Lying on the bed in my room at the Payuyo Pension, I listen to the sounds outside my window of a tropical deluge. Motor bikes growl passed, dodging this way and that on the cracked pavement avoiding puddles and each other. A dog somewhere below the window yips and howls pitifully, sounding like it’s about to die. Every so often, a rooster gives a tentative crow and then lapses into silence. I open my eyes wider and look around the room. Shama is lying on the bed on the other side under the window, reading Great Controversy with a tiny flashlight. Our luggage is spread all around the ends of our beds, and a fan blows warm air at us, stirring the curtains into gentle flapping motions.
Sitting up, I try to remember last night’s drive to the Pension. It is a bit hazy, because I was so exhausted, but I have a memory of dodging through dark streets, lights flashing by, and looking into lighted store fronts and tiny restaurants. A man by the name of Naphtali met us at the airport and escorted us to the Pension (like a hostel). I am so grateful that he came to meet us! While journeying by trike alone at night would have made our adventure complete, I am very thankful that we didn’t have to add that to our bucket list J.
Having slept for about eleven hours (we went to bed as soon as we got to the Pension at around 7:30, Palawan time), I was ready to face a new adventure. I sat up and we turned on the light and surveyed out scatter bags – more work to be done on that later, but not now. After a refreshingly cold shower, with chicken noise background accompaniment, we straightened things around the room and then went and knocked on Naphtali’s door. He’d told us the night before that he would take us to breakfast and since we hadn’t eaten supper due to exhaustion, we were very ready.
Sadly, breakfast was not the first order of the day. We woke Naphtali up (and felt very bad for this!), and he informed us that we would eat after we picked up Kiana (another SM) from the airport at 9:20. OK, we thought, we can do this. Going back to our room, we decided there was no way we could wait until nearly ten to eat, so we supplemented with the few leftover foods that we had with us: an apple (which Shama kindly shared with me), some oranges, and a few wheat sticks. It was a good thing that we ate a bit, because as it turned out we didn’t eat until almost noon!
Feeling a little better we realized we had over an hour until Naphtali would be ready to go, so we wandered down to the lobby. There, we just started talking to a lady who was sitting there and found out that she was an Adventist - not only that, she was a colporteur! She invited us to go across the street and look at the new Adventist Mission. Deciding it was fairly safe J, we walked across and into the Mission. As we toured around, we just happened to run into the Philippine Division president and treasurer secretary! After being introduced, we talked to them for quite a while about what we were doing, ASI, and the Mission. The President said he had been to ASI in Albuquerque, but he pronounced it ‘All-boo-ker-kay’, which I found somehow amusing.
Deciding we should get back before Naphtali woke up, we headed back across the street to the Pension. Tip-toing passed Naphtali’s door, we saw that the light was on, so we went back to our room and sat patiently on our beds for a few minutes until he came and knocked. On the street again, we hailed another trike and headed back to the airport. While we waited for Kiana to come, we learned a few more Palawan phrases. He also shared some cashew nuts with us since we were all famished.
About 45 minutes later, our foursome was headed back to Payuyo to drop of Kiana’s luggage. She took a shower and freshened up and then we headed off to lunch! We went to a place called Vegetarian House that had a menu about an inch thick. I initially though it might be because they had so many different dishes, but after we opened it up I realized it is because they had a full page color picture of each dish. Interesting…
Lunch consisted of pancit for me and tempura for Shama. We decided to split things to make it more interesting and so tried some of each other’s dishes. It was good, though I gave Shama the majority of the mushrooms adorning the plate! After lunch and a stop at the bank to change money, we decided the next thing on the agenda was shopping. The plan is to shop for enough food for the two of us for the next six weeks. We went to a place called the NCCC: a huge Costco-like structure that carries everything from furniture to food to office supplies. It also sells cell phones. I got a very small Nokia for around $25 that will help me keep in contact with the world for the next ten months.
We spent a dizzying few hours wandering round and round the NCCC. It is incredibly difficult for me to think up planning meals about six weeks out! We ended up getting a variety of pasta, flour, oats, oil, spices, beans, and some canned goods. Vegetables and some fruits are available locally, but the above mentioned foods are difficult to come by so it is better to stock up now. Finally, we had two shopping carts pretty much full and had probably walked around the store fifty times. Checking out took about as long as the shopping. They have a peculiar habit here of hiring about four people for each job that I am used to seeing one person do back home. For instance: for the check-out one person unloads your cart, another rings it up, another puts it in bags or boxes, and yet another may be standing around apparently overseeing the whole process. It is quite amazing. By the time we were done shopping, there were 22 boxes piled at the end of the cash register. I think we must have had six or seven shopping carts between the four of us.
That job done, we ran various errands like going to immigration and getting and extended visa, buying phone cards, and eating again at the Adventist hospital cafeteria (very good…it helped that we were all starving). By this time we were all quite exhausted, but none of us more than Kiana who had had about four hours sleep the night before! Clambering into a last trike, we motored back to Payuyo and wearily climbed the steps to our room. The first whole day in Palawan has been fully as wonderful as I anticipated!
I lay back on my bed and listened to the sounds of motorcycles drone passed. The dog still yowls on and off, and the fan lets out a monotonous drone. Thinking about the day, it seems like it could have been three days’ worth of activities. Tomorrow, we bus up to Brookes Point and will be drawn one step closer to our new home!
