Sarah and I decided to visit Aunt Yvonne and Uncle Keith in the Philippines for spring break (all courtesy of our tutoring money - oh yeah!!) First of all, let me give a plug for EVA (Evergreen) airlines. Our flight cost less than $200 and lasted less than 2 hours, and they gave us a meal!!!! Just try to find that in the United States (you won't). The picture at the left is one of the gates at the new terminal at Taoyuan Airport. I was sooo excited! I got to meet Hello Kitty herself!!When we arrived at the Division compound, we were astounded!! We couldn't believe that anything Adventist could look so
good!!
The South-Asia Pacific Division overlooks countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, etc. When they built the compound, they incorporated a little culture from each country. For example, this archway is a Cambodian design. Sadly, though, the most startling thing may be the stark contrast between the compound and what lies outside. As soon as you step outside the gate, you see the Philippines for the third-world nation it really is (no offense to Filipinos). 
Most of the people in the area live in shacks built only a few feet from the busy road. They often have large families, 
and usually only one parent has work (if even that). That one income will "support" a husband and wife, the children, and usually multiple other family members. If you add that up, it equals a lot of people with nothing to do, so they just sit around, playing pool, talking, or trying to sell what little goods they have (especially to foreigners). They do not keep their country very clean. As a result of this, most everything is dirt cheap, including labor. For that reason, one of the biggest exports for the Philippines is actually Filipinos. They go to other countries to get a job and better wages. Every single maid I have seen here in Taiwan has been a Filipino. Anyway, one of the biggest reasons for all the unemployment, dirt roads, trash, and overall lack of development is that the government is corrupt. Sarah's aunt told us a story about a dirt road that the Adventists were requesting be paved. Their request was denied because the government's books showed that the road had been paved three times. Basically, the money had been given out three times to pave the road, but it had always ended up in some official's pocket rather than being used for its intended purpose. It is sad to see that the only "Christian" nation in Asia is one of the lowest in morality and progress.
Ok, enough of that. Aunt Yvonne took us (and Sieg Roeske - the world IS a small place) to Taal Volcano. It was a relatively short, very nice hike (except for the Filipino who followed us halfway to the top trying to get us to rent his donkey) to a beautiful location. It hasn't shown activity since the 60's and 70's, but it still has many areas where the sulphur bubbles up in the lake sitting on top of it or where you can see and feel the steam coming out of holes in the rocks.
On Thursday, we decided to go on the Corregidor Island tour. This island guards teh entrance to Manila Bay. During WWII, the United States turned it into a full-fledged military base. It was really interesting from a historical point of view, but the best part was that the tour had very little "yellow tape." We got to walk around on the ruins of all the bombed buildings, like the barracks,
<--- movie theater, etc. We got to touch and look through the massive guns. We got to explore the tunnels that the Americans lived in for 5 months straight while defending and where, later, after setting up a massive amount of explosives, 3,000 Japanese committed suicide because a belief that it is better to die in service to the emperor than be captured by the enemy. In any event, it was well worth the money. 
We also went snorkeling. We saw jellyfish (which is actually really scary!), sea cucumbers, puffer fish, and all those wonderful characters from Finding Nemo! The rest of the trip was spent either going to markets or malls or just simply enjoying the amazing home-cooked meals and comfortable feeling that comes from being somewhere that feels more like home than where we currently reside.
Sometimes, when you go on a vacation, you have this mentality that you have to go, go, go all the time. You have to experience everything you possibly can, and you feel like, if you take some time to just rest, you are missing out on something. It was so nice, on this vacation, to shed that mentality and just enjoy the fellowship of our family members and the time we had together and to really just relax.
