getting there...

When we travel around the city as a family, we nearly always take a taxi, but the other day we decided to go on a little jeepney/train adventure to get to our destination. Cody was pretty excited.

First we took a jeepney, which is the main type of transportation in the Philippines.... they are jeeps left by the American military after WWII and transformed into mini busses with 2 benches facing each other. They are often super colourful and unique.... anything from paintings of Jesus to a huge Vancouver Grizzly logo. This picture was taken up north in the mountains, but you get the idea....

As soon as we got in, Cody had a little meltdown because he wanted to sit on the bench SO badly but it was too full and he had to be on my lap. 

When some people exited, he got to sit beside his best friend, Ate Reg, and he was very happy :)

We soon squeezed our way out of the jeepney, made our way through crazy crowds and traffic, carried the boys up a big flight of stairs, bought our tickets and waited for the train. Here's what we saw looking down...

And once we got on the train we couldn't move.... we both stood there with a little boy in each of our arms and braced ourselves for the ride. Darnell often rides the MRT but this was our first time with the boys. I couldn't even bend my body to put Cody down- SO crowded!

Here's the crowds as we exited... 

And that concludes our trip. We took a taxi on the way home :)  

Now we're talking!!!

We have spent nearly two months listening.... now we get to speak! Every afternoon, when the boys nap, we spend about 2 hours with our awesome language tutor and friend, Bryan, learning Tagalog. We're following a program called Languaculture, where we learn the language the way a child does.... we begin to understand before we start talking. We have 300 words that we understand and have been obeying all kinds of random commands from Bryan.... put the knife under the table, sit on the chair in the corner of the room, put the sheep in the pot and sprinkle pepper, and so on. We use objects in the house and picture cut-outs and we listen while Bryan speaks and points and then gets us to point at stuff. Just like we do with Cody while reading books.... we actually even use his books for lessons. But now we are describing the pictures ourselves! 

Its been really fun to transition to speaking after so much time spent listening. Its also neat to see Cody do this in English... he now describes pictures himself too and, of course, gives us very clear commands of what he wants:) And just like we find certain Tagalog words quite funny (the wall is a dinging!), Cody is entertained by words too.... like sandwich- saaaamich! And some words have remained in the original Cody version, despite being able to say it properly... like motorcycle.  Here's a video of Cody talking (more fun to watch him then us, right?) and being silly. It's kind of long but I think the grandparents will appreciate it:)

Thanksgiving Dinner: no rice?

As I was preparing the Thanksgiving dinner Sunday afternoon for our Peace Church gathering, I asked Darnell if I had to serve rice with the meal. Rice goes with EVERYTHING here- no meal is complete without a huge helping of it, but it just felt so strange eating a turkey dinner (minus the turkey- chicken seemed easier) with a side of rice! I feed our friend/language tutor, Bryan, everyday and I have gotten used to always serving rice (even with pasta!) but with turkey dinner? Surely that was going too far! Darnell felt that we needed to be culturally sensitive…. at ALL times:) I decided to ask the group once they arrived. They politely said they didn’t need rice although I made some anyways. But it turns out everyone loved my mashed potatoes so much that no one took rice! That’s BIG…. they were that good, I guess:)

Sunday evening was also our first time to have a bit of a service and as I watched Darnell lead the group in prayer, share about the journey that brought us here, reflect on scripture and lead a discussion, I was overcome by a deep sense of peace. Here he was- articulately, passionately and sensitively sharing the Good News of this upside down Kingdom Jesus called us to be, and I watched in awe and with deep thankfulness. What a joy it is to see him in the role God has so clearly called him to. We are certainly where we are supposed to be. 

We were so excited to share a Canadian Thanksgiving with our new friends here and have a meaningful time together. We look forward to celebrating Filipino holidays too and eating LOTS of rice! 

(missing 3 in this group picture)

Makai has something to say...

Our little Makai is 6 months today and so very different from the little 2-month-old he was when we left Canada! While he is very well loved here, it’s still terribly sad not to be able to share his sweetness with our dear friends and family at home. One of the things I miss most is having our parents dote on our kids. I wish you could all know and love him the way you do Cody. So…. here he is, in full colour, happy and willing to tell you all a little about himself. Enjoy!

In case a little translation is needed, here’s a few main points he was hoping to get across…
- I love to play with my brother. I watch him ride his bicycle, I grab his hair, and I put his cars in my mouth.
- I have 2 teeth- they both came a month ago over a very painful weekend.
- I smile at everyone. I am much like my big brother- friendly and cheerful:)
- I have been sitting by myself since I was 5 months.
- I work hard at moving across the room and always find a way to get the toy I want… I roll and scoot and get places already!
- I am very nice to my mommy… I sleep well at naps and nighttime.
- I haven’t started eating solid food regularly- Mommy isn’t looking forward to the extra work it will be. I've tried bananas a few times but I'm not so sure about them yet.

And if you REALLY want to get to know him, hop on a plane and come see his cuteness for yourself! A little cuddle with Makai just might be worth the long and expensive trip:)