12 Mayo
Tuesday

We went to Iloilo yesterday and found the Ford dealer. Not at all what one would expect, but they had oil filters for the diesel Ranger we drive. I bought 5. We went to the grocery store and bought about 7,000 pesos worth of food, mostly American. We went to lunch at Surprise Pies and had their good apple pie, then we stopped at the mission home and office and left them some money to pay for the art supplies I ordered from Blick in the U.S.

After paying a huge shipping charge to Blick and FecEx International, I have to pay about another 3700 pesos to get them from Manila to here (import tax I suppose), the government gets a cut. The shipping is more than the paper and paints. That will be my last order.

We got the truck over to the Nissan dealer who agreed to change the oil and filter for us. It wast7500 pesos, or about 120 dollars. The oil is synthetic 100% and a little for labor, but they washed the truck and did it all while we attended the district meetings.

We got our stove fixed. There was a leak in the hose from the tank to the stove. We were blessed not to have had a fire. When I couldn't get the stove to work, I took the regulator and hose to the gas people and they piddled with the regulator again. At the store is where we discovered the leak in the hose, as it caught fire. I didn't know where to take cover as there were tanks of gas everywhere, but we got it out and I bought a new hose. We can now cook again.

Going out this afternoon inviting some less active priesthood holders and some young single adults to return to activity. We go at 2:00. It is 12:46 right now. We haven't walked for a few days. I hope to go this evening.

Pictures:

They had to load the heavy end of the top pile out over the cab and front end. The front end was still light. As the jeepney went over bumps, the front wheels tried to pop off the ground. They had to take the curves slowly. Crazy

Lady along a stream of the Sibalom River doing her wash. I waved at her from the bridge, but she must have thought me some stupid old white man trying to bug her. Couldn't resist the photo. Maybe a watercolor here.

This place is like a biology lab. There are more bugs, birds, lizards, and creepy-crawleys than any place I have ever been. This visitor sat on the bucket on our washer for a long time. He probably thought he could,t be seen.