holly: Daddy I love you.
Stefan: I love you, all the way to the ceiling.
Holly: (catching on very quickly to the idea) I love you all the way to the roof.
Stefan: I love you to the top of the trees.
Holly: I love you as high the plants.
Stefan: I love you to the top of the building.
Holly: (my favourite one) I love you as far as we can go.
Stefan: I love you as high as a helicopter.
Holly: I love you as high as a plane.
Stefan: I love you all the way to the moon.
Holly: I love you all the way to the stars.

So beautiful :)

don't say good girl

2011-08-16T12:51:00.000+08:00

We've had a lot of challenging behaviour from Holly lately. Defiance, disobedience, rudeness, etc. Just part of being nearly 3 I think. There is one odd thing that she always says though. If one of us has asked her to do something, and there's been a long battle about it, and she's finally coming close to doing it, she always says "don't say good girl". We then must agree not to say "good girl" when she does the required action, and then she'll usually do it (often after repeating her warning several more times).

We're not quite sure if that's because she knows she hasn't been a good girl, or because she doesn't like the tone in our voice when we say it, or what... but she's very adamant that she doesn't want to hear "good girl" at those times.

Nanna

2011-08-01T12:08:00.001+08:00

My mum comes to look after the kids every Thursday while I go to work. Both kids love it. They get so excited when they hear Nanna at the door in the morning, and they always have such a lovely day with her. Nanna/Mum is a real blessing to our family.

Mum always has lots of lovely things to tell me about from their day together, and last week she wrote down a few. Here they are:

I took H & Z to the Library and Holly went up to the desk and said "Excuse me Library Lady could I please do some drawing - I'd like a picture with flowers on it". So the Library Lady (LL) gave her a sheet and crayons. Then she said: "Excuse me LL but I can't see my picture of Spot up on the wall." Absolutely months ago they pinned up one of her colouring in drawings of Spot the Dog on the wall. I could see the LL not really knowing what to say and I told Holly that lots of children did drawings and everyone had to have
a turn of having their picture pinned up. She accepted this as she knows about taking turns.

She can write her own name absolutely perfectly now so when she had finished colouring in she wrote her name and went running over to the LL with her picture and said "LL - have a look at my picture and I wrote my own name". Then she saw the Other LL and went running over to also show & tell her.

Somehow I did a tiny cut on my finger which was bleeding just slightly which I commented on and Holly said "Nanna we've got bandaids - would you like one?" Then she rubbed my back and said she wanted to make it all better so that I can "pick up kids".

Growing up

2011-07-22T11:08:00.000+08:00

There have been a few things in the last week that have really made me stop and think - my little girl is growing up.

The first was one morning while I was getting ready to go out. Holly was asking for lipstick. I said no. She said "all the other girls wear lipstick"!!!! What?! I'd expect this from an 8/9 year old, but not a (nearly) 3 year old. I asked her who wears lipstick. She thought for a moment, before rattling off a list of make believe names!

The second was last weekend when Holly was invited to go to the Disney on Ice concert with her friend. I drove her there, and her friend's mum met us at the car to take Holly in. Watching my daughter walk away, then driving away with an empty car was a new experience for me, one which I'm sure will happen a thousand more times throughout my kids' childhoods.

The third happened on Monday. Holly spotted the board game "Guess Who" in the cupboard, and wanted to play it. I was dubious about whether she was old enough for it, but Stefan wanted to give it a try. I was amazed by how quickly she got it! After a few turns, she knew exactly how it worked, and despite me continuing to check whether she had put the right people down, she got it right every time!

My little girl really is growing up!

sleepy cuddles

2011-07-12T20:07:00.000+08:00

Zac was pretty sick a couple of weeks ago, which obviously wasn't so great, EXCEPT for the lovely snuggles we got. He was so tired he was just falling asleep all over the place, so we got lots of sleepy cuddles. So lovely. :)

Reading time

2011-07-07T12:29:00.000+08:00

So glad I caught this precious, totally unpromted moment on camera. Holly loves reading, and will occasionally do it on her own, and Zac loves to copy everything Holly does. Beautiful :)

The not bosses

2011-07-07T12:19:00.000+08:00

Okay, time to get back into blogging again!

I'll start with a quote from Holly.

In a discussion about who's the boss, and why mummy is still the boss of Holly even though God is the big boss.
Me: "God made the mummies and daddies the bosses of the children."
Holly: "And God made little people the not bosses."

Bingo!

Holly's little fairy

2011-03-13T11:32:00.000+08:00

Holly loves dressing up as a fairy, and the other day she got the great idea to dress Zac up a as a fairy. Zac was very obliging at first:

but then started to get a little upset with the annoying wings behind his head...

and finally crawled to me to be rescued.

I wonder how many more times in his life he'll be dressed up by his big sister!

Sister and brother

2011-03-03T18:52:00.000+08:00

Our kids are still so little, but they already have a unique relationship with one another. They love to be around each other; watching them begin to actually play together is one of our recent joys. Holly adores her baby brother. She's great at looking out for him and letting me know if something is up, but she's also very good at pointing out when he's doing the wrong thing.

