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Archived Thoughts
Beijing buzz (June 5, 2008) emotion in China (May 25, 2008) what 1 Euro could buy you if you came to visit (May 11, 2008) on visa-runs and escaping hotel fires (May 4, 2008) recent observations & discoveries (April 30, 2008) on ordering water and near tricycle collisions (April 16, 2008) on learning Chinese and on how to catch a bad flu at the park (April 10, 2008) highlights (April 9, 2008) Foreign media must have Facebook access during Olympics, IOC tells China (April 2, 2008) Home Sweet Home (March 26, 2008) Then and Now (March 26, 2008) stranded bags! (March 8, 2008) on visas, weddings, how to get free food & funny hair dos (March 4, 2008) Warm greetings! (February 12, 2008) A Whole New World (February 5, 2008) Newness in the New Year (January 6, 2008) The Feast of Life (November 23, 2007) Our Paris (November 11, 2007) A Freezing Wilderness Retreat (October 22, 2007) Reflections from a Recovering Bride (October 8, 2007) Mr. and Mrs. Brumme (September 29, 2007) One Month and Counting (August 22, 2007) Everything French (July 19, 2007) Open Wide Your Mouths! (July 9, 2007) Learning from Trees (July 3, 2007) A City of Lights - The Paris of Central Europe (June 25, 2007) Brumme's Descend on Europe (June 8, 2007) I Said Yes! (May 13, 2007) Liaisons and Goodness Abound (April 22, 2007) Gourmet Cuisine Catastrophe (March 21, 2007) It Really Has Been Too Long This Time (March 15, 2007) The French Postal System, V-Day, and Other Tidbits (February 21, 2007) Celebrating in Paris, Working in Oxford & Relaxing in the Alps (January 29, 2007) With Ma Petite Amie at Last! (January 11, 2007) Hanging on for the Ride (December 31, 2006) A New Life (December 18, 2006) I've Gotta Go See About a Girl (November 23, 2006) On France (November 10, 2006) Liberating Love, an Awkward Transition and Christmas Candy (November 1, 2006) The Western Bible (October 20, 2006) The Whole Church Gathered (October 3, 2006) On Steve Irwin (September 7, 2006) Lewis on Happiness (August 10, 2006) The Tragic "Unthinkable Crisis" (July 27, 2006) Not My Life (July 6, 2006) The Two Year Reunion (June 10, 2006) A Fishy Story Set Right (May 26, 2006) Response to "The Wedding Planner" by Sagers (April 30, 2006) White Bunnies and Bloody Lambs (April 14, 2006) Flexing Our Political Muscle (March 22, 2006) For Your Viewing Pleasure (March 7, 2006) Come to Our Church! (February 21, 2006) Peanuts and Airplanes (February 15, 2006) Confessing My Ignorance (January 30, 2006) The Jewish Kid Jesus (January 16, 2006) Friends...A Dime a Dozen? (January 9, 2006) Old Test Article Here (January 2, 2006) So Much to Say...That Others Have Already Said (December 23, 2005) Narnia - at last! (December 8, 2005) Lewis on our Eating Disorder (December 1, 2005) North Korea - Revealing the Darkness (November 20, 2005) Shining - Like You've Never Seen it Before (November 15, 2005) Are You Emerging? (November 3, 2005) emotion in China (May 25, 2008) what 1 Euro could buy you if you came to visit (May 11, 2008) on visa-runs and escaping hotel fires (May 4, 2008) recent observations & discoveries (April 30, 2008) on ordering water and near tricycle collisions (April 16, 2008) on learning Chinese and on how to catch a bad flu at the park (April 10, 2008) highlights (April 9, 2008) Foreign media must have Facebook access during Olympics, IOC tells China (April 2, 2008) Home Sweet Home (March 26, 2008) Then and Now (March 26, 2008) stranded bags! (March 8, 2008) on visas, weddings, how to get free food & funny hair dos (March 4, 2008) Warm greetings! (February 12, 2008) A Whole New World (February 5, 2008) Newness in the New Year (January 6, 2008) The Feast of Life (November 23, 2007) Our Paris (November 11, 2007) A Freezing Wilderness Retreat (October 22, 2007) Reflections from a Recovering Bride (October 8, 2007) Mr. and Mrs. Brumme (September 29, 2007) One Month and Counting (August 22, 2007) Everything French (July 19, 2007) Open Wide Your Mouths! (July 9, 2007) Learning from Trees (July 3, 2007) A City of Lights - The Paris of Central Europe (June 25, 2007) Brumme's Descend on Europe (June 8, 2007) I Said Yes! (May 13, 2007) Liaisons and Goodness Abound (April 22, 2007) Gourmet Cuisine Catastrophe (March 21, 2007) It