On The Road -- A Site for Sore Eyes

A motorcycle bite which was experienced by the automobile driven by Elder Nebrada in Bacong.



These little Rusco trucks are very popular both on the back of trucks being hauled in and ........

On the sales lot, and on the street. The man's uniform standing in the middle of the road says he is a "traffic control officer." I hope you can appreciate the irony of that, since there is no control of traffic in the Philippines. He is standing in front of a school at Maslog, just 500 meters towards town from our apartment. His main function is to watch for a break in traffic and hussle the students across the street without them getting hit.

This is a shot of downtown Dumaguete just after festival. These are the streamers which will soon show up on a rice field near you. The business on the left called Greenwich is a pizza place. Just past it is a smaller maul. On the right side of the street under the blue tarp is our fruit vendor where we buy mangos. They have also lately had Washington apples which we have enjoyed with peanut butter. They also recently had plums which were enjoyed at the couple missionaries apartment.

What we have here is referred to as a MacArthur named after the US General from WWII.

Just a family walking along thru the construction site we were parked in for Sister Parsons to visit the local dress making shop.

Another family's mode of transportation while waiting at the dress making shop, public transportation.

and anothers mode of getting around, also public transportation.

Some families pick private transportation, but choose to travel in disguise, I guess.

but all do not travel in disguise after all.


A good look at the construction site. They seem to have more road construction than Denver and Wyoming combined. We think they have a meeting at midnight and decide, "Hey, lets see how the public responds to us tearing up this stretch of the road." Then within hours the pavement is no longer on the street. They don't even wait until one project is finished before the next is started.

What is so interesting?

The runway begins, or ends I guess, at the edge of the National Highway between our house and Dumaguete, and every day 4-6 airline airplanes land and and take off. The road comes to a standstill as everyone stops and observes the take offs. The landings are not as well observed because the planes kinda just appear out of nowhere.

Well, that's all for now.

Catch ya'all later.

Hello, It's Us Again

The cleaning method of choice in the Philippines. These brooms and dustpans are everywhere. They even sweep up the ground in front of their houses. These happen to be in the back foyer of the church on Pinili St. in Dumaguete.

A site we see quite often is the caribou pulling a cart. We were waiting for this one to pass so we could get to the next scene.

This is on the beach in Sibulan where we drive by on the way to the Fontelo home.

The Filipinos are equal opportunity employers as you can see below that Cattle also may serve as engines for the carts.

I am confident they were not about to milk this animal despite the presence of the bucket, and if they had they would been out of luck. We really liked the coloring on this animal.

The washing was completed and this seemed like a handy place to get the clothes dry. This scene is in Siaton.

This shot is of the beach where Lolo (Bampa) and Lola (Bamma) scoured to find the shells we sent to the mga Apo (Grandkids). The tides come in and out often and each time the roots of the shoreline trees get weaker and weaker until the trees give up and become floaters. We had tuna fish sandwiches on the beach on the day we found the shells.

One day we will have to stop and read the sign on this historical site. It is right on the Boulevard which runs up and down the beach in Dumaguete.

I really didn't realize that you could tie a baboy (pig) to a tree and expect that it would be there when you returned, but it happens all the time, we observe.

but then to lead them around, one handed even, really tells me that these pigs are entirely different from the ones we raised in Erie. This hog, by the way, is penned behind our apartment. We took this shot from our bedroom window which is, approximately, 100 yards from the pig. I love a good zoom lens.

Well, that's all for now.

Your Choice For a Ride

Well, what will it be? Lolo means Grandpa.

or, Maybe this one gives you the confidence of a safe ride on the "Stairway to Heaven"
or, A little support for the team from Utah.

Maybe help us decide if we are getting our money's worth to pay for the security guard to serve and protect the ol' apartment. There are five units and our portion of the fee is 652.5 pesos a month (about $16)


This is Charlie and the cat that adopted him. He is our next door neighbor. He has lived in the Philippines now for about 3 years and has a filipina "wife", although no certificate. Prior to being here, he lived in Cuba where he legally had a wife, twice. (Two different women) The first took his boat and her boyfriend and defected to America. Yes, Charlie went to Cuban prison for a stint, until he convinced the authorities that he had no knowledge and gave no permission to his wife to run off with her boyfriend on his boat. Well, duh........ Although, it makes you wonder, as, since then, he has set her up in a business in Florida.

This is another neighbor, and a pesky one at that. She comes over every night to our porch, I think she lives in our porch plants, and when we open the door she enters with us without even asking. Sometimes she even invites friends. Sister Parsons thinks I ought to give her a kiss to see if she is really a princess.

Volleyball, anyone? Or maybe badminton? My partner and I are unbeaten in jungle ball!

Well, it worked!! I kissed the frogs and who should appear but Tricksie and Miller. Actually, since you obviously don't believe that story, these are two of the 20+ youngsters in the Primary here in Sibulan. They attend each and every week with their Lola, (that would be Grandma Bejarasco)

This is one of Sister Parsons' prize students studying at the keyboard prior to the start of Piano Lessons. Her name is Beverly Lim Salayog. I give her maiden name since as Beverly Lim, she was the very first person baptised on the island of Negros, at least on the Oriental end. That was in 1969. It was interesting because we met her and her husband, who attends my class on Wednesday nights while his wife is learning piano, and then we were given a copy of the convert baptism record kept when the island was opened. Sister Salayog is the apo, (grandchild) of President Lim who was the first Stake President in Manila.

Or, is your music preference of a more traditional nature. We caught this band as they carried their musical instruments and played for businesses along the way. It was really quite good.

