How Blessed We Are

I'll post about our amazing Bohol weekend when I get home and download all of the pictures. But something big has happened here in the Pacific and I feel the need to write about it.

Friday afternoon Michelle was packing for her trip home and had posted on facebook, as we all do these days, about what she should do in Tokyo during her layover the next morning. We then learned, by comments, that the airports in Japan were closed following a 8.9 earthquake. Many of the airports were dealing with damage, while some were completely submerged following the tsunami (or "salami" as Kaitlyn calls it). Her flight was cancelled until Sunday night, instead of Friday as planned.

A little crazy, Keven Todd and Michelle were trying to decide what day she should fly out, Thursday night, or Friday night. They chose Friday. Had they gone with Thursday, Michelle would have been inside the airport when the earthquake hit. I am so grateful that they listened to the quiet promptings of the Spirit.

But, even more stressful than the cancelled flight, was the next danger facing us. The news reports informed us that the entire Pacific was under a tsunami warning. The earthquake had ticked off the whole ocean and the Philippines were suspected to be hit in the next 2 to 4 hours. Cebu is somewhat land locked for an island. We are shielded from the sea by several other islands. But we honestly didn't know how safe we were from the killer waves. The news stations were rightly focused on Japan. Here in the Philippines there are no public service announcements, so all we had to turn to for information was the international news.

For several hours we stayed glued to the TV, going through every possible scenario. what would we do if we were hit by a tsunami? What if we were unable to leave our house for a few days? How would we know? Would we have any warning? Our poor family back in Utah got a horrible wake up call, and I doubt they got much sleep.

In the end we were completely untouched. Several provinces were evacuated, but there was no major damage. Around 9:00 Friday night we were released from the tsunami warning. And I went to bed with such gratitude and fear for the Japanese people. My family and I were safe and sound. But there were thousands of people suffering on an island just north of us. I am eternally grateful that we were spared from such tragedy, I am so humbled by the knowledge of what could have happened. I hope and pray that all those who are missing or injured, and the families of all involved will be able to find peace, and to rebuild.

DMJ Would Be Proud...Voluntary Lockup

First of all, how sweet is this amazing building?! This is the Cebu Provincial Capital building. Margie took us here to sign up for our place in YouTube awesomeness! Have you seen the "CPDRC World Famous Dancing Inmates"? No? Well I sure have! And if you haven't you need to go onto YouTube and check out this crazy awesome Cebu experience!

The Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center is a prison. A few years ago they began dancing as a way to make exercise more fun, starting with DMJ's (Dead Michael Jackson) Thriller! It's used as a way to increase confidence. And seeing as how the attractive ones are treated like rock stars, I can see why. So on the last Saturday of each month they put on a 2 hour performance. A performance so epic that Brycen tries to get us to play "Dancing Prisoners" every day! We happen to live on this awesome island and so you better believe we were there! After a somewhat death defying drive, complete with a shattered window, up to the prison in a bus we saw this.

Yes, those are prisoners staring at us from behind the bars. Slightly intimidating? Yup. Especially when they call to you and expect you to wave back. Funny thing, Michelle was informed that this was a minimum security prison, more of a detention center rather than a real prison for hardened criminals. WRONG! Our personal prisoner/crowd control officer/tour guide informed us right before the show started and 1,000 plus prisoners marched to within touching distance of us, that most of the inmates are there for murder. Nice. Voluntary lockup with murders. Only in Cebu.

This sexy woman, is in fact a man. He has far better legs than me, can handle heels far better, and has the moves of a stripper. He is also not alone in his fashion choice as a male. Here in Cebu there are lots of "She Men" or "Lady Men." If you remember the "Thriller" video, there is a pretty woman who enters a nightmare...this is how they do it in prison.

I had no idea so many men could dance in unison! They were so in sync that I just smiled and stared in awe the whole time!They did a few other DMJ numbers. Including: Ben, Billy Jean, and They Don't Really Care About Us. This shot was taken right after the classic crotch grab. Something you had to be there to believe. That is a lot of inappropriate touching.

The P on the backs stands for prisoner. And this number is "They Don't Really Care About Us" choreographed by Michael Jackson's personal choreographer. After that amazing entertainer passed away the dance team came to Cebu and taught them this amazing number. This was my very favorite number! Especially because the original video took place in a jail too. This dance is featured on the "This Is It" DVD. Yeah, this is a big deal!

They all did this move! Come on, this is awesome! And they all have matching Converse shoes! During this number I realized that prison wouldn't be so bad here. I mean, Aubrey likes jail, but I've never seen the appeal. However, in a 3rd world country prison means food, water, showers, toilets, clothes, electricity, and snacks brought to you by the audience. And occasional money to buy other things, they handed out papers asking for donations after the show.

After the main part of the show we were allowed to dance with them. They taught us a dance that should have been easy, but it turns out I have no skill when it comes to inmate dancing after all. Aubrey will remain the only felon in the family if all goes well, because they'd probably execute me like I did the dance. They did tell us that all inmates who can't dance are set free, "a joke. A joke."

We posed for lots of pictures, no worries, we were safe. And I have to say that this was one of the greatest Cebu experiences to date! Where else could I have seen that many men dance in orange? They also sell purses and crafts made by the inmates, another thing I'd only see here.

The buses that took us to the prison filled up super fast! So the gates were opened and prison workers, not inmates, loaded up prisoner transfer vehicles, PTV's if you will, to take the rest of us back to the city. I'm talking real PTV's! Slam the door, lock you up, don't try anything funny or we'll shoot, trucks! Could we have ended this adventure in any way more appropriate or fantastic!? I submit that we could not!