Philippine Travel Log: Our Last Day in Manila October 9, 2008
Posted by Jeff Block in Adoption, Family, Travel.Tags: adoption, John Block, Jollibee, Kultura, Philippines, shopping
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October 9th was dominated by one theme: preparing to return home. We ate our classic breakfast buffet at the hotel, then headed over to the mall for sovenier shopping. After being exposed to such great stores at the “new” mall (the one we hadn’t been to) the night before, we decided that it would likely be one-stop shopping for us. So, off we went to Kultura to get started.
Kultura Filipino, our favorite store in Manila
We shopped there for like two hours – easily long enough for John to be totally bored out of his mind. I’m terribly indecisive when it comes to this kind of thing. Also, when I’m really hungry and have to choose something to eat from a large menu. I’m fairly incapacitated by (what I unfortunately have to admit is) the fear of choosing “the wrong thing”. Shopping at Kultura was no different … Are we spending too much? Will so-and-so like such-and-such? If we get this person this, will that person feel slighted that we got that? Plus, we had already purchased a few things along the way through the trip – such as during our day trip to the Ilocos Norte museum and Fort Ilocandia while up north near Laoag City. So, the decision-making process was further complicated by trying to remember what we had previous purchased, who it was for, how many we got, why we got it, etc. Ugh! Made me (and still makes me) want to just tell all my friends and family that we love them but we’re not competent enough to shop for them while traveling. Then again, I guess I just did. :-/
So after spending a grand total of P6200 (about $100 – which I only mention because it’s amazing how much we bought for that little cash) on everything from serving platters to figurines to picture frames to smaller gifts for the children of neighbors, friends, and family, we were finally ready to move on. I think John was on his third anurism by this point, and mom and I were beginning to lose patience with him as well. Hours of shopping with mom and dad is not the way to a 4 year old’s heart, I have to say.
For the record – and for John’s memory when he reads this 10 years from now (the real reason I’m recording all of this), we bought some really cool stuff. We got picture frames for parents and siblings, which we knew we’d fill with fun pictures of our trip. We got a carved wooden statue of a Philippine eagle, the 2nd largest in the world (the eagle, not the statue) for my dad. We got coin purses and other little trinkets for lots of kids in our lives. We got some simple serving platters and bowls for friends. And a whole bunch of other stuff, I’m sure, that I just can’t remember at the moment. We also purchased a really awesome rice serving dish and spoon – wooden bowl and spoon with a glass lid – for us, and a picture and woven scroll to hang on the wall. We were adament in going over there that we would purchase art and/or a few random other artifacts so that when John becomes more aware that he is in a foreign place, that he has a taste of home to remember it by.
Okay, enough Kultura. After that, mom distracted John with the all-powerful, all-enticing siren’s call of the escalator. She kept him busy for quite a while – made longer by a resurgance of my fear of choosing wrongly – as I shopped for transformers at the mega toy store in the mall. Our thought was that if we gave John a transformer when he got on the plane that he would be SO distracted by the wonders of modern toyhood that he wouldn’t even notice the 24+ hour trip home. Yeah, like that worked, but I’m getting ahead.
Once reunited, we headed for the massive food court to have lunch. I think Faith sneaked a quick pummelo run in on the way there, but it’s all a blur. She was quite the fan (so was John), so it wouldn’t surprise me. It’s too much like grapefruit for me to get my fries to covered in chili. But I digress…..
So, at the food court… I was more than a little frustrated with Faith, because she seemed to be pretty scatter-brained. First, we didn’t know where we were eating. Then she couldn’t get a table. Then there were bathroom runs to make. And all the while I’m loaded down with GIANT bags of souvenirs. I don’t remember any more detail than that, just that I was frustrated. I’m sure it had as much if not more to do with a long morning of shopping and John’s starting to get roudy than it did with anything Faith was doing.
