{"id":1386,"date":"2014-04-13T00:00:50","date_gmt":"2014-04-13T07:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/?p=1386"},"modified":"2014-04-05T22:18:43","modified_gmt":"2014-04-06T05:18:43","slug":"1386","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/philippines\/1386\/","title":{"rendered":"An Easter Week Trip to Mindanao"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/h3>\n

The complicated task of keeping your children safe.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"Matabunkay<\/a>Where do you draw the line between protecting your child and being overprotective? How do you know when he\u2019s ready to sit up on his own without falling over and bonking his head, or when he\u2019s old enough to climb the monkey bars or cross the street \u2026 or drive a car?<\/p>\n

Generally you have a feel for it. Your spouse or your mother-in-law may not agree with you, but you know. You\u2019ve climbed those monkey bars; you\u2019ve crossed those streets and driven that car … In your own land, that is.<\/p>\n

When you move to a foreign country, all bets are off.<\/p>\n

Speaking only for myself, I can say that when we moved to the Philippines with our three young daughters, my understanding of life there was a vast pit of ignorance. My husband, who had spent his first two years of college at the University of the Philippines, knew far more than I did. As the following story will demonstrate, though, sometimes his experience didn\u2019t translate into good choices for the safety of our children.<\/p>\n

(Or maybe I\u2019m being overprotective. You decide.)<\/p>\n

Easter week in Mindanao<\/strong><\/h3>\n

One of our early trips within the Philippines was to the southern island of Mindanao. My husband\u2019s colleague and his wife had been invited to stay in the guest house of the National Power Corporation, and they asked us to join them there during Easter week. It sounded like fun, so we packed up our three daughters and one maid and flew to Cagayan de Oro.<\/p>\n

\"Mindanao1<\/a>It’s a lovely city on the north end of Mindanao, and for the first few days we had a great time seeing the sights. We visited the power house at Maria Cristina Falls, went swimming and picnicking at a beach near Iligan, toured a pineapple cannery, and checked out the Del Monte Golf Course.<\/p>\n

\"Mindanao2<\/a>Then my husband and his friend came up with another idea. They wanted to drive to Marawi City. Well, I thought, it would<\/em> be an interesting cultural experience–an authentic Muslim city in a Catholic country.<\/p>\n

Our hosts, however, weren\u2019t so quick to approve. The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) was active around Marawi City, and in those days (the mid seventies) their armed rebellion against the government was at its peak. Traveling there could be dangerous. Although, if we did insist on going, we should have a military escort accompany us.<\/p>\n

My husband wasn\u2019t happy. A military escort, he said, would make us a target for the MNLF. He fumed for a bit, and yet he didn\u2019t back out of the trip.<\/p>\n

I was a little nervous. But what did I know? If my super-safety-conscious husband was satisfied, then our little outing must be okay. In those days, I wasn\u2019t fully aware of the warring sides of my husband\u2019s personality: the hungering-for-adventure side that was always at war with his safety-conscious side. And I had no idea how powerful his curiosity-seeking-adventurous side was.<\/p>\n

The next day we drove to Marawi City. We looked around, found it mildly interesting, and returned without incident.<\/p>\n

An unpleasant surprise<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The following morning we awoke to horrendous news. During the night, someone had left two severed heads on the compound\u2019s fence posts. We never did see the heads, and, thankfully, no one mentioned them to our children. I doubt that the beheadings had any relation to our trip to Marawi City.\u00a0 But the incident did make me wonder if we\u2019d made a mistake in taking our children to a place where people were decapitated.<\/p>\n

The Mindanao trip wasn\u2019t the only questionable choice we made regarding our children\u2019s safely. Next week I\u2019ll tell you about the trek one daughter and I made across the top of what I thought was a dormant volcano. As it turned out, the volcano wasn\u2019t all that sound asleep.<\/p>\n

How safety conscious do you think parents should be? Should children be given opportunities to explore the world with fire and knives and trips to exotic places?<\/p>\n

If you enjoyed this post, you can receive notice of future posts by clicking on the “subscribe” button at the top right of the page and leaving your e-mail address.<\/p>\n

\"my<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The complicated task of keeping your children safe. Where do you draw the line between protecting your child and being overprotective? How do you know when he\u2019s ready to sit up on his own without falling over and bonking his head, or when he\u2019s old enough to climb the monkey bars or cross the street […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[155,177,148,253],"tags":[325,322,327,326,324,328,323],"class_list":["post-1386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","category-parenting","category-philippines","category-travel","tag-cagayan-de-oro","tag-keeping-your-children-safe","tag-marawi-city","tag-maria-cristine-falls","tag-mindanao","tag-moro-national-liberation-front","tag-the-philippines"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s3Kn1e-1386","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5365,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/philippines\/two-maids-really\/","url_meta":{"origin":1386,"position":0},"title":"Two Maids? 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