Philippines Journal 2007 #19

We are in Manila at AIIAS (Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies). We arrived early afternoon and went straight to one of the HUGE Malls in Manila (Glorietta?). A number of us got spun around quite a bit. Wow! There were people, people, people! And wending one’s way through the throng, who mostly strolled along, was a major task for an intense rapid shopper like me. Yet today I did over 20,000 pedometer steps!

Leaving Southern Mindanao is always a major event in itself – as was the arrival. The entire Mission team gathered and sang us a farewell song. Most of them were wearing their WWC shirts. Then they came again in caravan style to the airport. It was quite a jolly occasion with a lot of clowning around especially among the young people. Of course by now you know that we got the celebrity treatment: They took our luggage and passports and went and checked us in (and getting “priority” stickers on our luggage) before we even left the Mission compound. So all we had to do was go through security when we arrived. And that was a breeze, since one of our members’ cousin is a “big-thing” in the security at the airport, and he is also an Adventist.

So here we are at AIIAS – and with wireless service! We are sorry that Vie’s sister, Yvonne, is not here. She and her husband, Dave Higgins works here at the University. He is a professor of Education. But they are on furlough at the moment. Tomorrow we do some quick tours of the Adventist and local sites before leaving very early on Tuesday morning for back home.