Hello from Manila

The view from our hotel window.

A long line of cars and trucks (of varying vintage and design) early in the morning.

I am writing this note from our room on the 8th floor of a hotel not far from the Manila airport. We arrived around 1 AM after a 29-hour trip from Tupelo. Suffice it to say that this morning (we’re 13 hours ahead of Central Daylight Time in the U.S.) we are tired but ebullient. All the Filipinos we have met have been very friendly and glad to see us. And even though our body clocks are way out of whack, we’re delighted to be here.

The El Shaddai bus has a biblical name.

McDonald’s is everywhere.

In about an hour we leave for the airport for our flight to Davao City in the southern Philippines. We’ll be in that region for almost a week, returning next Saturday to Manila. 

I can’t offer any impressions of Manila except to say that when I went outside at 6:15 AM, the temperature was around 80 degrees with high humidity. It reminded me of Mississippi in August. I think that’s the way it is most days in the Philippines.