The Love of People

As our son was baptised this past Sunday I was really thinking about the world we live in and all the different people and beliefs that make up that world.  I will start by stating that our family believes in and follows Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior.  Having stated that I understand that there are many different religious beliefs and although I know what I know as truth and desire for others to know the peace, joy and love of Jesus Christ  many different religions would also say they know what they know as truth.  The fact is we are all children of a living God and he desires for his children to know, love, and follow him. 

Singapore is a great example of how we can all love one another even when we have strong beliefs that are different from one another.  The religious break down of this small island is pretty impressive.  According to the books, and web sites I have been researching the religious make up of the island is around 42.5% Buddhism, 14.6% Christianity, 13.9% Islam, 8.5% Taoism, 4% Hinduism and 4% "other" religions.

One interesting thing the government of Singapore does to assure religious tolerance is that you have to apply to live in a certain government housing district.  They want the districts to be a mix of all religions and not have any one religion congregate into one area of the city.  I find this to be brilliant because when you look past the "religious affiliation" of people and really get to know people, your heart grows for them and you can find true friendship and that my friend is an amazing experience.  I am looking forward to getting to know some Singapore friends as we plug into a church over there but also as we function in and get to know the community we live in.  Why we believe what we do is fascinating to me and I look forward to getting some more insight in Singapore.

1 John 4:7-11 States:
"Beloved, let us love on another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.  Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.  In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.  In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

What Really Matters...

So as we are making out packing lists I have to ask myself what really matters?  What do I really need to bring with us? 

The truth is what matters is the people in our lives, our family, our friends, our church that's what matters.  I did some calculation and determined that I just simply can not fit all of you in our luggage.  We are so blessed with great family and friends!  I wish we could just bring all of you with us.  I was talking to a good friend yesterday and she is really thinking about coming to see us while we are in Singapore with her oldest son, what a blessing it will be to have family and friends visit us while we are away. 

So I would like to bring all of you at least in a picture form, if you have our e-mail you can e-mail a picture of your family and we will put it in an album that we will bring with us to Singapore, or send me one on facebook and I can download it that way.  Send us fun pictures, crazy pictures, serious pictures we don't care but please, always respectable pictures.

To Take Or Not To Take

The MIG, Moving International Group, called me yesterday.  They wanted to set up a meeting for them to come over to the house and talk about what to take with us to Singapore and what we should leave here.  I am very grateful for this kind of assistance right now.  There are so many factors to consider, just what do you bring?  What kinds of "things" make your house a home?  When we first started talking about moving we decided that we were going real simple and not really bringing much of anything other than clothes and books with us.  I kept thinking that we are coming back so why not just store it here and then we would not have to deal with moving things twice. We now have a very different perspective and I am sure it will change again before we move.  The realization that we are in fact actually MOVING to Singapore is more real, see at first maybe I was thinking about this assignment as more of a vacation, a very temporary thing, but in reality we are going to be there day in and day out for two whole years. As that reality starts to set in we are changing our mind about going simple.  Now I am thinking we need to bring more pictures, the cake pans and pie plates, I mean what was I thinking..... leave the pie plates here for when we are home for a visit, nice but we are going to want some pie in Singapore and they don't really make pie over there so I would imagine pie plates are not easy to find, besides, I want MY pie plate.  The MIG was very helpful, she said " think about when you are sick, what do you grab.. you need to bring that with.  Think about when you cook what to you always grab, what is always in the dishwasher, you need to bring it with"  That is when it hit me.... the garlic press!  What would I do without my garlic press, the game basket, the floor candle they were almost left behind but now they are coming with.

