After a long, long time on
many airplanes I woke up in a sleepy haze and peeked out my window to reveal the most intense sunrise (I think) I have ever seen... which was my first confirmation that I was indeed not in Oregon anymore...
Landing in Hong Kong was a daze and I was only there for a few hours and kept thinking to myself, "hmmm, this is what China looks like" and the empower
sense of feeling very tall was quite entertaining
I arrived in Manila around 11am and was very thankful to see both of my bags very shortly after my arrival! I then
hopped in a metered taxi and got my first glimpse of the urban sprawl that is Manila. The tax
i dri
ver was very polite and loved introducing the most essential forum of Philippine culture... the Mall. The Philippines has 3 of the 10 largest malls in the world, which is hilarious to me considering I do everything I c
an to avoid them at all cost. Oh well, when in Manila, do as puyos (Philippinos)! The driver took me directly to my hotel and I was warmly greeted by pretty much everyone at the hotel. Then shortly after, Lacie arrived (She is the other student in the DTPA and I feel so blessed to know her and to be g
oing through this experience wtih her! More on that later...) we went to eat. We tried to get reccomendations for a restaurant but somehow, we ended up at... a mall.
I was exhauste
d and actually very entertained by the whole concept of the Asian mall. So like a typical tourist, I took a picture, in an Asian mall! So funny! We stayed as long as we could so I could try to
sleep through the night. It has taken me a while but I am feeling a little bit better after almost a week. The Philippines is 15hrs ahead of West Coast time, so that has taken some getting use to.
The next day, Friday, we went to the office at about 8am, which was only about two blocks from my hotel. We dropped our bags off and then got coffee at Starbucks! There are two within a block of the office, so crazy, but really nice, considering everywhere else serves Nestcafe! That day I consumed a fair bit of coffee, considering I had class all day which was really fascinating, but challenging to be researching such a heavy subject while having really intense jet-lag. Oh well!
That night we boarded a bus and went to the lovely safe haven of the RoundHome. I am still trying to put to words what it means to me to be at a place that has the sole intention of restoring the lives of very young girls that have been serverly abused by the insanities that exist in this world. It is a huge privilege to see it and I will have more reflections very soon.
One very entertaining thing about living at the staff house is the way our meals are presented to us. The food has been really good over all, nothing too scary, but lots of delicious things to savour.
But each meal looks a lot like the picture to the left when it first arrives.
Then we get to do a very exciting reveal of what i under-neath!
Ta-dah!!!
This time it was rice, then a fish soup! So fun!
This week we started Module Two of the program (I will do Module One later on). Much of what we have done so far has been developing a research base and cultural perspectives on CSEC around the world. Very fascinating and neccessary for a complete understanding of the issue. I am learning lots and very excited about what's head. I will write more soon, thanks so much to everyone that has been praying! It's working, thank you!!! Love and Blessings!
