The Real Phils

Sorry it's been so long since my last blog.  A LOT has happened, so I will do my best to fill you in as best as I can.

We recently had our parent/teacher conferences, which went very well.  It was great to meet all of the parents and learn about what they are doing here in the Philippines.

The day after conferences began our "October Break" and some friends and I headed to a nearby beach to get refreshed for the next quarter.  It was nice to get away for a few days and get some rest.  This first quarter has been all adjustments, and I really enjoyed the short break from Manila.  It was nice to be able to breathe freely again!  I had forgotten what clean air smelled like!


Right after break, I ran my first road race here.  It was just a 5K, but it was pretty difficult, since I am out of my normal running routine--plus, high humidity and pollution is hard to get used to, but I had a great time.  Someone took a couple of photos of me along the way, so I'll post them when I can.

 Last weekend, I had the chance to visit one of the nearby squatter villages in Manila.  This is the way that most people in Manila actually live.  I live pretty simply here in the Philippines, and sometimes it's tempting to complain about the things that make living here difficult.  But in comparison to the people living here, I have so much and more-- in addition to that, I have a choice about where I want to live, where I want to shop, what foods I want to buy.  Their choices are extremely limited, and most of their needs are provided right there in the squatter community.

                                                          Washing clothes in the stream.

                        Yeah, I wasn't feeling super great about crossing this bridge, but we made it.                               You can see behind me the condition of the houses in the community.

  This is the preschool for the squatter community..  It's called preschool, but it's for students ages 3-7. 

                                           This is Ellis.  We loved him!  Can you blame us??

In the above picture is my friend Ruth, who is helping out at Faith Academy for this first semester.  Her mission organization spends a lot of time in the squatter villages, so I asked if I could tag along.  It was perfect, because she was planning to teach some of the students a dance from High School Musical (if you know me, then you know that's right up my alley), so she asked if I would come along and teach the Hoedown Throwdown (Hannah Montana country line dance).  We had a great time teaching the youth (high school/college) these dances.  They were a little familiar with the songs, which shows just how far our American culture reaches the third world.  In teaching them these dances, we were able to form some relationships with the people there, and they begged us to come back and keep helping them with the dances!  It was such a fun day, and it was awesome to see how God can use something that seems so silly (like Disney channel dances) to make connections with people living in poverty.  I am excited about revisiting this community!