It's Begining to Feel Like Christmas

 The days are getting shorter by about 30 minutes. We have been having some tropical storms with lots of rain so the days are cooler and it has felt good the last couple of days. The only problem is the showers are also cooler. I hope to put up a star and my nativity this week. I bought one of the woven stars that we have seen along the road. I had to buy a small one so I could bring it home with me. I found where they sell some hand carved wood nativities and want to go looking. Now to just find the time. We decorated the office just like last year. It looks very Christmas-y. I will have to take another picture of it to post. And once my decorations get up I will have to take a picture of my star and shell nativity. Our decorations are very minimal but we aren't home much so its okay.

This is from the hilltop coming from the mission home and looking
out over the valley. The clouds were especially beautiful that day.

 Took a different road to PT and came across this huge cemetery with Mausoleums. 

No wonder people stay over night in them. They are nicer than a lot of homes.

 Christmas is here. Loved how they  decorated this home with stars.

 We went over to Lapu Lapu  to help missionaries move (Lapu Lapu is on Mactan Island which is connected to Cebu by a bridge). They had just had a big Fiesta and all the different groups decorated the trees for Christmas going down the median of town. They used a lot of recycled plastic bottles in their decor.

 This is our subdivision decorated for the holidays. 

They have put the stars up on all the trees along the roadway.

Our neighbors have put this up and it makes all kinds of designs in lights.
Very fun to watch as it flashes in the different patterns and colors.

Bogo Decorations. Across the street from the church

Love seeing these woven trees for sale along the road

I would so buy one of these trees if I had a way to get it home.
The picture does not do it justice.

 

Bohol Conference

Arrived safety in Bohol. We took the ferry to Tubigon on a fast ferry.
It was only a 1 hour ride and seas were calm. 

We visted the Tubigon weaving place again. I was the only one who had seen it before. I asked them about the dying of the fibers so they took me out back and showed me how they dye the fibers. 

Blue is the color today. 

Dying over a hot fire

Fibers before color added

Fibers drying

Green fibers drying on a line

Weaving

Loved the purple. They put umbrellas behind them in the slats to protect the workers from the sun

Fibers corded and ready to dye

While in Tubigon we looked at a house the missionaries will be living in.
The stairs were steep so I didn't venture up them.

A chocolate hill in the center of town. The earthquake caused it to slide.
They are working on it so that it doesn't slide and cause more damage.

At the chocolate hills.
These are different hills than we went to last time we visited Bohol. I liked this site better.

Beautiful view of the Chocolate Hills.

Healing

Physical Therapy Building

My arm is looking better and the healing is happening. Still a lot of swelling. However I was disappointed in the xray results they did. The bone is mending but they won't advance my Physical Therapy because the bone density still is not good and they are worried about damage to the repair if they do more aggressive physical therapy. They make it sound like it could be many more months. This going to PT 3 times a week could get expensive let alone all the time it takes. I can tell that I am healing but not as fast as I had hoped. I still deal with more pain than I would like. I can not lift my arm at all with out assistance but then I am not supposed to. I can work from the elbow down but some days my elbow and hands throb. I guess I should be happy that at least I have full range of motion for my elbow now and can move my fingers.The fingers are stiff in the morning but loosen up as the day goes on. I am having problems with my thumb joint. Apparently osteoarthritis is affecting my hand. They call it basal joint arthritis, Pain occurs at the base of my thumb when I grip, grasp or pinch an object between my thumb and forefinger or use my thumb to apply force. I feel like my body is falling apart on me. If you have gone through menopause you need to get a bone density test. My PT doctor did his paper on Bonviva and said it really does what it claims, restores bone density. I should have been taking it long before now. I was mistaken in thinking that taking Calcium was sufficient. 

Looking good, still some swelling. using Vitamin E on it.

They have decorated all the trees outside the Physical Therapy building with these big stars for Christmas. Many stores and municipalities use the stars for the decorations. We have some less elaborate ones for the office. Pulled them down from the mission home attic and will have to put them up this week. They are pretty festive.
     


