Well, I have been home for a week and 5 days now. It hasn't been too difficult a transition for me. I remember coming back from Mexico when I was there for only a week a couple years ago was a very difficult transition...coming back from such extreme poverty and seeing how we live such wealthy lives while taking that for granted. I found though that after that trip I have tried to stop taking my blessings for granted! I thank God each day for my country, my family, and all that He has given me. We are truly blessed in North America.
So, in the Philippines, I have learned a lot of things that will stay with me forever! I have learned to listen more than I speak. I have learned to trust more in people and more in God. This was really necessary in the Philippines because our schedule changed almost daily. Sometimes we would go to bed at night and have no idea what we were doing the next day, but it would always fall into place! I think I have learned to love more, but it has been hard coming home because I think my younger siblings are sick of hearing about the Philippines all the time!! I learned that I am really good at adapting to new situations which I didn't think I was before. I don't really like change at home generally, but in the Philippines I really embraced it and learned to roll with it. :)
I met so many incredible people in the Philippines. My host family was a huge blessing to me. Their hospitality and kindness was amazing. They really showed me what Filipino life is like! They gave me many new experiences, especially pertaining to food! Los Banos Christian Reformed Church was also a huge blessing to me. Every Sunday and Wednesday night service (and every random day in between that I was hanging out at LBCRC), I felt so welcome and like I was a part of their congregation! The youth at LBCRC were so encouraging to me. I have never met a youth group who is so musically talented!! A different team of youth led worship each Sunday morning and Wednesday night, and it was always SO GOOD! They are so involved in the church...that was really encouraging to me. The Filipino people are so helpful and very, very hospitable. They loved answering any questions I had. Even Filipinos who weren't my specific hosts or even connected with the CRC would answer any question and were so hospitable to us!
As far as my expectations being met, I went to the Philippines trying not to have expectations because I really had no idea what to expect. I didn't know what it would look like or what the people would be like or anything, so I was just really keeping an open mind. Even day-to-day in the Philippines I had no idea what to expect because our schedule changed so much. At first, there was so much free time because we were being quarantined for the swine flu...and then at the end of the summer we were super busy, so it kind of balanced the summer out. But at first, it was difficult for me having so much free time when I just wanted to DO something! But I learned to let go and let God!
This experience increased my sensitivity to the needs of Christians in other countries. Prayer is such a great need all over the world, and (in general) we are not really people of prayer in North America. So that is something I need to work on!
This experience increased my compassion for the needs of those who live in third world countries. My heart really goes out to the poor in the Philippines who have no home or who lives in horrible conditions. Specifically the urban poor children...especially those who beg. And also, the orphans. In the future, I want to work with the urban poor and/or orphans.
This experience gave me new insights into mission work. I really loved seeing all the ministries in the Philippines...just seeing a vibrant CRC church there was really cool. I feel like if I had gone somewhere else, I would see mission work by CRWM that looks COMPLETELY different though.
Anyways, in conclusion of this blog, I had an amazing experience in the Philippines. It really confirmed my call into mission work. So now I just have to see where God is leading me and where He wants me to go!! I am really excited about the future! But for now, I have the enthusiasm and not the skills haha. So I'll just finish my schooling and see what happens from there!
I made so many amazing friends in the Philippines who I will never forget. You know who you are!!!! I miss them a lot actually. I find myself a lot of times during the day thinking about all of our good times and wishing to be back there. I know that I will see them again someday, though! I would definitely go back to the Philippines given the chance.
Thanks for reading my blog!!!!! This will be my last post on this blog, but probably not ever haha! :)
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Some Pictures
Teaching at Grace Christian Community School in Calauan, Laguna. Ate Nicole and I were teaching English to this grade 3 glass. We were teaching nouns and verbs at this point. 
The view from the window of our home in Pasay City which is in Metro Manila South. We stayed here for only 4 days I believe, but it was a very poor neighbourhood. The houses were stacked on top of eachother, that's how little room there is there!
Me with J.P. and John, two of the orphans at the orphanage in Manila.
Me with J'Lou and Pat-Pat, the two kids that lived at Contilu, the guesthouse where we all stayed together when we were in Los Banos after leaving our host families.
Ate Nicole and I are on our rented motorcycles in Bohol! :)
Me planting rice :)
MY FAMILY IN THE PHILIPPINES!!!! Pastor Benjie, Ate Malu, Kuya Jai, Ate Hapi, Kuya Joshua, and I after church on my last Sunday in the Philippines.
Holding a starfish in Bohol! This was the first time I have ever seen an ocean :)
Leading the Advice station at the National High School in San Pablo.
Ate Nicole, Matt, our boat owner, and I when we went fishing for tilapia somewhere in Bicol.
Doing our drama about what happens when HIV gets into your body. Unfortunately, I was diarrhea in this drama haha.
Visiting a native Filipino tribe who are now Christians. This was probably one of my favorite parts of our trip, although it's really hard to pick a favorite . They sang us a song in Tagalog which was very moving.
I tamed every cow I met in the Philippines haha :)
Nicole and I reading to a little boy on the beach in Bohol.
At an orphanage in Manila.
MY FAVORITE PEOPLE IN THE PHILIPPINES! This is at our good-bye party at LBCRC. It was very sad.