I'm not sure how a little brother acquires the characteristics typical of little brothers, but Zac seems to have it down already. He is SO good at annoying Holly, doing it almost effortlessly and seems to get the desired reaction every time. He drives Holly absolutely crazy, and delights in that!! I do feel sorry for Holly sometimes when she is trying to work on something a bit more "grown-up" - like drawing, play dough, building things - and Zac just comes along and wrecks it in a second. We're trying to train her to do some of those things in her room with her door closed (which of course Zac hates).

There are frustrations and there are joys... but every day we love watching our kids grow up together.

Below are some photos of some of their recent moments together.

a compliment!

2011-03-01T10:45:00.000+08:00

Holly was having some vegemite toast at lunch yesterday, and said to me "Yummo. You make good toast... and breakfast, and eggs, and jaffles". Very sweet, made me smile. :)

Our actress

2011-02-15T12:11:00.000+08:00

Holly hurt her lip quite badly the other day (lots of blood, very swollen, etc). A few days later she bumped it slightly during the day, so when she complained that it was sore while eating dinner that night (very believable, complete with pained noises and tears), I accepted that and, without thinking too much about it, obligingly took the carrots away.

I took the corn that I was preparing for her out of the saucepan, and started eating it myself. That's when things started to get a bit... fishy. She wanted the corn and was apparently completely capable of eating the corn without pain to her lip. I then put the carrots back in front of her and told her she needed to eat them before getting any yoghurt. She attempted one small bite, before the lip performance (as I then realised it was) began again. I have to give her credit, she was incredibly believable and was still able to invoke a feeling of sympathy in me, even when I knew it wasn't true! But I stood my ground and told her to eat the carrots. When she realised she wasn't getting anywhere, she finished all her carrots very quickly, and then asked for a cookie. I hesitated for a split second, during which time she said "the answer is yes". That made me laugh. And she got her cookie. :)

The zoo

2011-02-05T16:57:00.000+08:00

A few weeks ago we went to the zoo with some friends from church. Holly absolutely loved it. Since then, everything has been all about the zoo. She tells everyone about it, she wants us to tell her about it over and over again, and she even prays about it! Tonight before going to bed she prayed:
Dear God, thank you for the zoo. We had a wonderful time. We saw the elephants and giraffes and seals catching balls and zebras and tigers and koalas. We went with Eva and Cristy and Mike and Archie and Julian and Jo and... what's that man's name?
Daddy fills in the blank.
and Daniel. Amen.

Christmas

2010-12-27T11:15:00.027+08:00

Stefan and I spent Christmas Eve wrapping presents, mostly for the kids, and decorating stockings, and it felt like a little rite of passage of parenthood. I said to Stefan that I felt like a real parent after doing it!

We have been trying to teach our kids (well, just Holly this year) that Christmas is all about JESUS, so we spent a bit of time on Christmas morning reading through the story of Jesus birth (from a kids picture book) and we prayed together too.

Then they opened a few presents before we went to church.

Later that day at Oma's, and the next day at Nanna & Grandpa's, and then again today at home they got to open many more presents. They are very fortunate kids!

Here are a couple of videos of them opening a present from Opa & Mima (thanks Opa & Mima!).

Going for a ride

2010-12-27T11:01:00.000+08:00

We used some Christmas money from Uncle Ian to get a bike trailer and helmets for the kids. Tried it out for the first time this morning. So much fun! Here are some photos

Zac didn't love his helmet... hopefully he gets used to it!

Shopping... again

2010-12-08T17:45:00.000+08:00

I think I wrote once before about Holly and shopping, but just had to have another post on the topic. Holly just loves shopping. The other day I popped into Jeanswest (supposedly briefly) with her and Zac. Holly was in seventh heaven! She just wandered around in awe, touching all the "pretty skirts". [Sidenote - pretty much everything counts as a pretty skirt. One day I told her that her t-shirt was a short short pretty skirt (in order to avoid changing her clothes into an actual skirt/dress) and since then she will only refer to t-shirts as short short pretty skirts. She'll even say to me "I love your short short pretty skirt Mummy".]

Anyway, I picked out a t-shirt (I mean short short pretty skirt) to try on, and Holly came into the change room with me. I was ready to leave fairly soon after that, but Holly was so upset. She just wanted to stay and keep looking at all the clothes. Then she wanted to go into other shops to look at more!

Oh dear, what IS she going to be like at 14???

Our little people person

2010-12-08T17:30:00.000+08:00

Our little boy just loves to be around people. If one of us goes into another room he will crawl after us as fast as he can. He hates to be left alone, and just wants to be around people (preferably being held!) all the time. In the mornings when he is up before Holly (which is all the time), when she starts to make noise, he's always the first one to notice, and crawls up to her door and starts banging on it. We've recently started to open the door a tiny bit (without Holly seeing) so Zac can push the door open and crawl in. It's so cute seeing their reactions! Holly is so delighted to see him, and excitedly tells me "Zaccy opened my door" when I go in. Zac of course is thrilled to see his big sister, and grins and giggles.

Bath-time fun

2010-12-02T11:29:00.000+08:00

I love this video! Little glimpse into how Holly likes to tell Zac what to do (with all the authority of a mummy!). Love that Zac seems to listen to her for a few seconds, then keep going anyway.

Hair cut

2010-12-02T11:12:00.000+08:00

This is a bit belated (haven't posted for a while!) but Zac had a hair cut a few weeks ago, and looks so different, so thought I'd put up some photos of him.

