We're Really doing it!!

July 26

WE’RE REALLY DOING IT

Despite our exhaustion, we were all up around 6ish.  We got up and went for a walk with our instant coffee.  The heat and humidity already present, sweat was escaping our pores instantly.  We took a short jaunt around our neighborhood and then over to the school, which is literally a 5-minute walk.  Everyone in our community is so friendly and we are pleased that many local Filipino families occupy the houses around us.  I thought this “International community” would be mostly white, and with only school employees.  But, it seems quite the opposite - our direct neighbors are all Filipino, and the school employees are spread throughout the development.  Thus, on this and subsequent walks, we see more locals than foreigners, who greet us with smiles and “hello” or “hi”.  We, or should I say Michael, have been testing out our Tagalog and seem to be doing rather well.

Other highlights of our first full day in the Philippines:

Michael caught and released a rather large spider that had been hanging out for a while, freaking us out.

Juliette, our YaYa, came over to meet us and spend a little time with Rosemary. They get along very well, Rosemary seeming comfortable with her and vice versa.

Michael rode the trike with Juliette to get some groceries.

We took another walk to the neighboring development, Prominence 2 (we are in Prominence 1) and found a cool area where the development meets the vast expanse of grass and nature.  Here is where the birds are!!  We saw our first kingfishers and other birds we were unsure of.

Several thunderstorms rolled through during the day.

In the early evening we went for a swim in the pool while it was raining.

We were in bed at 7:30 and asleep shortly after.

It still seems a little surreal that we’re here, in this house, in this country, in this different life.  With that said, though, things do feel natural and “homey” in a way, too.  It almost seems like no big deal that we leave our house and walk around in this foreign place with foreign faces, or that we see unusual trees, plants and birds, or that we hear Tagalog everywhere, or that we swim in the community pool in the middle of the development.  On the other hand, we keep saying, “I can’t believe we’re really here and really doing this” and finding everything exciting.  Perhaps due to the anticipation and month of waiting for the departure day to arrive, it doesn’t seem so unusual and odd that we are here.  We had plenty of time to adjust to not having our home, or cars, or material things that it makes sense that we’re here; it was our next step and we had ample time to digest the reality of it all.