A group of us after we did our seminar with Intervarsity Christian Fellowship youth at a church in Bicol!
Doing the "Advice" Station at a high school in Bicol!
Riding a carabao!!! :) It was raining haha. Clearly I am loving it.
Visiting a mayor while in Bicol.
Doing the advice station at a high school. I think this was also in the Bicol region. Monday, August 3, 2009
Ice Skating, Teaching, and Going Home
Sorry I haven't blogged in a long time! We have been very busy. It is crazy that I will be home in 3 days. I am really not ready to leave. We are all very sad whenever we think about it. So I will start with last weekend:
We were in Pasay City in Metro Manila South from Saturday night until Tuesday morning. We stayed at Grace From Heaven CRC there. We did a presentation after church for the youth and other church leaders that went really well despite the fact that we had none of our supplies with us! We weren't expecting to do a seminar. I made a powerpoint presentation on Saturday night though, so that was really helpful. For the rest of Sunday, we hung out with the youth from that church which was really fun. On Monday, we toured around the neighbourhood where the church was. It was pretty crazy. A big group of kids followed us around because there was no school for them because the president was giving a national address. I wish I could describe the neighbourhood, but I just can't! A lot of poverty. It really made me want to work with the urban poor...the urban poor kids in particular. We saw one lady's house who attends Grace From Heaven CRC that was smaller than my living room, and she is a single mother with five children living in that house. After walking around the neighbourhood, the deacon ladies took us to Mall of Asia. We went ice skating on the skating rink there! It was pretty crazy...we were ice skating in shorts and t-shirts. Some of our new friends from that church came too. We also rode a mini ferris wheel at the mall haha and got Krispy Kreme donuts.
On Tuesday morning of last week, we were picked up by Ate Gladys and Matt and B.A. We toured around "Old Manila" for awhile, then went to the CRWRC and CRWM offices to meet some people and look around there. After that we went back to Los Banos and had a going-away party for Eric. It was really fun! We also had a campfire and made s'mores which our Filipino friends had never had before, so that was pretty cool. Ate Eena and Ate Kaygee loved cooking marshmallows.
On Wednesday, we had a tourist day with all our friends. We went to see an underground cemetary, then went to a road which sells hundreds of "slippers" which is what Filipinos call flip-flops. Afterward, we went to the Bravo's and watched Ice Age 3 and played with Maurice, a little 2-year-old who lives with them. He is very cute! We stayed up late on Wednesday night because Eric left at around 3 a.m. Thursday morning. It was so sad. We were really sad all day Thursday and anytime one of us girls would mention it, we would all get tears in our eyes at the thought of leaving the Philippines.
On Thursday, without Eric, we did two seminars at the National high school in Calamba. We went to Ate Gladys's after that and did laundry and made lasagna for dinner. Then we went to a cultural dance show at UPLB which was really, really cool! I loved it. On Friday morning, we taught at Grace Christian Community School in Calauan. We mostly taught English. It was really fun. Nicole and I were partners, and first we taught grade one's, so we read them our kids books. Mine is about a lazy boy named Juan who turned into a carabao haha, and Nicole's is about eating your ampalaya which is a bitter vegetable here, or else the ampalaya will eat you haha. They liked the books. Then we played Simon Says, did some spelling bee thing, read some English words out loud, and wrote some random sentences on the board that they had to copy to practice penmanship. The sentences were about "ipis" which are cockroaches haha. After that, we taught grade two and did much of the same thing. Then we taught grade three, and we ran out of English to teach them. We taught nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Then we did some Math multiplication questions, then taught them about Canada, then taught them about photosynthesis haha! It was really fun. After that we came back to LB and shopped a bit. Then at Contilu that night, we had a really cool dinner where we didn't have any utensils or plates or anything. We ate off of large banana leaves all with our hands. It was fun! After that, Nicole and I played piano for the ladies there and we played and coloured with J'Lou, a 4-year-old adopted girl there. She is super cute.
On Saturday morning, we went to Grace Christian Community High School and coached some first-year girls in basketball and volleyball. That was really fun. Afterwards, we went to Calamba and hung out with the Bravo family. We had a meeting at LBCRC at around 6 to talk about our presentations and then I went to the Garcia's for dinner which was really great! I will really miss them! On Sunday, we went to church in the morning and had lunch there afterwards. We napped in the afternoon and played pool and had dinner with everyone at Contilu. Today we have been doing last-minute gift shopping for our families. We have a going-away party at 4 at LBCRC. It's going to be horrible leaving! Tomorrow we are going to compile pictures onto CD's and Wednesday we are doing a debrief thing with all our peer educators and us. Then our flight leaves at 6:45 a.m. on Thursday! So see you all really soon!!!
We were in Pasay City in Metro Manila South from Saturday night until Tuesday morning. We stayed at Grace From Heaven CRC there. We did a presentation after church for the youth and other church leaders that went really well despite the fact that we had none of our supplies with us! We weren't expecting to do a seminar. I made a powerpoint presentation on Saturday night though, so that was really helpful. For the rest of Sunday, we hung out with the youth from that church which was really fun. On Monday, we toured around the neighbourhood where the church was. It was pretty crazy. A big group of kids followed us around because there was no school for them because the president was giving a national address. I wish I could describe the neighbourhood, but I just can't! A lot of poverty. It really made me want to work with the urban poor...the urban poor kids in particular. We saw one lady's house who attends Grace From Heaven CRC that was smaller than my living room, and she is a single mother with five children living in that house. After walking around the neighbourhood, the deacon ladies took us to Mall of Asia. We went ice skating on the skating rink there! It was pretty crazy...we were ice skating in shorts and t-shirts. Some of our new friends from that church came too. We also rode a mini ferris wheel at the mall haha and got Krispy Kreme donuts.
