One Year Later

I thought it appropriate to use my first real blog post in forever to reflect on my achieving one year in Manila. Today, actually, is day #365 of my life in the Philippines. I arrived just after 9:00 in the morning June 17, 2008. It's been a fun year, and many more exciting things are to come. Turns out that I don't have anything much more profound to say than that.

Great line

Reading student papers, I came up with a great line on the fly. It was in response to a bright student's suggestion that the student was not keen enough to grasp certain important issues:

"False humility winds up, in the end, being more false than humble."

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Preparing to fly to the States tomorrow for the Wesleyan Theological Society annual meeting. I'm also speaking at a couple of churches while I'm in the States, and I'm a good bit nervous about that. I've checked in for the flight to Seattle, but I need some assistance doing so for the flight to Nashville, since check in will not become available until 4 AM tomorrow Manila time, at which point I will already be in the car on the way to the airport. So I asked my brother to take care of it for me, since the time for him will be 2 PM; much more manageable.

Anyway, I never do realize how much there is to do to get ready for a flight. Even though I'm only going to be gone nine days, there is a significant amount of things to be taken care of. Certainly not the least of these is printing out student papers that are turned in today in order that I can grade them on the planes. I do not know how much I will actually get done, but I have lofty ambitions at any rate. I also have to finish typing up manuscript/notes for my deputation services, but that shouldn't take a huge amount of time either. I'm already about half finished. All of this means I probably should quit blogging and get back at it. :-)

The List

I say every so often, mostly as a joke, that I have a list of things that I absolutely MUST experience here in the Philippines. Some of the things are legitimate (visit Corregidor Island and the Bataan Death March site, visit the site of the battle where Magellan died, eat balut, etc.) but a few things just get added on once they've already been accomplished, like get pickpocketed. One of my students suggested to be, jokingly of course, that if I had not had getting picked on my list, then it wouldn't have happened. :-) But, a new bizarre add to The List just made its appearance: spend two nights in the hospital.

The story begins, I believe, a week ago, Friday, February 13th. I had just attended a conference on ecological responsibility in Makati and was making my way home in the hot afternoon sun. I chose the wrong method of transportation and wound up taking myself quite far out of the way. So this exposure weakened my immune system, which was then assualted full-bore by a virus carried by a visitor from the regional office in Singapore, who happens to be staying in the guest house next to me. By his experience, it should have been one of those twenty-four-hour, what-was-that-I-don't-care-because-I'm-better-now sorts of things. But for me it was rather different.

Compounded by an insanely-cold cinema on Saturday night, Valentine's Day, I was already well on the way to Sickville by the time I got home late Saturday. Sunday I was into a full-blown head cold with body aches and fever. As I tried to sleep it off, the fever kept breaking throughout the day on Sunday, lathering my body with sweat and creating the ultimate physical problem that resulted in hospitalization--dehydration. I simply was not able to drink enough water to combat the loss of fluids through sweat, and in truth even water would not have fully done the trick.

I went to the ER for a checkup on Monday night and got and even more fearsome word, that I might have contracted Dengue Fever, one of the dreaded, and quite often deadly, tropical diseases around these parts. I was told to come back to the hospital on Wednesday to have blood work done again to see if the measurements would have fallen into critical levels, so I went home and shuffled around like an old man. Every muscle ached. It was hard to raise my arms to elbow level, let alone above my head. So friends began to look after me, come visit me for lunch, and so on. By Tuesday night I made the decision to cancel the rest of my classes for the week, which sent torrents of well-wishes pouring in from my students, seeing as how this was the first many of them heard about my illness.

