Just Over a Week In (Cliff is Still the Coolest Person Ever)

Well we have here just over a week at this point we. We are still trying to get used to the weather its still hot but we have been told it should be cooling off w the rainy season coming.What follows is my
I will get to the reason Im writing this silly thing today, I went yesterday w Lloyd (Rae's grandpa) to visit a lady from the church that is in prison. I guess a little background here from what we have been told she should not be in prison but its almost impossiable to get out once you are in jail in the Phillipines (from what weve been told) the story goes as such she was working w this man to dig up gold that was hidden around the differnt islands of the Phillipines by the Japanesase during WWII (this is all legal) they found a rather large amount of gold that was taken along w the earth that it was encased in to this factory type place to seperate the gold from the dirt after that was finished they were left w like 5.5 million pesos which with the last exchange rate I heard is about $132,000 or so which is a pretty good chunk of change, as the story goes the man she was working w did not want to declare the fidnings to the government so he hired 2 armed gurads to ride in his care and protect the money one of the guards decided he wanted the money so he killed the other people there, this lady from the church was not there when this all happened and from what has been stated by her legal counsel there doesnt appear to be any evidence to tye her to the crime. So anyway we went up to visit cause she had a hearing ysterday, so we left early in the morning like before 0600 it was about a 2 hr drive so we got to the little town at about 0800 stopped & had breakfast a Mcdoldalds (so for those of you worring if we had food we can always get a Big Mac) then we procceded to go to the courthouse. We got over there it was different (all i got to see was the outside of the building cause they only let 1 persons/prisoner into the courtroom) the outside of the building was sort of what i expected it was one story tall strutcure that was had alot of spanish influnce in the construction but the area around it was strange cause back home the courtouses have always had paved parking lots, there were quite a few people milling around when we arrived at 0830 after breakfast we went over and looked at the scheudal on the builten board on the courthouse this piece of paper gave the court scheudal but it wasnt a hard schedule all it said was this list of people vs this list of people w a number beside them to notate the order but all of them started at 0830 so we didnt know if it would be the first case & we would be done in 20 min or if we would have to wait all day (we were the fifth case) finaly at about 0915 the first van pulled up w some prisoners in it they got out in there jeans and orange shirts which was also funny cause i feel in the states all the prisoners have the some prsion garb not so here thye got out handcuffed in pairs & went inside we waited a bit more then another van pulled up this was the one we was waiting on so i sat down and in some chairs over by the public defenders office and waited until about 10-1015 or so. when we heard people coming out so we went & stood over to see what was going on, as we stood over they more prisoners came out the courthouse it was weird cause they were no longer handcuffed togethr and just walked up to there families & would start tlking to them & were handed things like food & clothes by people so that was a bit unnerving but to be fair the prison guards were all stadning there finnaly the lady from church came out & we went over & talked to her for a bit just about how she was doing, she seemed to be taking it pretty well & us being there she said was encouraging she then said something intereting one of the women shes in prison w had a baby and had the kid in the cell w her & they were looking for someone to care for baby girl of course Lloyd said that me & Rae didnt have kids... when Rae found out she werent to happy. that was the exciting adventure yesterday  we got back home at about 1230
we went to the wednesdy prayer meeting and had a good time i was talking w a couple of the guys there they & a lady from church was trying to teach us some of the language (i may be a lost cause there) oh just in case anyone is wondering traffic in Manila sucks on our way back from church last night at 1930 it took us just over  hr we got back at 2034 to travel 11km or 6.8 miles
im still supposed to be teaching sunday school here in a couple weeks its a very intereting series that is being used its adapted from a something a misinary w New Tribes put out called firm foundations so the 1st subject i get to teach on will be the the tabernacle.

Me First Impressions (Cliff Im Still the Coolest Person Ever)

So like me wonderfully silly wife said it was long miserable trip it took forever but we is here & trying to get settled in. I think its been said before but its so humid its like you is walking through water the whole time and can never get dry. We went to the Wednesday night prayer meeting last night and met some of the people in the church which was good everyone we meet or talk w seems so friendly. Being a such a large city is a change I mean Springfield MO is a bigger town but not even close. We went to a bank today and opened up a savings acct that way we can get our money through the ATM instead of having to carry around all our money all the time. That is one thing that is messing w my head cause while we was out today we stopped in a huge department store that was 5 stories tall & 2 blocks long & looked at the prices of stuff and a candy bar was 40.5 pesos which sounds like alot but doing the conversion it works out to about $1, but just trying to get that strait in me head is not working so far. Well I had better get off and tickle Rae cause she needs someone to tickle her. Oh just fyi its Thursday 5/16/13 4:45pm here