Cheeky

2010-11-04T10:52:00.001+08:00

The other night Holly was being slow and stroppy about finishing her dinner. I went to stand next to her to talk to her. As I started saying "You need to finish your dinner before you can have berries..." etc she leans her head back to rest on the back of her chair, closes her eyes and starts to make a snoring noise!!! I had to turn my back to her so she wouldn't see my uncontrollable laughter! So cheeky but so funny.

my darling mummy

2010-10-28T18:41:00.000+08:00

One of Holly's favourite things to call me at the moment is "my darling mummy". It is so cute! She mostly says it when she thinks I have hurt myself or gotten upset. "Okay my darling mummy?" she asks me. She always wants to kiss me better if I've hurt something. My heart melts every time!

Thunder

2010-10-28T18:35:00.000+08:00

There was a storm yesterday afternoon, and the thunder was pretty loud. I already knew Zac was pretty jumpy, so I was sitting close to him when the thunder started. Poor little love, he jumped a mile and burst into tears at the first loud clap. I just held him close, and he buried his little face into my chest at every loud bang. It is so precious to be able to be that person to him.

Chatty Zac

2010-10-21T10:07:00.000+08:00

Recently our little boy has started to become very vocal! If anyone makes a loud noise, he joins in the fun, trying to be louder than anyone else. He makes lots of "talking" sounds - ba ba, da da, ga ga. When he sits playing he chats away happily to himself. It's so lovely to listen to and always makes me smile.

Praying

2010-10-21T10:05:00.000+08:00

Recently Holly has started to want to be the one to give thanks before dinner. This is how her prayer usually goes:
Dear God
Thank you for dinner
Thank you for lunch
Thank you for dinner
Amen

Yesterday I was teaching her that we can thank God for other things too, like family and friends. I modelled a few to her (thank you for Zac, thank you for my daddy, thank you for my friends) and then she says "thank you for my Eva" (her friend from church). So sweet. :)

Shopping

2010-10-15T10:46:00.000+08:00

Our sweet little girl has only just turned 2, but already she loves to shop! As she wanders through a clothes shop, she touches the dresses and skirts, exclaiming "look mummy/daddy/nanna/etc, pretty skirt" at every second one, and then asking "borrow this one?". (Beautiful innocence!) She doesn't even need to physically be in the store to notice all the dresses, she is quite excellent at pointing them out in the windows as we walk past.

She loves shoe shopping too. If we ever go into a shoe store, she wants to try everything on. We made the mistake of taking her into a shoe store the other day, letting her try on a few pairs, and then (uh oh) leaving without buying any. Major tantrum. Huge tears. Big bottom lip. Not a happy little girl. But she was so delighted that afternoon when I brought home a pair of pink sandals I had bought for her from a factory outlet (while she was asleep!).

I wonder what she will be like as a teenager...

An afternoon at the park

2010-10-10T11:08:00.000+08:00

The four of us went to the park the other day... it was such a lovely afternoon. Here are some photos.

Our particular daughter

2010-10-07T17:44:00.000+08:00

Neat? Orderly? Meticulous? I've been searching for the right word for Holly, and can't quite find the one I want, but these ones give you a bit of an idea of what I mean. She is super particular when it comes to mess and things the way they should be (or the way she thinks they should be). If I leave a kitchen cupboard door or the microwave open, she'll insist on it being closed before she will eat her dinner (or do whatever it is I want her to do). When she comes into the loungeroom after waking up in the morning, there's often lots of Stefan's schoolwork spread around from the night before. She'll quickly announce "all messy here" and order "Daddy clean it up". [We were out on a walk the other day and she spotted a messy driveway area, and said the same thing!!]

When helping me peg out the nappies she insists on putting a pink peg on a pink nappy, yellow peg on a yellow nappy, and so on. She is quite put out when she wants to hang up something white or brown or black and I have to tell her we don't have those coloured pegs.

If Stefan or I rest our foot on the coffee table or the edge of her chair, she strongly requests (okay, let's be honest, demands) that we put it down.

She sure has strong ideas about the way her world should be!

Going away

2010-10-06T11:16:00.000+08:00

We went away for the last few days with my (Lara's) parents and nephew Sean to my uncle's house in Bateman's Bay. I was a bit apprehensive about it, just cause it's the first time we've been away since Zac has been sleeping well, and I didn't want to do anything to mess that up. Also because Holly seems to get quite car sick, and it's a reasonably long drive.

Turns out, I needn't have worried! The kids slept really well, Zac especially, and Holly didn't get sick at all. We had a really lovely time. We went to the markets, Holly played in the park with Stefan and Sean, we visited a cute little town 15 mins away, we walked along the boardwalk and we went shopping! Not to mention all the lovely time we got to spend together at the house, playing games, talking, having fun with the kids, watching movies... It was a real blessing to be able to go away with family, and for the kids to be able to spend time with their grandparents and cousin. :)

Lovely sister

2010-09-28T17:09:00.000+08:00

Zac was crying in his high chair this evening while I was getting his dinner ready. Without me saying anything, Holly came close to him to sing him "Twinkle Twinkle" to cheer him up. She then went to get some of his toys to hand to him, and also got a music one that he particularly likes and pressed the buttons while holding it up for him. I said to her "Holly, how did you become so lovely, who did you learn it from?". She paused a moment, before answering "ah, God". Wow, I was blown away. I'm not sure what her understanding is, but what an answer!!

