Manila - Tuesday

We bid a sad farewell to Dumaguete this morning to spend the day in Manila.  It was hard to say goodbye.  I was glad to see that both Megan and Lexi seem to have fallen in love with Dumaguete as well.  It was my first trip back in 25 years and Dianna's first trip back in about 40 years.  It was great reconnecting and remembering why I love the city so much.  Yes, it's changed much but the people haven't.  There are just a lot more of them.  Seeing my classmates was wonderful.  Connecting with the LCP staff and kids was amazing.


We were picked up at the airport by Dan & Amy Larson, my dorm parents from my senior year in high school.  I remember those days quite fondly.  It was great reconnecting.  They are older but the same quirky characters I remember when I lived with them.  :-)  It was great retelling some of the old stories and hearing updates regarding family and friends from days gone by.

If the traffic and driving in Dumaguete seemed bad, it was compounded 10 fold in Manila.  Signs and the rules for travel seem to be mostly suggestions.  Of course Dan was pulled over twice.  Once on the way to meet us and the other for performing an illegal turn.  Thankfully each let him off for being a missionary.

I recognized some sites such as the cultural center but most of the other places had changed.  Every piece of real estate seems to now be filled with a building.  There used to be occasional green spaces.  They also have the biggest billboards I have ever seen.  All over the place.  The malls, they make you feel that you have stepped back into the US.  They are better than most of our malls, and huge.  We went into one that spanned one of the main roads and it at least four stories with every storefront filled.  We were there on a Tuesday morning and it was packed.

Dan then took us to Fort Santiago, an old Spanish fort, known as one of the oldest structures in the Philippines and where Jose Rizal, one of the most famous Filipinos, spent his last days.  It was interesting seeing the fort and thinking of all the history.  There are sections that still show shell impacts from WW2.  They also have a number of Rizal's sculptures and scientific work.  He was an amazing man.  His life was ended just 2 years prior to seeing the Philippines freed from the Spanish.  I think the girls were a little bored though.  Dan and I both enjoy history.

We then went on to my old high school, Faith Academy.  The road has really changed.  The golf ball, which was always our indicator of where to turn, could barely be seen from the road.  Dan had to point it out to me.  The main road to the school, which used to be pretty with sporadic houses, was now packed with houses and apartments.  I recognized the turn up into the school and the gate was the same.  There is also a lot more security.  We used to have one guard.

The main classroom buildings and the gym are the same as are the tennis courts and soccer fields.  There is a nice new pool and a massive new 900 seat auditorium that many cities would be proud of.  Both Dan & Amy work in drama and they took us all around it.  It is amazing.  I am astonished that something that big and beautiful sits at my old high school.  It was donated by a large Korean church in Los Angeles.  It seems the population of Faith has changed considerably too.  Around half the student body is now Korean and a much smaller percentage are actual missionary kids.

The little library is now huge and spans across both of the main school buildings.  My old dorm room is now a middle school classroom.  It was odd seeing the rooms from my old dorm look so different.  The bathroom, gone.  The senior lounge, gone.  We had some great times in that dorm.

Dan and Amy also took us around the rest of the school.  I met my brother's former dorm parents, the Wullimans.  It was great seeing them after all these years.  The last time I saw them was at my college graduation from Taylor. There are only a few people left from my days at Faith but I guess that's to be expected after 27 years.

We then dropped Dianna and Lexi off to meet with some members of Dianna's church while we went out to dinner at an Outback Steakhouse.  It's amazing how Americanized and yet so foreign this city seems.  After dinner we picked up Dianna and Lexi and joined the rest of our party at the hotel.

The teenagers then proceeded to play games until we had to get ready to go at 2AM.  I played Bang and Fluxx with them until I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore.

Thank you Dan & Amy for the wonderful time together.  I wish it could have been longer.  It was great catching up, reliving the Faith of 27 year ago and seeing the new Faith.

Change, the only constant.