When I went back to the hospital on Wednesday, we got the Run Around Sue treatment for a bit, which certainly didn't help my mood. When we finally got to see a doctor, she took one look at me, heard me speak about three sentences, and confined me to the hospital with severe dehydration and, ultimately, a urinary tract infection. They set up an IV with fluid replenishment and did another blood test. They were not able to definitely rule out Dengue Fever until Thursday morning, which was a great sigh of relief. I did feel almost instantly better and by Thursday I felt I could go home, but the doctor wanted me to stay because of the low saline content of my blood. So stay I did, fitfully trying to get comfortable in a hospital bed, trying to eat, and being unsuccessful, Filipino hospital food. Eventually I gave up and just ate the fruit and crackers that people had brought me. By that time, even the smell of the food from the dietary area was turning my stomach. I was visited by the president and by one other faculty colleague, as well as several times by my girlfriend, all of which warmed my heart.

Getting discharged was a difficult matter. The doctor said on Thursday that she would release me on Friday morning, but apparently she did not communicate this to the nurses, for they did not seem to know about this. It seems she has residency at several hospitals and clinics in the area, as to most Filipino MDs. But eventually she came by around 4 and released me even faster than she had admitted me. I am due to go back next Friday for another pee-in-the-cup routine, but other than that it appears that I am up and out of the woods and on the way to full recovery.

Thanks be to God that it was not Dengue, which would have confined me to the hospital for a minium of six weeks and destroyed my plans to go to the States next week. Thanks be to God for caring friends and coworkers who went out of their way to comfort me. Thanks be to God for medicine, and for the ability to pay for it. And thanks be to God for recovery. One more thing checked off The List.

What were you doing last year?

I've already told this story before, in a sermon/testimony in front of the student prayer meeting back in August (I think), but it certainly bears repeating. This is a significant day for for me, to which point I shall return in a moment. But first, to quote my seminary president, from a time before this was my seminary and before he was the president:

Dr. Modine,

Greetings from Asia-Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary. Our school is located near Manila in the Philippines...

We are looking for a teacher in Old Testament...

Would you be interested in applying for this position?

Thus began the whirlwind tour. And this message was dated February 6, 2008.

Yep. One year ago today. Four months and eleven days after that message, I had wheels down in Manila. That was an amazingly fast turnaround by anyone's reckoning, and even though "normal" is merely a setting on a dryer, my situation was not "normal" by any stretch of the imagination.

This email, my response to it, and the machinations that took place to evaluate, appoint, and train me together constituted the fulfillment of a more-than-decade-old dream. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Inter-Seminary Sports Fest

I was defeated. Soundly. Once again, on the chessboard, I made some silly blunders upon which my opponent capitalized, and I very quickly found myself on the losing end of the proposition. The tournament was a team format, with school A pitting three players against school B, and the school with the greater number of wins advancing on. In the two matches we played, we only won two games. Our best player won both his games, while I and the third player were both sorely overmatched. Because of one team's default, however, we had a chance to get into the finals with a win in the second match. But my performance in the second game was even more dismal than the first; I was checkmated in less than thirty moves. And then I came home and tried to console myself through some online chess victories, only to see myself make several more key blunders and lose a number of them in a row. Maybe I just need to quit playing for a while. It's not like I don't have a lot to do...

Ping pong and chess

Over the last couple of days, I have been practicing for the upcoming Inter-Seminary Sports Fest, which is exactly what it sounds like. I don't recall having an event like this when I was in seminary in the States, but that's a secondary matter relating to how seminaries of different traditions interact with one another. If the results of my "friendlies" are any indication, I should be out of the two tournaments for which I am registered in relatively short order.

I have signed up for chess and ping pong. I realize you cannot get two more opposite sports (except maybe darts and decathlon) but whatever. On Wednesday I was obliterated in four chess matches against one of our students who is also signed up to play, though he may not because he's going also to be taking photographs of the event. I made some blunders, and he capitalized on them brilliantly, and I got smashed.

In ping pong, the results were the same. Last night I was defeated in three straight games by a student playing ping pong in ISSF (though a different one from the chess guy). The scores were 21-14, 21-13, and 21-10, convincing and crushing defeats. My only decent performance was in the first game, in which we were back-and-forth tied until 9-9, then he pulled out ahead 12-9 and didn't look back.

