I got my hair cut yesterday. A very momentous occasion in many respects.
It was the first time my hair has been cut (other than two or three self trims) in 5 years.
It was the first time I have been to a hair dresser in 14 years or so.

But more than these interesting facts, getting my hair cut is significant as a sign of a heart change. It is my way of stating my commitment to live fully here and not just as one passing through. A hair cut is a practical decision that I would only make in this context where heat, humidity, and low water pressure make long hair nearly unmanageable and unbearable, and I have yet to see anyone with hair as long as mine was.
So now it is short, light, and more curly than it has ever been. I'm learning how to manage my hair all over again! I kinda like it, even though I miss the length too.
Not to be outdone, Grace and Jasmin wanted haircuts too. Beautiful and only just finally all grown out though their hair is , I gathered my courage and cut Jasmin's hair in a pixie bob. It suits her, and we are all happier with it. Grace got up on the chair for her cut, but changed her mind as I was trying to decide how to cut hers. "When I'm 4, I'll cut it." she said. Since that is only next week, I'm content enough to wait!

Kaleidoscope: One Week in Manila

Heat. Sapping strength, wilting clothes, slowing us down.
Lots of showers, pleas for pool time, shade seeking, heat rash.

Jetlag with kids. 20 hour days. 2am - 4am risings, ravenous for breakfast and ready for play! Snarliness about 4 pm, really ready for bed... but, please, just make it till after supper... nope, Jasmin's gone and nothing can wake her!

A friend here on compound for the girls to play with: 5 yr old Ally. Thank you God! The three of them able to run free between our apartments in this safe enclave.

Fresh fruit. Mangoes! Pineapple! Bananas! Papaya! Dragon fruit! Soursop!
New snacks like Halo-Halo.
Big city. Election posters everywhere. Traffic like never before: lots and lots of vehicles seemingly all doing whatever they like. People, people everywhere! Hours of driving to exit the city.

Travel by Jeepney. Convenient. Hot. Crowded. Wonderfully cheap.
Malls. Huge ones. Some over several blocks strung together with walkways and open plazas. Forever crowded. Loud. All over the place. Even a few blocks from each other. What do you need? Likely can be found here.

English signage all around, and spoken English swirling and bumping up against Tagalog conversations. So far in our experience it seems most are quite functionally bilingual.

Hillsongs and other Christian music playing in the photo studio we went to; just as likely as any of other Asian and American pop, we're told.

At church on Sunday, we sang English songs, listened to parts of the sermon in Tagalog, and at the end learned an Hawaiian song complete with a hula dancer! You just never know...

Really nice houses in a secluded suburb - with bumpy, windy roads. A one way street undergoing repairs and sewage pipe replacement down both sides is opened to two way traffic as one end is completely blocked.

A profusion of one way streets and the sporadic "manual" changing of traffic flow by policemen so you need to know more than one way anywhere if you drive yourself.

MRT, LRT, CR, EDSA... a bewildering number of acronyms to become familiar with for common everyday use.

Good public transportation network: Jeepneys, taxis, buses, light rail... all at decent prices.

Loud loving, fun people people. The more people in one place, the happier and louder everyone is - and turns up the music! Our girls found church rather unbearable for this :o} Sunday School they enjoyed as usual though.

Signs, icons, t-shirts, pictures... religion is openly everywhere. A big change from Canada.

A high school production of The Fiddler on the Roof by Faith Academy. Excellently done in a fabulous newly built theatre on campus.

Separate entrances for men and women at the malls as there is a cursory pat down and bag inspection to enter. Security guards with guns, big and small, for every place, even parking lot attendants.

At first I thought I was crazy: a 2 am departure from Vancouver for Manila?!? But actually, it was a good move. Grace and Jasmin fell asleep around 10 pm, and more or less slept through:
a transfer to the car
into the strollers (sure glad we found two - for a total of $6.50 at a swap meet!)
through the security checks in the airport (we had to carry them and fold up the strollers for screening!)
onto the plane
and nearly through take off.
Where upon Jasmin woke up and stayed awake for an hour or so. We were fed supper(!) and then the lights were out for the rest of the flight, so Jasmin did fall asleep again for a good while. I didn't have restless cooped up kids - a definite plus of an overnight flight. We arrived in Taipei around 5 am local time rather rumpled and sticky-eyed, but not all that worse for wear.

