We live on an island!!!

Sometimes it is hard to believe that we live on an island because we can't ever see the ocean.  All we ever see is houses, roads, trees, grass but no ocean.  That is because all of the beaches are owned by resorts (fancy hotels).  So there are always buildings blocking the view of the beach.  We decided that since we've been here almost 2 months, we needed to see a beach.  So, we rode a tricycle out to the main highway and then caught a jeepney out to a resort.  The resort let us buy a day pass to use their beach and pool.  

It was great to finally see the ocean!  Here is a picture the family walking out into the ocean. (except for mom and dad cuz they are boring!)

I started out with water shoes but they are getting too small and so I took them off.  Then I went in the water.  I actually considered putting them back on even if they were too small because of all the seaweed and coral and stuff I had to walk on.  In fact, once, I saw something coiled up on the bottom of the ocean.  I decided not to touch it because it might be a water snake or an eel.  If it's an eel, it might have shocked me.  If it was a water snake it might have bit me.  I headed back to my base (the beach).

A little later, I saw a parachute in the air.  Did that come out of an airplane.  I asked my mom and she told me that it was a parasailer.  They hook the person with the parachute to a boat.  When the boat goes fast, the parachute fills with air and goes up in the air.  It looked fun!

 There were a lot of local people who offered to take us on their boats to go snorkeling.  We finally got on a small boat with a man named Mario.  (but not the Mario in the game!)  :-)  The boat was a canoe with poles at the end that held a cloth roof to give us shade.  On each side was 2 sticks hooked to a log.  These are called outriggers.  They help the canoe not tip over in the waves.

Here we are in the boat on the way out.  

Anyway, we got there and put on snorkel stuff (and I put on a life jacket because I'm not a super swimmer yet and I was kind of nervous).  The water just looked like . . . ocean.  Nothing in it, you could just see water.  And then . . . . . . . . . I put my face in the water.  

It seemed like magic.  There were fish everywhere!  Just everywhere!  And the coral was so pretty.  There were lots of fish because the guys were feeding them.  

These pictures are as cool as it looked.  Because the water blocked the light, the camera picked up mostly green and blue.  But there were all kinds of colors:  pink, blue, green, red, orange, tan, black, white, yellow.  IT WAS AMAZING!

Here's a picture of me and Hannah taking a break.  That is our boat behind us.  

THERE WERE SCUBA DIVERS!  They were underneath us in  the water feeding the fish.  

This is a video that I took under the water while I was snorkeling.  It's pretty cool!

Good Friday adventure

Good Friday is a holiday in the Philippines.  It's honors the day when Jesus was crucified.  The Philippines are probably 98% Catholic.  So it's a BIG holiday here.  In fact, we were told it's the Philippines biggest holiday.  

There's lots of different things that happen for Good Friday.  Like, people may go around in the streets, whipping themselves.  That is called self flagellation.  The reason they whip themselves is because of the bad things they have done.  (They are trying to repent.)  Another thing that happens is that people are nailed to a cross for a while.  (They don't leave them till they die.)  Luckily I didn't see either of these things.

Another thing that happens is an Easter procession.  We decided to go see one.  It was interesting.  

We rode to the procession in a taxi.  

Here's the driver.

We put our whole family of 6 in a 5 seat taxi.  It was crazy! I finally just sat on the floor by my mom's feet.

Here's Ammon and the girls.

This is a movie of what the streets look like while we drive.  It looks a lot different than in America!

When you stop at a stoplight, people will walk between the cars and sell food or water to people in the cars.  They will walk all the way to the end of the line of cars and then jump on a jeepney and ride back to the stoplight.  This man is selling water.

This a place where Magellen (a Spanish explorer) planted his cross when he first found the Philippines in the 1500's.  The actual cross is inside of the cross that you see.  They have covered it so that it doesn't get more damaged.  There are paintings on the roof as you can see.  They are pictures of when he arrived and when he planted the cross.