Incidentally, this brings my overall ping pong record at APNTS to a disappointing 1-3.

How many ways can you say I've got a lot to do?

Under the gun, behind the eight ball, long way to go and a short time to get there...

Let's see:

1. I'm writing a paper for a conference here in Manila next month.
2. I'm writing a paper for a conference in Indiana in March.
   
3. I'm editing a book manuscript due at the end of June.
4. I'm editing a book manuscript due at the beginning of August.
5. I'm thinking about a proposal for a conference in Louisiana in November (proposals due March 1).
6. I'd like to get my grading done and back to my students in a timely manner.
7. I'm preparing my lectures on the fly, usually the night before, which cannot be good for quality and depth, or something.
8. I'm trying to be a good and attentive boyfriend, which I am discovering takes a lot of effort and a lot of time...but the benefits far outweigh the necessary investment.
9. I'm also shepherding a student through the writing of a master's thesis due in the middle of March.
10. I'm also (supposed to be) in touch with the folks at the other Nazarene Theological Seminary on a collaborative project.

Geesh! I never thought the life of a professor would be so busy. Every bit of it is better than withering to death in a bank teller window, but still...

Prayer for January 20, 2009

Lord God Almighty, you have made all people of the earth for your glory, to serve you in freedom and in peace. Give to the people of my country a zeal for justice and the strength of forbearance, that we may use our liberty in accordance with your gracious will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

White hair should not follow black

Our campus is in mourning this Saturday morning.

Yesterday we learned the tragic news that the five-year-old son of two of our staff persons died from diphtheria. They had been at a public hospital for infectious and communicable diseases here in Manila since Sunday or Monday. They had initially thought the little guy had the mumps, because there was the tell-tale swelling on at least one side of his face. But, as it turned out, the real diagnosis was much more severe.

I have no idea of the source, or even if it is authentic to China, but I am given to understand that there is a Chinese proverb that runs, "White hair should never follow black." Wherever I read this interpreted this saying as saying (wow, the puns are thick today) that the older generation should not outlive the younger generation. This is a bit of folksy wisdom from all over the world, I would imagine, so there is no particular reason that this statement should be Chinese specifically. It is never supposed to happen that the little ones die before their parents, and especially not when the little ones are still little. I find I don't have any grand theological answers. And that's ok.

The fastest district superintendent election I've ever seen

Yesterday at District Assembly, the Metro Manila district elected a district superintendent. I wanted to go and watch because I've seen superintendent elections (well, one anyway) in the States and I was curious to see if it would be anything like my previous experience.

Any ordained elder before the age of 70 (I'm not sure if there is a age floor) can be elected district superintendent. Whether or not the person so chosen accepts the election is another matter, of course. It is typical practice now to use the first ballot as a nominating ballot, then limit successive votes to those persons who received votes at first, in order specifically to prevent Billy Bob Joe Fred from not getting any votes until ballot 17 and then taking just enough to keep Rev. So-and-so from being elected. For the chair to declare an election, one candidate must receive two-thirds of the votes cast in any one ballot. This prevents the parliamentary move of a block of voters geting up and leaving the bar to protest a protracted or especially contentious election. I do not know if this unusual parliamentary move has ever been made, but I think it would be kind of foolish anyway, since it would cause a candidate to suddenly need 20 out of 30 votes--or something--instead of 126 out of 188. For that matter, if all the supporters of Rev. So-and-so got up and left because they and the supporters of Rev. Thus-and-such kept at an impasse, then all they would do is assure the election of Rev. Thus-and-such. And if there was agreement for supporters of both sides to leave in equal numbers, then why couldn't they just agree on a candidate...and so on.