I better get this published before Christmas arrives, oh, wait a minute, if I look around it appears that I missed it. Christmas is really a big thing in these islands the stores started putting up Christmas decorations the fifteenth of September. Homes started putting up their decorations about the fifteenth of October. We have even started singing Christmas music in Sacrament Meeting. This picture is taken from the top floor of Lee Plaza, the local shopping mall. Each set of stairs has 32-35 trees. There are 5 sets of stairs.

The deal is it is slow to download pictures to the blog on our Internet connection. I have figured out that if I download a few every night then save them until I have time to write about them I can share more often. So, that is the current plan of attack for the blog site.

Love and Kisses,

Elder and Sister Parsons

Senior -- Palooza

But first a look at the missionaries, where else, but eating. What they are eating is two Philippine snacks. The yellow one is a very moist cupcake type snack and the brown one is also cupcake size but made of something more like custard with a coconut flake coating. The Zone Leaders in charge announced them as Tofu, but I know they are not Tofu. They were made by Sister Grafadilia who is the new Relief Society President in the Sibulan Branch. The Zone Leaders are Elder Pineda and Elder Nebrada who stand in the back of this crowd. These snacks were served after a District/Zone Workshop like we attend every Monday morning with the young missionaries.

Now to the title article. The name was given by one of the Assistants to the President at our two day retreat in Cebu with all the over 40 missionaries in the Philippines Cebu Mission on 30-31 October 2008. First we drove North of San Jose to catch a ferry. The first two vehicles allowed on the boat were labeled as Fish Carriers.

Next on was the Ceres Bus. These vehicles travel at high rates of speed along the roadways of the Philippines using their horns much more often than their brakes. They do use their turn signals very impressively as the zig zag in and out of traffic. Our car is in front of the second truck on the right. The ferry departs port based upon the clock and not according to being full, but still this is one of the few times we will see it not full to the brim.

As our ferry was docking on the island of Cebu we saw this other Ceres bus on the next ferry over with all these native pieces attached to the top. This also is very common to be loaded this way. Usually, several passengers are also hanging out of the side doors.

A little fuzzy but we took this picture the first night of the retreat after having watched the movie, "Donovan's Reef", a classic John Wayne flick. The tall guy in the back next to the blond is our Mission President and his wife, G. Parke and Barbara Hansen from Las Vegas. They arrived in the mission three weeks after we arrived. The picture is taken in their residence affectionately called the Mission Home. As you can see we have only four couple missionaries and 4 Senior Sister Missionaries. Two of the Senior Sisters work in the Mission Office and one at the Church Employment Office. Only one is proselyting. The couple in the center is also serving in the Employment Office. The couple in the back are currently working on Cebu Island about an hour North of the city, but rumor has it they will be replacing the Senior Sisters in the Mission Office when they go home in April. The other couple is the Outcalts who we spent two days with "training" when we first arrived in the Philippines. They are completing their mission, their second to the Philippines, in December. Therefore, if ye have desires to serve, or not, we need more Senior Missionaries. President said he could use 25 more and only scratch the service of the demand.

The next morning we went to the Cebu Temple site. The Cebu Temple is scheduled to be completed in December, 2009, and Dedicated in February, 2010. We are looking here at the Eastern face of the temple. Moroni will go somewhere above the center column that is starting to be seen.

With the crane now in the picture you can see how much more they still need to complete. Directly behind where the crane is standing is where the Mission Home and the Temple President's home will be constructed.

Behind all these old geezers who happened to be with us on this visit will be constructed the Patron House which will not only have lodging for temple patrons but will also house the new mission office.

Most of the local workers who have been hired actually live on the temple site as the construct. They all sign contracts making them adhere to gospel standards while they are building the temple. No smoking, cussing, or drinking is allowed on the temple grounds even during construction of the temple. This area will be a parking lot once construction is complete.

This is the site of the new Stake Center which is being constructed right along side of the temple.

This shows the overview of how the grounds will be set up when all work is completed.

The afternoon was given to us for whatever, within reason, we wanted to do. Most of the missionaries went shopping. Sister Parsons and I along with the Outcalts went bowling. We had a score of over 200 so we bowled quit well. That was 51 and 55 in the first game and 56 and 64 in the second game. If you add those up that is well over 200.

For the evening event, we had reservations at the Marco Polo, a very elaborate 5 star restaurant with a cultural show. The food was wonderful and the entertainment was also quit good. This first picture is of the band which entertained prior to the show.

This mask reminded Sister Parsons of her first husband she said. Now wait a minute that would be me. I wonder what she meant by that remark.

Oh, I see now, it is because of the blue eyes that it reminds her of me.

The show was dancing of the natives of the Philippines. There are 3 distinct regions in the Philippines. The northern area around Manila called Luzon. The central region which is called the Visayans where we are serving. The language when we were being tutored was called Cebuano, but here they call it Visayan. The other region is Mindanao which is the southern region. The southern region is where the revolutionaries live who are mostly Muslim. Currently, no white missionaries are allowed in the Mindanao region. We have so many wonderful Filipino missionaries though that the region is well proselyted. Many of the Filipino missionaries that serve in our mission are from the Mindanao region. The Church is very strong down South.

At the end of the performance, most of the audience were escorted to the stage to be taught the stick dance by the dancers. This is President Hansen.

and this is Sister Parsons. Elder Parsons took the camera on stage with him when he went up, so that picture is left to your imagination.

Now the ferry ride back was more the norm of how ferry boats are loaded to the hilt. We have never yet seen a ferry travel without at least one Ceres bus along for the ride. They're everywhere, they're everywhere!!

No we are not allowed to snorkel, but this wonderful camera we have even takes shots of fish under the water. We took this from the observation deck of the ferry before we left port to come back to Negros Island. The Zebra fish were plentiful.

Well, that's all for now.

Elder and Sister Parsons