1. Palm trees, beaches and mountains galore!
This past month has been a true paradise as far as location goes if you ask me. Aside from the typhoon, it was beautiful. Every sunrise and sunset was breathtaking. We were surrounded by mountains and palm trees and hiked up to waterfall one morning. It just puts into perspective the beautiful creation God has set for us if we just take a second to soak it all up.
2. Cash money.
Money was in pesos and the exchange rate was 47 to $1. We had all of our meals prepared for us so we didn’t have to spend much money. Snorkeling was $4, so that was freakin’ great. A massage on the beach was $7 (including tip!). Things were good. I spend more on souvenirs than anything else. I got a dart gun…it seemed necessary at the time. I mean, it was like $6 or something. And handmade and really cool.
3. Monkeys to hang with.
We had a pet monkey, Misaki, who we loved hanging out with. She was sweet as can be and loved the attention. There were also wild monkeys in the forest behind us, they were bigger and honestly more hostile looking. Not ones I would deem friendly and approachable.
4. Friendliest people I ever did meet!
Man, this culture was so friendly! Walk down the street and expect to say hi to everyone you pass. Not just a simple hello will suffice. They have life behind their every word and it was exhilarating to walk down the street and feel that kind of love from strangers both adults and children.
5. Christmas traditions.
We joined in on their traditions that included eating Christmas dinner at midnight between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. That was so cool! We had a feast and I loved spending it with them. The cooking was a collaboration between us and them which included turkey, lasagna, stuffed peppers, mashed potatoes, potato salad, banana chocolate chip bread, carrot cake, cheesecake and probably more I’m just forgetting. The table was full!
6. The food.
You will never go hungry. And if you do, you’re doing it wrong. They made us so much food. And it was delicious. Something interesting to me was their spaghetti because it was sweet. I liked it, some people didn’t. They made spaghetti for the church which consisted of over 400 people! I’ve never seen so many noodles in my entire life. I also really like these coconut rolls they gave us. They were awesome!
7. Our hosts.
Our hosts were so great to us. They had friends help cook and they did everything they could to make us comfortable and also see all the cool things! They made sure we had our coffee (in my case, hot chocolate) and that we had plenty of food to eat. We never went hungry, it just wasn’t possible. I also love that they were sarcastic with us. I’ve found that sarcasm doesn’t always make it past the cultural differences. But it worked here and that made for tons of laughs and always a good time!
8. Driving.
We walked to the beach and didn’t really have the need to be driven very many places. But when we did, we piled into the back of a truck that reminded me of being inmates or on a safari or in Jurassic Park movies. It was very bumpy and we faced each other in the back. And there were bars on the windows. They had little tricycle things that served as taxis. We never used those until we stayed in Manila at the very end for our debrief. Overall, walking was what we did.
9. That weather though.
We get there and were blown away by how amazing the weather was. We spoke a wee bit too soon though. That typhoon took us for a whirl. It rained, no, it poured for what seemed like forever. Water was everywhere coming in every window and in every direction.
10. Words are well, fun to say.
They speak Tagalog in the Philippines. What I like about this language is it’s spelled super phonetically. We learned a few things, though I can’t even remember hello lol. My favorite word means bothersome and it’s nakakapagpabagabug. You’ll sound like a turkey if you say it correctly! If you’re on an elevator and asking to go down you’ll say: babababa and your response of going down is: bababa. I heard a security guard say it at the mall, so now I know my host wasn’t just pulling my leg.
11. Threads of Hope
Threads of Hope was the ministry we worked with. I loved it! It was cool walking down the streets and beach and seeing the women making the bracelets and other products. Their mission from their website says: Threads of Hope assists the economically oppressed in under-developed countries to establish home enterprises that will provide an income, through the development of products that can be sold world-wide. Funds generated through sales and donations will primarily be used to help meet the physical, educational and spiritual needs of the communities where the products are made. The point is, they are doing great things! There are over 250 women involved. All of which attended church. They also brought their families making this church a gathering of over 400 people! It’s cool to be a part of something so big.
Below is the property tour and a time lapse of the ministry.
Threads of Hope Tour from Brittany Panus on Vimeo.
Threads of Hope Ministry from Brittany Panus on Vimeo.
PRAYER: New year, new team! Please pray for this transition. It’s been very great so far, though! 🙂 I’m also my new team’s treasurer. This is normally not my cup of tea, but I’m learning and it will ultimately be good for me. But, it’s still hard for me and I could use the prayers in that. Pray for all the new team leaders and raised up squad leaders as they step into something new that the Lord has for them.
UPDATE: I’m in Vietnam, this is a closed country and therefore I have to be careful what I say and post. That is why this is password protected. This place is like an Asian San Francisco, beautiful! The weather sits in the low 70s and we live in a hotel. Next month is Cambodia and marks the halfway point! Say what?! Yep.
Much love from the Nam,
Brittany
