Catching Up

As I read my most recent comments, I realized it was time for a new blog! I really appreciate the comments, sorry they can be a bit difficult to post. For a while there, I was wondering if anyone was still reading them. I worried maybe they had lost their charm after four months. Well, just so you all know, the homesickness isn't going away, as much as I love it here. It really helps hearing from my loved ones and knowing that you're still keeping up with me, even if I can't always keep up with you. I certainly need your prayers now more than ever. The American teams that I have been doing some of the groundwork for will start arriving tomorrow for orientation. But before I get ahead of myself, let me update you on the past couple weeks.

My time at Surallah was great! I'm so excited about going back to work with the kids. It looks like the three of us will be doing some on-campus Bible studies at the local high school and elementary school. The orphanage kids will invite their friends, although I don't think we'll have any trouble attracting a crowd. I really look forward to meeting my two team members and seeing what we can do together. I'm also pretty excited about having some companions my age who can sympathize with the difficulties of being a foreigner. (Plus I'm kind of a know-it-all and I look forward to showing them the ropes! Hehe...)

This is a picture of a couple of the kids working on that planter. Pretty nice work, huh? I was very impressed.


This is some of the boys at dinner. There was a birthday that day, so they had special food- spaghetti, pancit (noodles with meat and veggies), and rice- for dinner! The boy in the middle is quite the singer, he wowed us all at camp when he performed for us, and he was very helpful in my choir practice.



While Nice and I were in Surallah, we visited Lake Sebu with the director and her family. This is two of her kids with Nice and me. I'm the monkey and Nice is the little boy. Good times. :)


This is one of my favorite pictures so far, Nice and me at Lake Sebu. I'm really going to miss her when I go home! She's been a great friend.



After my time in Surallah, I had a couple of weeks off. I returned to Butuan, where I spent my first month in the Philippines, to visit my friends there for a few days. I got to see almost everyone I wanted to see and spend some good time with my friends there. While there, I also got to attend a wedding and a birthday party.

This was taken at a birthday party I attended. We had a lot of fun there, especially with the karaoke machine provided for the guests' entertainment. And yes, I did sing a couple of songs. This is a picture of lechon baboy, which is a whole cooked pig, skin and all. It's a popular treat for parties. As you can see, this guy is already mostly eaten. I'm surprised he still has an ear though, those usually get snatched right up! It's a little weird cutting the meat out, but it tastes great (as long as you don't get a piece with hair on it!)


Lastly, this is my friend Pie and me. I stayed at her house for a couple nights in Butuan (which was vastly better than the hotel I had been staying at). We had a lot of fun hanging out at her place with our friends.


I had a blast in Butuan and was very sad to leave, especially knowing that I wouldn't be back, at least not any time in the near future. I have some great friends there who I hope I can keep in touch with.

After Butuan, I returned to Davao and the house of my supervisors. We had a few more days off before being totally consumed in preparations for the arrival of the American teams. We constructed all of these team building/obstacle course kind of things for each team. We made everything from raw materials and spent a lot of time drawing, cutting, sawing, sewing, and sweating. It was a lot of work, but we had fun hanging out with each other. Last night after the work was done, I went out with some of the Filipinos my age who are helping out. We went to the mall, a huge public park (a very popular hang-out), and to a very reasonably priced dinner, complete with unlimited rice! What more could you ask for? Oh, and we ate with our hands like the country folk here. All in all, it's been a great couple of weeks. I am refreshed and ready to start Nehemiah Teams and my summer assignment.

Please pray for me that I'll be a good team leader, preferably one that is "helpfully informative" instead of a know-it-all. Pray for the work we'll be doing with the orphanage kids as well as for the kids in the community. Pray for the Americans as they arrive and adjust to the new culture. Pray for unity within the teams. Pray for our supervisors and their family who are going to be really busy! Lastly, please pray for personal growth for those of us serving, that we would have a better perspective of God's plan and how we fit into it and that we would draw closer to Him as all the distractions are stripped away. Which reminds me, I won't have my laptop any more after this, so my updates might be shorter and less frequent. Even if I am not able to write, please still keep me in your prayers! Thank you to those of you faithful pray-ers who have been keeping me in your prayers all this time. I appreciate and need them more than you know! Love you guys!
~Becca