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!! :)