Balot/Balut

Yes, we ate it. If you do not know what it is, just wikipedia "balut (egg)".


Our Filipino friends say it is a night-time food. I think that's so you don't have to see it when you eat it. We had the 13 day old eggs. These are the younger eggs. The chick isn't as developed. Some of the pictures of balut on google show the more mature eggs that you can get. Ours did not have feathers and beaks so it was not too bad.

As for the taste, it was really a lot like a hard boiled egg. This makes sense, because they boil the egg. We ate them with salt and vinegar. Katie thought the inside tasted like chicken soup.

After my first try, I remain unsure. I will have to give it another go to make a decision one way or another.

Why are we here?

So now it's my turn to contribute a blog entry. There are at least a hundred things we've experienced in the last few weeks that could serve as material, but I think I'd like to start with trying to answer the question, "Why are we here?"

It's funny, because all through the stress of getting here, Jeff and I kept prepping ourselves for that question. We knew we'd face it in the moments Manila didn't feel like home. We had a variety of different answers stored up:

...to learn and experience another culture together for a whole year (in case you never received the memo, we want to do missions).
...to take classes in a non-western context.
...to have our first experience abroad be one in which we listen and learn rather than lead or direct (I personally like that one a lot. Oliver, don't you think that raises our Cultural Intelligence?).

But I've got to tell you... ever since we got here, my mission has been of one driving, single-minded purpose: ...to get acclimated.

Adjustment is the name of the game. I keep telling Jeff it will be better when we start to feel comfortable in our own room, for starters. and so we've been to the nearby shopping mall almost everyday buying cleaning supplies, a mirror, hangers, linens, kitchen stuff, you name it... And we've scrubbed and swept, arranged furniture, unpacked. I set my darling Richard on the end table to welcome visitors. Sure enough, in spite of heat and the critters and the one million unknowns, it is starting to look and feel somewhat like home.


So I was a little flustered the other day as I was preparing for a Bible placement exam I probably didn't really have to take. The study guide recommended re-familiarizing myself with the Hebrews 11 Super-Bible-Star FAITH CHAPTER (I hope you read those last two words with reverb because that's how I wrote them). Don't get me wrong, this is an undoubtedly wonderful chapter, but please, if you will, re-live the gut-punch with me.

"By faith Abraham... made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a a foreign country; he lived in tents... For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God... [Abraham and others] admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead they were longing for a better country -a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them."

Did you feel the collapsing of my all-consuming goal to "feel at home"? I wasn't so surprised after thinking about it a little more. Since when has getting comfortable ever been on the same plane with seeking the Kingdom of God? Well, it may be Christianity 101, but it is not easy. Here's to a new goal that requires a lifetime of "living by faith." Lord help me.

Katie

Flight of the Phillies

Last week, before we left for the Philippines, we were waiting for our visas to arrive by a postal carrier that will remain nameless. The visas were supposed to arrive in Kokomo (we were staying at Katie's parents' house) by way of overnight shipping. It should have arrived on Thursday. What we found out by email on Thursday was that the package arrived in Kokomo, IN, but the carrier thought the address didn't match anywhere in Indiana, so they shipped it off to Pennsylvania where an address matched it more closely. They decided to only email us... I wish they would have called us to make sure it was the right address. Either way, we found out on Thursday and after asking nicely in every way possible we found out that our overnight shipment to Indiana which became an overnight shipment to Pennsylvania could not become an overnight shipment back to Indiana.

In the end, we decided the best way to get our package before our flight (6:30 Monday morning) was for me to fly to Philadelphia that day and go out to the customer center and pick it up in person. I went on an adventure, flew to Philadelphia, got the rental car with my google directions in hand and drove to the customer center. And here is where the wheels came off the kart. Right after the clerk punches in my tracking number, the power goes out. She can't use the computer or find my package. After some time and a number of cell phone calls, they miraculously found the package. Long story short, people were praying and God delivered the visas back into our hands. It turns out God must want us here after all.

I am not sure if there is one specific reason or many, but it seems to me that there is a purpose for which God has allowed us to come halfway around the world to learn. Thanks be to God.

Packed and Moved

Last Friday, Katie and I threw all of our earthly possessions into a trailer, a GMC Yukon, and Mercury Sable. We drove back to Fort Wayne, IN where we unloaded everything. The week leading up to the move was so stressful, it is still a blur to me.

I had a manager from our apartment complex coming at 4:00 to check out our apartment. I was not sure that I was going to make the 4:00 deadline. In each room, I pushed all of the boxes to one side, cleaned half of the room, then moved all of them to the other side and cleaned that. As for the kitchen, there was still food left in the fridge and in the cabinets. God must have heard those prayers said under my breath, because I was done cleaning and moving things out at 3:55pm. My parents got there and we loaded everything up into the cars. We celebrated by eating some RJ's Barbecue. We decided that our last meal in KC should be some true KC food.

I ordered these two items:


It was pretty good. My advice, go check it out for yourself and have some of the best barbecue in KC. After a good meal we got in the cars and headed off to Fort Wayne.


Next Time on the Adventures of Jeff and Katie, Jeff goes on the epic-est side-quest of his life as he tracks down their lost artifacts in, "Raiders of the Lost Visas."