Playing with Daddy

2010-09-24T19:33:00.000+08:00

This video is pretty long, but cute! Holly exploring a hand-me-down train set we were given bya family at church... and Zac trying to grab everything vaguely within reach.

one more

2010-09-23T18:52:00.000+08:00

One I meant to add to the below list... Holly passing me one of her toys, saying "here you go my darling".

Bottle-able moments

2010-09-23T11:00:00.000+08:00

There are some moments that are just so sweet I want to bottle them away in my heart forever. Like when Stefan came home from work yesterday evening, and Holly says "I love Daddy". And Zac practically leaping out of anyone else's arms back into my arms. Holly on the phone to my Mum the other day "Happy Birthday Nanna. I love Nanna". Zac laughing hysterically at Holly trying to entertain him. Holly ever-so-gently kissing my knee better when I said it was sore. Zac reaching out his little arm to touch my face while I am breastfeeding him. These are the things I want to remember always.

Time out

2010-09-20T18:24:00.001+08:00

We've been giving Holly a bit more freedom with her textas lately. Too much freedom it seems. While I was finishing the washing up the other day, she took her yellow (thankfully!) texta, and decided to do a bit of artwork on the walls.

We've started "time-out" with her lately, so to the time out chair she went.

Not sure if she really sees time out as a deterrent yet though. She sometimes offers to give herself a time out if she thinks she's done something wrong, and once she even said that Zac should have a time out (for kicking in the bath)!

Trampoline

2010-09-19T19:37:00.000+08:00

Tap dancing

2010-09-19T19:08:00.000+08:00

Videos

2010-09-19T19:01:00.000+08:00

I have just learnt how to post videos on here, so will try to put up the best ones from the last couple of months over the next few days. They may only be interesting to family overseas (who have specially requested it)... but feel free to watch anyway if you want! :)

Reading "together"

2010-09-18T19:51:00.001+08:00

A video of Holly reading with her cousin... she is not so keen on sharing books, but does love reading to whoever will sit and listen.

Keeping busy

2010-09-15T11:08:00.000+08:00

It's quite a challenge to occupy both kids with something that is interesting and developmentally appropriate for each of them, but this morning (for a brief time!) we had a win. Zac loved the buttons and music on this walker toy.

And Holly loved gluing patty pans onto paper.

My little helper

2010-09-13T11:05:00.000+08:00

Holly has become really interested in helping us lately. She's actually getting pretty good at some things too, like taking the washing out of the machine, and hanging up things like socks and bibs on the line. Very sweet.

Sleep!

2010-09-13T11:02:00.001+08:00

We have been working on a new routine with Zac for about 10 days, and I'm so thrilled to say that he's now sleeping through the night. He occasionally makes noise during the night, but he's learnt to settle himself without needing me! Wakes at about 6 and makes (mostly) happy noise til around 6:30. We're still working on day sleep, but I'm not too worried about that given he's sleeping well at night. :) I feel like a new person!

Our little Dutch girl

2010-09-12T15:08:00.000+08:00

So there is this gross Dutch lolly called "double zout" - double salt licorice. It is completely disgusting. Basically as soon as anyone gets it in their mouth, they want to spit it out straight away. (I realise a few members of Stefan's family may disagree with me on that... but I think it is, objectively, a fair description of this revolting lolly.)

Anyway, the other day Stefan decided to feed it to Holly. I objected, but he insisted, and I figured she'd probably spit it out straight away anyway, so I relented, but had some water close by for her to wash her mouth out with. He cut a tiny piece off her her (cause even he figured she wouldn't like it)...

and in her mouth it went...

I was close by with the water, ready to cuddle and console her after this ordeal.

BUT... much to my horror... she liked it!

And ate several pieces. Seems we have a real little Dutch girl.

Sibling love

2010-09-08T10:49:00.001+08:00

One of my favourite times of the day is just after both kids have woken up from their middle of the day sleep. I take one of them into the other's room (usually Zac into Holly's) and they have some time together in the cot.

They are so sweet together. They're always delighted to see each other (much more excited than to see me!). They lie or sit together, Holly trying to hold Zac's hand, Zac trying to get it free to pull on her hair or touch her face...

It makes me smile every day, and thank God for our two beautiful children.

Little Houdini

2010-09-06T18:16:00.000+08:00

We recently bought Holly a sleeping bag in the next size up, which is supposed to be kid proof in terms of them getting out of it. The zip is up the size with some tight press studs just under her left arm, and then there are press studs on the shoulders too. So I was a little surprised when I came into her room after her sleep one day to fine her just in her shirt and nappy, gleefully jumping on the sleeping bag!

Fathers Day

2010-09-06T18:07:00.000+08:00

I think Stefan got the best present on Fathers Day - a snuggle with both kids in bed. Holly has basically never come in to our bed before (far too active) so it was all the more special when, totally unprompted, she asked Stefan if she could come in.

