Hello from the Philippines… my new favorite country!
We have begun our first debrief and it has been a time of resting, relaxing, processing, and a time of being refreshed for our next month of ministry.
Forgive my few and far between blogs- I am working on a compilation of Australia.
But can i say it again? I love the Philippines. I love the people, i love the food, i love the land. At the moment we are staying in Cainta Rizal, right outside of Manila- though my team will be headed a few hours out to do ministry. We are staying at the lovely Kids International base and it has been awesome. We are getting fed well (with brownies at every meal), have washing machines, internet, and ice cold FILTERED water, yum. Roosters wake me up in the middle of the night as well as the sounds of transportation.
Transportation is INSANE here. I’m being serious. To get to the local mall we have to take a little moped contraption that holds 7 people. It is literally a motorbike with a sidecar attatched to it.
This motorbike only takes us so far and then we have to hop on a “Jeepney” which, they are amazing. They are these huge taxi cars that are painted in every color of the rainbow with crazy horns and sayings on them.
To ride the public transportation it costs around 7 pesos each which is equivalent to about 13 cents. Everything is so cheap here. I have been visiting this bakery called “Goldilocks” everyday and i buy these magical little treats for 12 pesos each. They are called Choco Rhumbles and it is like eating a little slice of heaven. I have also been eating fresh and dried mango like crazy… it’s what dreams are made of. I also got a free 10 minute massage- not that i needed to get one for free- it costs about 7 dollars to get an hour massage. My other favorite thing that I have done was played Bingo! Myself, and two of my other squad members found this bingo place and it was hilarious. They are super intense about it and go through the numbers really fast, everyone had to help us because we didn’t understand. I was sure i was going to win, but no such luck. I wish I could post a picture but they wouldn’t let us take any.
Besides not letting us take a picture, the people here are amazing. They are the most beautiful people i have ever seen. They all wave like crazy and want to say hello and ask our name… on top of calling me mam. So polite. The culture here is stunningly beautiful- right outside our front door are loads and loads of kids who want to play with you and know you. We have all these great amenities and then right outside our door are people who sell fish and cheap candies for a living. It’s bizarre to see such poverty right next to the, somewhat, weatlth. Though, there is no lack of joy in their faces. They shake my hand and say things like, “thank you for coming to my country, mam, i love you”. Tell me that doesn’t melt your heart.
