Hello Everyone! It's me again! :-) this last week has been really good and I've really enjoyed everything – although the work is still very tiring and I am very grateful for these days off! If anything else, it gives me time to reply to emails and messages, as well as write a new blog post for all you lovely people who are faithfully reading this and praying for me! But it also gives me time to recuperate and charge my batteries for the week ahead, as well as reflect on the previous week.
So on Tuesday, as I posted, I went to Divisoria (a VERY large market – it just goes on and on and on!) with a couple of the women and Maureen to buy some knitting needles and wool. As should probably have been expected though, none of the stall/shop owners knew what they were and we got offered many crochet needles and sewing needles, but no knitting needles. It was a great experience though, and was like nothing else I've ever seen!
We then caught a jeepney back to Tondo to meet Brenda and EJ to go on the home visitations and prayer walk. It wasn't quite what I expected (we only visited one home for example! But that might have been due to our getting back late from Divisoria...) or what I imagined it would be, but I did enjoy it. Then we went to Navotas where I taught some of the girls there (pictures were in last week's blog post) which I always enjoy doing!
Wednesday was a really good day also – we had the morning off so I wrote some letters, and then in the afternoon we went to Tondo where I was meant to be teaching piano for the first few hours while Maureen went to a women's group. However, the keyboard didn't work! So I just went and joined the end of the women's group and then joined some of the women as they went to the hypermarket to get the groceries. When we got back it was time to help with feeding again, but I accidentally fell asleep on the table! Whoops. :-)
In the evening it was Sinag – a youth service plus feeding for 13+. It was very enjoyable – here's a few videos of the worship and some photos of the feeding.
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| Rafy handing out food! |
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| The worship team - sorry it's not such a great pic! |
On Thursday we were helping at the school again, and this week I was helping in a class. At first I was sticking labels onto their new school books, but then the teacher had to leave the class to go and do something else outside of the school, and the replacement teacher for the afternoon session took a long time to turn up, so I was left with the 5-8yr olds on my own! I'd have been fine, apart from they didn't really understand much of what I was saying, and I definitely didn't understand a word they were saying! So it was a very interesting experience. Most of my time was caught up trying to get them to stay sat down and not running about the classroom hitting each other! Then the teacher came and took them down to the library to watch a film, however they had no interest at all in watching the film, and preferred to pull all the books off the shelf. Again I was left on my own with them, so it was quite a crazy day overall! I did enjoy it though. :-)
In the evening we went out to the mall and I tried some 'frozen yoghurt' for the first time! The place we went to was set out so that you get a tub and then fill it up with different flavours of the frozen yoghurt (it looks just like icecream!) and then there are many sauces and toppings you can put on the top. You then have it weighed and you pay for it by the ounce. Unfortunately I didn't have the camera on me, but next time I will definitely get a picture of it as it is quite a sight once I've finished putting all my toppings on! :-)
On Friday there were no lessons in the school; all the pupils were coming in to help with covering their new text books (plastic covering) and then just going home. We went in to help as well, but there wasn't much we could do, so after lunch we came home. I then slept for a couple of hours in the afternoon (I was very tired!!) before we left to go to the youth drop in Tondo church. I really enjoyed it, although only about 4 people came.
Here were the activities that were on offer:
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| Art table - there were also various games tables though I didn't photograph them |
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| Piano lessons! I had just finished teaching these two boys - Brenda was our music stand as the music kept flying away because of the fan. That's one problem I never have in England! :) |
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| A gecko! He was a tiny little guy. |
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| The boys I had just finished teaching |
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| Some sort of game/playstation thing. |
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| And Christian Karaoke! I absolutely loved this! It's such a great idea. (apologies for the poor lighting in these photos - it was very dark anyway and this camera's flash isn't very powerful!) |
On Saturday I had a completely different day! I went, with Ron and Joanna, to a Hillsong Music Publishing Conference that wasn't too far from their house. There were 3 sessions in total: Worship Leading, Copyright and then Song Writing. They were all very interesting and I definitely learnt a lot! The conference was led by Steve McPherson, who's the head of Hillsong Publishing, and he really knew what he was talking about. And it was nice to hear something in English for once!
