Cultural tidbits and adjustments

(From 8/05)
Text messaging is in every nook and cranny of society here. You can watch
people driving their motorcycle and staring down at their cell phone at
the same time, they text and walk, text and talk, text and drive, text and
text and text.

The septic smell is intermixed with the constant burning of vegetation and
trash, this, I believe, is so your nose won't get used to the sewage smell
and tune it out, it always stays fresh! Really it is not so bad, just
part of the culture.

We have pared down to two dogs. The other couple that was here, took one
with them to the island of Cebu, and a mother and her three pups were
given away. Hurray!!! Christine is the caretaker of the pups, and
although she says she is not a "dog person" I sense she is growing fond of
them.

Hot Water!!!! We have hot showers now. I luxuriated last night for the
first time in almost three weeks in a hot shower. (See, the air IS
smelling better around here!) We looked into installing a hot water
heater for the house, we actually already have one, but found out it was
much better to install a small unit that attached to the shower head,
heats the water, and then out it comes. Truly wonderful. It ran about
$100, which is quite a chunk on the mission field, but I chalked it up to
preparing the homestead for the next 4 years. (I found an Air Conditioner
for the living room too!)

The motorcycle.....Well, I really don't want to use one. The economics of
it all point to one, I have looked for a car, but at the moment, I will
have to wait. The last man has left his motorcycle and sidecar here until
we can ship it out, so it provides a temporary form of transportation. I
drive it back and forth to church and try to avoid traffic.


The church...it is not in the same subdivision, but very close, as far as
the growth, well, the church has hit a high number of around 400 about 2-3
months ago. We promoted for his last Sunday and got up to 372. It
dropped off quite a bit the Sunday after, which is not unusual, and now we
are in building mode again. We have had to do a lot of settling in, and
have not worked the church work as much as we need to, but now that the
other man is gone, we will.

The school is still in the making. I am watching the people and seeing
who is real and who isn't. We will see. Follow @ddevonshire