More of Manila and Snow Sculptures in Sweden (Wait. What? Sweden?)

It's taking much too long to go through all my photos from our week of R&R in Manila in February.  Oh for the days of film camera . . . when you only took a few photos (comparatively speaking) . . .

But first . . . we reconnected recently with our friend from Stockholm, Sweden, Per Rydberg (pronounced "pair reed-berry").  We discovered him on our nightly walks in Stockholm during our 2nd mission (to Sweden, working in the mission office, 2020-2021).  He is a man of many talents, including cancer research and making giant snowy owl sculptures big enough to climb on.

Check out my Sweden blog at <sweden.torriefamily.org/2021/02/> for the 2021 version of the Snowy Owl.

For the 2026 version, see pictures below and/or watch a 6-minute video with English subtitles at <youtube.com/watch?v=IhEgB8v98Qk>.

The 2026 version of the snowy owl has actually turned into a snowy owl rabbit with its extremely long ears.  The back of the owl is a slide and if you watch the video, you can see Per and his son Fredrik sliding down the long back.  So fun!

I like this picture.  Brings back happy memories of Christmas/winter in Sweden.  Per put torches on the owl rabbit's ears to light up the dark.  Love the pole lights too.  In Stockholm, in the winter, it starts getting dark about 2 p.m. so it's so nice to see lamps in every window and pole lights in many yards, bringing light to a dark world.  Just as Jesus Christ brings light to this very dark world of war and contention.

Now on to a very different part of the world.  Definitely no snow here in the Philippines and definitely a lot of sunshine.  The days are getting longer here in Cebu City.  And getting warmer.  One day it got up to 35 C (95F), along with the normal 80% humidity.  That was hot.  But thankfully, so far, it cools down at night.  Now on to more pictures of our week in Manila.

Manila is a lot like Cebu . . . just more traffic.  Jeepnies and tricycles with sidecars and motorcycles too.

Stop.  Look.  Listen.  Remember the "Choo-choo, the big train is coming down the track" song?  I used to sing it with my kids.  Well, people here in the Philippines actually do follow the traffic rules (more or less).  They use their signal lights.  They tap lightly on the horn to let someone know they are coming (usually that someone is a motorbike).  So easy to hit a motorbike because they dart in and out.  They stop at stop lights and follow traffic police directions. 

We see many more three-wheeled vehicles here in Manila than we do in Cebu.  Three-wheelers, or tricycles, as they are called here, often have side cars for passengers.

First stop on Day 3 of our Manila trip was to the Philippines San Pablo Mission office so Elder & Sister Andreasen could see where their daughter had served her mission a few years ago.  We were so surprised when this sister, Sister Eyster, asked us if we were from Grassy Lake.  What?  Who knew where Grassy Lake was?  Sister Eyster did.  She is the almost adopted older sister of our nephew Stan Torrie's wife, Sh'Nell Torrie.  What a small world. 

I had fun visiting with her, not only because of the Torrie connection, but because she is serving as the mission secretary, which is what I did on our first two missions (Sweden and Kenya).  Our brains work the same, it appears, and she was putting together a book of procedures for the next mission secretary, which is what I also did for both our missions.  (LeRon and I both put together procedure books for both missions, which was so very much needed.  Not sure why people before us didn't think of it.)

Our next surprise was when this missionary, Elder Green from Utah, asked us if we knew Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta.  Yes, of course!  He and his family went on yearly summer trips to Waterton.  Not too many people know where Alberta is, let alone Waterton Park.  Fun connection.

Now for a visit to the Alabang Philippines Temple with the couples we are traveling with (the Stirlands and the Andreasens).  The Alabang temple was just dedicated in January and is the 4th operating temple in the Philippines.  In May, two more temples will be dedicated, and more are in building or planning stages and when they are complete, there will be 14 temples in the Philippines.  So nice for the Filipino people, who are so faithful.

Day 4 begins in Manila in the ancient walled city of Intramuros.  This shawarma meat looks so yummy.  Reminds us of fun times eating street food in Jerusalem or Ramat Gan or Tiberias in Israel.  So many food stands here in the Philippines too.  In Manila or in Cebu, you can eat all night long if you want to.  Food places are on the street and cooking food 24/7.

Inside the walled city of Intramuros is the Manila Cathedral.  It looks old, but . . . it was finished in 1958.  Not so old.  Not even as old as me.  This is the 8th time it has been rebuilt!  Read on . . .

#1 was built of wood in 1581, damaged by a typhoon in 1582, destroyed by fire in 1583
#2 was rebuilt in stone in 1591 but destroyed by earthquake in 1600
#3 was built in 1614 but collapsed in an earthquake in 1645
#4 was built between 1667 and 1681 but later remodelled
#5 was #4 remodelled by 1750 and heavily damaged in the 1852 earthquake
#6 was completed in 1858 but ruined in the 1863 earthquake
#7 was finished by 1879 but destroyed by the 1945 bombings of WWII
#8 was re-opened in 1958

My thought:  After so many earthquakes . . . maybe it's time to build in a new place?

All this mechanism just for . . . a clock?  But no . . . not just any clock.  It actually ran the cathedral's bells.  LeRon finds all mechanical things fascinating.