First Impressions by Rae

It smells exactly the way I remember. I got off the plane, and it felt like I walked into a wet, warm blanket, but it felt good too. I've been here twice before, so for me it's kinda like coming home. I  love it here, the people, the culture, even the heat (although not the humidity as much).  It does feel different this time though, it was a little scarey getting here. The whole plane trip, (when I wasn't thinking about how miserable it was) I was thinking about how long a year is. It's a really long time!! I'm excited to be back, and it's been great to see the people here again, but part of me is still wondering if I really want to stay a year? Cliff is sure that this is where we are supposed to be, and I'm content (mostly) following him, but I know I'll miss my plain, simple Missouri life. But I am glad we're here! It's so wonderful, if you haven't experienced the hospitality and friendliness of the Filipino people than you've missed out, let me tell you.

We're Here!!

We made it! It was a long flight, and honestly we were miserable, but it's great to finally be here. We flew from St. Louis to Detriot (1h 40m) had a layover of an hour and a half, then flew from Detroit to Nagoya, Japan (13h) had another layover of 1h 30m, and then flew from Nagoya to Manila (4h). It was long! I (Rae) had a cold, so my head pretty much exploded with the pressure, but Cliff took care of me and I'm doing fine now. We arrived in Manila at 11:30pm and had to go through customs and find our baggage and then find my Lolo Lloyd (Grandpa Lloyd in Tagolog) we probably couldn't have found everything if we hadn't had help. Edna, a lady who works in the airport that is friends with my Lolo, meet us when we got off the plane and helped us through everything. She was a huge blessing! Then we went to our Lolo and Lola's condo, took a shower, and went to bed! I don't think a soft bed has ever felt that good. It's nice to be back, I've missed it here.

Cliff is the Coolest Person Ever (Guess Who Wrote this Post)

Hi people,

This is my first time writing one of these silly things (meaning me cliff) but here goes. As I am sure most of you are aware if you is reading this that we (Rae and I) are getting ready to go to Manila which for you peeps who are geographically challenged is in the Philippines. We have had many things going on to get ready for this trip/adventure. As of right now we are sitting on the bed & while Im writing this Rae is writing thank you letters to all the people who helped out w the little wedding we had this past Saturday, in addation to that we are packing all of our stuff that isnt going w us so that it can be stored at our parents houses for the time that we are gone (it amazes me how much stuff 2 people can have when we dont even have any furniture). I know this is sort of rambeling but I aint in school no more & thus aint got to care about no English type rules or nothing so ill just keep rambeling.

We had a great time at our wedding this past weekend, it was so much fun getting to do silly decoraitons such as we filled a bunch of ballons w H and then wrote stuff that we like to do together on them (i dont think any of the people that came read them but it was still fun). a good portion of both familes was there we know alot of the people that didnt come already had plans or stuff going on cause it was short notice w everything else going on. I did want to say sorry to the people that wanted to come but the invites got sent out after you had plans. the ceremony was what we wanted.

I think some updates are in order:
1. We knew that a while after we go there that I would take over some of the teaching type stuff during church, what we found out a couple days ago was that due to Lloyd needing to take some time off for health reasons that I will be taking over a sunday school class as well as a sunday evening class (both in English which is good cause I talk and right it better then any other langauge which aint saying much) 2 weeks after we get there, meaning we wont even be over jet lag yet so we just ask your prayers w that
2. We have gotten back all the legal paperwork that we need so that we can get into the country w/o to much trouble, for a little while last month we were worried because we found out that we had to send our passports to the phillipeano consolate in chicago to get a visa extension we had been under the impression that we could go into the country under a normal 21 day tourist visa and just extend it but we found out that we wouldnt be able to get onto the plane w/o sending off for an extended visa before we tried to leave the country and w having nonrefundable tickets that cost a pretty good chunk of monies that was important
3. we are planning on setting up so that we can skype that way we can stay in contact & everyone can still see me pretty face (hehe Im funny) so we do need to figuer that out
4. we are leaving springfield to go spend some time w my family on may 9 then my parents are supposed to take us to the airport in st louis on monday so that should be fun cause we is doing a big family get together bbq thing 

well im sure stuff is misspelled & dont follow all those silly english rules but oh well glad your read have a great day & God bless