We got John and Faith Jollibee, and I tried something else I don’t remember, but remember thinking that it wasn’t anything to write home about. Of course, John and Faith were both prepared to write home about the Jollibee spaghetti and fried chicken combo! Faith absolutely loved their fried chicken, and John is pretty much all about fried chicken and/or spaghetti wherever he can find it. And if I had a peso for every time Faith commented on how much she liked the rice with her meals, even fast food, I’d have a whole dollar (which is saying something). Not that I’m complaining; I happen to agree. But anyway… Once we were sitting down and chilling out, all our moods greatly improved, which was my favorite part.
Lunch at Jollibee
After lunch, it was back to the hotel. Dad set about the daunting task (but I love this stuff) of getting us all packed up and ready to head back to the States. And it was better for everyone involved – more fun for everyone – that Faith and John went swimming. It was sunny and warm and the last opportunity for many months they would have to bask in the sunshine, heat and water. Plus, we had to rearrange toys and other supplies that John had yet to be exposed to, as we had been saving them for the long ride home (we were so prepared!). AND, everyone knew that the mess that would be created in that little hotel room to get us packed up wouldn’t be made better by tripling the number of people in the room.
So, I packed. They swam. And a good time was had by all.
Upon completing the packing, I joined them by the pool, but didn’t get in. I wasn’t there long before the sun (and my personal tendencies independent of the weather) drove me back inside to the business center to play with Facebook, my blog, and other glorious technology.
Eventually, after they had had their fill of sun and pool, and I’d finished a blog entry or two, we headed back over to the mall. Faith wanted to check out Philippine cookbooks and other books on the Philippines (for both John’s and our educations). We hung out in the bookstore for a little while, John on my shoulders most of the time drawing “aww, how cute!” looks for passers-by. Faith picked up a couple books, and I definitively declared that all this shopping for cookbooks was making me hungry. We ate at TGI Friday’s in the other mall, which was really fun family time, and then headed back to the hotel.
We got ready for bed, there was snuggling, and there was a little more play time, and there was evening and there was morning, the last day.
Philippine Travel Log: New Children at Shekinah October 4, 2008
Posted by Jeff Block in Adoption, News, Politics and Culture, Travel.Tags: adoption, Philippines, Shekinah Home, Brian Whittle, child abuse, orphans
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The day before we left Shekinah Home to take John to Manila, and ultimately to the United States, the home took in four new children – a sibling group. I don’t know any of their names, and I wouldn’t publish them in this forum even if I did. For the sake of reference, we’ll call them Peter (age 8), Susan (age 6), Lucy (age 3), and Edmond (3 months). They’re not in the same order as in the Chronicles of Narnia, so it may be confusing to those close to that story, but we’ll run with it.
Brian Whittle expressed concern before the children arrived that they might be in pretty bad shape. He told us how their father(s) was/were long gone, and mom’s current boyfriend was pretty much known to be abusing the children. For instance, at least Susan had been sexually abused.
When the children arrived, his fears were confirmed. Lucy and Edmond had boils, burns and scars on their feet. They had clearly been tortured. All four children were malnourished, but Lucy was the worst. She could not stand up without assistance (I think she was about 3), and her legs were bowed and visibly atrophied. The younger children were coughing a lot too. And none of the children would talk to anyone other than each other.
It was heart-wrenching to see them cowering away from the group, but then when left alone, they’d play together (with no toys) and whisper and giggle. It was obvious both that they loved each other and that “each other” was pretty much all they had.
Within hours of their arrival, Brian stopped by our cottage to let us know that they were taking the youngest two to the local hospital. They were concerned because both appeared weak and more malnourished than they were comfortable treating directly.
When we got home, we received a prayer request by email. Brian informed us that in fact Lucy has meningitis – which was the reason she was so weak.
Please pray for these children, and for Shekinah Home, which gives them hope, a chance at life, and lifts them out of a very dark place.
I published this entry to make clear that good and evil are real, and that innocent children like these get caught in the middle of it. How hard is it for this sibling group to be adopted together (FOUR children)!? How much emotional and psychological damage has been done to these poor kids (torture and sexual abuse)!? How sad is it that Lucy may not even live, given the serious of her physical condition (all of which could have been avoided with just a little love, even in the midst of radical poverty)?!
