Enjoying The Vistas

To the casual viewer, it appears we are on an extended vacation. However, if you will recall, President Hinckley gave some sound advice when he told us to "enjoy the vistas on the trainride of missionary life."  So we are.  (I kind of took the liberty to add the "missionary" part myself.)

With that piece of prophetic advice, Elder Eddington planned an out-of-town member records weekend.  Yesterday (Sunday) we traveled north, starting our journey at 6:30am. We spent time instructing a newly-called member-records service missionary. We also collected different member record reports from various sets of missionaries along the way. In exchange for these records, we gave the elders containers of homemade cookies, which they love.  The elders made the deal:  "your homemade cookies in exchange for our records." Homemade cookies are nonexistent in the Philippines.

"Cookie Grandpa" should now be called "Cookie Elder"

Keep in mind that the roads on the northern part of the island are narrow and with a lot of curves.  It is especially hard to drive on these roads after dark.  They are not lighted and half the time, the cars, tricycles, bikes, motorcycles, and jeepneys aren't lighted either.  Drivers of vehicles that do have headlights, seem to think it's time to turn them off when encountering oncoming traffic. To make things worse, there are tons of pedestrians walking on the sides of the roads after dark who seem to always be dressed in dark clothing.  Knowing this, and knowing that Monday was our "p" day,  don't you agree, we had no choice but to stay overnight in a beach-front hotel? So we did, arriving at our hotel at dusk, which is about 6pm.

The next morning we got up early so we could be on the beach to watch the sunrise.  There were too many clouds to see much of a sunrise, but as we predicted, the scene was breathtaking.  We also predicted we would be the sole occupants of the beach, since it was so early in the morning, as well as it being the off season for tourists. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the exception of the ever-present dog population, which we should have known would be there, we thought we were alone on the beach.

 

 



 That's when we noticed a distant activity occurring at one end of the beach. A line of people seemed to be playing some sort of "tug-of-war" game....or were they? (I had the camera setting on "zoom". So these people appear closer than they were.)

 

 

 

Soon after, we saw the same thing happening on the other end of the beach.  Another line of people were pulling on a rope that extended into the water. (The line of people is barely visable close to the bottom of the hills.)  And then the boat in the picture was launched.

 

The light dawned.  We were in the middle of a fishing activity.  The nets had been placed in the water the night before, and both ends were being pulled to shore....by, what seemed, a whole community of people. 



Each of the fishermen had a rope tied to his/her waist.  When they had backed up as far as they could go, they would unhook their waist rope from the net rope, walk to the front of the line, which was close to the water, rehook their rope, and continue pulling.

 

 

 

 

Your dad was itching to help....but controlled himself.

 

 

As both lines of people were pulling the ropes in from the ocean, each line was moving closer to the other line. The boat that had been previously launched was at the head of the net.  (It is barely visable in the picture below.) It was tied to a buoy in the middle of the net, so it was able to come to shore along with the net.  Two men were standing on each end of the boat, yelling some sort of directions to the line pullers.  It would be interesting to know what they were yelling.

 

The net started appearing out of the water, with fish stuck in the net.

Some of the young boys began retrieving the fish that were stuck in the net.

At the head of the net was attached a tube-shaped bag where the catch of the day had been channeled. This bag was literally alive with wiggling fish. The fishermen all seemed pleased with the amount of fish they had netted.

And then the task of straightening and folding the net began.

So much for a private stroll on the beach.  But what an interesting morning!

I didn't know where to fit this next picture, but the clouds are too gorgeous to go unnoticed. "Look at the clouds! No one is looking at the clouds!" Sorry Nana. I couldn't resist.

Pictures of our hotel.

Our return trip took us past these windmills at Bangui.  For some reason I always think of the Brocks when passing through this area.  Don't ask me why.

A hedge of plants lines the highway forever! For some reason I always think of Grandma Eddington when passing through this area.  Don't ask me why. (FYI: She has this same plant growing on her hearth in her family room.)

We are enjoying our mission train ride.....including the vistas.

Love, Elder and Sister Eddington