A Long Journey and a Warm Welcome

After a long and relatively smooth 16-hour flight, I'm finally here in Manila, Philippines. It was hard for me to believe that I actually arrived, so long have I been planning for and looking forward to this trip. It was after 10pm when I arrived, so I didn't get to see much of Manila as my Uncle Bob and Aunt Tonette drove me to their home for my week-long stay with them. They have a nice home in Quezon City, which is just outside of Manila. They and my cousins and second cousins have been treating me ROYALLY thus far.

I used this first day to lie low and get over jetlag. Hard for the system to adjust when there is exactly 12 hours difference between Cleveland and Manila. But, my mid-day sleepyness will pass, I'm sure. I've been playing a lot with my second cousins, Franciso (aka, "Kiko") and Francesca (aka, "Chesca"). They're 8 and 5 years old respectively, full of questions and loaded with tons of energy. It's been good to re-connect with their mom (my cousin Tina) and her husbandR oque. as well as my other cousin Aurora and her husband Carlos and their 4-year old twin sons Andre and Joquin, and their 8-month old daughter Maria.
Got that all straight? It's going to take me a while to keep straight which child belongs to which cousin of mine, but I'll manage.

I'm off to Vigan tomorrow with my aunt and uncle for an overnight siite-seeing tour. I'll be sure to include photos of the historical sites I see in my next update of this blog. Thanks for checking in! Stay well, and thanks for the thoughts and prayers!