On Tuesday morning of last week, we were picked up by Ate Gladys and Matt and B.A. We toured around "Old Manila" for awhile, then went to the CRWRC and CRWM offices to meet some people and look around there. After that we went back to Los Banos and had a going-away party for Eric. It was really fun! We also had a campfire and made s'mores which our Filipino friends had never had before, so that was pretty cool. Ate Eena and Ate Kaygee loved cooking marshmallows.
On Wednesday, we had a tourist day with all our friends. We went to see an underground cemetary, then went to a road which sells hundreds of "slippers" which is what Filipinos call flip-flops. Afterward, we went to the Bravo's and watched Ice Age 3 and played with Maurice, a little 2-year-old who lives with them. He is very cute! We stayed up late on Wednesday night because Eric left at around 3 a.m. Thursday morning. It was so sad. We were really sad all day Thursday and anytime one of us girls would mention it, we would all get tears in our eyes at the thought of leaving the Philippines.
On Thursday, without Eric, we did two seminars at the National high school in Calamba. We went to Ate Gladys's after that and did laundry and made lasagna for dinner. Then we went to a cultural dance show at UPLB which was really, really cool! I loved it. On Friday morning, we taught at Grace Christian Community School in Calauan. We mostly taught English. It was really fun. Nicole and I were partners, and first we taught grade one's, so we read them our kids books. Mine is about a lazy boy named Juan who turned into a carabao haha, and Nicole's is about eating your ampalaya which is a bitter vegetable here, or else the ampalaya will eat you haha. They liked the books. Then we played Simon Says, did some spelling bee thing, read some English words out loud, and wrote some random sentences on the board that they had to copy to practice penmanship. The sentences were about "ipis" which are cockroaches haha. After that, we taught grade two and did much of the same thing. Then we taught grade three, and we ran out of English to teach them. We taught nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Then we did some Math multiplication questions, then taught them about Canada, then taught them about photosynthesis haha! It was really fun. After that we came back to LB and shopped a bit. Then at Contilu that night, we had a really cool dinner where we didn't have any utensils or plates or anything. We ate off of large banana leaves all with our hands. It was fun! After that, Nicole and I played piano for the ladies there and we played and coloured with J'Lou, a 4-year-old adopted girl there. She is super cute.
On Saturday morning, we went to Grace Christian Community High School and coached some first-year girls in basketball and volleyball. That was really fun. Afterwards, we went to Calamba and hung out with the Bravo family. We had a meeting at LBCRC at around 6 to talk about our presentations and then I went to the Garcia's for dinner which was really great! I will really miss them! On Sunday, we went to church in the morning and had lunch there afterwards. We napped in the afternoon and played pool and had dinner with everyone at Contilu. Today we have been doing last-minute gift shopping for our families. We have a going-away party at 4 at LBCRC. It's going to be horrible leaving! Tomorrow we are going to compile pictures onto CD's and Wednesday we are doing a debrief thing with all our peer educators and us. Then our flight leaves at 6:45 a.m. on Thursday! So see you all really soon!!!
Friday, July 24, 2009
Orphanage, Basketball, and Being Busy!
Well I am back in LB for a day and decided to come down to the internet place to blog because I will be heading back to Manila around lunchtime.
So from Tuesday until Friday we were in Manila at Kids International Ministries. It is an amazing ministry. It includes an elementary school, an orphanage, and some other outreach things that I don't really remember. We arrived later on Tuesday afternoon and got a tour of the school and orphanage, then went to our overnight lodging place. On Wednesday, Nicole, Thea, Lisa, BA, and I did some cleaning at the orphanage in the morning. We washed walls and windows basically all day, taking many breaks to play with the kids. Eric, Matt, and Karlynn were doing other stuff like construction. After lunch, Nicole, Thea, and I continued cleaning at the orphanage and playing with the kids and BA and Lisa did some painting and staining of a cabinet at the school. The kids at the orphanage were incredible. I fell in love with every one of them! It was the most beautiful orphanage ever. There was a girl's side where they had I think 12-14 girls of varying ages...up to age 14 or 15 I think. Then there was a boy's side where they had the same number of boys of varying ages. There were three rooms for the boys and three for the girls - one for the younger boys, then the middle-aged, then the older. Then there was a nursery for the kids that weren't school-aged yet. The kids were very cute. They call us all "tita" or "tito" meaning "aunt" and "uncle". I mostly played with the boys though and Nicole preferred the girls :) My favorite part was playing basketball with the older boys. They are so good! I played 2-on-2 with three of them on Wednesday, then I played 2-on-2 again on Thursday with Eric included. After dinner on Thursday, I played 1-on-1 with a boy named Benjie who was really good. It was a close game, but I still won haha. Then we played 4-on-4 later on. It was a lot of fun playing basketball with them. Seriously, they are SO GOOD at basketball.