Dinner time

2010-08-03T11:30:00.000+08:00

We've just started making Holly finish everything on her plate before she gets dessert. Last night she was trying pretty hard to get out of it. First, of all, I said "Holly please eat your beans." She said "no thanks"!! Hmm..
Then a few minutes later we look over to see her stuffing all her beans into her hand, pressed against her chest. She looks down at her empty plate. "All finished" she announces. I was cracking up in the kitchen, while Stefan calmly explained to her that she actually has to eat it all, not just take it off her plate!
Her last ditch attempt was to reach over to Zac's high chair and put all her beans on his table. Good try, but she didn't get away with that one either!

The next Australian Idol?

2010-05-13T18:33:00.000+08:00

Has she got what it takes?

Counting

2010-05-08T18:27:00.003+08:00

I haven't set out to teach Holly to count, but have been counting to her every now and again, like when it's ten more pushes on the swing, for example. So I was pretty surprised the other day when she counted from one to ten on her own! Here is a video of her doing it.

Smokey Mountain Kids

2007-12-03T15:54:00.000+08:00

The above picture is of an area on the outskirts of Manila called 'Smokey Mountain'. Here, people, many of whom are children, earn a living (if it can be called that) by sorting out rubbish that gets dumped there and selling what can be re-used. In essence, they are recycling.

A mother from my (Lara’s) class visited this area 10 years ago. She saw that there was no hope for these children. As young as 3 years old, they spent their days scouring the dumpsite, barefoot, for plastic, paper, cardboard... anything that could be recycled. Their older brothers and sisters and parents and grandparents were all doing this too. It’s not too hard to imagine what these children will be doing when they’re 30, 40, 50... And their children like them.

Her heart was greatly moved, and she decided to come back to the Philippines permanently and set up a school for these children. Ten years later, there are about 430 elementary aged children attending her school. They no longer spend their whole day on the rubbish tip. They are learning to read and write. Maybe, just maybe, these kids will have a different future to their parents and grandparents before them.

What a blessing it is to partner in this ministry.

Our new friends

2007-10-20T17:53:00.000+08:00

A week ago we wrote about our angry little kittens. Well... our angry little kittens pretty soon turned into our cute, lovable, attention seeking little kittens. We've been giving them milk every day, and one day decided just to pick them up (even though they were still hissing at us!). That pretty soon softened them up, and now it's no more hissing... just crying out for us. All the time! All they want now is attention. But we don't mind too much. They're pretty cute, and so very curious. I (Lara) think Stefan especially loves them. ;) (And these photos prove it!) So, whether we like it or not, I think we have ourselves some new pets.

Angry, angry kittens

2007-10-14T11:50:00.000+08:00

Recently, we've been hearing kittens making a whole lot of noise - more than you think would be possible from such small things. Thinking that they were next door and there was nothing that could be done, we tried to ignore them. Out of curiosity one day, we decided to look in our back yard and look what we found!

Two little kittens, left all alone in the big bad world..... how cute!

Well, in a word, no. These kittens are not very cute at all. They are down-right mean. It seems they have adjusted all too quickly to the world, skipped the cute stage and gone straight to looking after themselves.

Life can be harsh.

The photos show us trying, in vain, to reach out to them.

No such thing as a comfort zone here.

2007-08-31T17:23:00.000+08:00

We had our church's 34th anniversary last Sunday. And since it is quite natural for Filipinos to get up on stage and sing whenever they get a chance, someone in our church thought we might like to do the same. Let's just say that we were not exactly looking forward to our time on stage!
The day came, we had practised singing our song with each other but not our accompanist. Hmmm, this might turn out to be interesting.

We had asked the lady who would be playing the piano for us if she was going to be ok to do it. I guess we should realise by now that Filipinos really don't like to say 'no' so she say "Yes, yes, it will be fine."

Our time finally comes and we get up on stage, only to look down and see someone totally new behind the piano with our original accompanist looking on!

Lara and I glance at each other nervously, knowing there's no way to back out now. In the end, it turned out well, even though I'm pretty sure the music was being played by sight - quite impressive....

Some people there even mentioned that they want us to sing again. But maybe they were just being polite...... :)

Rev-head security guards?

2007-07-30T13:01:00.000+08:00

This one made me laugh - so I had to stop a take a photo.

We were in Thailand, going to a bar on the roof (literally) of a 60-something floor hotel. As we drove in, I noticed this sign, accompanied by two guards:

"Hey Joe, check this one out - it's modified!"

"Gee, it's nice. That's gotta put out at least 200kW! Well, we should probably let the nice people through now."

"Yeah, good point. Thanks a lot!" says the security guard, as he drops the bonnet and we drive on by.

Needless to say, it didn't quite happen like that. They only checked the boot. Or the trunk. Whatever.

Welfareville

2007-07-24T15:57:00.000+08:00

You might have heard us say it before, but poverty is one of the hardest things to deal with in Manila. It's literally everywhere you look. One of the most obvious outward signs of poverty are the squatter settlements. These are basically areas of land, on which people who don't have much have built a place for themselves.

One of the biggest squatter areas in Manila is called Welfareville. It is divided into 45 blocks, and thousands of people live in each block. We had the opportunity to visit Welfareville in June, and it was quite an experience.

There are narrow alleyways running between tiny, dilapidated houses, made out of wood, tin, cardboard and occasionally cement. Most houses have one room on the bottom floor and one room on the top floor. Usually a different family lives on each floor.

On the day we visited, we saw cock fights with dozens of men eagerly clustered around, women scrubbing at clothes out the front of their house, and semi naked children, sent out into the rain by their parents (I assume for a shower). Everyone greeted us with friendly smiles.