Sunday's schedule was very similar to my first Sunday here, although not as tiring! I was playing the flute in the service in the morning, and then helping in a Sunday School and then helping with the feeding program. Once again I got to Navotas a lot earlier than is on my schedule, but again they fed me (although I had already eaten in Tondo, so I only ate a little bit...) and welcomed me in. Unfortunately, one of my students for that afternoon's piano teaching was ill with a fever, so I was only teaching Christine. She could already play a bit before I started teaching her, and she has learnt incredibly fast! It was really good to just have 2 hours straight with her, and we were able to do loads of other things that I never planned on being able to do. Here is a video of her playing, although this was a while ago and she has improved a lot since this was taken:
And while I'm at it, here are some other videos of the teaching I'm doing for those interested:
(Well, it seems like the other videos won't upload! I think this post is getting too big. I'll do them on a separate post...)
After teaching, I helped at the kids church before having a rather interesting journey home! I was meant to be picked up by Fernando, but he was unable to pick me up so I had to take a taxi home. I only had 190 pesos in my purse (I had forgotten to put more money in that morning!), and we often have to pay at least that if not a lot more for a taxi, especially from Navotas. So I was praying that the taxi driver we found would put his meter on, because it would then not cost as much as 190. And then I discovered we had to get a jeepney to find a taxi! For two of us that cost 16 pesos (Brenda was taking me to get the taxi because I had no idea where to go to get one) so I was left with 174. We found a taxi as soon as we got off the jeepney and praise God it was a really nice driver who put his meter on! I still wasn't sure it would come to less than 174 pesos though – it would depend on traffic. But I wouldn't look at the meter as it climbed upwards because I knew God would look after me!
However, although the driver was very nice, he didn't understand me very well and took me to the wrong end of Adriatico Street (where the condo is). The meter was already on 166 pesos so I couldn't afford for him to drive around to get to the other end as it is a one way street. So I walked down the road that had 'Adriatico Street' written on it, although I didn't recognise it. Bad mistake. It wasn't Adriatico Street! So I was completely lost :-) I only had 8 pesos left, which is not enough for a pedicab, but I told a pedicab driver where I was staying and asked for instructions of how to get there. He told me to get in, and was very happy to take me there for only 8 pesos, which was really nice of him! It was quite a way to get to the condo, so I obviously had walked a bit too far! :-) I paid him everything I had in my purse (8pesos and 50cents!) and was very glad to be home. It was a very exciting journey though – a lot more exciting than if I had been picked up by Fernando which is how we get around every other day! And it helped me put into practice complete trust of God, even if our human logic doesn't make sense of it. I started with less than we would expect to pay for a taxi alone, yet it lasted for all three transport vehicles I needed to use.
Once I got back I needed to go to the mall to get my phone fixed because it had stopped receiving texts the previous Monday (yes it had taken me that long to realise that there was something wrong with my phone – it wasn't that everyone had stopped texting me! ;-)). I ended up having to buy a new phone, but it only cost around £15 – I got the cheapest one they had there! It is a very old Nokia model – a lot like one we had years and years ago! But it works and I love it :-)
Today has been my day off so I've just been catching up with emails etc. I've also thought about what I'm going to say on Wednesday when I've been asked to give my testimony at the youth service. I'd appreciate prayer for that, especially as it will have to be translated as I speak, and I'm very likely to lose my train of thought! Thank you!
On Friday Mum will be arriving here which will be exciting. Please pray she has a safe journey and everything goes well! I look forward to showing her everything here – videos and pictures can't really show what it is truly like.
On that note, here is a video of our walk up to the Tondo church:
It doesn't really convey it very well, but hopefully you can get the picture.
And now, finally, the yoghurts from last week! Here's the picture again:
I said that two were 'normal' flavours, and they were the ones on the bottom row - strawberry and raspberry. The other two were mango and ube! All very nice.
Sorry I don't have any new picture for you this week. I'll try to find something for next week! :)
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