Anyway, on Thursday we did much of the same thing. OH, I forgot, there was a group of American guys there from California and Tennessee that were doing a basketball ministry so we watched one of their games on Wednesday night. It was pretty cool. We also played bump with them. Well, only Eric, Matt, and I did and I made it to the final haha...but I think they were being easy on me. But it was hard because we started at the three-point line instead of the foul line. Anyway, on Thursday we did much of the same...mostly playing with kids. There was one little boy in the nursery named Moses who was 2 I believe. He was named Moses because when he was about a week old, he was found abandoned in a dried out river bed so that was kind of a cool story to hear. It was strange though because most of the workers there are American so the younger kids don't really know Tagalog so when BA and Thea were there, they were kind of scared of them. They were so surprised to see them and hear them speak Tagalog.
Anyway, on Friday we went to Mall of Asia in Manila which is the 3rd largest mall in the world. I pushed Lisa around in a wheelchair the whole time because in Bohol she scraped her foot on some coral and it got very infected and she even went to the hospital to get antibiotics. It was swelled up like a balloon and all red and just really gross. But it's so so much better now, so we're not worried anymore. We got back to LB at around 5 last night and then did a presentation at 5:30 for a group of youth at a church. After that, Nicole and I went to visit the LaVega's who were her host family here in Los Banos when we lived with host families. So yeah, we visited with Ate Eena and then went back to Contilu where we are staying. This morning, I came into Los Banos by myself to buy some new shampoo and exchange some more money. I walked to the UP gate and then took a jeepney to Crossing LB to exchange money, then came back by another jeep and got some shampoo and now I'm at the internet cafe. I have to go though because we are leaving at 12 for Manila and it will probably take me at least ten minutes to walk back to Contilu.
In Manila these next few days we will be visiting a slum/squatter village place tonight. Then tomorrow we are presenting at a church I believe and doing some touring on Monday. A pastor in Manila has some things planned for us I believe for tomorrow and Monday. We have a really busy schedule for the rest of our time here. So yeah, I'll be back in LB on Monday evening and Tuesday we have a day off. We are going to have a going away party for Eric I believe because he is leaving on Thursday because he has to be in school in Tennessee on Saturday. So that is all for now!! :)
So from Tuesday until Friday we were in Manila at Kids International Ministries. It is an amazing ministry. It includes an elementary school, an orphanage, and some other outreach things that I don't really remember. We arrived later on Tuesday afternoon and got a tour of the school and orphanage, then went to our overnight lodging place. On Wednesday, Nicole, Thea, Lisa, BA, and I did some cleaning at the orphanage in the morning. We washed walls and windows basically all day, taking many breaks to play with the kids. Eric, Matt, and Karlynn were doing other stuff like construction. After lunch, Nicole, Thea, and I continued cleaning at the orphanage and playing with the kids and BA and Lisa did some painting and staining of a cabinet at the school. The kids at the orphanage were incredible. I fell in love with every one of them! It was the most beautiful orphanage ever. There was a girl's side where they had I think 12-14 girls of varying ages...up to age 14 or 15 I think. Then there was a boy's side where they had the same number of boys of varying ages. There were three rooms for the boys and three for the girls - one for the younger boys, then the middle-aged, then the older. Then there was a nursery for the kids that weren't school-aged yet. The kids were very cute. They call us all "tita" or "tito" meaning "aunt" and "uncle". I mostly played with the boys though and Nicole preferred the girls :) My favorite part was playing basketball with the older boys. They are so good! I played 2-on-2 with three of them on Wednesday, then I played 2-on-2 again on Thursday with Eric included. After dinner on Thursday, I played 1-on-1 with a boy named Benjie who was really good. It was a close game, but I still won haha. Then we played 4-on-4 later on. It was a lot of fun playing basketball with them. Seriously, they are SO GOOD at basketball.
Anyway, on Thursday we did much of the same thing. OH, I forgot, there was a group of American guys there from California and Tennessee that were doing a basketball ministry so we watched one of their games on Wednesday night. It was pretty cool. We also played bump with them. Well, only Eric, Matt, and I did and I made it to the final haha...but I think they were being easy on me. But it was hard because we started at the three-point line instead of the foul line. Anyway, on Thursday we did much of the same...mostly playing with kids. There was one little boy in the nursery named Moses who was 2 I believe. He was named Moses because when he was about a week old, he was found abandoned in a dried out river bed so that was kind of a cool story to hear. It was strange though because most of the workers there are American so the younger kids don't really know Tagalog so when BA and Thea were there, they were kind of scared of them. They were so surprised to see them and hear them speak Tagalog.
Anyway, on Friday we went to Mall of Asia in Manila which is the 3rd largest mall in the world. I pushed Lisa around in a wheelchair the whole time because in Bohol she scraped her foot on some coral and it got very infected and she even went to the hospital to get antibiotics. It was swelled up like a balloon and all red and just really gross. But it's so so much better now, so we're not worried anymore. We got back to LB at around 5 last night and then did a presentation at 5:30 for a group of youth at a church. After that, Nicole and I went to visit the LaVega's who were her host family here in Los Banos when we lived with host families. So yeah, we visited with Ate Eena and then went back to Contilu where we are staying. This morning, I came into Los Banos by myself to buy some new shampoo and exchange some more money. I walked to the UP gate and then took a jeepney to Crossing LB to exchange money, then came back by another jeep and got some shampoo and now I'm at the internet cafe. I have to go though because we are leaving at 12 for Manila and it will probably take me at least ten minutes to walk back to Contilu.
