Day 3 - First full day in the Philippines

​In the Philippines the sun comes up really early, most of us are up by 6am, breakfast starts at 7am which was bananas, eggs and lots more rice. Our first aspect of the day was orientation with the YWAM crew, the talk gave us more of an insight as to what to expect in the Philippines and we attempted to learn some common words they use. After we had free time, some people played basketball others played with the many adorable dogs or did some reading, before we knew it was lunch. Lunch had chicken, veggies and you guessed it, more rice!!
 

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After lunch in the Philippines they have a siesta which is their nap time from 12.30 until 2.30, but us being foreigners, a few of us decided to go for a walk to the beach despite the many weird looks we got when walking because it’s the hottest part of the day, the water looked very inviting but locals advised us not to swim there.
 
Once back we met some lovely people who talked to us about going to the slums and doing a children’s ministry there, and learnt a couple of songs that we could sing with the children. At the slums the children loved seeing new people and thought it was hilarious when we were attempted to learn some new Filipino words but couldn’t get them. They also made fun of us because of how pale a lot of us were, and how weird our colour is compared to theirs.
 
Once it was time to leave the children gave us hugs that seemed magical, because there were too many of us to fit in the van that took us there, we opted to take some very dodgy tricycle cart things through busy roads, but it was super fun and before we knew it our ride had ended. Tonight’s dinner was a special one on the rooftop as it was one of the girls who works here’s birthday, but hadn’t experienced the traditional Filippino 18th birthday, so they did a surprise dinner considering it was her 21st. There was a big feast with lots of food with the option of rice or not, there was lots of dancing and laughter it was a great night all up!
 
- Jess and Zoe