The Magic Phrase

As the time for our departure continues to encroach upon us we are trying to get things checked off our list.  As you can imagine it is a big list and as we check things off it seems that more things sneak on.  One big decision is do we take our bikes to Singapore or do we leave them home?
 Singapore is about 247 Square Miles, that is not very big.  The population is a dense 4 million plus people that means that there is lots of traffic and lots of people and not lots of area to ride bike.  There are trails in some parks and along the ocean which I imagine are beautiful to ride on however, it is always around 88 degrees with super high and  sticky humidity so really do we want to ride in that heat?  We won't have a bike rack so it's not like we can just drive the bikes to some great trail.  In addition to all of this we are told it is hard to get the bikes through customs as they do not like anything that is dirty or greasy coming into the city.  It will be prime bike riding years for our boys so it would be nice if we could bring them. 
This has been a discussion point in our family for the past couple of weeks.  I think we are deciding to bring the scooters over and then rent bikes on days that we think we want to hit a trail.  So is it checked off the list?.... maybe.
So the magic phrase....why do I have that as a title to this blog?
We need dental appointments so I called today to make them for three of us.  You know how this works, they are booking out 4 months from now.  I discovered today that the phrase " we are moving out of the country" is a magical phrase, suddenly we were able to get appoints for tomorrow and then the next day!  OK.......Wow!  So ummm I can't really tell you to use that phrase as you want to be honest but it does work.  that is one thing checked off the list now let's hope that one appointment does not lead to more appointments because I am not sure how often I can use my magic phrase.

It's In The Oven

According to the guide books, blogs and some contacts I have made in Singapore, if you want an oven in your apartment you must ask for one.  Most apartments do not come with an oven.  I found this very odd.  Why would you not have an oven for goodness sake.  Then I started to think about it.  It is always 88 degrees on average and high humidity, 87 plus percent every day so just why would you want to cook in an oven.  I have heard stories of ovens shorting out in Singapore if they are not used frequent enough because moisture builds up and then when you turn it on it shorts out, sometimes shorting out many apartments around you.  Some Singaporeans use a counter top oven by T-Fal that is really a big toaster oven but big enough that you could cook a bundt cake if you so choose.  One must use caution when using these ovens  if they are on and under a cabinet it can start the cabinet on fire and if you are 50 or so floors up..... not to mention the landlord and your neighbors would not be happy with you but it really does happen over there.
They also cook very different in Singapore, I am not even sure at this point how different but I am sure I will learn once I get there.  We did tell our housing agent that we want an oven,  I am too much of a foodie to not have an oven if there is an option.  However, I am looking forward to expanding my horizons and learning some new ways to prepare our food.

Excuse Me, Do You Have a Piece of Gum?

A piece of gum you say, not in Singapore.  Chewing gum is not allowed in Singapore.  You can not bring it into the city and you certainly will not be able to buy it anywhere once there.
 This is part of the no littering laws that Singapore has.  Think about it, how many black spots do you see in every parking lot and side walk in the U.S.  I never really noticed how bad it is until I learned of this ban in Singapore and started looking around.  Ewe. Singapore is a very clean city, the people take pride in where they live so they would remove all of those spots off the parking lots and sidewalks, this was a very costly process.  I have read reports that gum was being stuck in the doorways of the Mass Rapid Transit system over there and the door could not shut all the way which is a safety concern.  So I understand why one would be compelled to say no gum chewing.  It makes the city cleaner and maybe even safer for all who live there. 
Are you kidding!  Just what do you do if you don't have gum?  I am guessing that we will be finding some favorite mints to keep with us but it just is not the same.  If you do have mints however, you may not eat them at the train and bus stations or on the trains or buses because that my friend can land you a $500.00 fine.  There is a saying about Singapore..... "Singapore, it's a "fine" city".
I think Singapore is going to be a great place for our family to live but it will take some learning and getting used to these new laws so we don't end up with one of those fines.

Hands to consider

There are many cultural views all over the world about hands and how they are used.

  Think about all the communication we can do with our hands aside from sign language even.  As we prepare to go to Singapore we are trying to learn some of the cultural dos and don'ts.  There are many things for us to consider regarding our hands. 

