we have lived in manila (metro) for 23 years. this is our city, our home. we love the people, the climate, the history, the leadership (yes, it's true- by faith we love them!) and the future of it.

we love it. more than that, we are in love with this teeming, crowded metropolis that is home to rich and poor alike. and some in-between.

this city has a chaos all its own. once you get used to it, there is a sort of go-with-the-flow way of life here.

everyone talks about the traffic. well, there is no point in complaining about it. too many cars and not enough streets.

we have beautiful tree-filled subdivisions, and we have squatter villages built on garbage.

we have cultural places, museums, historical sites, and even a zoo- altho i've never been there. (don't like seeing animals in cages).

metro manila has history. it has beauty. it has horror. it has more malls than anywhere else in the world.

much of the time the air quality is bad.

we have cities within cities- acres and acres of high-rises. beautiful modern buildings. excellent hospitals and some not-so-excellent.

have i mentioned that i love this city?

why, you ask.

because this is home.

we have history here. everywhere we go, there's a memory. "remember when we took the kids here?" "remember that time we had dinner on the floating ship on the bay?" "remember the time we had a flat tire in the middle of the political demonstration?"

and so on.

we've lived many places in this city. now we are planning to move further south, to a cleaner newer subdivision with wide streets and green grass.

that, too, will be home. and a place to make memories.

when God sends you somewhere, he gives you the grace you need to live there.

and it becomes home. the prairies where we both grew up are part of our beloved past, but chances are we will never live on them again- the winter snow and the dusty winds of prairie summers are gone- for us.

this is home. a tropical island city- with its negatives and its positives. including the sunsets, the typhoons, the beautiful brown-skinned people, the brilliant flowers, the warmth and friendliness, the fantastic food, the rich cultural history, and the music- oh, the music...

we are in love- with our city.