I forgot to mention in my last post. I was slightly adventurous and got Korean style beef, also known as bibimbap, for dinner and kimchi for breakfast. The breakfast was excellent. I am so looking forward to eating yummy, authentic, Asian food! ;)
And back to Day 3. We arrived in Manila around 11:30 AM. We took our hour ride to AUP and got checked into our rooms for the trip. Mom, Dad, Christie and I are sharing a house with 2 bedrooms. Ryan and Alex are in one of the rooms of the alumni “hotel”. Mr. Don and Mrs. Darlene are on one side of a duplex next to Ate Glad and Uncle Prom. As soon as we unloaded we went straight to the cafeteria for a “merienda”, otherwise known as snack time. Oh, but Alex can tell you that this was not any ordinary snack. It was basically a meal. There was rice, pancit (a Filipino noodle dish), a “beef” tofu dish (I don’t really know how to describe it. This campus is all vegetarian.), caramelized bananas and fresh pineapple. It was very delish!
After snack time we all came back to our houses. Some took naps, I was definitely included in this group, while others greeted some students would delivered our boxes to the house for tomorrow’s preparation. It was kind of nice because it started to rain heavily so it was a nice pitter patter on the roof, at least for me, and it lowered the temperature significantly. After nap time, we went straight back to the cafeteria for dinner with the advisors of the working students. There was soooo much food. Let me try to remember. Well, there was rice as always, another “beef” tofu dish, vegetables, macaroni and cheese (not your traditional Easy Mac), watermelon and “buko” (coconut) pie. It again was very good. I didn’t eat much because I ate so much at snack time. I guess I will have to prepare for that in the upcoming days.
Currently, all of us are back at our houses and almost everyone is in bed but me. I took a shower, a much needed shower because it is extremely hot, even more so than last year, and rainy. So back to the shower (get your mind out of the gutter! ), if you’ve never experienced showering in a third world country you will probably not believe me. Ok. You walk into the shower. You see three knobs, a large box above the shower head, bucket and pail. Mrs. Darlene has already looked and immediately asked how to shower. I, over the many mistakes from last year, have learned quite a bit about these showers. The knobs are for hot, cold, and use of either the shower head or the other spout. The box above the shower head is to heat the water before running through the shower head. Now here’s the kicker. The bucket and pail is for exactly what you think it is. See, last year I didn’t think I needed to use it since the shower head was working perfectly with warm water. I saw it as just a think taking up space. That is until we went to Palawan last time and I was in the middle of shampooing my hair when a rolling brown out occurred (that is no electricity). Needless to say, I don’t like cold showers especially when washing my hair even if it is 90o outside. So, the bucket is the first thing I fill up before doing anything else.
Moving on, I know that just about everyone but the kids (and I mean Alex, Ryan, Christie and myself) were talking business about the mission trip over dinner. I don’t know exact numbers or anything, but I do know that we have a major work day ahead of us. Hopefully I will be able to post about specific numbers and things to give you a better picture of the work we are doing here. So, as I say good night after an exhausting day I want to say good morning to you because I know you are just starting your day, we miss you guys already and we got here safe and sound! (My computer is still set to the Johnson City time so I have an idea as to the time difference.)
P.S. I’m not quite sure if I have internet access here. We have a phone, but it doesn’t work. I don’t know if that means that the actual phone doesn’t work or that the line isn’t working. So, if you are reading this, it is probably a post that I wrote earlier and when I got internet access added it to my blog.
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