LIFE IS FRAGILE

This week has been so busy with our core duties of nursing and housing that we had to miss the thing that we have enjoyed most in recent weeks - the teaching of another missionary discussion to the couple from our apartment building.  Due to the holiday, All Saints Day and related out of town obligations, Lance and Grace were only able to meet with the missionaries midday during the week; on a day that Eileen and I were so busy that we had to split up in order to get everything done.  Eileen was taking two elders into Quezon City to see a doctor and I was buying supplies for the new apartments.  

With other elders in the hospital and moving four sets of missionaries into new apartments over a 10-day period we have not had as much time as we had hoped to look for two additional apartments that we need before the next transfer date on November 13th.  Fortunately, last Thursday the missionaries were able to locate two potential units for rent.  We will be looking at them this coming Tuesday and Wednesday.  Hopefully, we can rent them and get things moved in on Friday and Saturday.

Last Wednesday, the day Eileen and I decided to “divide and conquer,” through our separate experiences we were reminded of two important points.  First, we do better when we are together.  And second, life is fragile and can change in an instant.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the two days before the holiday, traffic was crazy.  It reminded us of the traffic the day before Thanksgiving Day, when everyone is hurrying to go be with relatives.  It took Eileen four hours to travel back from a hospital just eight miles away.  When traffic gets that congested, somehow a three lane road (one direction) finds itself with five or six “lanes” of vehicles.  All vehicles were traveling either very slowly or stopped, just inches away from each other.  It was in this mess that Eileen found herself between two commuter vans (like small busses), one in front and another on her side. In this congested mess the driver of a vehicle in front of Eileen jumped out and claimed she had hit him. He called a policeman over who looked at both vehicles and shooed the driver on. Unfortunately about 30 seconds later Eileen heard a crunch and found that another passenger van had come in contact with our car from the right side and actually did cause damage.  Fortunately, at speeds of 1 or 2 miles an hour, while you can dent things you are much less likely to get hurt although it rather rattled Eileen.

After this too close encounter, just down the road a kilometer or two, one of the missionaries says to Eileen, “Is that a body laying in the road?”  On the other side of the road, only a couple blocks from where we live, a jeepney had pulled over to the side of the road to let passengers on and off.  Since traffic was not moving in the lanes to the left of the jeepney, a truck decided passed it on the right (on the sidewalk) hitting a young man and killing him.  

Between this event, seeing the woman in the hospital arrest and die six weeks ago, and then the little girl drown in the pool in Indonesia, Eileen says in all her years of nursing she had fewer patients die than she has seen die on our missions.  It has been a clear reminder to us that life is fragile.

When we couldn't get all the Elder's belongings in the van, we resorted to moving things on a trike.

When we served in the missionary department a mission president told me he wanted a senior missionary who was built like King Kong to be in charge of housing. I told him most seniors aren't in that kind of condition, but Russell is doing his best when moving missionaries.

Russell and Elder Douglas moving in

The missionaries love this  restaurant in Pakil. We treated them as a thanks for taking their  Pday to move the other missionaries in.

View from the window at the doctor's office  at Medical City.

This Dad has put a block of ice on the back of his motorcycle. I hope it doesn't end up in someone's drink.

We are hoping to get this house for the sisters. Sister Scanlan and Day are so excited. 

This was on the door of a house we looked at to rent this week, "Life is fragile, handle with prayer." The landlords said we were an answer to their prayers, We  responded that they were an answer to OUR prayers. It still seems too good to be true. We are hoping to sign the papers this week.

Fridge delivery in Kapitolyo. We bought the fridge and they immediately put it on a trolley and walked it to the apartment. They weren't allowed to go up the elevator as it was just for clients. The delivery boys hauled this fridge up 4 flights of stairs.

Sister Day and Sister Riggs, showing their old fridge and comparing it to the new fridge. The landlord couldn't figure out why the small fridge wasn't sufficient. We have coolers bigger than that fridge back home. I told them they looked like synchronized swimmers.

Eileen getting her first facial (less than 10 dollars).  My phone rang 3 times in less than 5 minutes during the facial. Needless to say it didn't offer the relaxation I was looking for. It was difficult  trying to text with this goop all over my face.

Putting a wheelchair on a trike after church.

OOPS, that crunching noise was our car.