Hey family,
Sorry this is so long. I hate reading super long emaiIs so hopefully this is exciting enough. I couldn't possibly begin to adequately explain everything from this week. I'm in an area called 'Lubao' It's about an hour outside of Olongapo.
I am glad that I was able to live in Quito for last summer, because it would be terrifying if I'd never left the country. It's even more foreign than Quito was, and it's been quite an adventure. Even being semi-familiar with the process of learning to be conversational in another language has helped and I'm already learning a lot of Tagalog. The structure is still confusing to me though.
My companion is Sister Mele Tupouniua. She is Tongan, but has lived in Utah her whole life. I am really glad that I have an American as my first companion, even though she's not fluent in Tagalog. (She is 5'11'' and since we are both tall and foreign, we are quite the sight!) I am constantly asking questions about everything, so it's nice to not worry if I'm asking something that might be offensive or rude to a filipino. I've have so many questions and it's nice to learn a lot while still being able to speak English. She has been out in the Philippines for 7 months. With the new program that has been implemented, she will be my trainer for the next 12 weeks, and then after that 12 weeks, I should (in theory) be able to train someone else. Most likely I won't have to do that though.
I'm not sure where to begin. Yesterday was my first time at church here, the Lubao branch. Everyone was super friendly and nice. I introduced myself during the testimony meeting and shared my testimony. I tell everyone that I was born in Chicago, because a lot of them have heard of Chicago (probably because of Michael Jordan.) My companion said that it's super unusual for them to hear an American speaking Tagalog, so they listen to everything, despite it being pretty bad Tagalog.
For Relief Society yesterday, it was combined with the men and instead of a lesson, they planned their ward Christmas party! haha. They have a Primary Christmas party, a RS Christmas Party and then a branch Christmas party. Christmas is such a huge deal here and my companion told me that other people in the area know all about the Mormon's Christmas parties. ha.
There are ants and bugs everywhere! I've been trying to plug up the pathways in the house where they move through and also doing a lot of spraying which seems to help. There are also small lizards that get on the walls sometimes. They are about 4 inches long. They aren't really a problem normally, except for last night. My companion and I were planning and I sat down at my desk and a lizard fell on me! It freaked me out. We live with another set of missionaries in this area. The two other sisters are filipino and are always laughing at my reactions to the bugs and lizards.
Our apartment is definitely the nicest apartment I've seen so far, here in Lubao. (Most house here are just cement floors/walls with a tin roof. We usually will be teach people on the floor though.) We have real roofing and real flooring, and good lighting. It's basically like an American apartment, without AC. The houses that are considered 'average' would be considered very very poor in the US.
Unless we are going a long distance, we use either tricycles or jeepneys to get around. I usually feel like I'm going to die whenever I ride a tricycle. The jeepneys are basically way less classy limousines with an open back. Sometimes it gets super super packed inside the jeepneys. The driving is pretty scary though. Even when Pres. Querido was driving us to our area, he was constantly passing people and it felt like he was 'playing chicken' with the cars in the incoming lane. Sometimes they would pull off because we would get super close. ah!
We stopped by the market the other day to get a few items. There was an old woman selling stuff and she had a T-shirt on that said, "Young, single, and ready to mingle!" So so great!
My first night in Lubao, we went to a missionary farewell of a sister in Lubao.. The branch had a small program for her, but the absolute best thing was the musical number. The Young Women's leader and the Young Women prepared a choreographed dance to a super cheesy love song. They performed it on stage and it was probably the best farewell I've ever been to. ha.
On our way home after teaching a lesson, we stopped by a family in the branch. There was about 1/4 of a pig sitting on top of a bag on their kitchen table. NBD. I pretended like it was normal and laughed afterwards.
I don't have a lot of personal insights on things right now. I'm mostly just adapting now and learning about the culture and how to get by. It does feel weird to know that I'll go back home to an environment that is just generally safer and more clean/sanitary. That feels weird and in some ways almost wrong or unfair.
BYE.
(My P-day is on Monday now.)