Really Has Been Too Long This Time (March 15, 2007) The French Postal System, V-Day, and Other Tidbits (February 21, 2007) Celebrating in Paris, Working in Oxford & Relaxing in the Alps (January 29, 2007) With Ma Petite Amie at Last! (January 11, 2007) Hanging on for the Ride (December 31, 2006) A New Life (December 18, 2006) I've Gotta Go See About a Girl (November 23, 2006) On France (November 10, 2006) Liberating Love, an Awkward Transition and Christmas Candy (November 1, 2006) The Western Bible (October 20, 2006) The Whole Church Gathered (October 3, 2006) On Steve Irwin (September 7, 2006) Lewis on Happiness (August 10, 2006) The Tragic "Unthinkable Crisis" (July 27, 2006) Not My Life (July 6, 2006) The Two Year Reunion (June 10, 2006) A Fishy Story Set Right (May 26, 2006) Response to "The Wedding Planner" by Sagers (April 30, 2006) White Bunnies and Bloody Lambs (April 14, 2006) Flexing Our Political Muscle (March 22, 2006) For Your Viewing Pleasure (March 7, 2006) Come to Our Church! (February 21, 2006) Peanuts and Airplanes (February 15, 2006) Confessing My Ignorance (January 30, 2006) The Jewish Kid Jesus (January 16, 2006) Friends...A Dime a Dozen? (January 9, 2006) Old Test Article Here (January 2, 2006) So Much to Say...That Others Have Already Said (December 23, 2005) Narnia - at last! (December 8, 2005) Lewis on our Eating Disorder (December 1, 2005) North Korea - Revealing the Darkness (November 20, 2005) Shining - Like You've Never Seen it Before (November 15, 2005) Are You Emerging? (November 3, 2005) A Life of Profound Significance (October 26, 2005) The Earth at Your Fingertips (October 18, 2005) A Surprise Appointment (October 15, 2005) Wars and Rumors of Wars (October 3, 2005) Laughing in the Rain (September 20, 2005) Random Tid-Bits and Happenings (September 15, 2005) Life and Death and Terrorists (August 30, 2005) Girls and Boys and God (August 25, 2005) Feasting and Worship (August 17, 2005) Blogger's Block (August 6, 2005) The Harvest in China (August 2, 2005) Counting the Cost (July 24, 2005) Absolutely Outstanding Bit of Writing (July 18, 2005) Burning Alive (July 14, 2005) Jesus and the Glory Golf Balls (July 10, 2005) Those Things We Hold On To (July 7, 2005) Grape Juice, Poured Out for the Forgiveness of Sin (June 30, 2005) He Will Ruin Your Life (June 28, 2005) A Bit of Perspective (June 25, 2005) The Wedding Planner (June 22, 2005) A Lesson in Patience Amidst Absurdity (June 16, 2005) Fans of Hitler (June 15, 2005) Crash and Stories (June 12, 2005) Pastors and Leaders - Different Views (June 10, 2005) Senior Pastors (June 5, 2005) Ask and You Shall Receive (June 2, 2005) What If (May 27, 2005) The "Bible Study" (May 24, 2005) The Future of Pixar (May 19, 2005) The Mess We Christians Have Made (May 14, 2005) Narnia Coming to the Big Screen (May 10, 2005) Europe - Through the Lens of My Camera (May 7, 2005) Same Sex Families (May 6, 2005) Photos of Mercy (May 3, 2005) Across an Ocean... (April 21, 2005) The Picture, The Pope, and The Past Few Days (April 12, 2005) In the Car with My (air) Guitar (April 6, 2005) The Pope (April 4, 2005) Resurrection Day (March 27, 2005) Killing People (March 23, 2005) Weekend of Surprises (March 22, 2005) The Fray - Listen to this (March 12, 2005) Akiane....This is Amazing (March 11, 2005) Jesus Christ (March 8, 2005) Worthy Thoughts on The Passion (March 7, 2005) Dream Days at Church (March 3, 2005) Peace Amidst Ambiguity (March 1, 2005) A Verse I Hadn't Noticed Before (February 25, 2005) McLaren and Hotel Rwanda...another perspective (February 19, 2005) Brother Andrew is on to something (February 16, 2005) My Valentine (February 14, 2005) Homecoming...strange (February 13, 2005) Hotel Rwanda (February 10, 2005) The Update (February 6, 2005) Malibu...Thailand...Palm Desert (January 1, 2005) Get Ready Thailand...I'm Coming! (September 25, 2004) God Speaks? Really? (May 29, 2004) Life Beyond Graduation (May 1, 2004) God's Faithfulness in Morocco (October 8, 2002) |
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We made it safely back to the comfort of our own home. This, as you will be able to read further, is certainly not a given! Let’s say that we'd not consider our Philippines escapade to have been a very restful time but it sure was adventuresome. 