We were there to visit the Sunday School of the church which OMF has helped to establish in Welfareville. (OMF also runs various other ministries, including livelihood programs, youth educational scholarships and health programs).

It was great to meet some of the 30 or so Sunday School leaders. Young people from Welfareville themselves, who don't have very much, yet they serve the Lord joyfully and enthusiastically. Encouraging and also challenging.

I did it! I should be on 'Fear Factor'!

2007-07-17T01:49:00.000+08:00

Balut.

There's a reason the producers of 'Fear Factor' decided to include this delicacy on the show.

I had to work very hard to detach my mind from thinking about what I was eating. And I came close to failing in that regard which would have certainly resulted in some nasty display from me. Thankfully, I managed to keep that outcome at bay and ate the whole thing!

Here's what it is, from 'Wikipedia' -

"A balut is a fertilized duck egg with a nearly-developed embryo inside that is boiled and eaten in the shell."

Look up some higher resolution pictures to get a better idea of what it looks like! I'm happy to answer questions on this one, not so happy if I somehow, sometime, need to re-live the experience!

Bangkok and Manila

2007-07-05T22:36:00.000+08:00

We have just spent 3 weeks in Bangkok, and were really struck by some of the differences between Bangkok and Manila. Here are just a few...

1. Traffic They say traffic in Bangkok is bad, but Manila is honestly 100 times worse. You’re pretty much guaranteed when you go out in Manila to get stuck in traffic. After careful observation, we have deduced that this is primarily the fault of the thousands upon thousands of jeepneys (see picture), as they stop whenever and wherever they like to pick up passengers.

2. Poverty level Now, we didn’t go everywhere in Bangkok, but from what we did see, the poverty in Manila is far more widespread and commonplace than in Bangkok. In Manila, it seems like we see squatter settlements (see photo) every 2-3kms. This didn’t seem to be the case in Bangkok.

3. Language Getting things done in Manila is so much easier, because pretty much everyone speaks at least some English. In Thailand, it’s difficult to find someone who can speak and understand English – more often than not, they expect that you will speak Thai.

4. Food The food in Thailand is amazing! So tasty, so cheap and so readily available! You can pick up an excellent meal at a roadside stall in Bangkok for 25-30 baht (1 Australian dollar). You just don’t get food like that here in Manila.

5. Queuing In Bangkok, people line up in neat, orderly lines, all of their own accord! People don’t push, shove or crowd. Let’s just say, it sure isn’t like that in Manila!

We really enjoyed our time in Bangkok, but it was actually quite nice to arrive “home” on Monday morning!

What is Halo Halo?

2007-06-08T22:03:00.000+08:00

This is the coolest dessert I have come across in the Philippines. It's called Halo Halo, which literally translates as Mix Mix.

I actually don't really know what's in it. What I do know is that it has a lot of crushed ice (very good to combat the heat!). The purple ball is ube flavoured ice cream. Ube is some kind of root thing - I'm not really sure. There is some real ube in the picture, it's the really dark purple thing to the right of the ice cream. Other than that, there's some young coconut strips, a few sweet corn kernels, and I don't know what the rest is.

It tastes good though.......

I've heard that it's been used as an analogy for the Filipino culture. That is, neither simply Asian or simply Western, but a mix of both with many different influences from various times. Or that's something like the analogy goes.

I think that we have subjected the experience of trying Halo Halo to everyone who visits us. Maybe I'll be able to introduce it to all you Australians when we get back.

Hope I haven't put you off....... :)

Time, from a Filipino perspective

2007-05-07T19:08:00.000+08:00

Well, you may not have realised, but it is Stefan who has written every post on our blog so far. I (Lara) decided it was probably time to change this state of affairs, so - here I am!

Since we've been here, we have noticed that Filipinos do not have the same sense of time as us westerners do. For example, they might say that they'll meet you at 7, but in reality it will probably be 8, 8:30, and that is not a problem for them.

We went to see a movie the other day (Spiderman 3), and noticed another manifestation of this time relaxed-ness. We're sitting in the cinema, and 20 minutes into the movie, there are still people coming in. Not overly unusual, I thought to myself, but figured it would stop pretty soon. Half an hour in, people start to leave. Even though I wasn't overly keen on seeing this movie, I didn't think it was that bad!

Forty five minutes in, people are still trickling in. And, every so often, a group of people leave. This trend continues throughout the movie, even up until about 20 minutes before the movie ends, when a group of about 15 people walk into the cinema, loudly finding seats and squeezing past people. Unbelieveable, I think to myself.

Yet when the movie did end, and most people got up to leave, there were some people staying behind. And that's when I realised. These people that came in 20 minutes before the end of the movie, were going to stay to watch the next session of Spiderman. And I can almost guarantee that they would have left 20 minutes before the end of that session.

You see, time doesn't matter to Filipinos in the same way that it does to us westerners. They wouldn't want to rush whatever it was they were doing before the movie, just to be on time for the session. So, they arrive when they arrive, watch the full movie (even if it's not in chronological order) and leave when they have seen the whole thing. Simple as that!

Inefficiency - a way of life

2007-04-22T19:38:00.000+08:00

Last night, Lara and I made probably the most stupid decision to date. We decided to go do some shopping before catching a movie at Mega Mall (the biggest shopping centre around!).

