Villages, Crosses, Shopping, Oh My!

Oh my goodness, so much has happened since my last post! The short version is that we went to an Ayta village from Friday to Saturday, to a Filipino church in Bataan on Sunday and toured a little bit (with the vice mayor at that!), Monday we shopped, and today we were back with the kids!

The village was an absolutely incredible and unique experience. I feel so blessed to have been able to be in that place because it is so very different from American life. The people were beautiful, dark-skinned, and curly-haired. They looked similar to African people groups, and they actually are the indigenous people group here in the Philippines. They are often discriminated against and looked down on by other Filipinos, and they have actually taken on the mindset that they are worth less. But I couldn't disagree more because they were some of the most incredible and gifted people that I have met in the Philippines! They treated our group with such honor and respect. It was a huge deal for us to visit them because their last visitors came in February and other than that, they just live among themselves, although the children do go to school - some in the community and some a little farther away for high school. I don't have time to tell their whole history now, but it is very interesting, and you should ask me later if you want to know. Two of the girls, Jubilyn and Marta, really liked to hang out with me. They introduced themselves as cousins and best friends, and I told them Charis was my best friend, so they would take Ate Sarah and Ate Charis to explore the river or play games or sing. Also, the food was great and it sure felt like we were eating real Filipino food! I even had dried fish that was the complete fish - eyeballs and all! :)

Saturday night we left the village and went to a town in Bataan (for you WWII history buffs, this is where the Bataan Death March took place - very, very interesting for me, as I remember studying this in AP US History). We spent the night in an elementary school (with air conditioning, or air con, as they call it here), and went to church in the morning. After church we got a personal tour from the vice mayor of some of the area around Bataan, including this HUUUUGE cross on top of a mountain. That is what the picture above is from. Since you are on top of a mountain, you are already kinda in the clouds, and then you can go to the top of the cross (or, where the two beams meet) and then you might be surrounded by clouds, or if it clears up, there is a FANTASTIC view. It was gorgeous, and I have great pictures, but they would take too long to upload now. After the tour we came back to Manila (but not without a pit stop at McDonalds, although I only had some fries).

Monday we got to go shopping! This was pretty fun because we went to a market where we could haggle! Sometimes I like haggling, because I really enjoy getting good deals, but I don't always like arguing about prices because it makes me feel bad, so I made sure to stick close to my good friend Michael Frank, and he helped me out a lot. He basically turns into another person when he is haggling, saying things like no, no, no, she is a poor college student, how could she pay for that! Haha, it was great. I got lots of stuff that I had been looking for, and since I will be leaving the team early, it was pretty much my only day to shop. Also, Monday night Charis and Mrs Jones and I went to a spa and got manicures and pedicures! That was fun, although it did take a long time. But, manicure, pedicure, and foot scrub/massage thing only cost $4! Beat that, America!

Today I was with the kids again in the nursery. They are so cute! Tomorrow will be my last day with them because on Thursday we are going to Puerto Galera and coming back Sunday, and I leave bright and early on Monday.

This trip is going by so quickly, but it has been fantastic so far. Thank you for all your prayers!

Oh, and P.S., my infection is healing quite nicely. :)