The Taj Mahol of the Philippines

Turn Here. That is a phrase we have grown to appreciate as we visit members with Perfecto Serate when we get to where we need to turn he will say, "Turn here." as opposed to "Stop here" when we arrive, but any way Turn here for you have arrived at the Parsons abode. Do be careful of the traffic though especially those pesky motorcycles which appear out of nowhere!

Come on down the long drive,
Keep coming, you are almost there, it is about 150 meters in length.

We live in a 5-plex (only 4 pictured, I see, sorry) in Unit 4.

Here we are at Unit 4. First, notice the plants which decorate our front porch. We went to a nursury in Bacong to find these. The tall skinny ones did break in a torrential rain, but only one of the two stems in each pot.


The Elders and Sisters are not at our house often, but as you come in the front door you will look down this wide hallway toward the dining room/kitchen.




To your left will be this stairway leading to the "upper chambers".


This is President Cavile, 2nd Counselor in the Branch Presidency, who dropped by to give us a papaya he had grown in his yard. From seed to fruit for the best we gather is about 5 months. He is seated on our salsa set (living room furniture) which has a comfortable feel to it.


This is standing in the kitchen looking back at the front door. The lady in the picture is 1st counselor in the Relief Society who is also a seemstress. We hired Amor Galvez to make our curtains for all the windows.


This is looking into the kitchen. Notice from left to right our oven/gas range, the gas can peaks around the corner of the stove, with our mop and broom closet behind that. Next is the refrigerator, trash can, and a chair which we use as a footstool to reach into the high cupboards. Just to the right of the picture is the back door and our sinks/countertop.


Outside the back door is this enclosed space. There are clothes lines which we used a few times but found it more convienent to use the upstairs railings as our clothes line.

On this lower level there is also a bedroom, (the bed is the wooden thing leaning against the wall) which we have converted to our office/excersise room/computer room/phone booth/storage. There is also a bathroom on this lower level which we use as our laundry room. It is also sometimes the finish line. What I mean by that is that when we come in from doing missionary work it is the closest CR (toliet) and the race is on. The one who wins is at the finish line. It would have been a better joke if I could have said it instead of writing it!

Let's go upstairs.

At the top of the stairs if one does a 180 degree turn you will see the door to the balcony.

If you stand at the balcony door looking back to the top of the stairs you see two doors. The one closed, straight ahead is to our bedroom. The one to the right is the guest room, hint hint.

Looking into the guest room you see a bed that has all four legs on the floor. When you sleep here we will have a mattress (foam pad) for you to sleep on. Notice it does have an aircon (air conditioner).

Standing at the window in the guest room you see the entry door to the left, a CR, and a built in wardrobe.

This is the CR. The shower has its own water heater. (There is no hot water any where else in the house except in the showers)

You are now looking into the Master Bedroom. The door off to the right is to another CR. It also has its own aircon.

This picture is looking back out of the CR standing in the shower. We have a water container because very often we have no water. We keep filtered water in it to brush our teeth, rinse the toothbrush, and drink (at least two cup fulls each morning to begin the day).

Taking a look out of the back window, off to the right you see one of the tallest "mountains" on Negros, the island we live on.

To the left is a gravel quarry. The gravel is hauled onto this site. The anguliar structures you can see are metal grates of various sizes which they scoop and sift the gravel over to make various sizes of gravel for sale. The work starts at this quarry between 6 and 6:30 AM every morning. One of the workers has a dog which is tied to the back fence and barks nonstop all morning long. This alarm clock does not even require a battery.

This panorama view is of what lies between the quarry and the mountain. You may spot rice fields in the foreground, a road, many houses, and a church.

Let's go back downstairs and see what else we can behold.

What happened to your bread dough, Sister? It has exploded. On one of our first bread days, we had an appointment while the bread is rising and when we, come home this is what we found. I guess we should look for a bigger container. Actually, we now use two containers for allowing the bread to rise.

The final product!! It's ready for delivery.

So we are off, back down the drive way.

Look left.

and look right.

The Elders and Sisters of the Dumaguete Zone just before Area Attack in Bacong on Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Well, there ya' go. We finally added to our blog. Maybe we won't wait a month to add to it once again.

Love and Kisses from the Philippines