Day Twelve in the Philippines:

Mastered habits:
Hand washing my clothes in buckets
Using the correct etiquette when interacting with Filipinos (this is more complicated than you would think)
Eating without utensils
Taking (cold) bucket showers

New Foods:
Fish heads (not too bad)
Squid chips (delicious!)
Pancin (thin noodles with a variety of add-ins)
and LOTs more… every day I eat a food I have not heard of before!

New Words:
“Anong ginagawa mo”: what are you doing?
“Saan ka pupunta”: where are you going?
“Hindi Kita Maintin dihan”: I don’t understand you !
And my personal favorite “Puno ako ng Kaligiyahan!”: I am full of joy!

New Experiences:
English Lessons today were interrupted by a HUGE rat scurrying across the doorway of the schoolroom! I attempted to get a picture, but by the time I worked up the nerve to follow it with my camera, it had vanished (drat)!

On Monday I attended a seminar on the end times at Ate Ruth’s sister’s church, along with a vanload of the older teen guys and girls at SOTH here in Manila. The worship was awesome and the teaching was intense- One preacher taught for 6+ hours straight without even one break! It was so exciting to see the church here in the Philippines so passionate about getting ready for Jesus’ return! After the teaching I met many new friends within the church family, including a bunch of adorable kids- Stephen, Jamie, Hannah, Josiah, Jeremiah….. I had a blast squatting in the dust counting bottle caps and bits of cardboard in Tagalog with 2 year old Jamie: “isa, dalawa, tatlo, apat, lima, anim, pito, walo, sham, sampu!”

All for now! So much to do! Here are a few pictures:
Eating Ice Cream with Anne! Hers is cheese flavored. The main flavors here are vanilla and cheese instead of chocolate and vanila!

This is a typical street view...

Learning to wash my clothes with no washer and no dryer!


Side note: does anyone want to send me some money to buy this little guy a walker? Caleb is blind and he gets bored lying in his crib since he can’t have anything to look at, etc… It would be 20 USD max for a nice one.  He’s only 6 months but he prays for one every day (With a little help).