Courtney and Hal were hard workers this weekend at the annual young men/young women mulching fundraiser. They make enough from selling, delivering and spreading mulch in one day to pay for their summer camps for the year. Someone donates the mulch - 90 cubic yards of it - to the church each year for the youth to spread. They loaded trucks with it Friday night, then they spread it at homes from 7:30 to 5:30 Saturday. They were pretty worn out, but I'm glad they get to do a fundraiser that actually requires work.
The kids are really enjoying the Spring weather and playing at the park. Teresa has some of the garden planted, and we've even done a little tennis playing. Had a campout with the scouts last weekend, and the weather was nearly perfect.
I'm in the Philippines, and just got back from attending church at the Makati 3rd ward, which was the closest church to my hotel. I'm here for planning meetings for Philippines and the Asia Pacific area through next Saturday. There were fewer American families in the ward here than I saw when I attended church in Hong Kong or Singapore. Seems like mostly native Filipinos in the ward.
One thing that I completely take for granted is street addresses. My hotel and the church have no address, so I wandered in the general direction of the church on the map this morning. On my way I saw an older American couple with a set of scriptures in their hands-- I knew I had a good guide at that point. The couple works at BYU-Hawaii, and their job here is to get internship opportunities and full time job opportunities for Filipino students at BYU-Hawaii so they can return to the Philippines after graduation with good jobs.
Gospel Doctrine was about keeping the Sabbath day holy, and that inspired me to try not to do regular work today, and maybe wake up early Monday to finish preparing for my presenations. I'm liking that it's easy to connect up and listen to Mormon Tabernacle choir streaming on the Internet. It makes it feel more like a Sunday.
It's very hot and humid here right now. I was drenched from sweat from the 1/2 mile walk to the church, and I was pretty soggy by the time I got back to the hotel.
There is a real sense that this is still a developing country. Being out on the streets, it's pretty different-- I saw a family of four all on one small motorcylce driving on the road last night, the mom & dad with dad in front, one kid sandwiched between them, and one kid hanging on the mom's back. That's real family togetherness! I also thought it was interesting when one of the Elders in priesthood wanted to walk back to the hotel with me after church to see the hotel lobby where I was staying. He lived just blocks from the hotel, but was never allowed in without a hotel guest so he had never seen inside. He seemed very happy when I showed him around.
The per capita average annual income in the Philippines is $1,234, and you see a lot of real poverty. Despite that, we will sell over $100 million in infant formula in the Philippines this year.