I was told in the process of our adopting John that there are 200 million children in the world who live on the streets. I can’t imagine how many more are orphans. It’s a God-sized task to care for them. No wonder Jesus commanded us to pay special attention to widows and orphans and the most defenseless among us. These four kids were them. Thank God that He’s brought them to Shekinah. Pray that they can stay (that’s not a given yet), and that He restores their souls.
America, bless God!
How God provided for our travel to the Philippines September 28, 2008
Posted by Jeff Block in Adoption, Family, Travel.Tags: adoption, God's faithfulness, manila
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It has been almost 48 hours since we left our home to head to Manila. Tomorrow, we visit Chosen Children (a ministry to children in Manila who will likely never be adopted), and then take an overnight bus to Ilocos Norte, the province in which our son currently lives. We will meet him for the first time on Wednesday.
I wanted to write to share about God’s amazing faithfulness on our journey to the Philippines. There are a lot of focuses I suppose I could choose, but this seems the most appropriate. I feel compelled to testify to what God has done, and to share about our journey a bit in the process.
I’ll start early, back when we booked tickets…
Faith and I found out the specific date we’d travel to the Philippines on Wednesday, 9/17. I immediately made the call to United to order plane tickets. I had always assumed that getting tickets to fly here and back would be one of the easy variables, but not so much. I needed tickets for me and Faith, round trip to Manila, then to add Johnny as a one-way from Manila back to Chicago. I also (desperately) wanted seats with more leg room, because I’m not exactly lawn-gnome-small.
Ultimately I would talk to 5 United agents by phone, 2 United agents at the counter, and 3 agents for Philippine air before everything was done, and there is still a couple variables yet unresolved for which I need to call United. So keep praying.
Anyway, it’d take forever for me to relay every detail, but by the time God was done, he had made several crazy pieces of this process possible when they started out impossible. I’ll relay only the most recent one as an example.
We found out early that we could not add John to our itinerary until we actually got to Manila, for reasons no one has ever been able to really explain to me to my satisfaction. So we had to reserve a seat for him on Thursday, fly to Manila on Friday, then confirm and ticket his reservation here when we arrived on Saturday. I waited in line for > 30 minutes to see the Philippine airline agent when we got here (which was after more than a half dozen interactions with all manner of people in the US prior to our travel). Keep in mind I’d been on an airplane or in airports for like 23 hours at that point.
Pretty much her first words were, “We can’t do this”. I remember just praying and telling myself over and over that I would give my fear and frustration to God. So I just kept saying “It has to be possible, what can we do?”, praying that God would work it out, and essentially not leaving until I got what we needed.
After about 20 minutes, we’d moved from “impossible” to “possible for an additional $3500″. That wasn’t going to work. Kept praying. Kept forcing myself not to worry. It was even after closing, and they were turning off lights around us, etc.
After another 20 minutes and a supervisor’s help, we were done. I had the reservation and seat assignments and all for > $100 less than I was told by United it was going to be.
I walked out of there just amazed that God had provided for us in such a way. And He kept us safe, He got all our bags to us right away, all our stuff was in our bags when they got there, we made our connection (which was pretty tight) even after our plane left O’Hare > 1 hour late. Even the laptop going down hasn’t been a total disaster, because there’s a business center at the hotel we can use, and God provided access to contact information and other data we needed for our trip in awesome ways that would take too long to explain.
I guess we have just been learning that God is good.
There are a thousand other things I could talk about, but I’m running out of time. I’ll try to get back on soon.
In the meantime, from Manila…
-Me
Philippine Travel Log: Safely Arrived in Manila September 27, 2008
Posted by Jeff Block in Adoption, Family, Travel.Tags: manila, adoption, United Airlines, InterContinental, Philippine Airlines
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Our flight from Hong Kong to Manila touched down about 9PM. We were praying that we would actually get our luggage and that everything we packed would still be there. We found the baggage claim easily, and our bags were some of the first to be spit out of the dark mysterious monster that is the baggage claim machine. We were overjoyed, and even more happy when we got back to the hotel and found out they had not been tampered with.