In any cathedral or church, LeRon and I are always drawn to the beautiful pipe organs.  And the stained glass rose window is so lovely.

The Pieta in the Manila Cathedral is an exact replica of Michelangelo's Pieta in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.  It was made using the same mold, but is made of bronze, rather than marble.  Bronze turns brown or greenish brown as it ages.  That's why this Pieta is brown instead of white.  It was unveiled and blessed in 2009.  The original white Carrara marble one in St. Peter's Basilica is more beautiful.  Stunning even.

Sculptures of Mary (on left), Joseph, and the Angel Gabriel (on right).

The Battle of Manila in March 1945 was horrific.  Along with Warsaw and Berlin, Manila saw some of the fiercest fighting of the war.  American and Filipino troops fought against the Japanese occupation of the Philippines.  The month-long battle resulted in the deaths of 100,000 civilians and the almost total destruction of Manila.

The memorial represents the Motherland weeping, with a dead infant, a ravaged woman, a live child, a live man looking confused and in despair, dead youth, and an elderly dead man.  So very sad.  Freedom is always fought with a huge cost.

The massacres of civilians occurred in all kinds of public buildings and even churches.  It is no wonder that many older Filipinos have no love for the Japanese.  Even LeRon's own father was concerned when LeRon was called to serve a mission in Japan (1972-1974), but he never let LeRon know his concerns until after the mission.  WWII had only been over for 8 years when LeRon was born.

School children learning about their history here at the San Agustin Church in Intramuros.  Intramuros means "city within the walls" and was the original old walled city.  The San Agustin Church is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

This is Intramuros after the Battle of Manila.  Total destruction.  The San Agustin Church is at the very top and right hand corner.  So it wasn't completely destroyed.

Security guards in Intramuros always wear white uniforms.  There are security guards everywhere, and not just in Intramuros.  In Manila.  In Cebu.  Some carry guns; others do not.  There was an armed security guard at the door to Burger King in Manila.  Who would have thought?

After learning about the Manila Cathedral's being destroyed 7 times by fire, war, and earthquake, I can see the need for earthquake drills here.  After all, the Philippines is on the Ring of Fire, the tectonic plate of earthquakes and volcanoes.

I knew the Ring of Fire covered the Philippines and Japan, but I did not realize it extended through western Canada and the US and South America.  I am glad to be living in Alberta (when I actually live in Alberta).  In the meantime, I am glad to be living on this high temple hill compound in Cebu.  When the typhoons hit last fall, the temple compound survived, thankfully.

We did a very lot of walking in the hot sun in Intramuros.  It's a big place.  Notice the Spanish (or Italian?) style buildings on the right.

The old city walls of Intramuros.  And you can see the Filipino flag proudly waving.  The flag is often called "Three stars and a sun."  

The 8 rays of the sun represent the 8 provinces that rebelled against Spanish rule in 1896.  The three stars represent the three main island groups of Luzon (where Manila is), Visayas (where Cebu is), and Mindanao (where right now, the Canadian government has said: Don't go there!). If the Philippines is at war, the flag will be flipped upside down, with the red on top.  Nice to know.

We're at the monument to the National Hero -- José Rizal.  He united the people against Spanish oppression by intellectual means, rather than violence.  He was a little man with big words.  His execution in 1896 actually started the Philippine Revolution.

Click on this picture so you can see this very interesting flower.  It's called a "peacock flower" or a red bird of paradise.  So lovely amongst the green ferns and other foliage.

And of course I love the bougainvillea.  The colored bracts surrounding the tiny white flowers are so lovely.

We saw lots of greenery growing in pots.  I wonder who waters them.  It's not the rainy season, so it can't be coming from the sky.

LeRon, due to his mission to Japan, has always loved oriental gardens.

We're still near Intramuros at the National Museum of Natural History.  Interesting, but we do most museums fairly quickly.

Cool sculpture inside the museum of the Tree of Life.  The Tree of Life seems to be found in many cultures.  Jordan.  Turkey.  Israel.  Philippines.  LDS scripture.

Hot, sweaty, and exhausted beyond words.  Glad for the kid's ball cap that I bought and which actually fits my head.  We had walked and walked and walked.  I was beat.  So we hopped in a tuk-tuk to head to the restaurant.  Tuk-tuks are similar to the 3-wheeled bicycles but the design is different.  The tricycles are simply motor bikes with a sidecar attached.  Tuk-tuks are built to carry people behind the driver.

Our tuk-tuk driver (on right) wouldn't let me take his picture because he was a local policeman, so I took it from the back.  We noticed the handcuffs he kept in the tuk-tuk.  I told our guide for the day (on left) that we had ridden in tuk-tuks in Thailand.  He said that this particular tuk-tuk had actually come from Thailand.  

This line-up of tuk-tuks reminded us of Kisumu in Kenya.  Kisumu was known as "tuk-tuk city."  

Well, this is all for now.  We are still in Day 4 of our week in Manila.  I need to go to bed.  Will carry on later.  Next on the docket is a wonderful cultural dance and music show and then the afternoon in Fort Santiago and more of Intramuros.  A good but exhausting day.  In fact, so exhausting that I spent the next day sleeping rather than seeing a lake with a volcano in the middle (as the other couples did).  Seeing the American Cemetery was a highlight on our last day in Manila.  More later . . .