Back Early...

Due to and impending storm, we traveled back to Manila today at the last minute from Puerto Galera. Literally we got the last boat back of the day, and then it didn't even take us all the way to where we wanted to go. But more on that story tomorrow, when I have enough sleep in me to write cohesively. Tonight, I am just going to shower and get all the saltwater and sweat off from the day and hit the sack, as they say. 

To tide (no pun intended) you over and whet your appetite, here are some pictures from the trip: 

Offline Again...on a Beach

We are off to another adventure where there is no internet connectivity, so this will be my last post until Sunday evening, or Monday, it depends on how awake I feel after hours of traveling...

This time, however, we are headed to Puerto Galera (or something spelled like that) and will be meeting the women of Threads of Hope! Thanks to everyone who supported that ministry by buying bracelets from us - we'll still have some when we come back if you want more... We'll be both serving and relaxing on the beach, and I'll be snorkeling for the first time! I can't wait and I promise there will be lots of pics when I get back! 

I'll leave you tonight with pictures of my classes that I helped teach this past week and a half at Cuatro Christian School, they are great kids!

400 Paso?

Monday was a day off for the team from working, partially because it was a national holiday and the school we help with was closed for the day. Probably the best part of the day was getting to finally have time to skype with my family and Kali at a decent hour of the day in both time zones. 

We took public transportation all day and that was kinda fun, but also very different from Seattle Metro: the first part of our trip we took trike-like bikes, but these were all pedal pushed by the driver on a bike, and there was only a colorful table umbrella for cover, not the little seater thing. Not all drivers pedal equally as fast, and Alex and Chris' guy was by far the fastest. 

Next we hopped on a ginormous bus that looked like one of the greyhound buses, but inside the seats were squishier and all vinyl covered. We watched a Filipino talk show in Tagalag along the way. We took FXs the rest of the trip, so those were the only real new experiences of the day.

Where did we go? We went to a place called Greenhills, which is like an indoor flea market/swap meet where you can bargain with prices. And the majority of booths were comprised of pearl sellers, embroidery/pashmina sellers, woodcraft sellers, and fake designer bags/watches sellers. It was amazing to see everything, and to see how close each booth was to another. And all the pearls were beautiful! You could buy just strands of pearls, necklaces, bracelets, rings, earrings, and in white, black, or a variety of colors. I bought a few gifts here, but spent relatively little in US dollars because I had a master bargainer, Mrs. Jones, at my side who helped me out. 

Megamall was next, via FX, and we were going there to eat at this restaurant that supposedly had things like balut, crickets, and frog legs, but when we got there, none of that was on the menu! So, we decided to go to a Chinese noodle house, but a different on from last time. My beef and rice came in a bowl that was sort of slanted in shape, and I want some for our house to eat from. Dessert was found elsewhere: I was really craving ice cream, and we had seen a DQ in the mall earlier, but to our dismay, it was not listed on the directory map, so I had to settle for a mama bear sized Arctic Freeze from a place called 'Spike's'. It was still good, but man I was missing the M&M DQ Blizzard. 

By this time it was already 4pm, so we headed back to the guesthouse in Cuatro, ate a super fast dinner and went to help out with devotions and put the orphange kids in bed. Charis, Sarah, Michael and Mrs. Jones snuck off to get manicures, pedicures, and massages for cheap down the street a ways, and Chris, Alex, and I finished off the night with a little bit of Fantasy Football and picture uploading. Which reminds me, here are some pictures of our day:

Online!

We are back from the middle of nowhere - there were only about 12 buildings that I could see in the whole area - and it was lovely. For security reasons I can't post pictures of the people we visited online, but you can definitely come see the 400+ photos I took in person! (I'll be back in Seattle on Sep 14th..) 

It was a wonderful weekend, full of lots of new experiences:

• I petted a snake for the first time, and it was surprisingly dry in texture.
  
• I rode a caribu (pronounced care-i-bow)
  
• I ate a new variety of pancit that was made in a massively large bowl, from which we used mini-shovels to transfer the food to our plate.
  
• I only used toilets that had to be flushed with outside buckets of water
  
• I never ate with a knife, only a spoon and fork.
  
• I also ate this good soup dish with papaya used as a veggie.
  
• I slept in a mosquito net.
  
• I learned how to make rice in a bamboo stalk with banana leaves - it was quite tasty
  
• I ate off a banana leaf plate.
  
• I ate french fries for breakfast.
  
• I learned that ordering a hamburger from McDonald's here means that I get no pickles, no onions, no ketchup, no nothing except for a bun, a slab of meat, and this strange sauce that was orange on it. However, cheeseburgers come with all of the above.
  
• I ate rice for breakfast, with soy sauce.
  
• I rode in a trike and an FX (both public-ish forms of transportation here)
  
• And many other things, I'll remember them when I go through photos with you!

I realized that I missed the country way life more than I thought I did, as being in foothills was so restful and peaceful. The people we visited were very warm and welcoming, and though we initially thought that there would be a large language barrier, many of the children had a very good command of English, and we also had two ladies who could translate from English to Tagalog or the native language (and vice versa) very well. 