In Manila these next few days we will be visiting a slum/squatter village place tonight. Then tomorrow we are presenting at a church I believe and doing some touring on Monday. A pastor in Manila has some things planned for us I believe for tomorrow and Monday. We have a really busy schedule for the rest of our time here. So yeah, I'll be back in LB on Monday evening and Tuesday we have a day off. We are going to have a going away party for Eric I believe because he is leaving on Thursday because he has to be in school in Tennessee on Saturday. So that is all for now!! :)
Monday, July 20, 2009
Motorbikes, Giant Snakes, and Life.
OK, so we're back from Bohol. We were just there on a vacation type deal. So we were at a beach most of the time. We were there for four days. It was the first time I've ever been in salt water, so that was pretty cool, and we went snorkeling which I've never done before either and it was amazing.
So we got back on Saturday and now we're staying all together, not with host families anymore. We are staying at a place called Contiloo's which is owned by this really nice family which mostly consists of older ladies, like in their 70's. They are the nicest ladies ever! I want to be just like them when I'm older :) On Saturday when we got back, we went to Ate Gladys's house and then Nicole and I went with Ate Gladys to get food supplies. We also got a Toblerone. Nicole made me add that (she is reading this) because we always get a Toblerone. And they package it well enough that we could ship it to Canada if we wanted. So then Nicole & I cooked a dinner of spaghetti for everyone! It was really fun haha. We are great in the kitchen. We are becoming domestic goddesses. It is our goal.
On Sunday, we went to a city called Las Pinas and attended a CRC church there called "God's Light International Ministries". We did a short presentation during the service, including pictures, about what we're doing here in the Philippines. Then afterward, we had this huge lunch and there was a youth fellowship so we did our HIV/AIDS presentation for them which went really well then spent like 2 hours talking with them. It was pretty fun! Then we came back home and headed to LBCRC to help make more posters for our presentations which were occurring in LB National High School on Monday because we had a lot of youth from LBCRC helping so we decided to split into two groups to reach more students that way.
So today we did 5 presentations at LBNHS which went really well. It was really long though. I'm not really sure what we're doing for the rest of the week. I believe we are going to Manila tomorrow to Kids International Ministries which is an orphanage.
I don't really have many more stories to tell! Well, in Bohol then Nicole, Lisa, and I rented motorbikes one day and rode all around the island for 4 hours. Also, in Bohol we saw tarsiers which are this weird monkey thing. Google image it. We also saw in Bohol and 26 foot long python. Some person told us that it was hibernating, so we went and touched it and got pictures of us touching it and then it moved a bit and I like freaked out and ran away haha. And we asked the person how much it ate, and the person said that the last time it ate was the beginning of June and it ate 2 goats at that time! Pretty nuts. It was in captivity by the way Mom haha.
Oh, another story. Ok so on the morning that we were leaving, we were going to leave at 10:30 a.m. so then we were reading on the beach for awhile and a little boy came over who was very dirty and was only wearing a shirt haha, and he came close to us so then Nicole and I showed him our books. He was really really interested in the books, but they didn't have pictures, only the cover so he just kept looking at my cover, then at Nicole's, then back to mine over and over. So then a couple of days before this, Nicole and I had bought Tagalog children's books from a bookstore because we love Tagalog haha...so then I told Nicole to keep him occupied and I ran to my room and got my book which was called "Mahal Kita, Inay" which means "I love you, Mom" so then we read it to him 3 times and he was just enthralled, it was adorable! He loved the pictures and kept pointing, but never said a word and never smiled. He would just look really really close at the book. But he held my hand which was so cute. And then we had to leave, and so I gave him the book, and a fisherman came and told us he only had a mother, no father. So it just broke my heart!! I wanted to take him home haha. So yeah, that's my story.
Ok, we are going to go back to our place where we are staying now....I am at an internet cafe right now; I don't have internet where we are staying. I'll try to come back here soon and write again!
So we got back on Saturday and now we're staying all together, not with host families anymore. We are staying at a place called Contiloo's which is owned by this really nice family which mostly consists of older ladies, like in their 70's. They are the nicest ladies ever! I want to be just like them when I'm older :) On Saturday when we got back, we went to Ate Gladys's house and then Nicole and I went with Ate Gladys to get food supplies. We also got a Toblerone. Nicole made me add that (she is reading this) because we always get a Toblerone. And they package it well enough that we could ship it to Canada if we wanted. So then Nicole & I cooked a dinner of spaghetti for everyone! It was really fun haha. We are great in the kitchen. We are becoming domestic goddesses. It is our goal.
On Sunday, we went to a city called Las Pinas and attended a CRC church there called "God's Light International Ministries". We did a short presentation during the service, including pictures, about what we're doing here in the Philippines. Then afterward, we had this huge lunch and there was a youth fellowship so we did our HIV/AIDS presentation for them which went really well then spent like 2 hours talking with them. It was pretty fun! Then we came back home and headed to LBCRC to help make more posters for our presentations which were occurring in LB National High School on Monday because we had a lot of youth from LBCRC helping so we decided to split into two groups to reach more students that way.
