Down to the wire...

Plans change. Thought the US staff were meeting me at the church at 5. Ended up going to the hotel at 7 and they still weren’t back from the spa yet. After they’d spent the day at Pagsanjan Falls. Rough life, eh? The hotel was a Japanese place, and really nice. It was a little weird to have a really nice hotel room, complete with raised platform and knee high tea table, all to myself. But I really enjoyed my air conditioner and my second hot shower of the summer. Mollie, Mandy, and Heidi made it back around 8ish, and we got dinner. I can now add Japanese to the Filipino and Korean food I’ve eaten here. My first meal with chopsticks since I got to Asia.

I felt slightly embarrassed after I realized I’d been talking about a million miles an hour most of the way through dinner, but they were gracious in listening to me. What can I say? I don’t get a lot of chances to interact with Americans. It was great for me (hope they weren’t bored) to be able to process a little more all the things I’ve been thinking and experiencing. It was also fun to compare their impressions from 5 days in the Philippines to mine from 50. Heidi was tired and went to bed but the interns sat up for awhile talking about poverty, development, Christian NGOs, and being college seniors with no future plans. Good conversations and it makes me look forward to the day in Arizona with all the interns.

Then I got to show off my knowledge of jeepneys, tricycles, and Tagalog as I took the 4 of us to church in the morning. And then, of course, with 3 other Americans watching, for the first time all summer I had to argue the fare with a tricycle driver. I felt bad, but I really think he just messed up the multiplication and wasn’t trying to cheat us.

Church was fun, as always. Then lunch at Ate Debbie and Pastor Toribio’s house, which is always a good time. I even got to hear some more of Kuya Lascelles story. And I added a new food, which I am clueless how to spell, but is pronounced pretty close to bok choy. Now, I know bok choy as a vegetable, so I was a little confused when they offered it. But it's some kind of pork dish and my second one in as many weeks cooked in blood. Sounds gross, but it neither looks nor tastes strange at all. Diniguang was the other, and it tasted kind of like Mexican food. Seriously, they’re good. And not weird.

After lunch was our ‘talk show’ which ended up being lots of fun. Interestingly enough, it was about “making right choices” and halfway through the show as I was waiting outside church I broke a drainage pipe. Great decision on the part of the speaker talking about making good choices. And then half the audience or more disagreed with Ate Maila’s choice during the “dating game”, which sparked even more discussions about good choices. In general, the whole thing was kind of crazy, kind of put together at the last minute, and altogether entertaining. Of course, Pastor wanted to discuss the whole thing after, and fairly grilled Maila on her decision (joking, mostly) to get across his point. Alas, for about 90% of that conversation I was clueless as to why Maila was so embarrassed and Pastor was so intense.

The vespers service was great, especially since a bunch of youth were there from the mission church at Calamba. They came for the talk show but decided to stay, and it was really a blessing to have them. Afterwards I went to Ate Teresa’s house. She’s a former FH mom, one of her daughters is now FH staff, and she incidentally does my laundry. Good times all around, and fun to talk to Ate Daphne, the FH staff, as I never got to visit her center.

Then I talked with mom and dad on the phone. But having stayed up Saturday night til after 11, and woken up 5:30 (new places do that to me),and having a marathon day of church services, and dinner with Ate Tere, I was pretty much exhausted. Sleep was wonderful. Counting today, only 3 days left! Crazy!