Study the picture - see if you can figure out where all the traffic is going.

Figured it out yet?

The big building is half of Mega Mall, there's an identical one attched to the northern end. On the southern and northern ends of Mega Mall are two carparks and the line of cars in the picture are all going to the southern carpark.

This isn't too weird, not yet. To make it a little stranger, check out the line of cars in the top right corner of the picture. They have been diverted onto the wrong side of the road to meet oncoming traffic and are subsequently forced to turn left down a one way street.

Not that they mind, because the car park is where they're headed. Hold on to your hats, more weird-ness is on the way!

Despite the fact that the car park is full - they had a sign saying so - a traffic controller is still directing traffic into the car park and parking tickets are being issued - P40 flat rate (about AUD$1). Hmmm ...... moving right along......

The most crazy thing about all this is the design of the car park. As far as I could figure out, there was no way to go down levels - only up! We didn't know this at the time so we figured 'head to the roof - there's bound to be spots there!'. We get there only to find a bottle neck, because we can't go down and the only options are to drive around, at a crawl, that is, waiting for a park or pay the ticket and exit!

This whole ordeal (and it really was one) took us more than an hour, in which we drove less than 1km.

We gave up, parked about 500m away and walked to Mega Mall instead.

They say being efficient is not real high on the priority list here in the Philippines - it really has to be seen, or experienced, to be believed!

Black Friday singing

2007-04-14T16:46:00.000+08:00

Ok, here's the challenge:

Turn your speakers up to a reasonble volume, start the movie playing at 5:30 in the morning and let it repeat for about 12 hours.

If you do this, you will be all the more able to sympathise with us.

Just down the hill from the OMF guesthouse in Calapan, there is a Catholic grotto. Every year, on Black Friday, people (with the aid of a loudspeaker, of course) sing through the passion of Jesus Christ narrative.

I'm not sure how it works, or how they could possibly keep on singing ALL day. We were told that they don't repeat anything. Who knows?

Either way, the one thing that was definitely repetitive was the tune - I was convinced the next day that I could still hear them singing, not just in my head, but in the grotto down the hill!

But for all the negative impressions I had of what they were doing, there were many questions raised.

Do they sing a sorrowful song (some sections certainly sounded that way)? Is it with heavy hearts that they do this?

Is there joy in their singing? I wish I could have understood them.

Is it a mix of both sorrow and joy? Or maybe they sing because that was what happened last year, because that is the tradition.

One thing is for sure - their committment was real. We could see it, or rather, hear it. In a strange way, I feel rebuked by their committment. Sometimes, it's just too easy to let the days slide by without remembering (and I mean remembering in a purposeful way) what the Cross achieved.

Well, I'm not sure how to end this, and as usual, there are more questions than answers.

For the moment, I'm ok with that.

Fresh from the coconut tree

2007-04-14T11:20:00.000+08:00

Now there's not all that much to do in Calapan - it's not really a place where tourists go and the Lonely Planet guide mentions it as cursory information (a stepping stone to other places). One of the things we did do, though, was to go snorkelling off one of the islands nearby. There was a family there for the day who had built a small shelter (see the photo).

They were very friendly, and after climbing one of the coconut trees and getting a few coconuts, they offered to cut them open for us!

I was interested in trying to get one open myself - the guy made it look so easy! So we borrowed his bolo (what we call a machete) and I set to trying to get another coconut open.

I'm sure my attempt was not as pretty and took much longer but I eventually succeeded and was able to taste the fruit of my labour. The next thing I want to learn is how to climb the trees and get the coconuts for myself. But the trees are seriously high and the thought of climbing to the top of one freaks me out! I'll let you know if I ever succeed.....

Crushed at Batangas

2007-04-14T09:52:00.000+08:00

It's been a while since our last post - Sorry if you've checked often and not found anything new. I received some advice that I need to write more often. So here goes....

Last week, Easter, is known as 'holy week' here in the Philippines. Mike and Kara Wong were able to visit us for more than a week, which was an awesome blessing. We figured that we would travel to the OMF guesthouse in Calapan to relax and enjoy their hospitality. The only problem with this idea was that 'holy week' is the time for everyone to travel out of Manila and go somewhere else.

I wish we had taken a picture! To go pretty much anywhere by boat, you need to leave from Batangas. To get into the terminal waiting area, there is one door before the security check. Before the door are all the counters where you buy the tickets. I've never seen that room so crowded before. Actually, I'm not sure I've been in anything that crowded.

The whole room was filled with people, all trying to get through that one door. Some people were cutting across the door in order to buy the terminal entrance ticket (a boat ticket is not enough to get in, you need a terminal ticket as well!). Anyway, I'm carrying our bag with all our stuff in front of me, my arm cramping beacuse there's not enough room to put the bag down, pretty much leaning on Kara in front of me, all the while trying keep my balance and not fall over.

I saw the head of a young boy - couldn't see the rest of him - at about waist height. He looked as if he was just being carried along wherever the people around him went. I imagine it would have been quite a scary experience.

Well, we got through and just made it for our 7:15am boat ride.

