One week mark!

Here is the lush green view from our bedroom window...which we generally see at about 5:30 am each day, as no matter what side of the world we are on, Jaya likes to get up when the sun comes out.  Our morning girl!

This has been quite a week!  Due to lack of internet connectivity, we weren't able to post more often, so this will be a long entry.  Feel free to skip over it, we won't be offended - this blog serves double duty as blog and family journal: ramblings of the matriarch.

My very first impression of the Philippines (besides the climate):  In contrast to the multiple experiences I've had in the last month of going through various airport security checkpoints in the US with two children, my experience here was quite different.  The procedures and checks were very similar - the difference was that here, every one of the security people we spoke to talked to and played with the kids.  Every one!  They smiled, played, and spoke to them and made the process much easier.  Quite unlike the usual mixture of mild frustration and painful boredom seen on most of the faces of TSA agents waiting for Jaya to toddle through the security point. 

Once we arrived in Cebu, our friend Glenn picked us up and took us to our new home.  We live in a townhome in a gated community in Cebu.  The gated community also contains ACE - the Academy for Creating Enterprise.  Our friends at ACE, including Glenn, have done a lot to make us feel at home here. 

 After our long plane ride, we ate, did some minor grocery shopping and discovered that produce is wondrously cheap and anything with an American label is horrifically expensive.  I am talking a Costco pack of Frosted Mini-Wheats for over $15.  But I can cook a meal of fish, rice, and veggies for less than 30 cents for each of us. And I have the gas stove I have wanted for years. :)

We slept a lot Saturday and Sunday, and went to church on Sunday.  It was awesome!  People were so kind to us, smiling and friendly, and again, especially to the kids.  Further evidence of the kid friendliness of our new home:  Thus far, nearly everyone who sees me breastfeed has something to say - something like, that is wonderful, or mother's milk is so good for them, or you will have healthy children.  Especially considering the impact of the marketing of breastmilk substitutes here  in this third world nation (Nestle in particular), reducing breastfeeding rates to below 20%, the fact that the culture is so clearly supportive of it is wonderful.  Also, Jaya was very happy in church to see a fellow 2-year old nursing and turned to me and said, "She drinking milkies!"  It is interesting that at even such a young age, she has absorbed that generally in our culture, we don't see toddlers breastfeeding  - because she never comments to me when she sees infants nursing, only toddlers.  

The kids have both been sick this week with mild colds.  Add that to lack of sleep, and it has been a bit of an adventure.  Last night was the first night we had our normal bedtime routine, and boy, did it feel good!  Jaya has a constantly sweaty head, but never complains about it, and she wants to play outside all day.  Her newest phrase is "how-da-know" which means "know how." As in, "I how-da-know to do it!"  or "Daddy how-da-know to do it" when asked to close the door after her dad.  Raja is starting to scoot - if we place him on the mattress he gets from one side to the other without rolling.  I can't believe he is growing up so fast.  

We asked our friend Glenn, as a native Filipino, to tell us something about Filipino culture we should know.  He told us that Filipinos are notoriously polite.  To a fault, because people will often say yes, when they really mean no, out of politeness.  This will be interesting for me, as I don't know how to be polite!  So I struggle with reading whether people really mean yes or no, since I always mean whatever it is I said.   Good or bad - since I inherited my mother's propensity to say exactly what I think at any given moment....

Some other observations thus far:

People seem to love 80's and 90's American soft rock.  We've had taxi drivers who did not speak any English, but knew every word to Bryan Adams' "Everything I do, I do it for you"  and other choice selections from our childhoods.

There are lots of advertisements for bleaching creams and products to make skin fair.  Every Filipino actress or TV personality we have seen thus far has been fair skinned.  In the malls, many of the women working as cashiers wear a layer of foundation multiple shades lighter than their actual skin color.  In the toy sections of stores, I have yet to see a dark-skinned or even non-Caucasion doll.  I found an interesting article written by a Filipina on this subject here.  This is a subject I will admit, I have struggled with nearly my entire life, as an Indian-American woman.  I have an uncle who tried on several occasions to buy me bleaching cream, and in fact, my parents were some of my only adult relatives who never, not once, made me feel that my dark skin was a bad thing.  I know my observations are colored (no pun intended) by both that struggle, and my desire that Jaya grow up with a healthy self-image.  For those of you who like Dove's Real Beauty campaign, and that included me, please read this.  The irony!

Luckily for Marei, people love basketball here. He got to watch the Celtics beat the Lakers live - at 9 am.  We also have a park in the community where people play ball, so he gets to play often.  Back in the States, he's often one of the smaller players, but here, he towers over most people.  And here, instead of shirts vs. skins, it often looks like shoes vs. flipflops - or even bare feet!  

And finally, we love it here!  It was a somewhat tough week, adjusting to time, temperature, and everything else.  We feel so welcomed, and are excited for the year ahead.

Whew!   I promise to be less long-winded in future entries.  But wait, that's the beauty of this - you can just skip ahead. :)