Silliness

One of my cultural adjustments, when I came to the Philippine many eons ago, was party games. I was not used to adults playing games at every gathering! But here in the Philippines, party games are part of life, and I have gotten used to it.

. Last weekend we celebrated "Family Day" at IGSL, and it involved some silly games. One game involved four groups of about 20 people each, passing a kalamansi from one person to the next.

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A kalamansi is a small Philippine fruit, something like a dark green lemon, about the size of a cherry tomato.

. The participants could not use their hands, just a spoon held in their mouth. It was hilarious! The great thing was that everyone could play.

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In one team I saw our school president, the guy who runs the xerox machine, the 10-year-old child of one of our professors, and the wife of a new student who can't speak English yet. Such silliness levels the playing field for everyone! I loved it.

Long Time No Blog

It's true, I haven't blogged in almost three weeks. I am finding it hard to manage my time, without my office assistant, Shelby. Classes started two weeks ago, and the first few weeks of the year are always the most hectic. We have hired a wonderful new assistant, someone from our church that Shelby has discipled for several years. I think she will be great -- but the only problem is that she can't start for about six more weeks! About the time that life slows down at IGSL, Cherry will start working in our office. But actually, things are already slowing down a bit, and I am figuring out a system. I think we will be able to manage this. I hope you won't have to wait 3 weeks for the next post.

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Meanwhile, my handsome grandson keeps getting cuter. He turned 6 months old last week. I still miss him sooooooooooooo much. During a party game last week I had to say what gift I would most like to receive if money were no object -- I said unlimited plane tickets to Texas! Here is the smiling boy:

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I am enjoying all the new students (as well as the old ones) and am seeing God's faithfulness in little things and big things, day after day. He is good.

Cooking Contest

I've told you many times that I live a life of endless variety. Some of the things I do are very serious, with eternal consequences. And sometimes I do things that are, well, a little lighter. Recently I had the honor of being a judge in a cooking contest. Our PIM students conducted a 6-week program called Summer Fun 2010, and during the grand finale at the end of the summer they had a cooking contest. Each group of cooks was an international team, which added to the complexity of it all. This photo sums it up: "Padthai -- a Thai food cooked by a Nepali and a Filipino"

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I pretended to be a food photographer and took pictures of all their lovely presentations. Definitely a fun day!

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