It was much better than walking, although I didn’t get where I wanted to
go. The peddler guy ran out of steam and dropped me at the Santa Cruz
Church rather than the Quiapo Church which is about ten minutes by foot
from here. For some reason, he wanted the whole fare! I let him argue for a
while while sweat just poured off of him and then gave him the fare. I can
walk the remaining distance. I haven’t been in a pedicab since Saigon in
1967. I was more than a little smaller back then. The ride didn’t get any
smoother, however, in the meantime.
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This is in the sense of being dripping wet from sweating. I will take some
other transportation back, such as a pedicab. I’m sure someone wants to
earn some money and I’ll pay well!

I’m sitting in a McDonalds having a large Sprite and cooling off a bit.
This building is an old train station converted into shopping kiosks. There
are a lot of people here but not many are carrying packages. I think they
are mostly window shopping as I am.

It took an hour to walk the mile from the church to this mall. It was quite
a varied walk. I refrained from taking any pictures in the live animal
market as it would make some folks queezy, I’m sure. There was also a small
“theater” district where people were trying to sell all kinds of delights.
Fortunately, I didn’t understand what most of them were saying. I have no
idea of the Filipino slang.

The most curious area was where people had A-frame boards set up with all
kinds of degrees and diplomas displayed. As best I could make out, I could
choose which diploma I wanted and then I could buy it. The woman I tried to
talk to wanted me to go across the street up to a 2nd foor office. I wasn’t
willing to do that, so my curiosity remains.
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I had the driver take me to the Quiapo Church in downtown Manila. Churches
usually make a good place around which to sightsee / shop as there is
usually a place there to sit down and rest. That’s what I’m doing right
now. This is a big building and quite nondescript as far a Catholic
churches go. Its claim to fame is a carving of Jesus carrying the cross. It
was carved in Mexico in the early 1600’s and brought here. The weather has
turned the wood black which has really appealed to the Filipinos. Each year
in early January the statue, which stands about six feet tall, is put on a
wagon and pulled through the streets with ropes. Literally millions come
for this event because, according to the legend, touching the statue, the
wagon, or the ropes brings forgiveness of even the most henious sins.
Eventually pictures may end up on the picture album. It’s time to go find
some water and a restroom (called a ‘comfort room’ in the Philippines).
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I’m sitting in Sacrament Meeting in the Las Pinas 2nd Ward. There is a
deluge going on outside — it has been raining hard for the past 45
minutes. A very good time to be inside! A young man is talking, but I don’t
understand him. He probably isn’t speaking in English and the noise of the
rain is drowning him out anyway. I was picked up at 1:00 pm and it took
five minutes to get here. There was almost no traffic! Very unusual. There
are about 125 people here for Church. We have been singing acapella, but a
very young girl is now sitting at the piano so we may have accompaniment
for the intermediate hymn, “The World Has Need Of Willing Men”, otherwise
known as the “butcher song”.

Yesterday was a very lazy / laid back day. I eventually got out of bed
around 11. I looked out the window to see below me a large group of people
in street clothes holding towels and holding hands. Then they all clapped
and went 4 at a time into the pool and baptized each other. There seemed to
be no rhyme or reason. I watched for about ten minutes. Some people got
baptized a couple of times. A couple of people only did baptizing. This was
by immersion, so it must have been one of the local charismatic churches.

Later that afternoon I took a walk and some pictures, which I’ve put in the
picture album.

I’m feeling better, but still have some ways to go. Another night’s sleep
like last night would be very good. It’s now raining so hard I can’t hear
the speaker at all. They’ve had to turn down the amplifier a bit because
there was too much feedback. We have a new speaker. She’s reading
scriptures in English and talking about them in Tagalog.

Tomorrow is our 42nd wedding anniversary. It certainly hasn’t been long
enough. I’ll take several more eternities….
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A good night’s sleep makes a real difference. I went to bed last night at
about 8:30 pm and got up this morning at 6:00 am interrupted by a couple of
trips to the bathroom. It’s very warm outside but since all our meetings
are inside, we’re not much affected by that. We did have to go outside
yesterday when the fire alarm went off. We were outside long enough to get
baked, which actually felt good with my cold. Another couple of days and I
should be back to normal. Monday is a holiday here (Independence Day, like
our 4th of July) and I’ll need to decide what to do that day (besides
sleeping).
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