When a DS was elected in Tennessee some years ago, it look eighteen ballots or something, and the person they chose wound up not accepting anyway. In my experience, and this may only be the case in the States, I don't know, one to four candidates may jockey for position at the top of the slate for a few rounds then the eventual winner picks up more and more steam as the voting goes along, sometimes rather limping over the 2/3 tape. But it was not the case here. On the nominating ballot, there was a clear, convincing choice at the top. The person eventually elected was nominated with 70 more votes than anyone else received on the nominating ballot. It only took three rounds to elect him. He was one of my students last semester, but I should think that if that had anything to do with it it was in spite of instead of because of, you know? I did not stay long enough to hear his comments to the assembly, and I haven't heard of anything strange happening like someone rejecting that clear of an expression of a district's will, but I'm sure that means there is a new district superintendent in Metro Manila. Congratulations and God bless.

The Bowl Championship Series works!!

Utah in 2005. Boise State in 2007. Utah again in 2009.

The only non-BCS-conference school to qualify for a BCS bowl and then lose was Hawaii in the 2008 Sugar Bowl. That makes 3-1. I used to be an advocate for a playoff system in FBS/I-A of college football. But what settled the issue for me was the pounding that Utah gave Alabama in the Sugar Bowl this year. True enough, they did not hang 50 points on the Crimson Tide, and they probably will not have a legitimate shot at splitting the national title, but they will certainly get some votes, just because they are the only undefeated team. Now, Boise State was the only undefeated team after the 2007 bowls (if memory serves), but even though I have been a Broncos fan my entire football life I understood that Boise State did not deserve to share the title with Florida that year, particularly after the latter had made such a definitive statement in the BCS title game against Ohio State.

But let me return to 3-1. Let us analyze these games. Last year, Georgia housed Hawaii. Blah, blah, blah. Yawn. Wake me up when it gets interesting. This is not surprising; in fact this is what is supposed to happen, if the arrogant folks in the major conferences (and, by the way, the majority of their rabid, generally unthinking, fans) are right in what they say, that the major conference teams are simply better than the others. This is why a team like Boise State this year, which went 12-0, did not get into the BCS again, with that slot instead going to Utah. This turns out to have been the correct decision, with Boise State losing the Flower Pot Bowl and Utah thumping Alabama by two touchdowns. Alabama! By two touchdowns! Boise State had its third undefeated regular season in the past five years, but they got shut out, correctly, because the competition they face does not merit them getting a bite of the pie. At least not this year. But, in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl, Utah destroyed Pittsburgh, though admittedly a weaker team, thus setting the stage for non-BCS conference teams to continue to have success against the big kids. True enough, Boise State did not put a hurting on Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl the way Utah did against Pittsburgh and later against Alabama. But still Boise State-Oklahoma will, has to, go down as one of the greatest games in the history of college football.

What does all this mean?

The non-BCS-conference teams are 3-1 in BCS games. And, lest we forget, Utah didn't play the Air Force Academy in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl or the 2007 Sugar Bowl. They played Pittsburgh from the Big East and Alabama from the SEC. Boise State didn't play Texas-El Paso in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl. (Nothing against the Air Force Academy or Texas-El Paso; understand the point!) They played Oklahoma from the Big Twelve.

Still think a non-BCS-conference team will never get a shot at the national title game? Don't hold your breath. A .750 winning percentage means that these "lesser" teams are improving.

And that means that the BCS has done exactly what it was intended to do. You can argue until you're blue in the face about how this or that team should have been selected over that or this team in such-and-such title game. Blah, blah, blah. Yawn. Wake me up when it gets interesting. But the far more important point in the entire discussion about the BCS is 3-1. The non-BCS-conference teams have a winning record in BCS games against the BCS-conference teams.

The Bowl Championship Series works.

Rest in peace, Uncle John, but sorry, there's no handicapped parking in Heaven

My father informed me via email that my uncle John Modine passed away around 10 PM, December 30, which would have been about 2 PM on New Year's Eve for me. He had been battling multiple sclerosis for many years, and as those who are familiar with this horrid disease know it was an increasingly losing fight. But Dad did go on to say that Uncle John had become a Christian some time ago through the efforts of a pastor visiting the nursing home where he lived. Thanks be to God for that.