So today we did 5 presentations at LBNHS which went really well. It was really long though. I'm not really sure what we're doing for the rest of the week. I believe we are going to Manila tomorrow to Kids International Ministries which is an orphanage.
I don't really have many more stories to tell! Well, in Bohol then Nicole, Lisa, and I rented motorbikes one day and rode all around the island for 4 hours. Also, in Bohol we saw tarsiers which are this weird monkey thing. Google image it. We also saw in Bohol and 26 foot long python. Some person told us that it was hibernating, so we went and touched it and got pictures of us touching it and then it moved a bit and I like freaked out and ran away haha. And we asked the person how much it ate, and the person said that the last time it ate was the beginning of June and it ate 2 goats at that time! Pretty nuts. It was in captivity by the way Mom haha.
Oh, another story. Ok so on the morning that we were leaving, we were going to leave at 10:30 a.m. so then we were reading on the beach for awhile and a little boy came over who was very dirty and was only wearing a shirt haha, and he came close to us so then Nicole and I showed him our books. He was really really interested in the books, but they didn't have pictures, only the cover so he just kept looking at my cover, then at Nicole's, then back to mine over and over. So then a couple of days before this, Nicole and I had bought Tagalog children's books from a bookstore because we love Tagalog haha...so then I told Nicole to keep him occupied and I ran to my room and got my book which was called "Mahal Kita, Inay" which means "I love you, Mom" so then we read it to him 3 times and he was just enthralled, it was adorable! He loved the pictures and kept pointing, but never said a word and never smiled. He would just look really really close at the book. But he held my hand which was so cute. And then we had to leave, and so I gave him the book, and a fisherman came and told us he only had a mother, no father. So it just broke my heart!! I wanted to take him home haha. So yeah, that's my story.
Ok, we are going to go back to our place where we are staying now....I am at an internet cafe right now; I don't have internet where we are staying. I'll try to come back here soon and write again!
Monday, July 13, 2009
A Relaxing Weekend Off!!
I am going to do a quick post here before we go to Bohol in the morning! My weekend in Los Banos was way too short. We were just kind of taking a break before our Bohol trip. It's pretty far away, we are flying there from the Manila airport. I will just tell about my weekend off in LB!
Nicole is still staying here with me at the Garcia's because Ate Eena has just gotten better today I think. So that has been fun! But she wished she could have gone to her house which is understandable. I probably wouldn't have liked to be her. On Saturday evening we went to Calamba and we watched Transformers 2 in the movie theatre there! It was pretty fun. Kuya Fred (BA's dad) drove us home so that we didn't have to travel alone at night. On Sunday, we had church in the morning and then we went to Calamba CRC for their 20th anniversary celebration of their church. It was very fun! Great music and we had food too haha :) The things I will miss the most about the Philippines are the food and the people I have met. Not the traffic! But I do love public transportation here - jeepneys and tricycles.
So yeah Sunday after church we had Sunday school which we have every week. The college-aged kids are in one class. We get assignments sometimes and when I'm not going to be there, I have to give the assignment to my ate, Hapi. So that's what I have to do this week because I won't be at LBCRC next week Sunday. I will have to do my assignment tonight! After Sunday school, Nicole and I went to Ate Gladys's house for lunch and then we went to Calamba together. After the service, we went to the Bravo's and then we were bored so we decided to go to the main road and take the first jeep we saw. The first one was to San Pablo but that was too far...the second one was to Santa Cruz but that was even farther...so then the 3rd one was to UPLB in Los Banos so we went there! We got some food - I had isau which is chicken intestines. Nicole had it too. Eric and Karlynn had adidas which is chicken feet. We hung out at Freedom Park after that and took pictures under the fertility tree haha! Then we went home and ate some squid and chicken adobo and rice. I love rice! I also love chicken adobo and pork adobo...anything adobo actually, and Hapi taught me how to cook it.
This morning I got to talk to my family on the phone! The Garcia's got a landline and they get 30 minutes of free international calling as a promo so I got ten of them :) I made my family put me on speaker and I said "ok, everyone say hi to me" and as soon as they started I just burst into tears haha. I really miss my family!! I am very excited to be back home, but I am loving it here. It will be very sad to leave but I will be incredibly happy to see my fam again! This morning we had training at LBCRC for the peer educators that are coming with us to LB National high school next week Monday. We were supposed to go today to LBNHS but the classes were cancelled due to swine flu. So we had training until lunch time then went to IRRI (International Rice Research Institute) to a rice museum. After that we did some other stuff around LB and now I am home again. It is my last dinner with the Garcia's tonight! It's very sad. They are cooking up a storm. It smells delicious.
Oh yeah, I got a package from Aunt Jeanette today! It had swedish berries, fuzzy peaches, and sour watermelons in it and I've been sharing the candy. They don't have that kind of candy here! And there were ear plugs in the package which my family thought was just hilarious! I am used to the roosters now though :)
Anyways I'm not sure if I'll have internet in Bohol so yeah, maybe I'll post next week or something.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Cockroaches, Carabao, and Bicol!
