It's amazing how much can happen in 48 hours. I have officially decided to live and serve in the slums. Until the weekend I will be living with the community leader a little ways away until we can arrange a more long term place for me to sleep. My other team mate is Daniel, the guy on the team. I am excited to serve side by side with him in this community. The rest of the group also split into pairs of two. Elizabeth and Jacque will be serving at the local college campus UPD. Also, Rachel and Karla got the last minute opportunity to serve in a local community where prostitution has become a way of life for many of the girls (Don't worry safety is always first for Navs so they won't be in any danger).
On another note my luggage finally arrived, Praise God because I was starting to get a little rank :)
Yesterday was an amazing day for us. We got to just hang out as a community before we all leave today for our assignments. We ate A LOT of food, my team mate and I bonded over our mutual sarcasm, and we all got to know each other on a more personal level. We also got the exciting news that some of the other teams may join us in the slums on Saturdays to help with teaching the students at the communities school, which would be awesome because it would give us a task to work on together.
So quick outline of what my week will look like: Monday through Friday we will be helping with the bible studies that are already in place, and just living among the people and sharing life (1 Thess 2:8, Such an awesome opportunity) On Saturday, we will teach during the day, and then take part in the communities weekly "community night" (Which sounds like our version of a block party). Sunday's we will return to the Nav headquarters to shower (the community showers are buckets of water), sleep, rest, decompress from the week, and just spend time in fellowship with the rest of our team. Then bright and early on Monday we will head back to the slums and do it all over again. I don't think that I have been this excited to serve a community since ASP which is really exciting.
That is all that I have time for at the moment, but expect updates every Sunday when I have some free time, and a computer.
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
WELCOME TO THE PHILIPPINES
I am officially in Manila safe and sound. In true Rebecca fashion however I had a rather challenging traveling experience. My first flight was cancelled, my second flight was delayed, and due to the first cancellation my reservation for my second flight was cancelled which created further delay. Due to the delays I had a 30 minute layover in Japan, which resulted in a speedy walk from one terminal to another. My reservation for that was also cancelled, though I was still able to board on time. However, due to all of these problems my luggage never made it to Manila. So I have been wearing the same clothes since Sunday (It is now Wednesday here). I heard the news this morning though that the airport called and has my luggage so hopefully by tonight I will have clean cloths.
Now to talk about the AMAZING city of Manila. Yesterday was our first full day of exploring the city. We ate breakfast at a local restaurant. We ate rice (for Breakfast! what?) along with various poultry. We then got to visit a local college campus that our directors daughter attends. From there we visited a local living community in the slums, which was beyond an incredible experience, there were some ADORABLE children. After a quick rest we took a bus and jeepke (A local taxi of sorts) to another campus described as the Harvard of the Philippines. It was an beautiful campus, bigger than Ohio State (I know, I was shocked that was even possible). We attended a Nav Night for the college students and enjoyed their extreme enthusiasm. To wrap up the night a few of us ate Balut, which for those who don't know is a chicken egg which has been fertilized and grown for 17 days. GROSS, but did i really come all the way to the Philippines to not try some of the delicacies (google balut, and i promise you will not want to eat an egg for a week). But for those skeptics out there who don't believe that I would try such a thing I got footage on a camera for proof :)
So it is bright and early on Wednesday today, and we have huge decisions to make. We can chose to serve in the Slums and live in their community (WHAT AN OPPORTUNITY!) or we can live on the college campus and serve the college students. Both options are amazing, and both will be glorifying it is just a matter of making a decision that will both challenge me, and let me play to my strengths at the same time. At the moment I am lean towards the slums but by the end of today I will have made my decision for sure.
I am running short on time now though and I have a few other things to get done this morning, but I will hopefully have an update to everyone by next Sunday to let you know how everything is going.
(Please ignore an major typos, I don't have time to proof read)
Now to talk about the AMAZING city of Manila. Yesterday was our first full day of exploring the city. We ate breakfast at a local restaurant. We ate rice (for Breakfast! what?) along with various poultry. We then got to visit a local college campus that our directors daughter attends. From there we visited a local living community in the slums, which was beyond an incredible experience, there were some ADORABLE children. After a quick rest we took a bus and jeepke (A local taxi of sorts) to another campus described as the Harvard of the Philippines. It was an beautiful campus, bigger than Ohio State (I know, I was shocked that was even possible). We attended a Nav Night for the college students and enjoyed their extreme enthusiasm. To wrap up the night a few of us ate Balut, which for those who don't know is a chicken egg which has been fertilized and grown for 17 days. GROSS, but did i really come all the way to the Philippines to not try some of the delicacies (google balut, and i promise you will not want to eat an egg for a week). But for those skeptics out there who don't believe that I would try such a thing I got footage on a camera for proof :)
So it is bright and early on Wednesday today, and we have huge decisions to make. We can chose to serve in the Slums and live in their community (WHAT AN OPPORTUNITY!) or we can live on the college campus and serve the college students. Both options are amazing, and both will be glorifying it is just a matter of making a decision that will both challenge me, and let me play to my strengths at the same time. At the moment I am lean towards the slums but by the end of today I will have made my decision for sure.
I am running short on time now though and I have a few other things to get done this morning, but I will hopefully have an update to everyone by next Sunday to let you know how everything is going.
(Please ignore an major typos, I don't have time to proof read)
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