I just added the second part of the title of this post under a flash of inspiration: "but, sorry, there's no handicapped parking in heaven." I realize it is a quite sappy phrase, but I can be allowed a bit of sap in the aftermath of the passing of family. See, Uncle John had been confined to a wheelchair for the last few years of his life. I saw him last probably 5 years or so ago and even then he was not looking very good. He was a rather active person before the disease attacked him, and so I am sure he is active again now in heaven with his Lord.

Whenever I think of people getting saved later in life, and especially near death, as in Uncle John's case, my mind immediately goes back to the parable of the brothers, what is usually called the parable of the prodigal son, in Luke 15. A much overlooked point of this parable, in the midst of the wonderful news of even someone who has actively rejected the father's house (=salvation) being joyfully received upon returning, is the conversation between the father and the older brother while the party is going on. The older son complains that he has always been faithful, he has always done his work, and papa never even threw a small party for him and his friends. "But THIS SON of yours," and I am sure the emphasis was just like that, coming out of the older brother's resentment and desire not to have further relations with the prodigal. The father says to him, "Everything I have ever had is yours. But we had to celebrate, for THIS BROTHER of yours was dead and is alive again." Once again, I think that the emphasis was just like this. Have a relationship with your brother as I have with my son, says the father. That part of interpreting the parable is left open, because there is no more to the story.

I link it up with the parable of the workers in the vineyard in Matthew 20. There, the slackers who work only an hour get paid the same that the people who worked all day, and that makes the latter decidedly unhappy. But the point of the parable is that the landowner does what is considered right, so go your way. If the day's wage is equated with salvation, and I think it's legitimate to do so (even though we should recognize the danger we face in coming close to works righteousness), then those who have been around forever do not have any extra bonus compared with those who came along only very late in the day. So also, those who have been Christians their entire lives have the same gift as those who confess their sins and trust in God for salvation only at the very end of life. Incidentally, this is the problem I have with the contemporary chorus often sung in evangelical churches like mine nowadays, "Come, now is the time to worship." The offending line is this:

One day every tongue will confess you are God,
one day every knee will bow.
Still the greatest treasure remains for those
who gladly choose you now.

This is so wrong that I refuse to sing it when this chorus is sung in church services that I attend. It seems to be exactly against things like Luke 15 and Matthew 20. While the eschatological vision of every tongue confessing the lordship of God is correct, it is heinous to suggest that those who choose him now, however gladly, can expect a greater treasure than those who wait. By contrast, deathbed confessions and the stories of them that are told afterward are very powerful parts of Christian literature. This is precisely because even those who rejected God and Christ for many years, either by refusing to heed the call (Matthew 20) or by actively turning their backs on faith (Luke 15), can be redeemed and will be redeemed when they finally come and answer the call of faith. While Uncle John did not confess Christ is Lord at the very hour of his death, but rather some time before, nevertheless he has the same gift that I do after being a Christian for 22 of my 34 years.

And that, my friends, is NOT sappy.

First New Year's Eve in the Philippines

I hear from everyone that New Year's Eve is a very festive, very loud occasion in the Philippines. A student told me last evening, in fact, that I'll be hearing fireworks explode throughout the day today (and indeed I have been hearing them steadily for over a week), but between 11:30 PM and 1:30 AM on New Year's Day, she said it will sound like we're in the middle of a battle. I'm actually looking forward to it. I'll be off in the mountains with a great view of the displays around the area, and then I'll get a ride back to the seminary after everything is over. It's too bad I don't have a camera to record it as best I can.

On the camera: I have ordered a replacement and it should hopefully get to my colleague in Kansas in time for her to bring it back in her luggage. If not, the husband of the one who described the battle (himself also a student) is going back to the States for some meetings in January and he'll be able to bring it back. So I'll be cameraless for as little as two weeks or as long as six weeks. No big deal. I'm really thankful for loving supporters (i.e., family).

