Tropical New Year!

Here we are enjoying the lush mountains of coconut trees in the province.

We started the year off sick, but happy to get out of the super-congested, polluted city and visit Laguna province. To get there, we drove over a few mountains and then took a short banka ride (a motorized outrigger canoe) to get to Caliraya Recreation Center. We stayed there over New Years’ with my parents and brothers. We knew it would be nice and quiet there, in contrast to the barrage of firecrackers which ushered in 2006 around Metro Manila. So the quiet was good, although it rained most of the time we were there. We basically hung out and played games or watched DVDs on my laptop in the room.


Little Jojo takes cover under an unbrella as it begins to rain

Turns out, another mission agency was holding a conference at this place and we got to meet a missionary couple our age (a rare thing indeed!). We even went on a double date of sorts with them after we got well from our respiratory issues. Unfortunately, they’re only short-term missionaries, so they’ll be gone in a few more months. But it was fun to at least meet them.

Did you know Filipinos celebrate Chinese New Year, too? Yes! 2006 is “The Year of the Dog.” There are a lot of Chinese and Filipino-Chinese here, so it was no surprise. There was a cultural celebration at a huge shopping mall called Shangri-La where we got to see a Chinese acrobatic performance.