New Glasses

We had a cool experience this morning. The longer we are here in Manila the more I find myself dragging my feet at going out and "experiencing the culture," especially if it involves meeting new people. I am not generally a people person and have to fight the urge to sit at my desk all day rather than live a real life. :)

For the last few days Dennis has had an idea to check out an eyeglasses place located just behind our house. He needed new frames. He asked me to go along with him and for a couple of days I said no. But this morning I just decided to bite the bullet and go.

As we left the house and got out onto the street Dennis realized he hadn't brought along his wallet. I tried to convince him that he didn't need it but he told me to go talk to some people on the corner while he went back to our house. I protested for awhile but soon found myself all alone. I walked to the corner. Our local newspaper vendor was there as usual with her cart. I squeaked out, "Kumusta kayo?" (how are you) and smiled.

I tried to remember a new verb we just learned this week, "to wait." I could remember the verb and it's various forms but not how to properly put it in the sentence. They use the verb here to differentiate specific or non-specific objects, tense and who or what the sentence is focusing on. So the one verb "to wait" has 12 forms and I was trying to figure out which was appropriate in this case as I currently waited for my specific husband on the street corner. By the time I thought maybe I had figured it out he was back and that saved me from having to say anything.... ahem.

So we walked up to this little store that is right behind our house. The lady working in there let us in the door and I noticed an open Bible that she had just been reading on her desk. She was more than happy to speak Tagalog to us and since it was just her and us and not an intimidating environment we were both more than happy to try some of our Tagalog out on her.

We discovered that she is a Christian and was the last one in her family to get saved. She had grown up a Catholic but began her relationship with the Lord 11 years ago. She somehow already knew that we were missionaries and that we lived in the townhouses right behind the store. It is a little scary to discover things like that- it reminds me that people are watching!

Anyway, right on the spot she examined Dennis' eyes, gave him a prescription and we picked out the frames. She said they would be ready this afternoon at 3 or 4pm. Dennis picked them up after class. Can't beat that for service! And she gave us a discount too!