We discovered the Philippines to be a land of gorgeous people and many smiley faces. Though there was an unmistakable island feel; fashion, service and food seemed quite westernized. People were so very friendly and English is widely spoken, much more so than in China. Landscapes were breathtaking, forests lush and buzzing, homes and tricycles (side-car taxis as pictured here) each beautifully colorful. The climate was definitely tropical. In fact, stepping off the airplane at 4am was like entering into a muggy sauna; a foretaste as many have told us of the much dreaded, rapidly-approaching, Chinese summer - yikes. We found a metered cab to make up for our ignorance in regards to rates and we groggily set off to City State Tower hotel to wait for the 2 hour bus to Batangas pier, before boarding the Si-Kat catamaran for 1h30 to the island of Puerto Galera. We had it all planned out, straight down to the hotel, which was hard to find. It turns out, the Filipinos have this May holiday off as well. 
“Si-kats never depart half empty” said our new friend Sam, obviously reading our puzzled and wiped faces. Sam introduced himself and eventually unraveled his story of how he fled North America 10 years prior, just before the cops were to catch him for growing Marijuana. He seemed like a really nice diver type and on top of that was Philippines savvy, especially in regards to marine life. Somehow, he convinced us to stay at his resort “Badguyz”. It was only a third of the price of our reservation, and sounded like a great set-up for divers. It turned out to be a very basic room (see picture lower down, of the hotel and our balcony amongst the trees), built of plywood, corrugated metal and thatched roofs with plenty of wildlife from ants to mosquitoes to the odd cockroach and lizard darting in and out the cracks of the walls. You could hear the neighbor sneeze and I was woken up by every noise. But we still felt you get what you pay for and at 13EUR, it seemed totally worth it - we're young!
We’d seen a secluded beach from the Si-kat and felt it to be the perfect getaway to think and pray together and for one another the following day. (picture above taken from water taxi on our way to this beach) We spent that whole day in paradise. Turquoise water, beaches of coral and shells surrounded by virgin jungle behind us. A great day of rest besides the throbbing headache I always get from too much sun. 
All the sudden, I hear Sam yell: “J*sus Ch*rst! Everyone wake up! Everyone up!” I ran to the window to see that a mere 5 meters from our room, the generator had blown up and caught fire. I saw huge flames approximately 3m high from the electrical fire and billowing smoke. It felt like we were in a film. The only thing separating us from the fire was the thatched roof walkway, threatening to set alight. In a panic, I woke Andrew up, yelled outside for other guests to get up and grabbed our bag of essentials and Andrew the laptop as we rushed outside. The only exit was near the fire so we ran to the furthest balcony. No fire engines, no skilled workers, just Sam and his friends trying desperately to avoid the large fire from catching near neighboring thatched roofs. The diving school was under our feet, with plenty of O2 bottles. An open butane tank and paint and thinners lie near the door of the flaming house. Somehow, by the grace of God, Sam dove into the house to doust the flames with special foam for electric fires. He’d held onto that fire extinguisher bottle for years for a time like this. Sam and his friends continued to dominate the flames, ravaging the corrugated roof looking for embers. All the sudden, a man upon the roof when flying through the corrugation to the ground. Gasps. “Are you alright?” a British accent finally yelled. “Uh yeah.” And then, if that hadn’t sufficed in pumping our adrenaline, the power returned to the island, starting to spark at the mains in the midst of still glowing embers. Returning to the chaos of moments prior, the British voice yelled: “Aircons, everyone turn your aircons off! Aircons, do you all have them switched off?” We scurried in obedience through the lingering smoke to our rooms. Finally, the power was turned off and everyone was sort of left in a daze and thankful for their lives. 
Our hearts beat from adrenaline for hours as we returned to our pitch black, sweaty smoky rooms, every noise startling us (me). Without the backup generator or power, it felt like a burst warm water bed, but we resorted to try to talk ourselves to sleep none the less. It was a short night, where we were both eaten alive my bugs and I heard noises all night. I got into a pattern of waking up and then falling back to sleep, still shaken by the fire incident. One time, I felt something was for sure nibbling at something else near my head. I grabbed the camera for a semblance of light as Andrew swatted a cockroach half the size of his palm. I guess the smoke and thunder storms had sent all the bugs running our way for safety. Finally the morning came. We had planned to stay a final night there but Andrew marched out hunting for a last minute upgrade hotel despite the busy holiday weekend and after several calls, actually found a family room left at one hotel. We ended up on the other side of the bay and sort of recovered all day by the pool and incidentally experienced outages all night there from an over-populated island pumping the aircon units. Back at Sam’s place, this meant another night with very spotty air-conditioning all night long. 