I could write about them all day, but I'd really rather tell you in person with pictures to narrate. I even have some awesome videos of our team being taught the native 'courting dance'. :)

But, since the internet is working well, I will post some pictures of the family home kiddos and our team:

 

Offline

Soon (as in 2.5 hours) we will be traveling north to visit a village where Bible translation is occurring, just to meet and interact with the people there. While I am quite excited for this, we have to leave before we can see the talent show the kids at school have been preparing. While the show was not planned for us, the kids were disappointed to learn we would not be there. 

Yesterday I came down real hard with a cold and was only able to help out in the Science classrooms in the morning. I napped all afternoon. That morning, however, was experiment day for the grade 5, so I got to help them look at different types of cells underneath a microscope. We first looked at onion cells, which we could see surprisingly well, and then we looked at a few kid's cheek cells. Because we didn't have the greatest of stains, those were hard to see. And then, for the grand finale, we looked at blood cells. The director of the school volunteered to prick her finger to get the blood, but since we had no needles, she sterilized a relatively new knife from the microscope kit in a hot flame and then tried to cut into her finger. However, the knife turned out to be really dull and the heat just caused blisters to form, and she never actually cut her skin. So, I looked at my fingers, and while I didn't really want to donate my blood to science, I found and pulled a hangnail far enough to get some blood on the slide. While it was too thick to really see individual cells, it was red colored and good enough for 5th graders. They'll see blood again eventually if they take any more bio classes. And don't worry, I washed my finger with antibacterial soap, and bandaged it with antibacterial neosporin right after we were done with class. 

You won't see any updates for a while since the village has no internet and we are leaving our computers behind. I am taking my camera though!

Here are some pictures of kids from the school and orphanage!

Back to School

Now that I've told you all about how we explored Manila and the generally touristy places, this post is about where and how we are serving.

Currently we are located in a subdivision called 'Cuatro', which has a squatter settlement of about 5,000 people, but only about 100 families own their own plot of land. There are four main buildings that the missionaries here work in: the children's home, the elementary school, the community center, and the guesthouse. We are staying the in the guesthouse while were are working here, and it is really just like a large house with lots (4+) beds in every room. Charis, Sarah, and I share a room, but in order to get AC at night, we all pile into Mrs. Jones' room each evening. 

The community center is where we spend the least time, in fact, I have only been in there once, when we toured it last Saturday. The kindergarden age students go to school there, they even have a basketball court on the roof so that they can have PE! There is a sanctuary there where a community church meets each Sunday. 

The elementary school is where we spend the bulk of our day. We are up and at breakfast by 7:15 each morning, and off to school to help in the classrooms. We were each assigned to a subject as a general helper. Science, math, language arts, and Bible are the four morning subjects. Each subject is taught by one teacher, who moves from classroom to classroom. The children range in age from 6-13, but not all are with their 'proper' grade, as their education backgrounds are very varied. They do teach grades 1-5, so we get to interact with lots of different children. The school is following the ACE Lifepack curriculum that allows each child to work at their own pace completing their units. This means that the teacher doesn't really teach, just answers questions and grades things as kids finish. I have mixed feelings about this system, but it seems to be working for them. The older two classes, grades 3-5, are very hands off and don't really need much help from me or the teacher, however the younger kids do need lots of help just reading the directions and understanding what they need to be doing. Tomorrow though, the science teacher has promised some experiments, so that will be fun!

Many of the kids read very well, even some in the youngest grade 1. It has made me wish that I knew how to help them read phonetically, as I just try to slowly sounds the words out, even though I know that it is probably not the best way to help them learn to read in English. My afternoons, from 12:40-3:20 are spent in the library, just listening to kids read, correcting them as they go along, and sometimes reading a book to the youngest students. 

After all day at the school, we either watch the kids play some bball on the school's court, or head up with the Children's Home kids to play with them until dinner. They are pretty happy to just play with basketballs all afternoon, and it is kind of funny to see these little squirts tossing the ball around like someone twice their size and age. And they love Chris. He has already been given the title of 'brother' and now 'uncle' (tito) and they just love to play with him. If he suggests they do anything, especially if it involves bball tricks, usually there are 4+ small fries trying to copy him. My favorite though, is their favorite question: "why don't you speak Tagalong, tito Chris?" Since he is a dark skinned Filipino, they want to know why he looks like them but can't speak their language. Though he has explained to them again and again that he was adopted, they just keep asking "why?" That is their favorite response to anything you might say, the kids always want to know why something is the way it is, even if that something is as simple as the grass being green. We have played so 'planned' games like Duck, duck, goose and Sharks and minnnows, but the kids really just love bball. It is truly the sport of the Philippines.

We hang out with the kids as they eat dinner, talking with them and getting to know them better, and then after our own dinner back at the guesthouse, we go back to the home and do a little worship time and devotional with the children. It is so great to see them worshipping along with us to songs that we all know. Some favorites are 'Amazing Love', 'Every move I make', 'Father Abraham', and 'Now is the time to worship'. And after all that, it is bed time, which usually takes at least 30 minutes to get all the kids towards bed, and we usually leave before all of them are asleep and staying in their beds.

Which reminds me - it is now past my bedtime, so I am signing off for now!