1.17.2009

Another Week Comes to an End

And so the second week of the semester comes to an end. I had this feeling this week of juggling too many balls and starting to drop those balls. I bought a little checkbook-sized planner this week. I really must get on top of all that is happening and work on keeping things running smoothly.

Every year the entire middle school leaves the city for a week to go on Outdoor Ed. Logistically, it is a completely overwhelming week. But not only is the week itself overwhelming, the many weeks leading up to the actual week can be a stressful time. I am co-leading a squad of 13 Grade 7 girls. We have squad meetings each Friday in which we have different tasks that we must complete. Recent squad meetings have had us trying to decide on a squad name (the Banaba Babaes, if you're wondering), a t-shirt design (caricatures of our cute faces), coming up with a squad cheer, learning songs to sing at our ministry day, and overall bonding. There are three very distinct groups of friends in our squad and it is hard to get everyone working together at times.

Yesterday, we took the bonding to another level by having a sleepover in my high school classroom. I'm so very thankful for my co-leader. Julie is fantastic! The evening was filled with watching a HS girls basketball game, lots of pizza, watching the sunset, me brushing out my hair, learning three songs for our ministry day, an Amazing Race, Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken, brownies in bed, and Truth or Dare. My hair apparently was a big hit. No doubt that it was big too. I usually wear my hair up since it can get so warm. They wanted to see it down and I decided to take it a bit further. I had to buy a brush especially for the occasion.

During the rounds and rounds of Truth or Dare, I shoved my earphones in and fell asleep. Although I was asked numerous times to join in, I passed. I really don't think they wanted me to know all of the juicy details they shared. That might be a bit awkward come Monday when I'm at the front of the class knowing all sorts of info.

This morning, an alarm went off at 5:30. No idea why someone needed to be up that early! Thankfully, the girls kept sleeping. We ended our morning with breakfast in the senior hall together.

Despite my lack of preparation and organization, the whole thing went off so much better than I expected! And I think I even had a good time.

1.11.2009

A Weekend in Los Banos

I had a great weekend away from Manila. You wouldn't think that I would need a weekend out of the city after being back for just a week but it was just what I needed. I've been meaning to visit Dwayne and Gladys for ages but it just has never worked out. My weekends are generally full of busy-ness and craziness. Last semester we said that it must absolutely happen in the 3rd quarter. So what better weekend than the first weekend?

Dwayne and Gladys came all the way out to Faith to
pick me up on Friday afternoon. What a blessing! Taking a bus or some other method of public transportation just wouldn't have been as fun. Despite the fact that we hit rush hour traffic, we had nice conversations in the car. And who can beat a stop at Yellow Cab? They do pizza right.

Saturday was a very full day! Gladys showed me a bit of the town and a few things they are involved in. And we ate banana-que. Oh so delicious! We went back to the house where I laid down for my first nap. Ridiculous to nap before lunch but I think I was a bit tired after trying to get back into the school thing. Lunch at the house. A little more reading. I finished two of my young adult books - Freak the Mighty and Among the Hidden.

In the afternoon, Gladys and I went up to a squatter village where Gladys does a Bible lesson with heaps of kids each Saturday. They were so cute! I mostly just took pictures and tried to lis
ten carefully to figure out what Gladys was saying in Tagalog. I think I got a fair bit of it.

Handing out nametags.

Everyone wanted to answer the question.

Coloring is a big deal.

Oh so cute!

Everyone gathers to say goodbye.

After the Bible lesson, Gladys and I were off to check out the "baths." Los Banos - taken from Spanish "los banyos" - the baths. The whole community is surrounded by hot springs! Even the water at the house is definitely warmer than what we usually have in Manila. When you drive down the main road, there are hundreds of resorts lining the road and then even more with attendents out on the road waving to you, hoping that you'll go down the little side street that will lead to their "resort." We found a fairly clean one. There was one main pool and a kiddie pool. The water felt like lukewarm bath water until you went down to the covered end where a big fountain was spurting HOT water into the pool. It was painful to the touch and you couldn't stand under it for very long. Fun, nonetheless. It would've been a shame to go to Los Banos and never visit one of the baths.

After a good swim and a beautiful view of a full moon through the palm trees, we headed back to the house to pick up Dwayne and the girls to go to Arla for dinner. Arla is this amazingly cute restaurant that is owned and run by a former Faith classmate of mine. PJ does such an amazing job there! Such delicious food and a great time of catching up a little bit. I got to meet her husband and her two boys. Missed out on her little girl because she was asleep though.


I was her first classmate to come to her restaurant! A great privilege for me.

Today (Sunday) felt even more full. We went to church. What an amazing feeling to worship with other believers even when you can't always understand what's going on. I had the benefit of knowing all of the English praise and worship songs but not so lucky with the sermon. It was all in Tagalog. Wow, I really need to work on my Tagalog.

Dwayne and I went out for coffee while Gladys and the girls had Sunday school. I feel so blessed to have shared the coffee and conversations.


When Sunday school was finished, we started our trek back to Manila. Halfway back we took a detour up to Tagaytay. Tagaytay overlooks Taal. I can't believe I've lived so close and have never been there. Taal is an active volcano but what makes it even more strange is that the volcano is surrounded by a crater lake and then there's another crater lake inside of the volcano. It's so crazy.

We ate lunch at a BEAUTIFUL hotel that overlooks the whole expanse. It was a bit cloudy today but I think you might be able to imagine how divine it must look with the sun shining down on it. Lunch was delicious too. I had a roast beef sandwich and a bowl of minestrone soup. The soup was absolutely necessary because it was so freezing cold up there! Oh my goodness. Even my sweater did not help much.

Taal


So now here I am back at home. I've been working on school stuff for the past two hours and I have a bit more to do before I'll be prepared for class tomorrow. I just felt that I had to share about my weekend though.

1.02.2009

Moments of Indecision

I had a blog entry on here a couple days ago that I ended up taking off. The message that it conveyed is not one that I want to promote. As in any country, there are truly ridiculous things that can happen to you. However, I think that post accomplished little to express my love for this place. This country has been my home for more than 10 years now and I want people to love it as much as I do.

My apologies if you missed the first post and this message is cryptic. You can e-mail me personally if you want more details.