At Magellan's cross, people would buy new candles.  They wouldn't light them but they would shake them and do a dance while they sang.  I think it was a prayer for someone.  This lady is doing that.

The procession has statues of people who were close like the apostles and Mary his mother on these wagons.  The wagons were pulled by hand. There were pretty flowers or cloth with them.  They tried to make it look as realistic as possible.  

These parade floats were pulled in a parade or procession.  People join the procession with lighted candles.  This happens about dusk.  There are thousands of people here.  It's crazy!

Here is one of the floats. Those are fresh flowers.

You can see another float  lining up in the back.  By the end, the other two slots between were full too.

Here you can see some of the flowers.  They were really pretty.

It was an interesting day but it was VERY hot and crowded.  I was glad to get back in a crowded taxi and come home.  

A Walk in the Philippines

For family home evening, we went for a walk.  We took a bunch of pictures that I want to share.

Do you know what this is?  They call it a tricycle!  It's a motorcycle with a sidecab so that other people can ride in it.  The driver gets paid money to drive people around.  

This is the inside of the car of the tricycle.

This is a pedicab.  It is the same principle as the tricycle except that instead of a motorcycle on the side,  it's a bike.  

Some of the houses are weaved with bamboo or palm.  Sometimes they get different colors and make a design out of it.  It is really cool.  The woven houses also let the breeze through a little which makes it REALLY cool!  ;-)

When we walk around, little kids just follow us.  They wanted us to take a picture of them.  So we did!

There are coconut trees here!  It was so cool.  I can't wait to see the coconuts when they are ripe and falling down.  (I hope one doesn't fall on my head)

In family home evening, one thing we do is called pineapple time.  We take turns "pineapple-ing" someone for something good they have done.  When my dad "pineappled" us that night, he gave each of us a fresh pineapple!  I couldn't finish the whole thing.  They were SO good and THE PINEAPPLE DIDN'T MAKE MY TONGUE SORE!

Jet Lag!

Do you know what jet lag is?  Jet lag is caused because you go to a place where the time is very different from what you are used to.  So if you go to a place where night is when you are used to day and visa versa, you would want to sleep all day and play all night.  Here, when it is noon in the Philippines it is like 10 pm for Wyoming.  So when I got here, my body was all messed up.  For one thing, I hadn't slept very much or very well on the plane.  Then the time felt all weird.   It actually makes you feel kinda sick.  Surprising, huh?

This is a picture of our swimming pool at the first hotel we went to.  We stayed 2 nights there but it was pretty expensive ($200 a night).  

We found a friend at church who helped us find a different hotel that was half as much.  It was also way more family friendly.

We are having fun at this hotel but I got REALLY sunburned!  So sunburned that I peeled and now I look like a leper.  

Doing it!

So we finally got our visas and it was time to fly away!   Can you tell I'm excited?

at the airport at 4 in the morning!

Finally on an airplane!  (First commercial flight for me!)

The first flight was about 3 hours long from Salt Lake to San Francisco.  First time in a big city!!

Then we had to wait for 4 hours doing NOTHING for our next flight.  We had a little scare when we found out that we were at the wrong gate when it was time to board. My mom freaked out!!!   But we found the right gate and got on the right plane.  Finally we got on a different airplane.  This airplane was cool!  It had ipad-like screens attached to the seat in front of me.  It had movies and games.  The games weren't very fun.  But it had the movie Frozen on channel 8 and I watched it several times.  Because, the flight was 13 hours long!!!!  That's a long time to sit in a chair.  

Finally we landed in Seoul Korea.  First time in another country!!!

We had to wait for a couple more hours and then we got on a plane to Cebu.  

The last flight too about 4 hours.  Time to sleep!  When this plane landed, it really hurt my ears.  I was not happy.  We got into Cebu about midnight in the Philippines (about 10 am Wyoming time)

I got outside and it was hard to breathe  because of the humidity.  It was hot even at midnight.  Weird!

What you do while you wait for visas.