Once we had our bags, we went through customs. The adoption agency had prepped us for how to deal with customs. We had a script of answers memorized, which we’d been going over in our heads for a long time. If they say this, you should say this. If they want this, tell them that. I was actually pretty nervous as we walked up to the counter with all our bags. I was fully expecting to hear them start snapping on rubber gloves. Prayed some more.
The lady called us forward to the counter, glanced at my papers, didn’t even look at me or my bags, and waved us through. I’d say we spent a grand total of 8 seconds going through customs. Praise God!
We walked out the door, and realized we were actually outside. The blast of hot humid air was the giveaway, not so much the surroundings, because it was just like Hawaii … the buildings aren’t really actually enclosed. No doors. Windows only in some places. Etc. Welcome to Manila!
A car from our hotel – the InterContinental Manila – was to pick us up at the airport. The driver of that car was there waiting for us right there at the door. I had to visit the Philippine Airlines desk to purchase John’s return ticket to America (which I describe in more detail in my other God Provided post), so I left Faith with the luggage and our driver and the myriad security guards patrolling the area, and went to take care of it.
After over an hour at the PAL desk, a bit of anxiety, and lots of prayer, I returned to Faith. I had had no way to communicate to her that it would take so long (nor did I expect it to when I left her), so she was understandably worried. She was very relieved to see me, and even moreso to learn that John’s ticket was purchased and that all issues had been resolved, thanks be to God. Which leads me to travel tip #5…
If you’re traveling internationally, make sure that all the airlines you’re using in the process are partners. The fact that Philippine Airlines is not a partner with United (not part of the Star Alliance) caused me endless grief, mostly centered around the fact that their computer systems don’t like each other. Always check to make sure that the airlines you’re using are partners. Or, even better, book flights that have all legs with the same carrier when possible.
Everything at the airport taken care of, we climbed into the car to head to the InterCon (short name for the hotel). It was a short ride – about 25 minutes – even with lots of traffic. Our first impression of Manila was that it wasn’t too awfully different from any other big city. Lots of Jeepneys and tricycles, which seem to be the primary transportation in the Philippines in general, not just in the big city. Also noticed, of course, that there is a lot of poverty and that people were stacked on top of each other. It seemed like every ounce of space was filled with something utilitary, and that people lived VERY close together. Lastly, we both were struck by how many people were out doing things like selling things on the street, hanging out on corners, walking somewhere, working on something, etc. It seemed like people weren’t even considering the idea of sleep, and it was nearly 11PM. Granted, it was Saturday night, but we’ve had that impression the entire time we’ve been here, and again not just in Manila. It’s like the country never sleeps.
The hotel is POSH. It’s like any Marriott I’ve stayed at in the States. The A/C was welcome, the restaurant is awesome (breakfast buffet is included with our room), there’s a really nice outdoor pool, the staff is super friendly and helpful, and best of all (since our laptop is defunct), there’s a business center where we can check Facebook and write blog entries. 
Oh, one more thing I thought I’d mention before calling it a night. Both the television and radio switched between English and Tagalog at will. Not one commercial or show or song to the next, but within each. So, a 30 second commercial would feature some guy talking about some product. He’d use 10 sentences in the spot, and 3 of them would be English, 4 would be Tagalog, and the last 3 would be half-and-half. It puts Spanglish to shame around here, I’m telling you.
Well, that’s about it for first impressions of Manila and the hotel. We and our luggage (thanks to trusty bll hops) got to our room and plopped down on the bed at almost exactly 11PM – 26 hrs and 20 minutes after having pulled out of our driveway in Chicago. Sigh. What a trip. But we were brimming with anticipation, and quite happy to be here safely and with so few trouble spots. God’s provision was so obvious.
We went to sleep ready to tackle 12 days in the Philippines.
Philippine Travel Log: Our Flight to Manila September 27, 2008
Posted by Jeff Block in Adoption, Family, Travel.Tags: adoption, Hong Kong, Narnia, Philippines
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The flight from Chicago to Hong Kong was just over 15 hours. We then had an hour and 15 min to catch our connecting flight to Manila – on a different airlines in an airport we’d never visited. So, we were a bit stressed about making the connection, and the fact that our plane sat on the tarmac at O’Hare for like 45 min and therefore left over an hour late didn’t help. But we prayed, left it with God, and purposed to enjoy our flight.
