Here's a little rundown on what we've been doing the last few weeks. We arrived in Manila and stayed there about two days. Manila is really hot and has a ton of people. So we spent those days going to the mall, exchanging our money, etc. After those 2 days we went down to a place called Laguna. It's about an hour south of Manila. There we spent a week at IFL. We learned how to take a 10x10 meter plot of land (with a house) and grow a garden that would hopefully provide food year round. It's called FAITH gardening which means food always in the home. I was pretty sick that week and had a really tough time eating. In addition to learning the gardening, it is an orphanage and school so we got to hang out with really great kids all week. A lot of the kids have really crazy stories, like being found in a dog cage with human bite marks and sores all over them, but despite all that they have great hearts and a huge love for Jesus. It was really a great thing to see. So after that week we went back to Manila for a day and a half and then got on a bus to take us up to Tabuk. The bus ride was 10 hours, but it was way more comfortable than the airplane (except they kept the air con on all night so it was freezing cold). So then we spent a day in Tabuk where we went to the market, internet cafe, etc. Then we went into the resettlement village (pakok) where we did our homestay for a week. That was a pretty big challenge for a lot of us. I was dealing with some depression, home sickness, and culture shock, but I've received a lot of prayer and feel a lot better now. Jack and I stayed in a really nice home that was made out of cement. The family was the son of the pastor and he and his wife are both 24 years old. They have two children. It was pretty hard because so far most places we went the people can speak English really well, but in the village most people don't. The family we stayed with did speak a little English, but it was hard to communicate. Jack and I got to plant rice fields for half a day (which we found out we were horrible at). It was actually pretty comical, we were really slow and had a hard time planting straight rows . After that day, Jack was invited by Johnny (the husband we stayed with) to plow the fields. Jack ended up being really good at that and enjoyed it. So he did that for a few days. Loida (the wife we stayed with) wouldn't let me help her do anything so I did a lot of just wandering around and sleeping. We ate rice every meal and had a lot of fish. They butured a chicken and a duck while we were there and we also ate some caribou. It was pretty interesting. So we just got back from our homestay Tuesday night. Yesterday it rained all day and Jack and I went to the market and today we are here at the internet cafe doing email and updating our website. We go on our first medical outreach tomorrow and then over the next week or week and a half we do 4 or 5 medical outreaches at some villages that are pretty close to Tabuk. Then we go to another school for two weeks to learn Child development and some primary health care in the Philippines. After that I'm not exactly sure of the plan.