The 4 hours in Taipei were rougher on us - at least on Jasmin. I was trying to sleep a little, nearly dozing off when Daddy and the girls come back from exploring with Jasmin wailing and pouring blood from her face. Grace had pounced her from behind on a moving sidewalk... Once the blood was cleaned up, the damage wasn't all that bad, but what a way to wake up!
We were seated in business class on the next leg of the journey. I had chosen the seats when I booked, not knowing I was choosing business class without extra cost. It was much nicer. The girls were even given a craft to do! I should have gotten it for the longer leg - the extra room and recline of the seats would have made for much better sleep. Ah well. Next time perhaps.

And now Manila... our first impression (the drive from airport to guesthouse) is something like a cross between Chiang Mai, Thailand and Phnom Penh, Cambodia... familiar and yet not. We are finally here!

...think twice about public drinking fountains...
...at least on West Vancouver's beach front!

Lovely no-so-Lazy Days in Langley

Nothing but a heart brimming with thanks to our wonderful Father who so neatly arranged our last week in Canada! We enjoyed:
the blessing of a "house of our own" - staying in friends' place who was in Thailand (they returned home shortly after we left)

the joy of family - God-arranged timing of Bu Sangi and Ming Christina with baby Victoria coming back from Korea and able to be with us, AND NiNi and YeaYea coming out to be with us as wellthe delight of Spring in gentle BC weather - lots of lush green, blossom-laden trees, flowers, warm sunny days (yes, we only had two partial days of rain during our stay!)the peace of time to spend as we wished together as a family we spent a lot of time walking, feeding ducks, playing in the parks,

just being together as family. A great way to remember Canada by!

The verbs of Here to There
Nov Sorting Mourning Planning Dreaming	Dec Sorting Giving Packing Explaining	Jan Packing Selling Cleaning Finishing	Feb Moving Leaving Changing Telling
Mar Traveling Telling Preparing Coping	Apr Enjoying Resting Soaking Receiving	Apr Flying Going Waiting Being	May Arriving Learning Finding Leaning

Next stop - Calagry. Grace and Jasmin had a fantastic time with their cousins! Free play in the house, a trip to the zoo - We saw deer! And giraffes! And hippos, and fish, and moose! - rides on the CTrain, special food, an indoor playground... it was a pretty special 4 days for us all.

Then, early Tuesday morning, we began the next leg of our journey from Shady Grove to Manila. The girls enjoyed being helpful in the airport, pulling our wheelie carry-on. We needed them to be - we were carrying on their car seats for use in-flight and didn't have enough hands for it all. We had a rather rushed parting at the airport, with no time for extra hugs or words. Left me feeling we hadn't properly parted, and yet, lingering goodbyes are not much better for satisfying that desire to say goodbye well!

The car seats were a wonderful help in-flight! Would I recommend the idea? I'm not sure! Lugging them through the airport once you are past security is rough: 2 kids, two seats, 4 carry-ons between us and no luggage carts! While the girls were happy and cooperative, fine. At the other end when they were tired, hungry, and bored... not so well at all.

An Easter post...

Mommy's excuse is that we left Halifax for all points west the day after... and if that isn't good enough an excuse, Daddy left behind the card reader so no photos could be transferred from camera to computer... no matter, here we go now.

Imma wrote stories for us to have a new one each day of the week for Easter. She read us a story and then we had to find an egg she hid. Inside was something to put in our Easter garden about the story - and some chocolate or treat! We stuck the picture of the story on the wall above the garden to remember. It was fun to find the eggs. I like to play with the garden too. - Grace

Imma made us Easter princess dresses! Grace and Jasmin were SO happy we jumped on the bed. - Jasmin
After church we were finally allowed to hunt for the eggs. We put the things back in the eggs. Daddy hid them outside. Mommy gave us baskets to find them. Some had chocolate in them! There were 15 eggs to find. It took us a long time. One was in the flowers. We went in the other garden with the tree that has a face (the neighbour's) for chocolate eggs too. -Grace and Jasmin


Once we found all the eggs, we opened each one and told the story that went with the piece in side (cross, lamb, coin, tombstone, etc). The girls were more interested in the ones with chocolate in though!
On Monday, we went to the beach. Usually we would have breakfast on the beach like the disciples did after Jesus rose from the dead (John 21:1-14). It was a wonderfully warm spring day but Mommy and the girls had a cold, so we didn't try breakfast. But the girls had fun building a sandcastle.