*disclaimer: this blog entry is also for a book we are writing this month. enjoy!*
Hannah Hallfax
Team Tide+
March, 2017
Bacolod City, Negros Occidental
A week in the life.
Day 1: We aren’t actually to the island yet, as we are trapped on this ‘cruse ship’ that is 50% prison, 50% steerage class of the titanic, and 100% a World Race experience. Picture a 60′ by 40′ room full of 4 person bunkbeds, a million boxes of who knows what, 6 air conditioners that work just well enough to keep us from suffocation, and 25 Racers with all our various belonging looking around in dazed confusion. Our activities mostly include sleeping, napping, and resting. Oh, and the odd movie here and there, or you can go to the cafeteria for a cup of rice with a scoop of ground fish on the side. While you’re eating you can be entertained by the round the clock karaoke competition going on. (Its hard to tell between when people are intoxicated or just really awful singers.) As poor of a picture I paint, it actually was kind of fun in hindsight! At least we were able to lay down and stretch out, as opposed to an air plane seat!
Day 2: We disembark from our ‘cruse’ at approx. 12:30pm, and immediately begin to melt in the immense heat under the weight of our bags. (PS I was 50% free from that sentance, as I sent my big pack home with my mom after PVT) We walked until we found our host, Dave, who I’m pretty sure is the only other white person on this island. He directed us to our respective busses* and we hopped on, hoping that none of the packs loaded on top would fall off. We drove to a grocery store, grabbed things for a couple meals, and we headed out to our living situation for the month. Honestly, after that things are kind of a blur. I might have just slept through the day, the night, and into the next morning.
Day 3: We rise at the early hour of…9am, get on a jeepney at 10am, and drive out of the city into an area called {insert here} where the other two teams are staying this month. Dave took us around, explained his extensive vision for the land God has entrusted him with, the time we have allotted here, and then we began our first martial arts class.
Now, Dave is a 7th degree grand master. He really knows his stuff…like so much so that he’s the person that the military hired to train the Green Berets after 9/11. He’s been teaching for 30 years, had his own 6,000 square foot dojo, and sold it all and moved to Guatemala 7 years ago when the Lord called him to missions. So he REALLY knows his stuff. We, well…we are willing to learn. Its really odd having karate class as part of ministry, but I love it! Beyond the fact that its really fun, I think this actually might be the month where I loose the weight I gained in Rwanda!
So karate class lasted for about two hours, then we had the opportunity to go and play basketball or volleyball in the ‘city centre’ which is village talk for the basketball court. After that we headed back to our house for the night!
Day 4: We had sort of the same thing in the morning, karate and a taste of village life, then at night the church we are partnering with had a welcome party for us that included a talent show put on by the all the kids who go to school there and the church members, and a dinner that was made up of all sorts of local fare; two whole pigs, chicken insal, lumpia (like spring rolls) puto (rice flour muffins) chow main, and coconut juice with pieces of the fruit still in it. It was quite the experience overall!
I know that four days isn’t actually a full week. I’m not that blonde. 😉 But thats about as much as has transpired as of yet. Check back again and maybe I’ll finish out the week!
