Onto the PHILIPPINES!!

SO, We have moved to the Philippines!  I had promised more blogging when I moved to India, but it never happened.  I tried to at least give you a glimpse in one post, but that's all I can do or else I will never start on the Philippines and keep it updated like I would like!  SO, ONTO THE PHILIPPINES!!

I don't even think I took one airplane picture!  The move was crazy fast and not on our terms, really.  We got a great new job working for IRRI (International Rice Research Institution) in Los Banos in the Philippines.  So now we are here!  Our first impression of the Philippines was a positive one.  We had so many people come and welcome us and help us find our way.  We stayed in a guest house for about a week before our house was ready, and it was nice to be shifted to a new place once that week was over!  It was nice to feel the chaos of the move settle down once we got here.

One of the first things we asked to do for a fun day in the Philippines, was to go see the WWII memorial cemetery in Manila.  My cousin Jennifer had made a request to find a specific grave and we enjoyed looking for it and seeing the whole monument.                     

There were many maps showing the different battles and deployment of troops over the Philippines during the different years of the war.  I only put up a few here for a small look into what was displayed.

The impact this statement had on all of us was powerful.  It was such a peaceful reverent feeling looking at the thousands and thousands of names on the walls and then to see the crosses of actual men found really gave my kids a good sense of the magnitude of it all.  They were so interested to see all the names and find the special symbols by some of the names who were awarded medals of honor.

Around the floor of the monument is each states crest.  Of course we got Maine and Idaho pictured!

This is us in front of just one section of the cemetery.  It was so massive! (the blonde little girl was the daughter of our new friends who brought us here!)

I wanted to write more about each picture, but just scrolling through them seems enough.  It is a powerful place that I will insist anyone coming to visit here must go and see!

After our tour through the cemetery we had to go to a mall and feed the kids!

We actually fed them real food before we found this dollar cotton candy!!  It was so cool watching him make them all!!

Here is a couple panoramic shots of our new view from our patio.  We have green space! and a coy pond! and trees! and flowers!! and peace!

Our first couple of weeks in the Philippines gave us a lot to look forward to.  We really think we will like it here.