Did I show you how much our group decreased in size when we went to the island of Cebu? Well, there were 21, but here are about 2/3rds of us. I see several faces missing. I will try and track them down...
Upon arrival in Cebu, we were met by the local entertainment, Bernard. He thought he was hilarious holding up this sign for us, like we wouldn't be able to pick him out of a crowd! lol! Notice how obedient he was to stay behind the green line (barely). There was a bit of confusion, so he had to meet us there by flying over on a different flight.
This is Irma and me right after arriving in Cebu. There was a problem with her luggage -- it was kind of a big problem. She didn't have any. I could tell you about this hilarious shopping trip that we went on in the airport in Manila before we left to pick up a few necessities. But you probably wouldn't think it was as funny as we did. First stop, Victoria's Secret. Oh my gosh, you have never seen such a large group of grown women laughing so hard ever in your life anywhere. We thought we were particularly funny. No alcohol involved. We got a few critical items -- all at the airport, and headed off on our three hour bus ride to the northern part of the island.
The scenery was different than the scenery around Angono and Manila, but it was still all so beautiful. I would have liked to have gone on a three hour tour on a boat like this....
My daily picture of mother and daughter, Luz and Samantha. So photogenic!
I don't even care that this guy, who is clearly sick, is photobombing this picture. It is an actual depiction of things that happened 24/7 while we were there. I was so SO fortunate that I did not get or feel the least bit ill while we were there. For a few days, members of our team were dropping like flies. Some said it was flu and were sick the whole trip, some said they thought they had food poisoning because it lasted such a short time, ... who knows? I was a walking pharmacy, and I took my prophylactic antibiotics and washed my hands 9000 times a day. You've seen me wearing gloves, a mask, sometimes a gown, even a hair cap -- all very attractive, but hey! I wasn't sick!
And here we have Christine (left), Ted (center), and Yvonne (right), with some of our people "on the ground" in Cebu. Many, many people had to work together to make this mission trip come together.
These were the angels sent to help us in Cebu. Let me tell you, these 16 nursing students and their director were absolutely the bomb. They came as early as we did. They stayed as late as we did. They did WHATEVER we asked. They translated. They could read and write English, so I credit them for our group being able to see as many people as we did in Bogo City. They all looked so young to me. Many were married and had families. I am pretty sure they were all in their last year, maybe last semester, of nursing school. These people were beautiful and genuine to the core. There is no way I can explain to you how special they were. *tear*
One day, as I was dying for something other than white rice, I begged Bernard to risk his life and take me across the street to see if we could find a cold drink. We grabbed up as much as we could carry, a bit more than you can see here, and shared with everyone. I think I gave the lady about $3.50 USD. That's about 25,000 Philippine pesos. No, I'm kidding, but everything is so cheap!
I wanted to share some fun pictures with you today, and even though we are a bit out of order, I hope that you can feel the delight and blessings that I felt every day there.
