THIS IS ONLY DAY 1??

EDIT: I fell asleep before I could finish this yesterday. So this is really about yesterday...

Today we left the NCCP to go to our placement sites for the summer.

I haven't stopped moving since I got up this morning.
The day started with packing up so that we could take a taxi to our new home, the Decker Home. The Decker home is formerly a home for retired deaconesses. It is dorm style with the three girls sleeping in the same room. We are all luckily on the first floor because there is no AC. I REPEAT THERE IS NO AIR CONDITIONING. The side effects of which I am feeling right now as I write this blog post.  Let's just say I savor the brief moment every couple seconds when the oscillating fan hits just right. Also the showers are taken with buckets. But I'm making a solid effort to assimilate. I wil be a bucket  shower pro by the end of this. The bugs crawling in my bed and onto me are kind of freaking me out a bit now though....

ANYWAY...
After we got our stuff settled in Decker home we went to a sports festival held with a few Methodist churches in the area. To get there though we used jeepneys. If you don't know what a jeepney is, google it. They are pretty cool and very Filipino. This was one of the things on my list of things to do. So check! After yelling to the driver, "Para po!" we got off and transferred to another jeepney and finally walked a bit to get to the park we were going.

Upon arrival we were introduced (via the loud speakers) and were immediately requested to be in people's pictures. At first it felt a bit as if we were on display. After all, the culture of the Philippines is almost 100% Filipinos. This ying yang of color that showed up was new and interesting to them. We smiled through the first few. Then started complaining how it hurts to smile for that long as the 10th camera was passed forward to take the picture and the nearest person hopped in the picture prompting another picture to be taken. We had officially entered the selfie capital of the world. I am not being dramatic or using the lovely literary device that is called hyperbole. We were in at least 1,000 photos. Easily. I let Sueña, our lovely guide and good friend you will be hearing more about soon, take my camera. It came back with 3x as many pictures as I had taken the whole past week within a span of a few minutes. If we got paid for very photo we were in I'm pretty sure I could retire.

But I digress. We were there to play sports after all. (No selfie taking is not a sport). First we watched  Konstant, my fellow GJV, play basketball with the guys. Nicole and I participated in an interesting relay where we stacked cups and chewed this sour bubble gum until we could blow a bubble. Needless to say, we were the victims of racism when we were relegated to the "white" team as opposed to the orange or green team. I thought it was funny. Then it was lunch time. We went to KFC where of course rice was served with our meals. Spaghetti was also an option. It was mostly just a relief to sit in the air conditioning. On out way back to the park we rode in tricycles. They are motorcycles with side cars where we sat. It was definitely an experience. One where I felt I was putting my life in someone else's hands. But it was fun and you know when in Manila do as the Filipinos do. After an afternoon with some intense volleyball games we finally returned to the Decker home for some much needed rest.

Showering in the evening was done with cold water and buckets. But because it is very hot in the house the cool water was very refreshing. I didn't want to get out! Since I fell asleep writing this I can reflect that it was a bit difficult to sleep in the heat. It is a constant struggle to cool down and stop sweating in this place. But God is good and will provide for my needs (which obviously does not include AC!).