I am really lacking in my blog posts. Sorry! I was in Bicol for 10 days so that is my excuse. Well, in Bicol we did some amazing stuff! I will try to summarize it because I don't have much time. Basically, we were there to develop more partners in our for our RedHAT team. Red is the international colour for AIDS and HAT stands for HIV AIDS Team. It is the organization that we go around with to all the schools and stuff. So while in Bicol we did two presentations for various church pastors and leaders in which we were equipping them with information and stuff about HIV and AIDS. RedHAT is going to be partnering with some of them...people from our team (not us North Americans) will be going back in October to lead another training seminar for them. We did one school seminar for 3rd and 4th year high schoolers in which we only had one hour to do it when usually we do it in 90 minutes. It was pretty crazy that we finished in our allotted time! On another day, one of our seminars got moved to the evening of the next day so we prayed about what we should do, and then we stopped randomly at this national high school and asked the principal if we could come back the next day and he said sure! It was pretty crazy actually that he let us because for all the schools in Laguna that we presented at when we were here a few weeks ago were such a hassle for us to go to. We had to get letters signed by like the mayors and then the principals and stuff like that. So we came back the next day and did a 2 hour and 15 minute seminar for 140 4th year high school students!! It was the most we've ever had and it was so great. It was difficult because when we did the stations part, we usually just have around 10 kids in each group, but this time we had close to 30 in each separate group at the 5 stations, so it was pretty nuts. But we did it! We also did a presentation for college-aged students which went really well too and some of them want to join RedHAT when the team goes back in October and we had some really good discussions with them also.
I'll just talk about some other things we did in Bicol! When you go to a new city, you usually should make a "courtesy call" to the mayor, so we did that when we got to Legazpi City which is a pretty big city in Bicol. It is on the list for one of the places that an HIV/AIDS epidemic is likely to happen because there are a lot of illegal sex businesses there. So we went to visit the mayor, but he wasn't there so we just met with the next highest guy and then went on our way. Later in the evening, we got a call from the mayor saying he wanted to meet with us in the morning which apparently never happens according to Ate Myra, one of our guide people. So we went back and we met with the mayor for almost an hour I think and also with the Officer of Health of the city who has been really promoting HIV/AIDS awareness. Ate Myra said this was just incredible that we had the opportunity to talk with the mayor and the health official about what we were doing because that never happens apparently. Courtesy calls are just like ten minute things! So that was pretty amazing.
We went to another city called Naga City and our guide there was Ate Aisha. She organized so many great things for us to do on a day off! We planted rice in rice fields which is pretty nuts. Rice fields are like filled with water and you sink in the hot mud and water almost to your knees then are bending over and shoving these little rice plants in the ground. It's pretty hard work. We also rode a carabao! You can google image search a carabao to see what that looks like. Eric fell off it! It is hard to ride because the skin is really loose so you move around a lot. We also climbed a pili tree. We went to a black sand beach on the Pacific Ocean which was cool. It was the first time I've been in salt water. We also went fishing on a freshwater lake for tilapia which was really fun. We rode a boat to the middle of the lake to this fishing hut that is floating and then rode a smaller boat to one of the nets which was holding 5000 fish! Then you catch them with your hands out of the net. Nicole and I were very brave and held the fish haha. We also asked the fisherman how he killed them and he showed us. After that, we tried to kill one also by bopping it on the head like he did but it didn't work and only caused him to laugh at us.
Another amazing thing in Bicol was when we visited a tribal community way in the middle of nowhere sort of. It was really cool! Ate Aisha works with this particular tribe and they sang us a song in their language which BA was translating for me, and their singing was incredible. I think it was my favorite part of the whole trip. It moved me to tears, it was so good. It was awesome to see how God can reach the most remote people groups and they have such great faith. They gave us a lot of fruit to take home as a gift.
Another thing I did was pick pineapple! I was the only one in the group that did it. I think they basically let me because I talked to one Filipino man and he didn't understand English and I was asking him if he lived in the place that we were, so I was like "is this your bahay?" which means house in English and they were all laughing at me and then he let me pick a pineapple haha!
Another crazy thing was that we were hiking in this jungle area and this huge thunderstorm hit and we were there in the middle of the jungle! And I had the only umbrella! The others had gone ahead, so Lisa, Nicole, and I were huddled under this little umbrella getting soaked to the skin. It was horrible. Rains here are nuts...and the thunder and lightning was very very close. We screamed everytime there was thunder because it was so incredibly loud and close to us. I almost burst into tears at one point. Quite terrifying. But we were ok! Eric eventually came down the mountainous jungle and told us there was shelter a big farther up so we ran up there in the mud and pouring rain and thunder and lightning...it was like an Indiana Jones movie.
Ok, last thing and then I have to go! On Thursday night of this week, we started the long drive back to Laguna. We left around 10:30 after our last seminar and drove until about 2:30 a.m. when we were just exhausted so we stopped at this kind of sketchy hotel place. So we get in there, and Nicole is brushing her teeth then runs out of the bathroom (the rooms are really really small, so not really runs...) and is like "ahh there's a cockroach in there" so then we just stay out of the bathroom haha. But then we were kind of scared and we had been sleeping with three of us in a double bed the whole week (Lisa, Nicole, and I) because there were never enough beds, so we decided to push our beds together. When we moved Nicole's, there were two cockroaches sitting there! So there was a lot of screaming and Lisa grabbed my sandal and killed one and Nicole swept it out the door, but the other got away. We then sprayed bug spray all over the room and made a bug spray perimeter around our beds that were pushed together then went to sleep haha. It was quite an adventure! Definitely our most memorable hotel...three in the morning and fighting the cockroaches!
