There....and back again!

I apologise, this blog post is well overdue! I arrived back in England on 6th August, only to leave again on 9th and not get back until 14th. And since then I've just been finding my feet and getting settled back into life in England, so this is the first chance I've had to write up my conclusion to my trip. And also I didn't ever get to write about what I did on the last 4 days I was in Manila! So here goes...

On the Monday it was my normal day off, and amongst other things Mum and I visited the Hobbit House. It is a restaurant bar in Manila that happened to be just around the corner from where we were staying, and all the waiters are Hobbit sized and everything is Lord of the Rings style. It was lovely, and you can read all about our time there here: http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2011/08/03/46945-torn-spy-visits-hobbit-house-in-manila/

Tuesday was another unexpected day off because there was a crossover of two typhoons which meant flood levels were very high! So we spent the day around the condo and in the mall buying a few things to bring home with us. When I say a few, my suitcase was 37lbs heavier on the way back than it was on the way out! So you have some picture of the pile of stuff we bought :-)


Then on Wednesday it was my final day of volunteering with the church. I had the morning off and then I taught two of the girls in the afternoon before helping with the feeding in the evening. It was sad saying goodbye to everyone in the evening, especially when I know that it's going to be at least another 3 years before I see them all again.


Thursday was a normal Thursday for the most part - I was volunteering in a couple of the classes at the school during the day. And then in the evening we went out for a meal with Ron, Joanna and Maureen before taking a taxi to catch our plane to Dubai!


Dubai, although very hot, was a really nice break before getting back to the business of England. We had a lovely hotel room for the night, and we were able to visit the Dubai Mall (including its Aquarium and Ice Rink etc.!) as well as wander through some of the back streets and just observe a completely different culture.


Then on the Saturday we caught our plane from Dubai airport to come back to England! At first it really didn't feel like being 'home' - my heart was still with the people in Manila. And walking into my house was the weirdest feeling - a feeling of familiarity, but at the same time it didn't feel familiar at all. However I adjust to things very quickly, and I fitted right back into crazy life at 'home'.


I look back on my time in Manila and I can only say 'WOW!!!'. I had so many amazing experiences out there, and I grew so much as a person and especially in my faith and confidence. A summary of my time there can be found in Hosea 14-16:



¹⁴ “Therefore I am now going to allure her;
   I will lead her into the wilderness
   and speak tenderly to her.
¹⁵ There I will give her back her vineyards,
   and will make the Valley of Trouble a door of hope.
There she will sing as in the days of her youth,
   as in the day she came up out of Egypt.
 ¹⁶ “In that day,” declares the LORD,
   “you will call me ‘my husband’;
   you will no longer call me ‘my master.’



There were of course challenges, but the challenges only made my experience richer and I wouldn't have skipped them for the world! I am very much looking forward to when I can next go out and hopefully next time I can spend a few months there. 6 weeks was the perfect length of time this time round, but I would definitely like to go for longer next time.


If anyone has any questions about specifics of how I found the experience or just about anything, then feel free to email me (lisaloopylatin@freedomcounselling.net) or contact me on Facebook etc. I'm not sure that I'll often check this blog now that I'm not posting.


Finally, I want to say a massive THANK YOU to everyone. Everyone who persuaded me to get this blog in the first place, everyone who faithfully read every post I've written, everyone who messaged me with verses and encouragements or even just to say hello, everyone who helped fundraising, everyone who just supported me in the many many ways that I've needed it. And then of course everyone who welcomed me back to England because if it wasn't for you guys I think I might've just got straight back on the plane to go back over there again! ;-) THANK YOU! :-)


(P.S. Apologies for the lack of photos in this post, at the current time I have lost all my photos from 1st Aug - 6th Aug! I hope they're hiding somewhere and I just need to find them, but if not then at least I still have my memories... :-))