THE PHILIPPINES | Birthday Celebrations
First I wanted to thank everyone for all the birthday wishes. It really was the best birthday ever, even better than my 5th birthday to Disney. It started early Sunday morning with my entire room of girls waking Jeannie Moore and me up (she was also blessed to be born on Sept. 26th) to the Happy Birthday song. It was thoroughly embarrassing but manageable as that is the tradition. We all quickly got dressed and seeing that it was Sunday we got to choose which church we wanted to attend. Two of my squad mates were giving there testimony at the church that meets on site so I decided to go there. It was neat getting to see how they did church and how well everything was planned out. At the end though, they shocked me. Pastor Larry announced that he heard that it was our birthday. So they called us up to the front of the church and proceeded to sing Happy Birthday to us. We stood there like a newly married couple as the church family came up to the front shook our hands/hugged us and told us “congratulations.”
Later that day a group of us decided to go to the jail to do ministry. A group of us girls decided to talk with the women, singing songs and praying. Tara then proceeded to tell them it was my birthday so they insisted on also singing Happy Birthday! It was so crazy and quite touching to see them so thrilled and excited. It was the most beautiful Happy Birthday I had ever heard.
That night, the squad through us a birthday celebration complete with over-the-fire chocolate chip pancakes, two chocolate cakes, balloons, and a Happy Birthday banner. They even had candles and made us both wear birthday girl crowns. My team even bought me a birthday gift: a cute green clutch, a beautiful silver bracelet, and choco candies. Oh, and everything was a surprise, I had no clue, which for those who know me is quite a feat.
Every week each team has an off day, so in honor of our birthdays the squad gave us Monday off. To celebrate my team, Shabach, went to these beautiful falls about 20 minutes away. Donald, a KIM worker, was our guide as we hiked in and around the area. After about an hour we finally got to the point where Donald said we could swim, so we had to climb down this cliff to get to the water. After many slips, falls, and mud filled shoes we finally made it. It was so BEAUTIFUL. It was like a movie scene it was so magical. There were cliffs on either side and you basically had to wade to the falls. We were able to jump off the falls several times and just bask in the beauty of it all. You can see pictures from it at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/timguindon.
After the falls, we all went back, showered, and got ready to go out for dinner with Team United. We went to a place in downtown Malay Balay called Mindy’s. It had a cute atmosphere and heard they were good. It was definitely different than the US, seeing as I couldn’t understand the menu. I played it safe with a hamburger and French fries which tasted pretty normal. Other people ordered blindly and ended up with things like whole fish and pig’s feet (or that’s what we thought it was). It was definitely an experience but a lot of fun.
All-in-all it was an amazing day. I appreciate my squad mates putting so much time and effort into making it special, in particular my team. Here’s to a great 24th year of life….
