28 May 2012

don't believe in love at first sight?

Neither did I.

But, I can honestly say, I loved this precious one from the moment I first saw her.

And, I can tell you:
594 days later...
I'm still a lost cause.

:-)

17 May 2012

my 38-hour Thursday

Time travel IS possible. Particularly if you're time zone hopping and heading east over the International date line. It's makes for an odd day though... with one morning, but two nights.

This morning, from my taxi on the way to the airport, I saw bare-bottomed Filipino kiddos all soaped up and getting their morning bath on the sidewalk... several yards further along, sparks flew as a young man welded an iron fence together... a just a little after that, an older man leaned against a truck, shirt rolled up to his chest, his belly shamelessly greeting the day. My Filipino taxi driver was quite upset over the current protests surrounding the Scarborough shoals. I continually tried to steer the conversation to less political topics, but he was not easily distracted. Hah! :-)

Made it to ICN international airport and found a large "etiquette bell" button mounted on the wall of each bathroom stall. Hmmmmmm... I was curious enough to take a picture, but not enough to actually push it. ;-) Turns out, it makes a loud toilet flushing sound to help muffle out any other unpleasant sounds one might hear in a bathroom. Definitely "a 'hearing people' thing." When I mentioned it, a colleague pointed out that the walls were for the sake of us "visual people." ;-)

Arrived in LAX and back on U.S. soil to some very friendly customs ladies who told me all about the things people have tried to bring through from Southeast Asia: "You don't have any elephant toenails in your bag, do you?" Ha ha! No, Ma'am!
Shocked to see prices of food at the airport!! And $4 for water... whaaaaat!? Oh, and another fun US shock... did you know that you can have your e-ticket ON your iPhone and just scan your ticket barcode on your phone screen when you go through security and board the plane??? First time I've ever seen that! Also a bit surprised that all the announcements came over the loudspeakers FIRST in Spanish, and THEN in English. Wow.

Finally... I got on the plane in Manila this morning in 34*C/93*F weather. I'll be deplaning in Oregon tonight in 4*C/39*F weather. Brrrrr!! And it's May!

15 May 2012

just another evening in Manila

sitting on the covered patio as the remaining light fades from dusk to night
inhaling the lingering scent of a late afternoon thundershower
seeing lightening now off in the distance over the next mountain ridge
listening to the symphony of night insects
a man is making his nightly round walking down the street, selling, "balut, baluuuuuuut!" [what is balut? find out here]
hearing geckos chirping from different corners of the grounds... one chirps above me...
looking up just in time to see it's tail disappear over a rafter beam
watching the palm trees dance gently in the breeze
inhale... exhale...
and tomorrow, another goodbye to another beautiful place and more beautiful people

11 May 2012

"You've never done anything slow in your life have you?"

--said a chiropractor while showing me a strengthening exercise which should be performed at the speed of an 80 year old sloth

My mom says there are four speeds: slow, medium, fast, and then me....
I was out and screaming 45 minutes after my mom's water broke.
I skipped walking and went from crawling to running at 8 months old.
I passed H.S. exams at 14, but wasn't allowed (by my homeschooling teachers, ie: my parents) to graduate until the summer I turned 16.
Three years later, I walked in my college graduation with my Bachelor's Degree at 19.
By 21, I was busy working out of my own business - contracting at local, state, and federal levels.

A Deaf friend, teaching me to write in a non-Roman script, got increasingly frustrated with my practicing and errors, "Slow down!! You'll be more accurate if you slow down!" Yeah, yeah, yeah.  I've heard that a million times before.

But now, as I'm sitting here, consolidating salvaged files from my May 2012 harddrive (which was in my laptop when it fell 3 feet off a desk and onto the floor -- accident) with my last backup from January 2012.

ENFJ -- must become ISTJ -- yuck. (No offense to any ISTJs out there - I'm sure you're the bomb, but it's just not me.) Suddenly, slow and steady wins the race. But man, I feel like I need to get out and run a marathon when I'm done... something to make up for all the lost time.

Or, maybe I'll finally just set up my laptop to update every night. (I can hear my mentor's audible sigh of relief from a continent away.)

02 May 2012

adoption: a different view from the inside

This article is haunting me, so I'm going to share it. Not all children put up for adoption are orphans. I knew that. Yet, while I'd heard of families giving up their children because they simple can't afford to care for them, this is the first story I've read from the parents' perspective.

http://www.ethiomedia.com/2012_report/3743.html

Don't get me wrong - I am 100% pro-adoption. If the Lord wills, I myself want to adopt. However, I'm also convinced that sometimes even our very best intentions still aren't enough to outweigh the consequences of our ignorance. But, as usual, I don't have the answers... only more questions.

[Edit: Article with accompanying video here -- http://ecadforum.com/blog/2012/04/28/ethiopia-adoption-boom/ and Follow-up article here -- http://www.ethiomedia.com/2012_report/3767.html]