Greetings from the Philippines!
a view from our camp at Puerto Galera

There's so much to say but in this installment, i'll share some of the downs and ups of the being here...

The lows:
1) Transportation problems!
- pollution. i always thought it was LAUSD busses w/ their thick cloud of black exhaust that was causing global warming. but no, it's really just the entire metro-manila transportation system! most cars are OLD and run on diesel. apparently, the gov't solution to the problem is to set up smog checks in the middle of random roads. if you happen to get pulled over, you get a 300 peso ticket (~$6). would you rather pay that or much more to have your car fixed??

this is a jeepnee, the most common form of public transportation. the back is open and inside, 2 rows face each other. they were modelled after WW2 transports and the technology seemingly hasn't improved since then!

and

-traffic. besides the enormous amt of cars of the road, most of the time there are no LANE MARKERS! no white stripes on the road to tell the lanes apart. and some red-light signals mean something and others are ignorable, and to make a lefthand turn, you just drive into the left side of the road into incoming traffic and hope the cars will stop for you. also, there are few crosswalks so pedestrians just pop out onto any road. it's a nightmare for someone who's been in a million accidents like me!

2) The BUGS!!!! oh why are they so big and why do they seem to like me so much??

this picture doesn't do the roach justice! actual size...about 5 inches! and just as i was getting used to their presence b/c i figured they wouldn't come near humans, i learned that they fly and bite! eeeeeeeek!

But the highs:
Besides the wonderful, *wonderful* people and ministry here, there are always things that surprise me and make me burst into giggles.
1) Walking in the market, i ran into these tiny bananas...

nano-sized!

2) The other evening at the girls' street children home, i saw a bunch of them tracing the shape of their feet onto some paper and writing their names inside. Cute, huh? The next day, a few of the staff went shopping in Manila's Chinatown for much-needed supplies, and one of the items was rubber-soled shoes for PE. When the saleslady asked what sizes we wanted, Momma Linda busted out 24 pieces of paper that were the cut-outs of the girls' feet! Then we literally dug through the barrel of shoes and held up the papers to the bottoms of shoes to see if it would fit the girls!

obviously not a very accurate way to buy shoes...and boy, were some of them off! a few of the girls got shoes up to 1.5 inches too big! whoops!

3) A few days ago, the Scott's next-door neighbor walked out w/ pair of trimming shears like these:

Okay, definitely not too odd but then he squatted down and began "mowing" his lawn with them. =)

This aculturating isn't always easy... but i am so thankful for the opportunity to learn so much and meet such amazing people. i only hope that i'm helping or blessing them half as much as i'm being blessed!

prep for my trip
t-22 hours till departure!

Since i won't have a formal orientation for my trip this summer, a couple girls and i decided to go on a retreat to spend some quality time w/God. we shared our recent reflections on life and had personal devos... it was water for my soul. speaking of which, we stayed at a hotel in the desert (near Palm Springs) with temperatures above 115, so we also spent quite a bit of time in the pool!

hours and hours during sat afternoon, evening, and sun morning passed while we were here... considering i don't know how to swim, that's a lot of time! so what did i do? splash, play, laugh like i'm on crazy pills... =) and boy am i dark now!

i got practice mixing cultures when my coworkers took me out for a goodbye party (since i'll be switching schools). i introduced them all to the wonderful world of KARAOKE!


why does time pass by so quickly in that little room??

and some of them had never had boba before!

my filipino coworker made this for me... haha!

and one very serendipitous discovery i've made recently is that all those months of hiking really strengthened my quads which will help me when i'm using squatty potties all summer! t.m.i?? heehee

so...am i ready? not quite, but i'm thrilled to have the opportunity to spend my summer just loving kids.