WE MADE IT!!!! A few hours ago we arrived in the Philippines. The whole squad is currently staying in Manila at Kids International Ministries (KIM). Our hosts have been amazing and have blessed us so much in the few short hours that we have been here. We were greeted with a wonderful lunch and probably the nicest accomodations that we'll have the whole trip. A bed for each person. Thank You God!! We're settling in and getting the last of our training and debriefing done today. We'll have a cultural briefing this evening.
People in the past have done it before, so I thought I'd keep track of some silly things along the way. If you have any ideas of other things to keep track of, let me know SOON!!
Here's what I've got so far since leaving Seattle on Monday:
Bus/van rides: 5
Train rides: 1
Airplanes: 4
Sleeping locations: 2 (plus many airplane seats)
Runs/Workouts: 2
Showers: 2
And somewhere along the way, I lost a day. I left Seattle very early Monday morning for Atlanta. I met up with Kat, a woman from my team, and two other ladies named Caroline and Daniella from the other squad that was launching at the same time for Romania. We stayed in the airport Hilton using my points racked up from a 9 week stay in the desert for work last summer and the hotel was free. After dinner and girl time, we went to bed and the next day met up with the rest of the group back at the aiport. We took a big yellow school bus to Gainsville to a church in "Little Mexico" where we would be staying until Friday morning. We slept on the floor of a church and went through the last of our training and bonding. Just like training camp in July, it was a life changing experience. Learning more and more by the hour and letting go of it all, trusting God and building community with my team and squad. Of course I'm already missing Mom and Dad, Shawn, Kristine and her family, Casey my dog, Grandma, and so many friends from work and church. But their support and send off was what made the first few days so much easier. God is showering our team with love and we're so ready to love on others. We'll fight against all of the other contagions on this trip, but contageous love, support, kindness and joy are definitely welcome.
We piled into another bus and headed for the airport on Friday morning at 10:30 am East Coast time. We flew to LAX where we had about a 7 hour layover. My teammate Tiffany's sister met us at the airport and delievered In & Out grilled cheeses. So amazing!! Thank you Alice!! At 11:50pm on Friday, we boarded a 14 hour flight to Hong Kong where we arrived around 5am on Sunday. What!? Where did Saturday go? Oh you tricky international date line! Hehe. After a quick 2 hour flight, we landed in MANILA!!!!! My sleepy brain isn't as great at math, but that works out to about 37 hours total of travel time door to door! Whew! We're going to sleep like little angels tonight! It's a little hot and sticky here, but I'm hardly noticing. So much to see and take in and feeling so blessed by the hosts here. I'm headed to another island on Tuesday at 2 am, where I will spend the rest of the month. Can't wait to update you on that!!
Silly fact: I flew on my first 747! I was excited! What a funny way to finally accomplish that!
