Hello!
I'm going to try and make this post not too long, mainly because I don't have much time before I have to go out this evening!
I finished my previous post with Saturday, so I will start up this one with Sunday. The church was once again flooded so the service took place at the New School while we were helping with the feeding in the church building. I love helping with the feeding – it is such a privilege to feed the children. And last Sunday we were able to feed 290 children and didn't have to turn any away because of no food!
We finished the feeding early so we went over to the New School to see the end of the service. It was Mum's first time at the school so I was able to show her round and introduce her to some of the people there which was nice. We left there at around 11.30 and then Fernando drove us to the bus station where we caught a bus to Baguio! Baguio is a province about 6hrs north of Manila where PCF have a church and an office. We were planning on taking a few days off to see a bit of the Philippines that wasn't Manila anyway, so we had decided to combine it with seeing a bit more of the work PCF do and visit the sites in Baguio. We got into Baguio station at 8.30pm and Ptr Eddie met us and showed us to our Hotel, which was really lovely of him! We hadn't expected that at all.
The Hotel we were staying at was lovely and really made us feel welcome. That is just the culture though – I haven't been anywhere and not made to feel welcome. The people go out of their way to look after you and always go the extra mile. That's definitely something I will miss being back in England! And I think it's definitely something we can learn from them.
The next day, Monday, we were able to have a bit of a lie-in before Ptr Eddie picked us up at 10 to show us around the sites. There is just a tiny church and an office with a couple of extra rooms for livelihood Mums. They don't have a school here, but instead they sponsor the children to go to state schools. They do make some of the products here though, and have about 20 Mums who now have a much larger regular income, doing something that is a lot safer than picking trash!
Here are some photos of the mission and the area and dump:
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| View from the bus! |
If you compare them to the photos of the dumps in Manila, you can immediately tell that they are a lot cleaner. But that doesn't mean that the work is any less important – it's just as vital that the children and the adults are taken off the dumps!
After seeing round the site, we were able to go shopping in the wonderful market stalls they have here. It was wonderful and very cheap compared to England!! Then we went for a wander and saw a bit more of Baguio the city.
We travelled back to Manila the next morning, arriving at the bus station at 5pm. We were meant to then go onto Navotas (I had a lesson I needed to teach), but it had been raining all day and the flooding (and therefore the traffic) was very very bad, so we were unable to go and instead had the evening at home. It was a shame, but quite providential seeing as we had just been away for a couple of days!
On Wednesday the rain was still just as bad, and again all activities were cancelled. So effectively, I had 3 days off again! And because we had spent 2 of them in travelling to and from Baguio, I was very glad of the third one to rest and get my strength up. Although I then did go to bed very late on the Wednesday evening (because I was writing the previous blog post to this one) which I suffered greatly for over the next 2 days!
Thursday was a fairly 'normal' day with helping in the kindergarten classes during the day. During the morning class I covered the last of their new text books, did some marking and played with the children etc. In the afternoon class there wasn't much for me to do, so I was just sat down. Not a good thing to do if you've only had 4/5 hours sleep the previous night! I only fell asleep once, but I was very close to doing so on a lot more occasions! I did play a bit with the teacher's 3 year old daughter whom she had brought into the class and was being a bit disruptive. So I kept her occupied! :)
Friday was my day for helping in the school again and was very like Thursday in terms of what I did! Except in the afternoon I sat in on Mum's group for some of the boys aged 9-14. We finished there at 3pm, and then we went across to the church to do Wednesday's feeding that we had missed because of the rain. That went well as always, and then we returned back to the condo.
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| Mum leading the boys group |
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| Some of the children we gave food to |
Saturday was a very long day, a lot longer than usual, but very very enjoyable! We started with feeding at the church and then I taught a lesson while Mum led a women's group.
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| Bagging up the food! I'm wet because it was raining :) |
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| Mum leading the women's group |
And then at 2pm we had the privilege of being able to visit the family of our sponsor children! It took us a couple of hours to get there, but it was well worth it just to see the looks on their faces as we arrived. They were so excited to be able to meet us! One of the social workers who came with us offered to be our 'official photographer', so he used my camera and took loads of photos throughout our visit. So for this rare occasion, there are actually quite a few that have me in them! And it meant I was able to concentrate all my attention on spending time with Julienne, my sponsor child, rather than having to always be thinking about taking lots of pictures to remember the visit by!
At first we saw the house where they had moved to. The family is living with the mother's brother and his children, and in total there are 13 of them living in this tiny almost one-roomed house! (there's a little bit 'upstairs' so that's why it's ALMOST one-roomed :-)). Then we drove to see where they will eventually be living – there will only be the 5 of them in this house I think, but although there will be more space, it is still no where near big enough! Here are the pictures so you can see for yourself:
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| One of the 2 rooms in their new house |
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| The other of the rooms |
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| This is a washing area they will share with the other houses around |
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| And the toilet! |
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| The group of us that went to visit the house |
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| The same group but with Chris (one of the social workers) in it instead of me! |
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| The group of children we gathered! |
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| Repairing the van! |
After that, we were just on our way back to the other house when our vehicle broke down! We had been planning on leaving fairly soon after that because it would be another 2 hours to get back, but instead we had to stay for a lot longer. In some ways it was good because we were able to spend a lot more time with the children, but I'm sure we began to be a bit in the way. We didn't want to stop them getting on, so in the end we left the driver in the village and came back to Manila by public transport. It was quite an adventure! We took a pedicab and then an FX bus followed by a train and a taxi! The train wasn't like a train we have in England. More like the underground tube, but attached to wires like a tram and above ground!
We ended up getting back after 10pm, so after quickly cooking some dinner (I hadn't eaten anything other than crisps since 8am!) we went to bed.
It was really really nice to see our Sponsor Children, and exceeded any expectations I had of the visit. Julienne was so lovely and so very sweet! At one point she asked me where my father was, and when I said 'England', she replied in the sweetest voice with 'My Father's in Heaven'. It was the way she said it that really broke my heart. She's only 7, but has had to live through so much more than we will ever have to live through! She couldn't stop smiling and saying thank you, but I think I really should be the one thanking her!
On Sunday we were helping with the feeding once again, and then Mum and I went to Navotas. Mum was leading another woman's group – this time for the ladies in Navotas – while I was teaching a one off Music Theory lesson to a couple of the girls; Brenda and Cristine. They really impressed me with how quickly they learnt and in an hour and a half I was able to teach them a lot more than I had expected to be able to! And as usual I really enjoyed the lesson and we had great fun.
After the lesson we came home because the kids church was cancelled due to rain and flooding. And then I spent the evening relaxing and catching up on emails and messages!
And now we only have 3 and a bit days left before we catch a plane to come home to England! The time has gone very quickly, and I have been so grateful for every single experience that I've encountered while being out here. I haven't always enjoyed everything (although I have enjoyed almost everything), but even the 'bad' experiences have been good!
As always, I hope you've enjoyed this one, and another blog post will be coming later in the week.... :-)
