Going to the Philippines

As I made my travel plans today, the US Government warned me in their official posting that they are issuing a HIGH ALERT travelers warning for terrorist attacks in the Philippines. Simultaneously, I ran across this satirical, yet real, photo of me with one of the summer college students that I had when I was leading summer college teams in the late 80's-early 90's. No, I don't smoke, but I remember how incredible that cigarette (shoved in my mouth by a soldier) felt---I smoked the whole thing! The story: I took the students for a trip to "The Palace in the Sky", and little did we know that it had been taken over by soldiers to brace for an attempted coup attack. Because it was a remote area, we were under severe threat (from the soldiers) because I had a truck load of good looking college students. Think fast! To avoid rape or kidnap for ransom, I began joking with the soldiers in my limited Tagalog. Since members of the Peace Corp were being held for ransom at that time on a different island, I told the soldiers that we needed extra spending money...perhaps we should stage a mock kidnapping, take pictures of them holding us hostage (which it seemed a few of them were thinking of already!!), and we'll send photos to the parents and split the money with them. Hey, I figure you might as well face the fear and name it out loud. The leader thought about it seriously, and realized it might backfire, and didnt want to be seen in the photographs. Instead, he had all of us "model" with the firearms while they rolled around in laughter, and insisted that our driver go out and buy them a couple of crates of beer and some cigarettes. Now normally we wouldnt use "God's money" to buy beer and cigarettes. But when it's to appease soldiers who might turn on you, the answer is an easy YES SIR.