We had started watching Les Miserables to unwind the night before leaving, so we pulled out the laptop fairly early in the flight to finish the movie. We only had one battery and there was no real way to charge it, so we wanted to use it sparingly. I had loaded SimCity 4 on it, and mounted the DVD to a virtual drive so no disc spinning was required (kills the battery at lightning speed) – and that’s travel tip #3, btw – and had loaded some AVI files of our favorite shows that I’d downloaded from the net. All just in case the movies stunk and I/we couldn’t sleep. BitTorrent is your friend.
Of course, Faith slept like a baby, but I don’t do the sleeping in vehicles thing. Accept the car, I guess, but even that’s rare – mostly after a big visit to a Chinese buffet. But I digress… Faith slept, excepting that she woke up for the AWESOME food they served on the flight. I was thinking it’d be okay, but it was actually really good. I always special-order the low fat stuff, and Faith of course was signed up for vegetarian. We both loved the food.
God provided my ability to be in United’s Economy Plus seating, which gives you 5 glorious essential fundamentally-necessary mandatory life-giving vital inches of legroom. Did I mention that I found this to be an important aspect of the trip? I think I feared getting Malaria less than being stuffed into the back seat middle between two guys my size on the flight overseas. Yup, pretty sure that’s true.
But God blessed us with great, spacious seats, so we had a wonderful trip over the north poll, and much of the Asian Pacific seaboard to Hong Kong. And to top it all off, although 3 of the movies weren’t great, they showed the Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. Awesome movie. It was just as spiritually moving for me this second time seeing it as it was the first. Maybe more. The children in the story were of course sad taht they had to leave Narnia and Aslan, and go back to England. But the story is real, and in our story, we leave England to be in Narnia with Aslan forever. Our time in England is like a mist on the fields, gone in an instant, and then Cair Paravel. And of course there’s the main theme of trusting God and looking to Aslan rather than relying on your own strength and wisdom (the message of Proverbs 3:5-6). Interestingly, that has become the theme of this trip for me, as I’ve had to pray about and leave with God countless details of this trip.
Okay, back to the flight…
I ultimately managed to sleep a little, but not much. I kept a sleep log on the trip, which I’m sure nobody but us will care about. But it was fun. I got 3.5 hours in on the plane. For Faith, it was 5.5. So, I guess I didn’t lag too far behind.
God provided for us in two distinct ways in Hong Kong. First, we picked up time in the air, and although we left over an hour late, we arrived on time in Hong Kong. Praise the Lord! Then, as we were deplaning, wondering where to go… We walked up the ramp from the plane into the terminal, and standing at the top of the ramp was a Chinese man holding a sign that said, “Philippine Airlines this way”. We told him we had a connecting flight, and he told us EXACTLY where to go. So, we got there without incident in record time. Thanks God!
We checked in, no problem. They didn’t even mention the “Jeff” vs “Jeffrey” thing (thanks God, again!). And we got to our gate with time to spare. The HK airport was smaller than we expected, and not very busy. I was expecting HUGE and teaming with people. But no. The signs were *very* confusing though, but thanks to God’s messenger who had told us exactly where to go, we were fine.
So, we boarded our two hour tiny hop from HK to Manila with no issues. Faith and I were separated by an aisle in the plane, but we each sat next to very friendly very interesting Philippino men. Mine was named Dante, who told me all about Manila and the country, and even offered to help me fill out my customs papers, and gave me his business card at the end of the trip. He was there with his large family, who was returning from Disneyland Hong Kong. Very cool.
Travel tip #4, tho: Many people from countries like the Philippines are interested in helping you because they think you’re a rich American and might give them money. Be careful from whom you accept help.