Anyway, Nicole and I are going to go to LBCRC now for awhile to hang out with some youth and then we are going to Calamba later to hang out with other people. Should be fun. We are doing presentations this week at Los Banos National High School which is a HUGE school so that should be interesting. There is lots of H1N1 in LB right now though so lots of schools are shut down. We'll see what happens!
I'll just talk about some other things we did in Bicol! When you go to a new city, you usually should make a "courtesy call" to the mayor, so we did that when we got to Legazpi City which is a pretty big city in Bicol. It is on the list for one of the places that an HIV/AIDS epidemic is likely to happen because there are a lot of illegal sex businesses there. So we went to visit the mayor, but he wasn't there so we just met with the next highest guy and then went on our way. Later in the evening, we got a call from the mayor saying he wanted to meet with us in the morning which apparently never happens according to Ate Myra, one of our guide people. So we went back and we met with the mayor for almost an hour I think and also with the Officer of Health of the city who has been really promoting HIV/AIDS awareness. Ate Myra said this was just incredible that we had the opportunity to talk with the mayor and the health official about what we were doing because that never happens apparently. Courtesy calls are just like ten minute things! So that was pretty amazing.
We went to another city called Naga City and our guide there was Ate Aisha. She organized so many great things for us to do on a day off! We planted rice in rice fields which is pretty nuts. Rice fields are like filled with water and you sink in the hot mud and water almost to your knees then are bending over and shoving these little rice plants in the ground. It's pretty hard work. We also rode a carabao! You can google image search a carabao to see what that looks like. Eric fell off it! It is hard to ride because the skin is really loose so you move around a lot. We also climbed a pili tree. We went to a black sand beach on the Pacific Ocean which was cool. It was the first time I've been in salt water. We also went fishing on a freshwater lake for tilapia which was really fun. We rode a boat to the middle of the lake to this fishing hut that is floating and then rode a smaller boat to one of the nets which was holding 5000 fish! Then you catch them with your hands out of the net. Nicole and I were very brave and held the fish haha. We also asked the fisherman how he killed them and he showed us. After that, we tried to kill one also by bopping it on the head like he did but it didn't work and only caused him to laugh at us.
Another amazing thing in Bicol was when we visited a tribal community way in the middle of nowhere sort of. It was really cool! Ate Aisha works with this particular tribe and they sang us a song in their language which BA was translating for me, and their singing was incredible. I think it was my favorite part of the whole trip. It moved me to tears, it was so good. It was awesome to see how God can reach the most remote people groups and they have such great faith. They gave us a lot of fruit to take home as a gift.
Another thing I did was pick pineapple! I was the only one in the group that did it. I think they basically let me because I talked to one Filipino man and he didn't understand English and I was asking him if he lived in the place that we were, so I was like "is this your bahay?" which means house in English and they were all laughing at me and then he let me pick a pineapple haha!
Another crazy thing was that we were hiking in this jungle area and this huge thunderstorm hit and we were there in the middle of the jungle! And I had the only umbrella! The others had gone ahead, so Lisa, Nicole, and I were huddled under this little umbrella getting soaked to the skin. It was horrible. Rains here are nuts...and the thunder and lightning was very very close. We screamed everytime there was thunder because it was so incredibly loud and close to us. I almost burst into tears at one point. Quite terrifying. But we were ok! Eric eventually came down the mountainous jungle and told us there was shelter a big farther up so we ran up there in the mud and pouring rain and thunder and lightning...it was like an Indiana Jones movie.
Ok, last thing and then I have to go! On Thursday night of this week, we started the long drive back to Laguna. We left around 10:30 after our last seminar and drove until about 2:30 a.m. when we were just exhausted so we stopped at this kind of sketchy hotel place. So we get in there, and Nicole is brushing her teeth then runs out of the bathroom (the rooms are really really small, so not really runs...) and is like "ahh there's a cockroach in there" so then we just stay out of the bathroom haha. But then we were kind of scared and we had been sleeping with three of us in a double bed the whole week (Lisa, Nicole, and I) because there were never enough beds, so we decided to push our beds together. When we moved Nicole's, there were two cockroaches sitting there! So there was a lot of screaming and Lisa grabbed my sandal and killed one and Nicole swept it out the door, but the other got away. We then sprayed bug spray all over the room and made a bug spray perimeter around our beds that were pushed together then went to sleep haha. It was quite an adventure! Definitely our most memorable hotel...three in the morning and fighting the cockroaches!
Anyway, Nicole and I are going to go to LBCRC now for awhile to hang out with some youth and then we are going to Calamba later to hang out with other people. Should be fun. We are doing presentations this week at Los Banos National High School which is a HUGE school so that should be interesting. There is lots of H1N1 in LB right now though so lots of schools are shut down. We'll see what happens!
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