We Will Miss Bogo

We are being transferred to the island Bohol which means there will be only one or two more trips to Bogo on Sundays. I won't miss the 2 hour drive there, but will miss the beautiful scenery of the drive and the wonderful people. The Bock's from Australia will be arriving this week and are being assigned to Bogo. We went over to Bohol for a quick trip so the Caycayon's could show us around before they return to their home in Hawaii. Because another couple is not coming to replace us in May when we return and the Booth's the other couple in the office will be leaving for their home in March, we are training elders to run the office. When we finish the training we will go to Bohol and let the Elders run the office but be close enough to answer questions. It will make a good transition for the office.

View of Bogo with the ocean in the background and sugar cane fields

Sugar cane being hauled by two young people

Sugar cane harvest

Sunday in Bogo we would park along this school fence to have some lunch,
we had packed before heading back home

This is the school where we would park to have lunch

The best part of Bogo the people. We will miss the Munzo family.
They were in our Temple prep class and went to the Temple this past week.

View from our Hotel window while visiting Bohol

Met this wonderful women from the Tagbilaran branch.
Her monkey's name is Jane. Jane is busy grooming her.
She has some of the most beautiful flowers in their yard. 

The hotel had some pretty big fish in their pond

Loved how the cat loves to drink from the pond

Fiestas Continue

Fiesta's in February. They have great drum corps. They practice out in the roads and march up and down in preparation for their fiestas. The drum corps will sometimes be seen leading a funeral procession.

 Sinulog continues for I don't know how long. This is from this week in Mandaue.

 Another Barangay is celebrating Sinulog

Consolacion is celebrating

 Another fiesta. They have a fiesta for everything. 

It's warming up

It's starting to warm up. The showers feel warmer and the pool is warmer. We continue to open the windows at night but will soon have to turn on the aircon

Notice how nobody pays any attention to the lines when driving

 Buko juice always looks so inviting and people rave about it. I know it is good for you but it tastes like I would think IV fluids would taste. Maybe that is because I read where during WW 11 when they ran out of IV fluids they gave the patients coconut water through IV tubes. You can get Buko in all different ways but I have tried it warm and thought maybe if it was chilled it would be better, but it wasn't. I have tried it sweetened, with condensed milk, with shavings of coconut, with milk and plain. You can buy it dressed up fancy, or out of a plastic cup, or straight from the coconut. I guess it is just one of those things I don't care for.

Halo Halo is another food I don't appreciate. Halo Halo means mix, mix. I don't like all the different textures. But it is greatly loved here. Elder Halladay loves it. I have put down the ingredients just in case you want to make it once it gets hot and you want to cool down.

Ingredients for Halo Halo

Prepared ube (purple yam)

Canned or sweetened jackfruit

Sweetened or ripe diced fresh bananas

Ripe mango, sliced

Cooked tapioca (perhaps soaked in brown sugar syrup)

Sweetened garbanzo beans

Sweetened mung beans

Milk flan (Spanish flan, with the caramel sauce)

Nata de coco (preserved sweet coconut)

Rice Krispies or pounded sweetened rice

Agar-agar gelatin (sea kelp gelatin) or firm gelatin (made with reduced liquid)

Cream of corn or corn kernels

Vanilla ice cream 

Sugar to taste (remember, almost all of the ingredients are sweet already)

Evaporated milk (recommended) or 2%

Shaved ice or crushed ice (very important)

 I made Mongo (mung)bean soup, which we enjoy. You would think that it being so hot we wouldn't like soup so much but it tastes good, probably because it is simple. I added these Malungay leaves also called a horseradish leaf to the soup from off one of the trees in the yard. It is full of antioxidants and supposed to be very good for you. People can be seen walking around with leaves in their hands from picking to take home and add to their foods. People come by the pool just to pick these leaves from a tree next to the pool. 

 I do love the shakes they make here. From Mango to Watermelon to this Jack Fruit drink. Sometimes they put what they call black pearls in their drinks which is really gelatin balls. I don't drink them but spoon them out. The drinks are very refreshing. Favorite is the Mango, the green mango which is a little sour because its from a mango that isn't ripe and I also really like the watermelon shake.

This Jack Fruit shake was really good too.

A Truck vs a Bus

We were hit by another bus. They travel so fast and close that if you make a stop you just hope one is not behind you. I told Dad as were going along that there was a bus behind us and he knew there was but when we had to slow down and get ready to turn the bus was still moving fast towards us. Then as we readied to turn a motorcycle came around the corner and Dad had to stop so as not to hit the cyclist and the bus hit us. I got a good whip lash out of it as I felt my head jerk forward and then back. My neck was sore and I had a headache all day. One of the Philippina Sisters has done massage therapy and worked on me. Which really helped.

 This is why we don't ride public transportation and the church gives us a truck. See in this jeepney photo how everyone's knees are crowded and there is a bar that there heads have to get around.

We thought we would show you us fitting in a tricycle and on the scooter, we just don't fit.

I am so scrunched up and I couldn't find a place for my feet or knees.

This a fun jeepney "Angry bird". Thought the grandchildren would enjoy this jeepney. I have seen one decorated with Disney Princesses. If I see it again I will take photo of it for the granddaughters.