A Question for Mr. Darwin

A big event in our lives right now is that we are going to be grandparents in January! Elisa and Chris are expecting. The due date is January 22, and we are planning to go to San Diego for that joyful event, Lord willing, of course. This is our first grandbaby and we are super excited about it. We don't know yet if it is a him or her, but we do know that this little one, the size of a plum, already had a unique set of fingerprints. In fact, this little baby has had his or her unique fingerprints for a couple of weeks already, as they appear at Week 13, and tomorrow starts Week 15 for Elisa.

I need you to explain this to me, Mr. Darwin. What is the
evolutionary purpose of unique fingerprints? Maybe millions of years
ago, those human-like creatures who all had fingerprints the same got
confused going through the bio-metric readers to get into their
skyscrapers, so people with unique fingerprints had a better chance
of keeping their jobs, and so continuing to pass on their genes? And
what gene is it that spins out a new set of fingerprints for each of
the (what is it now?) 6 billion or is it 8 billion people on the
planet? Or maybe it was that our human-like ancestors that got booked
for their crimes and fingerprinted, and didn't have unique
fingerprints all got mixed up with each other, so languished in their
jail cells, while those with unique fingerprints were able to be
properly identified and catalogued and so could properly serve out
their sentences or be released on time? I need some help here. I'm
just not getting how unique fingerprints contribute to the
propagation of the species through natural selection.

And as long as we are talking about unique, what about each snowflake
being unique? What is the purpose of that?

I propose that those unique fingerprints are the signature of God. In
my humble opinion God goes out of His way to extravagantly proclaim
His glory through Creation. As Bill says, "I personally go with the
Fearfully and Wonderfully Made explanation." That I can understand.

Barnyard Animals in our Neighborhood

Driving home the other day I had to slow down to not hit the two

little goats in the lane. They were tied to our neighbor's fence, but
had wandered out into the dirt road that leads to our house.

Every morning I wake up to the sound of roosters crowing. Lots of
roosters. Crowing really loud. In every direction. Our neighbors on
all sides of us keep chickens. Cock fighting is popular here in the
Philippines, and many Filipino men raise roosters. Several of the neighborhood chickens have figured out how to fly over the fence into our yard, so we often have
chickens pecking around our house as well. Unlike the
city where I grew up, no zoning laws prohibit farm
animals in the city.

And live in the city we do! Our house is one block back from a busy
street called The National Highway. The National Highway runs up and
down the eastern coast of Palawan. It is a two-lane road, paved for
the most part, well, at least it wants to be paved. But by the time it approaches the city of Puerto Princesa, it doesn't look much like a highway. More like a crowded
Third World street. The establishments closest to us include a
vulcanizing shop, some hardware and building supply stores, and an
elementary school. Motorcycles, trisikels (the local motorcycle plus
sidecar taxi), jeeps, trucks, cars and pedestrians weave among each
other. Little stalls selling after-school snacks, load for cell
phones, and daily necessities dot the side of the road. Dogs
occasionally venture out to cross the street, on the way to visit
their latest love interest. School kids wearing their cotton uniform navy skirts or
pants and white shirts, laden with heavy backpacks, run along
both sides of the street, excuse me, I mean The Highway.

Individual Packets of Shampoo and Toothpaste for Sale

I'm always amazed at the juxtaposition of rural and urban here in Puerto Princesa. Pinecrest Avenue, Serra Mesa, San Diego this isn't.
But I love it.

Fun Fotos

Searching through my IPhoto pics, trying to find one of Pidi, who was our neighbor in the tribe, and walked by our house several times every day, and who I always saw whenever I visited Aming, because he always spent all his spare time hanging out with Abil and Aming, but do you
think I can find one single picture of him anywhere? No, of course not. But here's one of me at Jollibee, the Philippine's answer to Mc Donalds. And here are some sticky rice goodies from our last church potluck in the tribe.
How many ways can you make a dessert out of sticky rice?

Praying for Pidi

Pidi arrived at our house barefoot, wearing ratty old shorts and a dirty tee-shirt. I had the doctor's appointment already lined up, so I had to take him in to see the doctor just like that. I don't know what the receptionist, or the other patients in the waiting room thought about the little barefoot man, with the big American woman.

I can only imagine. The doctor is a friend of ours, he attends the church we attend in town, and the Friday night Bible study we attend. He is new in town, like us. And I think he is new to having tribal people as patients, too. But he is a believer, and compassionate. He treated Pidi with respect and care. Pidi is mostly deaf, too, so communicating with him is complicated. His traveling companion, Karding, is used to "talking" to him using a combination of sign and lip-reading. I would speak to Karding in Palawano, Karding would sign to Pidi. The doctor used both Tagalog to talk to Karding, and English with me. It is hard to know how much Pidi understood of all that was going on around him and happening to him.

Before our next appointment, to get a biopsy of the growth on Pidi's foot, and x-rays taken at the local hospital, I was able to get Pidi some clothes. Most of the Palawanos have some "town clothes" -- nicer, newer clothes that they keep hidden away for trips to civilization. But Pidi never goes out of the tribe. Palawanos are small people, and Pidi is extra small for a Palawano, so we found shorts and a shirt to fit him in the children's department. And we bought him a pair of flips. The Palawanos all told us, "Pidi doesn't wear shoes." And on his bad foot, he couldn't. But, in town, it just isn't acceptable to go around barefoot. Pidi liked his new shorts and tee shirt. He was a good sport and gamely put on the one flip, carrying the other one around with him, as he went to get his xrays and biopsy done. The doctor is afraid that the growth is melanoma, and may have already spread to his lymph nodes. If that is the case, Pidi's foot will have to be amputated, something he really doesn't want to happen.

We are praying for Pidi, as we await the results of the biopsy. The results won't be back for one week, or maybe two weeks, so we sent Pidi and his traveling companion back home to the tribe to wait there. I had to smile, as my last view of Pidi was of him walking up the steps of the bus, barefoot, carrying both of his new flips.

(I can't find a picture of Pidi, so here is one of Karding, his traveling companion.)