I looked at my own travel plans to come to the States in March. It looks like I can get a great deal for a flight to Nashville in the end of February, returning the first week of March. I'm still hoping and praying for support for my friend to come along. I've sent out a couple of appeals, but we'll see how that goes. Of course, we don't even know if he'd be granted a visa, since the US has seemed to tighten its controls on persons coming from the Philippines, even with American sponsors and for short-term trips. We'll see. Keep praying.

I'm going to try in the next few weeks to set up links to show people how they can help, but I haven't figured that out with Blogger yet. I'm sort of treating this blog like the standard "missionary newsletter," and so this is one of the things that goes into that kind of document. Anyhow, prayer is the most important means of support. Partnering is, of course, another. But that's all I'll say. I promise.

Prayer

Manalangin tayo!

Panginoon, maraming salamat po sa araw na ito.
Maraming salamat din po sa Anak ninyo.
Maraming salamat din po sa Biblya ninyo.
Maraming salamat din po sa simbahan ninyo.
Maraming salamat din po sa buhay ko.
Maraming salamat din po sa pamilya ko.
Maraming salamat din po sa mga kaibigan ko.
Maraming salamat din po sa trabaho ko.
Maraming salamat din po sa mga estudyante ko.
Maraming salamat din po sa mga titser ko.
At maraming salamat din po sa lahat ng ibinigay ninyo sa akin. Amen.

Corregidor Island

Took a day-trip out to Corregidor Island at the mouth of Manila Bay yesterday. Corregidor has been one of the principal fortified places protecting the capital city from attack by sea for hundreds of years. One of the many things we learned on the tour was that the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922--signed by the United States, the British Empire, the Empire of Japan, the French Third Republic, and the Kingdom of Italy--specifically prevented the United States from improving the fortifications on the island, which would indirectly lead to the island falling to the Japanese, after a five-month battle, in May 1942. Against an attack from the sea Corregidor was well prepared, including the so-called "invisible guns of Corregidor," batteries that raised up to fire at approaching ships then were lowered again away from counterattack for reloading. However, against an attack from the air, such as that executed first by the Japanese and then by the Americans retaking the island in 1945, Corregidor was largely defenseless.

I am a history buff. Even though history as such is not in my academic interests, nevertheless my field is--in a manner of speaking--about history, and so it is natural, I think, that I should be enraptured by discussions of historical kinds of things. I am particularly fascinated by military history, which I think is unusual because there is not much in my family history in the way of proud military tradition. True enough, my father served in Vietnam, but you would be hard-pressed to find any significant heroics on the battlefield coming from the Modines. Perhaps this is because we ultimately come from the neutral country of Sweden, which seems more interested in fortifying its countryside with saunas and ski lodges than artillery installations and foxholes.

Anyhow, Corregidor was the site of Gen. Douglas MacArthur's famous line "I shall return!" The General was ordered to Australia by President Roosevelt, and beginning in the summer of 1944 he was in charge of a campaign that came west and north from a base in Australia to sytematically retake the lands conquered by Japan, achieving ultimate victory in September 1945. I said to my girlfriend that it would have been very interesting indeed to have taken this tour with some of my Japanese students, of which there are currently four at the seminary. The tour guide was obviously slanted in his presentation in favor of the American and Filipino side of the story, but this was not in any respect a weakness. A quite knowledgeable guide, he did have a couple of funny lines, including asking after the difference between the Filipino and American soldiers depicted, arms around each other's shoulders, helping each other, in front of the Pacific War Memorial. When no one gave the "right answer," he said it was simple, really: "The Filipino is the more handsome one!"

The memorial itself is so constructed that the sun on May 6 at noon is to shine directly on the "memorial altar" inside the structure. Futher, on that day the sun rises and sets exactly through the openings in the side of the building. This is one of several features designed to remember May 6, 1942, the day Corregidor fell to the forces of Imperial Japan. Some others are meant to recall February 26, 1945, the date of the final liberation of Corregidor; and March 7, 1945, the date Gen. MacArthur finally made good on his promise that he would return.

