Friends! Yes!

I know that this is a real two-for-one deal. I won't charge you for it. Plus, if you read both of Al's posts about scoring soccer goals you can read this...although...it may not be as monumental as finally scoring your first soccer goal...

Since the last post we've been taken on quite a few excursions around town, and in those excursions I've begun to start to get a feel for Manila and for the Philippines. First off, there have only been a few times, but there have indeed been times where I've felt a little uneasy with some of the places we've been to. Even though Matt and I can be intimidating with our size and height, we stick out like sore thumbs. Not only that, but most of the time that we leave the monastery we're still wearing our church clothes, and occasionally I have my camera with me. Translation: We look like rich stiffs on a vacation. What adds even more to this illusion is that we've continued to be escorted by the monastics, and so it looks like we have guides assisting us. But, alas, the monks continue to reassure us that we'll be just fine here, especially when we're with them. It's reassuring.

For those of you that don't know, the Philippines have been plagued with crippling poverty and corruption for decades, something that continues even today. For example: The last 2 days there have been massive demonstrations throughout Manila, and especially near the Presidential Palace (which..we're 3 blocks from) with thousands of people angry at the new President for cronyism and nepotism continuing to run rampant. While to Matt and I this seems a little crazy, the effects of decades of corruption can be seen, really, wherever you go in Manila, let alone the Philippines. There is so much trash around the city, and not just garbage like wrappers and McDonalds cups, there are literally houses that just wore out and crumbled. People are living on the streets EVERYWHERE. This past weekend Matt and I had the privilege to go with the community to their nearly-finished $3million retreat center in Tagaytay (a pretty standard resort area), and the entire way from Manila to Tagaytay (a 3 hour car ride) was filled with poverty. As soon as we left Manila it was pretty evident that these people had little to live on. Nearly every house was made of concrete bricks and tin roofs. If a house didn't have a tin roof, it had a blue plastic tarp. At the risk of sounding trite, it truly was a fascinating juxtaposition between the lives of these people and the monastery, and especially with my background of coming from such a plush and comfortable life to seeing the desolate conditions of these people was really eye opening.

But it really is amazing to see the disparity between the wealthy and the poor. You can tell who has money in this country simply by seeing that they have a wall around their home. Matt and I have talked about how feudal-esque it seems, each wealthy person surrounding their castle with high walls and a big steel gate, with the serfs and peasants living in between estates. Is this the case? Unknown. Matt and I have continued to see our relationship and friendship grow, whether it be over discussions and quotations of tv shows and movies, discussing politics and education, or, quite simply and most frequently, discussing the ever present threat of the Zombie Apocalypse. Wherever we go, we always seem to both veer instantly into that mindset-rating the defenses of the location for survival and standoff, what weapons are best, simply surviving. We make a good team, to say the least.

I digress. I think it's very safe to say that I have my first Filipino friends now! Father Rembert, the guest master of the monastery and our personal handler has continued taking us on excursions of the city, and is now a friend of ours. In our adventures we've been introduced to Don Maxi. I personally like Matt's description of Maxi: "Rembert’s partner in crime is Don Maxi. Maxi bases his life around laughter and travel. So naturally we get along famously. Whenever we travel it is generally with Maxi and Rembert and the combination of all four of us is trouble brewing. Maxi also acts as a sort of mascot for the monastery and for us BVC'ers- whenever he comes around the mood immediately lightens." I couldn't have said it much better. Maxi is another friend. Our third friend is Dom Maurus, who has begun accompanying Matt, Rembert, Maxi, and I on our adventures. Yesterday the five of us went to the Intramuros, which, for times sake I'll let you wikipedia. But, in short, it's the oldest part of Manila that is still remaining after WWII. It was built by the Spanish back in the 1500's and is a MASSIVE fully enclosed section of the city. Our adventures yesterday took us to St. Agustin Church, the only structure that survived the U.S.'s carpet bombing of Intramuros during the war, which was built in the early 1500's. That's right. That church is OLD. Maurus, gaining our friendship and trust, had one of his schoolmates, who is now a friar at St. Agustin, give us a personal tour. Jackpot.

The rest of the afternoon saw us go to a cafe for an afternoon snack (meal 4 of the day (remember, they eat A LOT here in the Phils)), then to a National Liturgical Conference to see a professor that the three had (and a monk of the monastery) launch his new book.

NOTE: It's a small world.

As the hype of the conference began to build as the announcement was beginning to be made, who else than Mr. Peter Dwyer, the Director of the Liturgical Press in Collegeville, MN, came forth to introduce the author. Incredible. Naturally, Matt and I conversed with him afterwords and exchanged pleasantries about St. John's...from the other side of the world. So fantastic.

Then, as if we haven't been spoiled enough and as if we hadn't eaten enough, Don Maxi took the group of us to dinner at the Mall of Asia to a NICE Chinese restaurant, complete with dimsum, shrimp poppers (our name for them), chicken feet!, snapper, and, yes, that's right, Peking Duck. Needless to say the five of us were still in mild food comas throughout the day.

So, as it turns out, the completion of our first whole week here in Manila has been quite good to Matt and I. We're both VERY excited to finally get working, but even still the monks here are making sure that we won't be working too hard, or too long, without some fun and food. They've continued to plan trips around the town and around the country for us, they continue to amaze us with their love and hospitality, and they continue to amaze us with their hospitality. One of the Benedictine Rules is to receive all as Christ, and they have just continued to blow our minds with their reception

Every day we've counted our blessings, and thanks to these incredible men of God, our blessings have only continued to multiply. And we were worried...