Something from KL

2007-03-23T20:53:00.000+08:00

I went to a butterfly park while I was in Kuala Lumpur. It was on one of the days we had off where we got a good chance to explore various things around the city. A great big enclosure with heaps of butterflies flying around. It was quite dangerous actually - for the butterflies, that is. They would land on the path (to rest or something) where the people were walking. I think you can think of some of the consequences for the butterflies.

As we exited from the park, it turned into more of an insect exhibition and it was here that I came across this bug/beetle that I just had to get a photo of.

What can you see?

How about upside down?

Strange Things

2007-03-23T19:03:00.000+08:00

So I was down south in a place called Puerto Galera during our mid-term holiday with Lara and a few friends. The particular area we stayed in was called Small La Laguna.

Walking down a little alley one day, lined with shops filled with Filipino and other foreign items, we turn into a store with international items.

Then I see something that reminds me of home .....

Yes, that's right, not one, not two, not even three, but four Australian beers! And not only that, Mersey Valley cheese as well, among other things. Cheeses aren't very common here. In fact, it's almost impossible to find good quality cheese anywhere.

Anyway, I was suitably impressed and thought I'd share it with you.

Random photos

2007-02-22T16:56:00.000+08:00

I couldn't think of a way to insert these pictures into the existing posts so I thought a new post, consisting only of photos would be nice.

The photo on the left shows part of the OMF Mission home in Calapan on the island of Mindoro. We stayed there for a weekend while visiting a 20th anniversary of a church started by one of the OMF'ers.

This photo was taken at a nice little 'restaurant' while we were visiting Intramuros, a town surrounded by stone walls. Visiting there was part of our historical education.

Anyway, this restaurant served the food wrapped in banana leaves. We were suitably impressed, having been in the Philippines for less than a week.

I think I recall trying some intestines. It turned out to be quite nice, albeit with some crunchy tough bits. I was later told that ordering food with intestines can be very dicey at times because of the kinds of diseases that can be transmitted. I'm still alive. So that's a good thing.

This is a view from our balcony. We are on the third floor of an apartment block (commonly simply called 'The Condos') surrounded by green-ness, overlooking a golf course.

It's a strange place, because it feels so far removed from the rest of what Manila is like. We only have to drive two minutes down the road and there are roads which are busy 24 hours a day, shops lining the streets only to be broken up by the squatter settlements resided in by the urban poor.

It is a nice place, with a nice pool, for which we will be very thankful when the hot season comes. It's hard to believe that we're not in it already!

The last photo shows that some good does come out of lots of pollution - awesome sunsets! The colours are really striking. For you Australians reading this, the colour of the sun every day is like that when there are far too many bush fires creating too much smoke. The sun shines through and it's a brilliant red. Thats what we see every day. Already we've taken too many photos, trying to capture it perfectly. But our camera just can't do it justice. So you will all have to settle for second best. Unless you come over here, then we can show you personally - any takers? :)

Beer, here, from an Australian POV

2007-02-11T13:12:00.000+08:00

From the outset, let me say that I am not an expert on this topic and am still learning more.

Being an Australian, who likes the occasional beer, I was most impressed that beer in the Philippines is actually quite cheap. I happened to mention this interesting fact to some of people I work with and what followed was an interesting insight into more of the Filipino culture.

Bisyo. It's a Tagalog word that is commonly associated with alcohol. It's roots are in Spanish and it can be translated as 'vice'. That's how the people here see alcohol - as a vice.

However, from what little I have seen so far, the place where it is drunk plays an important part in determining whether it is 'bisyo' or not. For example, we went out last Saturday night to a fairly nice area where people were drinking beer with their meal.

Is this an example of 'bisyo'? Or is it socially appropriate?

Having one beer with a group of people down the road. Is it 'bisyo'? Or a way to mingle and converse with the local Filipinos?

Drinking a beer in the heat of the afternoon because I like the taste. 'Bisyo'? Or acceptable? Or maybe our house-helper (another topic to write about, actually) will see the empty bottles and her impression of me will become tainted?

There are many questions and not many answers.....yet. However, I am leaning towards not drinking alcohol so that I may be 'above reproach'.

Ist entry, one week in.....

2007-01-15T18:17:00.001+08:00

Before anything else, our apologies for both the delay in which this first post has arrived and the lack of photos included. We really want to include photos because they would be able to explain, more than words could, the sights we are coming across. Stefan forgot to bring the cable to transfer the photos from camera to computer. But never fear, that is coming along soon.

We don't want this blog to be a daily review of what we are doing each day. Most days from now on will be teaching, so much the same things each day. But, being a different country, with different people and cultures, there are a few things which will, on occasion, pique our interest and curiousity. These things we will write about.

The first thing that we have noticed is the disparity between rich and poor. We've always heard about it but witnessing it first hand is something different. On one of the main roads here (another thing we could write about!) there is a, what looks to be, brand new car dealership. Walk down the road 100m and there is a squatter settlement some 200m square.

The interesting thing is that, up to this point, we have not seen anyone seriously malnourished, lacking adequate clothing, etc. Some of the Filpinos we have met live in these settlements and that fact certainly flipped us out. So we can't understand it - what we see is simply so different to anything we're used to that we haven't got any answers.

Before this gets too long, we're better stop and be off to bed. After all, it is past 9 o'clock! Good night to all, hopefully the next post will come complete with photos.

much love,

Stefan and Lara

P.S. We wake up at 5:30am as school starts at 7am