The food on the PAL flight was very interesting. Even though it was a short hop, they served dinner. It was still “low fat” for me and “vegetarian” for Faith, and still good, but very Philippine in nature. Mine was a really good fish, which Dante told me was “milk fish”. It was especially good because it was a de-boned fillet. I learned later that it typically has a billion tiny bones in it that you have to navigate, so keep *that* in mind if you decide to order the crazy new fish you had on the plane.
Okay, that’s it for the flight. There’s a whole nother story to tell about that night, but I’m out of computer time, so it’ll have to wait. Be back soon, God willing.
Philippine Travel Log: Departing the US September 26, 2008
Posted by Jeff Block in Adoption, Family, Travel.Tags: adoption, Travel Advise, United Airlines
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Greetings, all who might be interested in learning more about Faith’s and my experiences on our trip to the Philippines to pick up our son, John.
We’ve been journaling every day by hand (busted laptop), so this will be a time-delayed “transfer” of our daily thoughts to my blog. Hope you enjoy reading along with us, even if we’re behind schedule in communicating our adventures.
Day 1: Flying to Manila
Our neighbor Steve was kind enough to take us to the airport. Because of some complications with our flight, we wanted to leave mega early. So, he arrived at the house at 8:30AM to take us to O’Hare for a 12:20PM flight. Complications, you ask? Well, this will be my first lesson to international travelers…
I ordered my tickets on Orbitz, because they were a LOT cheaper than buying them directly from United. I always use United, because that’s where I have my membership and frequent flier miles. Also because I completely didn’t get the memo from the adoption agency that we were supposed to fly Northwest, because they fly all the way into Manila. So, instead, we had tickets from O’Hare to Hong Kong (on United), and then from Hong Kong to Manila (on Philippine Airlines).
So, what was the problem? There were several, but the reason we wanted to be at O’Hare early is because my ticket said “Jeff Block” and my passport said “Jeffrey Michael Block”, and a United agent I talked to on the phone (after booking the flight) said that they had to match. So, lesson number one… Update your travel profiles on all sites you use to be the names that match your passport.
So, we get to O’Hare without a hitch, say our good byes, and walk up to the ticket counter with a LOT of luggage (we were taking gifts for all kinds of people and a huge bag of diapers and medical supplies to the orphanage). The agent tries to get me to use the automated checking, to which I reply that I can’t because I have to get the ticket re-issued (which is what the agent on the phone told me to do).
His response, “We don’t do that”. Translation, “You’re screwed!”
I started praying … and arguing with the agent. My basic point, “You can and you will, and I’m not leaving until you do.”
Finally, he directed us to another agent who was much more helpful. She said she didn’t think that it’d be an issue anyway, but called a manager to see if she could get it done. Everyone confirmed that it was no big deal because “Jeff” is a derivation of “Jeffrey”. If it’d been “Jeff” and “Bill”, we would have had to re-ticket. Praise God!
So, we got a picture of her for the file – you know me; lol; I’ll post it later – and headed through security. That was easy. Our wait was short at the gate (thank God we left early), but long enough to handle one last issue before leaving… Protecting our cash.
We carefully planned how much cash to take, most of which we would convert to Philippine pesos at the Manila airport. We were advised not to take travelers checks, because they are no longer accepted in most truly foreign countries (too much fraud). Also, we didn’t want to take credit cards with big limits on them.
So, we chose a small card we use only for gas, and I called them from the terminal to verify our credit limit and to make sure they knew we’d be using the card out of the country. This is my second tip to Int’l travelers. You don’t want your only credit card to be locked while trying to pay your hotel bill halfway around the world where the customer service 800-number doesn’t work. So just call them and tell them where you’ll be and what will be normal and abnormal usage for the card while you’re gone. They put a note on our file, and we’ve had no problems.
I also purchased their fraud protection. It was like $8/mo with no contract (so we can just cancel it when we get back to the States), and it protects us for up to $100k on all our cards, plus gives us a person agent that will work full time on restoring our credit if something does go wrong. Pretty well-spent $8 in my world.
Once that was done and a bit of McDonald’s was consumed (have you tried their new McGrill chicken sandwich? It’s pretty tasty.), we boarded our flight for Hong Kong with great anticipation.
