Best Day Yet (and Catching Up)

I'm still here! I know it's been a while. If you are up to date on your Filipino news you should know that the lovely Typhoon Glenda visited me on Wednesday. It was my first typhoon and I was very glad to be staying at the Decker home and not one of the communities I visited. They have been destroyed in the storm and one of the volunteers who works with us stayed behind to help with the damage. Our power was out until Friday and the wifi was still out when we left. I was able to contact my mom for a few minutes at the mall which was running on generators. But obviously not enough to get on my blog. So! I have lots to talk about that will definitely take more than one post. I hope to write about my day and then post  again about previous days. So yay for lots to read!

Yesterday we left for the Aeta community in Floridablanca in Pampanga. It was a two hour drive north of Manila. Upon arrival, we walked for about ten minutes including a walk over a sketchy bridge, to reach the mission church. We were greeted by choir practice for the kids going on in the sanctuary. They were so cute!! They were doing their dancing and it was just so nice and welcoming to see. We got our rooms and then returned for more choir practice before dinner and bed. Well not really a bed. More like a board they put a blanket on. But there are a lot of amenities that are nicer than Decker including ice cold water from the dispenser, the toilet has a seat, and it's a bit cooler here at night. Oh and there's wifi here in the middle of nowhere! So praise The Lord for that!

Today started out at 5:30am. It's hard to wake up at 4:30 just to get a freezing cold bucket shower.  We went across to the sanctuary for a morning prayer time only slightly late. After that time we ate breakfast which was very filling. We had church at 8am. It was so refreshing and just fun. They know how to sing with soul here. It's a lot like shouting but their heart is in it. And you know most of them have the right pitch too! But actually it's very pure. There's no front to it. They are singing to Gid and for God and you can tell they really love Him and worship Him here.

After service, which was a mix of English and a Filipino dialect, we had a presentation on the Aeta and the community we are in. This was followed by a tour of the community led by the youth. --side note-- everyone here is at most 5 feet tall so it's hard to determine ages when you look down at everyone. -- So anyway, I was led around by a girl who was 16 and in her first year at college studying social work. This may seem young but here this is normal because there are not as many grades of primary schooling. She was accompanied by other first and second year college students studying engineering and teaching. I got to see their houses which vary from very hut-like to hut-house combos. I was given fresh coconut milk at a house we stopped at and tried the fruit inside it as well. This was sooooo good! I then followed them up a trail to a coconut tree where one of the boys climbed it to cut down some more coconuts. They made a reed straw and I had fresh coconut juice. It was like straight out of Survivor.

We returned for lunch and then had free time for the rest of the day. We decided to go down to the river (the one underneath the sketchy bridge) to swim. Best idea yet. So we climbed over river stones upstream of where the women and younger girls were washing clothes and little kids were bathing. There the kids slowly gathered around us to watch us play in the water and to play with us of course! It was again so much fun. Eventually it started to rain but we were already wet and in the water so it didn't matter. Also at some point a caribou joined us in the water. That was only slightly freaky and mostly cool. At some point the rain got too heavy for us to be in the river so we walked back up to the church. We were soaked through. Even if we hadn't been in the river we would have been soaked through by the time we got back. And it's only a 5 minute walk max.

A side effect of the rain is that the water gushes from the gutters. Conveniently it created a fantastic water pressure. More than I've had here the whole time. So Nicole and I grabbed our shampoo and soap and washed our hair outside underneath these spouts of rain water. We then proceeded to lay on the pavement and be massaged by the rain. It was very relaxing.

You may think, "Wow what an exciting day! What else could they possibly pack in?" Well ladies and gentlemen I have checked off yet another Filipino must. Tonight for dinner I tried balout. What is balout you ask? I've had it describe to me as chicken abortion. I've been told its not uncommon to first try it in the dark so it doesn't make you sick just looking at it. (Which mind you it did).  Balout is an egg that has been incubated for 30days before it is cooked. So basically it's pretty well developed chicken fetus. And it looks a lot like brain son the inaccurate. Not that I've seen brains before either. It was just nasty looking. I was spared from the chicken part which has its beak and feathers already developing.  The part I tasted was mostly like the yellow part of a hard boiled egg only nastier. Just slimy and gross and full of shattered chicken dreams. While I'm being melodramati, it wasn't actually that bad. It was mostly a mental thing. But I did it so now everyone can stop bugging me. It's a c'mon question here for foreigners.

Today was a really good day. This was definitely needed after the busy end of last week that I will be sure to tell you about soon. We meet some of the local college students tomorrow so hopefully the fun will continue.

More stories will come in my free time so be sure to keep checking or sign up for email alerts at the bottom of the page. :)