One of the most interesting things our guide said was to quote from memory the announcement of the fall of Bataan Peninsula (April 9, 1942) on the Voice of Freedom, as well as the communique' issued by Gen. John Wainwright to President Roosevelt the day before the official surrender of Corregidor and the rest of the Philippines to Japan. The fall of Bataan was also the beginning of the infamous "Death March," which was designed not only for brutality, but also to provide a long line of human shields as cover for the Japanese refortification of Bataan in order to continue their fight for the Philippines. The commanding general of Japan had promised the emperor to deliver the Philippines in 50 days' time, but the "Battling Bastards of Bataan" and the guns of Corregidor held out for an amazing five months against overwhelming odds. Corregidor did not hold as much strategic importance for the Japanese in terms of defending the Philippines as it had for the Americans and Filipinos, but it was still important enough--for military as well as sentimental reasons--to warrant a separate attack when the Americans came back to retake the Philippines. Today it is one of the prided tourist locations in the islands.

Next I want to see Bataan...

Old traditions with new people II

I did not realize it until the game was about 3/4 over, but I did participate in another Modine family ritual last night. This time it was playing Monopoly on Christmas Eve, starting late at night and ending early on Christmas morning. My opponents were the two oldest children--one girl and one boy--of one of my faculty colleagues, who had never played Monopoly before. So I was teaching them how to do it as they went along.

My brother's strategy of collecting the railroads and the utilities ultimately paid off for the girl, the eventual winner of the game. I had bought and/or traded for three of the railroads and I had both utilities. I was offering the earth, the sun, the moon, and the stars to the girl for the fourth railroad, but she was very stubborn. Eventually I made a blunder and offered her the three railroads and both utilities for the two properties I needed to completely own Second Street, except of course for the Electric Company. She accepted this, and then both I and her brother immediately began landing on the railroads and the utilities every time we went around the board. Of course, she also always missed the magentas and the oranges on Second Street, usually taking a ride on her own Pennsylvania Railroad or visiting the power substation, if she did not fly past the street all together with boxcars on the dice. Her brother, initially out into a commanding lead with both sets of blue properties (though he never improved Boardwalk and Park Place), soon had to demolish the houses he had on First Street since he kept landing on the railroads owned by his sister.

I kept advising her when to build on Third Street, which she owned entirely except for the Chance square in between Indiana and Kentucky Avenues. I kept saying, "Well, here we come around the corner and you probably will miss my orange guys over here. Even if you hit them, it won't cost you much money." For I never had more than two houses on either the orange or the magenta properties on Second Street. I avoided a usual mistake in building too quickly, but I fell victim to another usual blunder, like I said, and made a devastatingly bad trade. I do not think she ever landed on the oranges, though she did hit the magentas a few times.

Soon enough, and mainly because I was getting tired, I conceded, tore down the houses I had left, gave the unimproved properties to the boy, and encouraged him to quit as well. By this time he had mortgaged the greens, the dark blues, and all of the light blues except Connecticut Avenue. But he refused to concede. Then I advised the girl to shell out $900 and put hotels all along Third Street. I kept calling it the Valley of the Shadow of Death, but she insisted on the much prettier name of Marigold Street. Anyhow, I instituted a lightning round, because I wanted it to be over so I could go home and go to bed, since I was due to talk to the family at 8:00 AM and it was already past midnight. The seminary president came along a couple of times to observe the carnage, and I said again that it shouldn't be long before the boy was bankrupt. During the lightning round, he hit the Free Parking lottery (not in the official rules, but whatever), but he landed on one of the reds the next turn, and then Ventor Avenue the turn after that. And that was it.

All told, the girl owned the purples (which her brother hit a couple of times), the utilities, the railroads, the reds, and the yellows. She even gave him some grace a couple of times when he hit her stuff. She never offered this grace to me, and I wouldn't have accepted it anyway, because I wanted to lose and get it over already. It truly was a dominating performance, especially since she came back from a cash-poor position early on. It was a stroke of luck that she landed on Atlantic Avenue (the last unclaimed lot to be purchased), and it was my error to trade everything away for Second Street.

