Flooding from typhoons the end of August.

The people walk in the middle of the street because it's safer. There are storm drains on the sides of the road they can't see when the water is deep.

The kids were body surfing down the middle of this flooded street.

Some of the flooding in the fields.

We took  a drive up on a dike made from ash from the Mt. Pinatubo. When Mt. Pinatubo erupted on the '90s, many small towns were covered with ash. they built this dike to prevent it from happening again. The make shift homes areon the top of the dike, are squatters.

More squatters.

These men are rolling something that looks like a log about 2 feet long and 12" in diameter. We watched them for a long time trying to figure out what they were doing. Elder Gorringe figured out they were rolling a magnet and picking up the magnetic particles. After rolling it several feet, they would pick it up, walk up the river, and do it again. After 3 or 4 times, they would take the "log" to a bucket and scrape off the filings. It looked like back breaking work and they got paid hardly anything, much less than what they average worker makes.This river is right next to the dike so they they are picking up particles from the ash from the volcano.

A small town next to the dike.

Goats by the dike.

This week was transfers, departing missionaries, and new missionaries. Seven wonderful missionaries went home. That is always sad, but the 27 new missionaries are always great. Twelve of them were foreigners (not from the Philippines) the rest were from the Philippines, or anyway, they went to the Manila MTC. Elder Gorringe and I have a part on the orientation power point. He gives them money to last to the end of the month and their debit card. I give them their orientation booklet.
We are also asked to give a pep talk about getting adjusted here.
The next 2 days I am writing Safe Arrival letters to their parents. Over the next week, I will be writing parents to let them know their son or has been transferred or has received a new position.
This is a busy time, a stressful time, and spiritual time, but it's the best time because the new missionaries are great.