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Annoying New Year

It is hard to describe New Year's Eve in the Philippines. It is loud and obnoxious with music blaring late into the night--our windows sometime shake with the bass notes. It is also loud because of the fireworks. There are no real restrictions on fireworks here, so anyone can buy and set off whatever fireworks they want, from the pyrotechnics you find at stadium events and theme parks, to sticks of dynomite, it is all for sale to anyone and set off the evening of December 31st.

This year our New Year's Eve was also annoying. At the stroke of midnight we welcomed 2008 with a power outage. The whole city was plunged into darkness. About two hours later the power came back on for about thirty seconds, and then shut off for another hour or so, came back on for about five minutes, and eventually stayed on for good around 2:30 AM.

The funny thing about midnight celebrations here is that everyone's watch is set to different times. Showing up on time for meetings and such is not a big concern here. So people started shouting "Happy New Year" around 11:15 or 11:30. The fireworks really start to go off around 11:00 and they usually last until 3:00 AM. Somehow Danny slept through it all.

Happy New Year.

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There are times . . .

when I really miss being in the States. Right now in Maryland the weather is getting very cold, and there might be snow in the forecast. I miss the smells of winter and the cool crisp air. I also miss the first world comforts that I have taken for granted for so many years. In that regard, I miss how most first world countries are usually much cleaner. I also miss living and working in a temperature controlled environment, where I am hardly every sticky with sweat or humidity. Also the Filipino way of doing things is different--not necessarily better or worse, just different. I guess I will go through this all throughout my missionary career. While Iloilo is my home, I still feel like a foreigner. While I love my life here, I am still a citizen of two worlds, calling two VERY different places home.