Maybe someday I'll learn how to play Monopoly.

Old traditions with new people

My first Christmas in another country than my family is hard. I have been apart from my family over the holidays before, so it's not that so much. But this is the first time I have been 15,000 miles and thirteen time zones away. But, unlike people in the past who have gone on missionary service, I am blessed to have the Internet for connection back to the homeland. I chatted with the fam yesterday, and we've got it planned to connect at 8 AM Christmas Day (which, for them, is 6 PM Christmas Eve), so at least I'll get to see them and hear them as they open gifts and enjoy the time together, even if I am not there to be able to physically touch them.

Part of my therapy this season has been to share some of my old family traditions with new friends here in this place. One of these is the Modine Waffle Supper. This is perhaps the first time anyone has ever written about this with all capital letters. But it is a tradition in my family to eat waffles for dinner on Christmas Eve. I didn't do this on Christmas Eve, nor did I do it for dinner, but I still shared it with new friends. I invited my girlfriend and the ladies from her office to enjoy the Modine Waffle Lunch with me yesterday, December 23. Part of the Waffle Supper (or Lunch) is to have a wide array of waffle topping choices. There is the usual maple syrup, but we like to have apple butter, strawberry jam, etc., along with chokecherry syrup (an Idaho staple). Yesterday we had maple syup, blueberry preserves, peanut butter, and chocolate sauce. The point of this, for the heartiest waffle eaters, is to enjoy one waffle square with each of the topping offerings. So I had one with maple syrup, one with blueberry jam, one with chocolate sauce, and one with peanut butter--then another one with maple syrup just for fun. One of the ladies topped all her waffles with salt and pepper. I'm not sure what to do with that one, but like I told her, if that's what she likes then go for it.

I was blessed to have friends share this time with me, even if I didn't get to do this with family. And they were homemade waffles, as opposed to the greasy spoon ones I had in New Jersey the last time I was separated from my family over the holidays. No good. Having these friends has gone a long way toward battling against and ultimately triumphing over the depression that could very well have attached on to me this season, especially since I am so far away from the ones I love. And I also have people I love here. That makes a huge difference.

Christmas gifts

I was able through a faculty colleague to send gifts for my family members home for Christmas. We will connect over webcam on the evening of their Christmas Eve. Incidentally, I wonder if that is Christmas Eve eve. :-)

But I have not yet gotten a gift for that special someone. She'll read this later and I suppose that's ok, but I have to be careful in what I say. The biggest problem is that I am never out to any potential gift-buying place without her. I asked one of my American friends to come along this morning, and also to lend a little female perspective, but it doesn't look like that's going to be able to happen. Everyone's busy, see, and so I'm pretty much in a bind. S.O. says it's okay not to come bearing gifts, but we all know what that means, don't we kids? I may have to break my general rule and just go down to the mall myself later today. With my major piece of electronic equipment already stolen I think the risk is minimized. Haha.

So I'm just going to go and find something. I cannot come empty-handed. Cannot!

Sixth emberary

Today, December 17, 2008, marks six months since I achieved "wheels down" in the Philippines. I can't really call it an "anniversary," because that word implies marking the passage of years, hence "anni-." But I could not find a definition for "emberary" on reference.com--suggestions for alternate spelling included:

embracery: an attempt to influence a judge or jury by corrupt means
embry- (variant of embyro-): before a vowel [hmmm]
ambery: of the color of amber
embarras: I do this enough to myself to know what it means.

Anyway, so it seems I have invented a word. Or maybe reference.com just is not aware of its use. I do not have much time to blog this morning, because responsibilities continue even on this day which probably only has significance for me. After all, it is just Wednesday, and Doctrine of Holiness class convenes in 50 minutes. This means I should sign off the computer and get ready for the day. But for some reason I don't want to. And I just spilled coffee on my shirt--another indication that this is a day like any other.

Till next time...