We see some pretty interesting art work on our way to PT. They love bright colors here and it shows in the art work on the walls, over passes and posts. This area is just around the corner from where I go for PT. The sign that says "Shabu users never grow old because they die young" should be posted everywhere, (Shabu means Drug). The missionaries say that most of the Habal Habal (motorcycles that give rides to people) drivers are either drunk or on drugs. They try to find a responsible one and use the same one. That's probably why we see motorcycles are all over the road. They weave in and around cars and even go on the wrong side of the road. They are crazy in their driving and to see them you think, they don't value their life. We see motorcycle accidents daily

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What do you think gender responsive means? Subangdaku is a name of the Barangay. and Mandaue is the Municipality. From the street it looks like Subangdaku is a crowded community that is walled in. 

Love this time of the year at home

November 3. I have been trying to remember when it was last year that we thought it was cool enough to not have to run the aircon all the time. I was hoping it was coming up but i am thinking it must have been in January. It is very hard to cook because it takes two hands to do most things. Dad is good to help. I can not sweep very well either as the brooms are so short you have to bend over to sweep. Bending over hurts quite a bit because it causes my arm to shift, so Dad has to do the sweeping also. We don't have a vacuum (nobody does here) so everything is swept. It also hurts to spit in the sink from brushing my teeth and washing my face because I have to bend over to do that also.

Mendero Hospital

Emergency Room

I got my staples out on Friday. It looks like it healing pretty well. I was concerned with the sanitation where they took the staples out. They had a tray that had old news print down on it that they gathered up and threw away before they started to remove the staples. they didn't put anything else down on the tray and it didn't look real clean so I was a little nervous. The nurse dug through a bin to find the staple remover. I watched carefully to see if they were sanitized. She did take them over to another area and it looked like she may have dipped them in some alcohol. I was glad to see that she didn't set them down anywhere. When finished she put the staple remover back in the bin with all the other tools that she had taken it out of without cleaning it. She put the gauze and staples in the garbage that had no liner in it. Cleanliness is kind of important to me so I am glad I didn't have any other procedures there. 

There is a store here, near where I get Physical Therapy called S&R that is very similar to Sam's Club back home. They even carry some Kirkland products. I was able to find some gel Vitamin E capsules that I am going to use on my incision hoping I don't get such a huge scar.  

Arm is still very swollen

I go back in two weeks for xrays to see how the bone is mending.  Each day I do better and better. But still get pretty tired at the end of the day. My arm hurts after the visit to PT especially in the night but I can see that it is helping so I don't have frozen joints.

We had a good special broadcast by Elder Oaks on Sunday evening. He was the Area Authority here 10 years ago. He definitely understands the challenges of the Filipino people. He counseled the people not to divide their family up by working over seas. He also talked about the young people working while going to school. The young people think that if they are going to school they shouldn't get a job. He also counseled them to work hard and not rely on others for their support. He encouraged the members to become self reliant.

 It was All Saints Day and All Souls Day this weekend. So the traffic was horrendous. People everywhere and vehicles going every which way on the roads. The Filipino people celebrate by going to the cemeteries and cleaning the tombs, visiting and eating with family. Many stay overnight at the cemetery. Our neighbors had family over for the weekend and they stay up late visiting, drinking and eating outdoors. The men sleep outside on the benches and snore up a storm. It gets pretty noisy with their snoring but is sort of funny to hear them.

Broom Shop. 

 The brooms in the bin on the right in the top picture and on the left in the bottom picture look a lot like 

the witches brooms I saw in the Halloween pictures. Here they are actually used and not a costume.

They use the stiff brooms to sweep outside with. The more fan shaped broom are for indoor sweeping.  

I like that they are colorful. We sometimes buy our broom from children who are out peddling them on the 

streets and at the gas stations. They don't last long so we have to replace them now and again.

Another broom shop. They are all along this road. When you look down the
side streets you can see the broom straw laid out in the road drying.