Yesterday we went out of Calapan to explore a few more beaches. It was interesting to watch the scenery go by and observe the differences and similarities to Cambodia/Thailand. It is much more hilly/mountainous, there are many more trees, and the houses are more often cement block than wood. This is because it is illegal to cut lumber. Too bad Cambodia isn't as good at protecting its dwindling forests...

We first stopped at a "grey" sand beach. It was a beautiful long curve of beach. Mommy enjoyed beachcombing. But it was Jasmin who "accidentally" found this beauty of a shell.The waves were a little strong for the girls to enjoy the water, but there was plenty of sand and shells for building with.

And waves afforded a great opportunity for wave jumping and victory dances.

And the sun on the sand made Mommy's new sandals glow and brought a smile to her face as all things yellow always do.

We had planned to stay there all day, but come lunch time we discovered that the one and only restaurant there was closed, so we packed up and drove on another hour to a white sand beach where all the resorts are. We went past the main beaches and on to the end of the road. The last bit of the road was like a rough cart track along the side of a mountain, inspiring comments such as "Who ever thought to build a restaurant out here!?" But, one has to remember that until recently, all guests would have been arriving by boat...On our way in, a cloud of butterflies surrounded the truck. We stopped till they passed.
After a late lunch, this beach was also explored. Jasmin decided this was the best beach of all because it had pockets of wave-smoothed rocks. An inordinately big number of them were flat and almost perfectly round. Jasmin filled her pockets so full of them I wasn't sure she'd be able to stand up, or if the pockets would hold!

There were also caves to explore - but it took a fair bit of encouragement from Mommy to get them to dare enter!
The gentler waves here Grace enjoyed, but Jasmin couldn't be persuaded to leave her rock collection for more than one quick swim.
Needless to say, we all slept well last night!

Holiday thoughts:

Thursday:
We made it! The estimated 3.5 hour journey turned into 7, but there were no adventures that made it that long. Just traffic that delayed our bus so we missed the 3pm ferry and had to wait until 5. The crossing was a little rough - leftovers from the typhoon earlier in the week. Grace surprised me with being slightly seasick.
Friday:
We are the only guests so there is the perfect balance of people interaction and doing our own thing. We tried out one of the local beaches. A lonely place of thatched-roofed beach "picnic tables" inhabited by a goat and her two kids, a water buffalo, and two white dogs. The girls and Daddy immediately got busy with building in the sand. Daddy even let the girls bury him - and Mommy helped. Just about then, Mommy discovered our camera has no battery - despite being fully charged the night before we left Manila. Thankfully, Daddy's phone also has a camera.There were OMF team meetings here today and 2 kids were here most of the day. Grace, Jasmin, Ben and Lucie had a blast together. When they had to leave, Jasmin was crying because she wouldn't see them again. Mommy and Daddy comment wryly to one another that we are doing a great job of not getting any photos as usual!

Saturday:A fruitless search in the town center for a camera battery turned up some other needed things instead.
Later, following an invite from Ben and Lucie's dad, we went to their house on the beach for some more beach time. Jasmin cut open her big toe on a barnacled rock, but after some doctoring and a borrowed pair of water shoes, played on until dusk.
After supper we explore the basement pool/ping pong table, soon settling on pool as the ping pong table has a few too many unpredictable bounce-killing spots for any semblance of a real game.
Sunday:
Having been told the best place to go to church for an English service was the Chinese church, we made the effort to get up for their 8am service. They had a guest speaker - who spoke in Tagalog, and the Chinese used was something other than Cantonese or Mandarin. Thankfully, they provided an interpreter for us. It was a small church on a covered porch at the pastor's house. Grace and Jasmin were the only kids there - afterward we were told their sunday school was at 10:30 at the school... The saving grace of this church in the girls' eyes were the caged dogs out the front and the fish in the pond at the back.

This afternoon, we were taken to yet another beach. This one is obviously where everyone comes to hang out and swim. We immediately become the main attraction (after the small boat for playing with). Far from being intimidated, Grace and Jasmin thrived on all the attention! It wasn't long before Grace was bossing them all around, sometimes it looked very much like she was a small queen with her courtiers. I'm not sure how much real communication was going on though! Mommy was so pleased for them to have this very first time of real playing with Philippino children.


The boy with the white shirt and yellow bucket became the girls' protector. Despite the fact that he himself cannot speak, he managed to keep their beach toys from disappearing into the crowd, and tried to fulfill all their desires.Both Grace and Jasmin took time out of thier play to wade out to Mommy who was swimming to exclaim breathlessly, "I have friends! 10 friends! Lots of friends!"


We started a new trend: a sandcastle factory was born.
And this evening, we saw the sun for the first time this holiday - in a spectacular rosy red sunset.It has been overcast, with some light rain, but very pleasant - almost better than full sun. Though I would really like one clear view over the ocean with blue sky and sea!

We're off on holiday today - once we're done work enough to go! Boy, are we ready for this!

A few days ago there was a wedding down by the pool. Grace immediately wanted to go "to see what happens at a wedding." She just couldn't seem to accept/understand that we couldn't go if we weren't invited, and why we weren't invited! We watched the bride's entrance from our windows, but that wasn't good enough. Grace was a heap of tearful bitter disappointment on the bed: "I want to go to see what a wedding is like. I'll never know what happens at a wedding..." Daddy and YouTube to the rescue! He found someone's full wedding video and sat patiently answering Grace - and Jasmin's! - ever-flowing questions. That worked. She didn't mention the wedding at the pool all afternoon, though the music was loud in our apartment even with the windows shut.
It really sobered me to think that Grace wanted/needed to learn so much that denial meant bitter tears! A delightful challenge, to be sure, to keep input flowing for this one.

A wonderful Thanksgiving present - we finally have our pool back!

It was closed for renovation in June, and was stated to be finished August 31... As October started with no sign of completion, we were beginning to despair we wouldn't be swimming until Christmas.

Jasmin was so excited she could hardly wait to get there. Singing and dancing the whole way down and dashing in without any hesitation. I had to fish her right out again as they have filled it deeper than before and it is just about to her eyes. But it didn't phase her at all and back in she went. Grace surprized me with her boldness : ducking underwater and floating on her back - two things we've been encouraging and she's been resisting for a long time. So the girls spent 2+ hours in the pool this afternoon with a friend... I had to haul them out for supper!

Michael was in Singapore Sunday through Wednesday this last week for meetings. The Wednesday return was earlier than expected so we were all very happy. The girls particularly so as he spent the rest of the day playing with them...

The day finished with a gloriously long play in the sand. A circular area of "waste land" was recently dug over and replaced with dark sand-like soil (or is it soil-like sand?). All the kids love it, of course - at least, the ones who are allowed to dig in it, which is not that many really. (We are such "horrible parents" for letting them get down and dirty regularly!) I often feel bad for the little ones passing by or hanging around watching longingly. Grace and Jasmin didn't finish their monster satisfactorily until after dark (about 6:30, and another reason to place us in the "horrible parents" camp!). A good end to a great day.

A week or so ago, we were given a meal out as a family as a thank you for an extra busy hard week. We go waylaid in the mall before finding our restaurant by this huge post...

The girls were first fascinated by the huge mirror it was, then the distortions they found around so dents. But when they discovered there could be two of them at the join... Mommy thought we'd be there all night!

But in the end, they did get hungry enough to leave it :0) We went to Burgoo, a very American style restaurant here. The girls are still talking about the milkshakes and burgers with flags on top! Every time we go near that mall, they manage to find some reason or another that we should eat there. Not that we can - Jasmin can avoid soy there, but not gluten or dairy.