Use your right hand only for social interaction, eating and exchanging gifts.  For the Muslim and Indian community the left hand is used only for bathroom chores and it is considered dirty.  Never eat with your left hand, uh-oh, both of our boys are left handed, this could be an issue. All gestures should be made with your right hand, never point with just one finger, your thumb or your whole hand is acceptable and it is more polite to point with your knuckle.

Give and receive money, credit cards and business cards with two hands.  This is a Chinese custom that is done to symbolise how "precious and valuable" the item you are giving and receiving is. 

Other than the pointing which I will have to look into more, this all makes sense the trick will be to remember to not use that left hand and use both when giving and receiving.  Have you had any experience with "hand issues"?

Books Books Books

So if you are getting ready to embark upon something that is totally new to you, how do you prepare?  Do you talk to people, do you read blogs, do you watch videos, do you read books.  All of these things have helped our family in gearing up to live in Singapore.  We especially like to read, read, read and then read some more.  We have quite the collection of guide books now and they are very helpful.

I especially like the DK Top 10 Singapore book, it breaks the city up into the various neighborhoods, Little India, China Town etc.. and then gives you the top 10 places to eat, shop, and entertain yourself, it is very helpful to have that in one nice list when visiting an area.   Of course the book also has some very intriguing pictures to keep your interest.  The Culture Shock series of books are wonderful.  I read through Culture Shock Turkey before we went on our trip a few years back and it really helps you understand some of the whys behind the way things are done in the country.  For example in Singapore if you turn the top of your hand towards someone with your fingers up and then wiggle your fingers as if to say come over here, you just made a profanity towards that person,  Good to know!  It is bad luck to have the soul of someones shoe pointing towards you, we must be careful with how we sit if we are going to cross our legs.  There are many more and I will probably make a blog on those things to avoid another day. 

Yay For Sunscreen

You never know what you are going to find in Pick-N-Save, our local grocery store, when you go in for a gallon of milk.  With moving to an island where the average temperature every month of the year is 88 degrees with 87% humidity and considering you are only a couple hundred miles south of the equator sunscreen is a must for fair skinned people like us. I have been watching for sales on sunscreen all summer and just have not had any luck, but today was my day.  Pick-N-Save had it for 50% off, yep, I bought a "few" bottles to take with us.

So why buy it here and ship it over, surely on a tropical island sunscreen is available, yes it is, but from all my blog reading it is VERY expensive over there.  I now can check one more item off my to do list.  I think we need to set up a staging area in our house for the things we want to pack up and ship there are so many little categories of things it can make your head spin.  I am still struggling with what to take and what to leave behind for when we come back on home leave.  Yesterday I found myself stressing about my whisk.  Yes, my whisk, crazy I know but I like it and I use it so if I don't take it I will have to buy a new one when we get to Singapore but if I do take it I won't have it here when we come back and I can't imagine packing my whisk with me each time we go back and forth, of course I am having this same issue with many items.  I think I am at peace with leaving my whisk behind and looking for a new one upon arrival, who knows, I may find one that I like even better.

Reality Sets In

We have known for about 10 months that we might move to Singapore, in fact we have known for about five months that most likely that would be our reality.  Somehow today when we gave the verbal acceptance of the offer that reality that we have "known" is WAY more than what it was just moments before the conference call.  I mean what am I going to do?  How do you prepare to home school a Freshman and a 7th grader in a very foreign land?  How am I going to cook, what am I going to cook? What should I bring, what should I leave behind.  How do you cope with all those good byes?  I really don't like good byes so if I say good bye to you in a short manner it is because... why dwell on it we can't change it so why wallow in the fact that it may be a bit before we see each other again.  I am so thankful for the Internet at this moment.  With skype, and facebook, and e-mail and text messaging and vonnage international communication will be a lot easier than it was even just a decade ago.

So today I start the first learning curve for our international assignment.  Welcome to the Miles of Singapore Adventures blog.  I hope it is a blessing to you to learn with us as we embark on an awesome adventure for our family.