by now, i think it’s pretty common knowledge that i think bohol is my slice of heaven here on earth. and with it comes a team of rockin angels: primo, gigi, arnold, ben, minerva, jennifer, sally, bj, eric, blair, gin-gin, jeff, hilda, cristine, and pristine. they are our lifeline to this city and to the pastors, and they do it with the most joyous heart and biggest smiles. check out how lucky we are with our sunday shenanigans triple play below J
we started the day off with church. pastor primo and gigi had asked us if we wanted to go to church with them, and we were psyched. arnold picked us up at 8:30, and we weaved our way to church picking up friends along the way. by the time we had made our last stop, the van was completely full – children on laps and people doubled-up in seats, everyone chatting and laughing the entire way – and we would have it any other way. we were greeted at church by pastor franco, and the service started with the best worship i’ve experienced (in a church) on this trip – it was a little reggae, a little Caribbean, and a lot loud. children, teens, adults and elders alike were dancing and praising, laughing and crying…i wish i could describe it accurately enough for you to feel how awesome it was, but i’m sure you get the point – it was way cool…
and that was just the beginning of our fun! (i guess i gave that away when i said it was a triple play, huh?) after the service, arnold asked if we wanted to go see the tarsiers – the world’s smallest monkeys. it was like asking three kids if they wanted cotton candy at the circus…our “yes” was pretty convincing. so away we went – cait, becky, me, arnold, ben, bj & eric on our adventure that began with yet another beautiful drive along the coastline. about an hour later, we stopped along the roadside and stepped into what looked like a little zoo exhibit. except we were on the inside of the glass, not peering in. we were walking thru this little wooded area moving the same branches from our path that the tarsiers were sitting in! they were that close – it was awesome! they are tiny – literally the size of a fist – except for their disproportionately sized eyes. i have to admit, they were equal parts adorable and a little creepy cuz of their eyes (take a look…what do you think?).
as if that wasn’t enough, the boys had two more stops on our tour. first, prony, the largest python in the world with a bonus creature feature: prony shares her cage with three truly creepy looking flying lemurs. second, the hinyuan cave: a real underground cave – with stalagtites & stalagmites!…and bats – that had a pool of water in it. to add to the experience, arnold and eric entertained us with their diving, flipping & flopping (i’ll let you guess which of the three they did the most of) off of the rocks.
so what is a group to do after spending an entire day hanging out and being tourists? why, you head to the mall to play video games and watch a corny movie, that’s what you do! well, we actually went to the mall to watch a movie, but it didn’t start for an hour and a half, so we had no choice but to pass the time at the arcade. in true old school fashion, played a few games, got a cheesy prize with a few of our “winnings” (what would an arcade be without tickets and cheesy prizes), gave the rest of our tickets to this sweet little girl, and headed to the theatre. our “choice” movie selection was “enchanted” featuring none other than patrick “mc dreamy” dempsy himself. we grabbed some snacks and headed in to see just how corny this movie would be. the answer: really corny…and surprisingly awesome. (ps – total cost for movie + popcorn + soda = just under $4)
all of the “things” that we did aside, sunday was plainly and simply a wonderful day. i’d even put it right up there on the list with our first day here in bohol (it was our thanksgiving day…i have a blog in the works about it…but trust me, it was awesome) and this past saturday when pastor primo, gigi & their friends brought us to the white sand beaches. all three of the days were days where we were able to spend lots of time just hanging out with the icm staff. we have enough fun with them on a regular day just driving in the van, on a medical outreach or visiting with pastors…so to have the extra time to just talk and hang out and “just be” together has proven time and again to capture even more of my heart.
