Today is the Sabbath. We had breakfast at the hotel. It was surprisingly very delicious. I had a mushroom omelet. It was yummy. We then got in the van and headed to a more rural part of Cebu to attend a church that my Lolo Val attends. Lolo Val is one of my relatives (His wife, who passed away a few years ago, and my dad's mom were sisters) who moved back to the Philippines after spending most of my life in Kamloops, Canada. I had not seen him since elementary school when we visited him and Lola Becky in Canada. I believe it was about a 2 hour drive, so I of course slept the whole way.
The church was a small church with about 15 members. Apparently one of the customs in Cebu, well at least this SDA church, was to have the visitors run Sabbath school and the church service! We were definitely not prepared, but we somehow pulled it all together. For church, Alex, Mr. Don, and Uncle Prom gave "sermonettes" and Christie and I did "special music" by singing one of the songs we learned in camp. It was an interesting experience.
After church, we went to the house that Lolo Val is staying. It is a bigger house in the American style. There were Filipino marble floor and higher ceilings. We sat at a big dining room table and had lunch that was prepared by one of his helpers. It was very delicious, especially the crispy chicken and fried fish. At lunch, Lolo Val talked about many instances in his life. He then gave us a tour around his house and showed us some pictures of some paintings that he did earlier in his life. After a quick tour, he took us to his farm where he is building a large 4 bedroom house. His farm had a pig farm, 20 of which are pregnant. He told us that he sells that piglets when they are 3 months old for about 2400 pesos. He also has about 50 roosters, used for cock fights. His nephew showed us a practice cock fight. It was pretty intense. Also on his farm, he has over 20 medium size dogs. They protect the pigs, roosters, and house at night. It is very obvious that Lolo Val is the pack leader of the group. :) After spending much of the afternoon with him, we said our goodbyes and headed back to Cebu City.
After arriving back in the hotel, Ryan, Dad, and Uncle Prom went to a barber shop to get haircuts and shaves (they were only 50 pesos!). Everyone else relaxed back at the hotel until dinner. At dinner, I had chicken soup, which was pretty good. Everyone else pretty much got chicken or fish. It was a pretty good dinner. After dinner, Ate Glad had arranged for very one to get massages in their rooms, and a manicure and pedicure for Christie and I. It was a different experience. I'm so used to going to a spa, like Austin Springs Spa, that I didn't really know what to expect. The pedicure was really just a clean up of the nails. It was the same for the manicure. I guess I'm just spoiled. The massage was interesting. They used this menthol type liquid mixed with lotion. It was like Icy Hot, minus the hot. Christie and I were shivering the whole massage! Oh well. It was a different experience.
After our massages everyone headed to bed. Tomorrow we are heading back to Manila to spend our last night in the Philippines. We will be meeting with the guidance counselors and the working student officers. There will be a couple of last minute surprises that I will blog about tomorrow! :)
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