Day 7

Dear Parents/Friends and supporters,

RACHEL: Today was Mr Beacham’s favourite kind of day, 5.30am start. We were packed and ready to depart the beautiful town of Sagay and arrive back in Bacolod.  As we entered back into the city the juxtapositioning of the country and crazy city was very clear. We went to Jollibee for breakfast (Filipino version of Hungry Jacks). There were some very weird and crazy things on the menu, the one that I ate being ‘Pancake sandwich’. This consisted of 2 pancakes with an egg, bacon and some kind of sauce in the middle.  After breakfast we split into 2 groups, boys and girls.  The girls went to the beauty salon while the boys went and got massages and their hair cut.  It was a nice and relaxed atmosphere in comparison to our full on day yesterday.  We were treated to the famous Bobs for lunch! Many of us have been looking forward to this experience again since last year. Many of the team had a buffet that they picked out and was cooked personally by the amazing staff.  Others had new experiences and tried food off the menu.  

NAOMI: After our delicious lunch at Bobs we were extremely full and the girls were all feeling like females again after our trip to the beauty shop: it was time to shop. The girls and I (Naomi) made our way to the triple 8 markets.  Some intense haggling and a few hours later some of us came out with some sweet bargains such as shoes, sunnies and even a snappy bow-tie.  It was very busy in the markets and through the very hard physical labour of the intense sport also known as shopping, Emily started to get a bit sick; maybe too much bartering.  Anyway after the markets we made our way back to the hotel and dug through the mountain of bags to find ours and set up in our rooms. We set off to dinner just after 6 but detoured to the large Robinsons mall for some more shopping time as dinner was not yet ready for us. No haggling allowed at the mall apparently so some just stuck to buying the Philippines famous dried mango in the food store, me on the other hand bought a bunch of the round waffle sticks for the long bus trip to Cabacungan tomorrow.  We made our way to the IRC church in Bacolod for dinner (IKTHUS) hosted by the pastors of the church.  Some people thought we all would be tired of the yummy chicken on a stick for dinner by now but not me! I can always have room and time for chicken! As usual the food was so delicious with fresh mango, bananas and watermelon- we have been truly blessed: especially in the food department! A quick debrief at the church and a few thankyous all round between the pastors of IKTHUS and our group. Back to the hotel tonight for a good sleep ready for our next stage of our trip starting tomorrow at church. We have been truly blessed and experienced many incredible things this week and have been able to bless the IRC Sagay community through our work.

RACHEL: Hello beautiful family!!! The trip has been so rewarding so far, thank you all so much for helping me out and making it possible for me to come here! I don’t tell you guys enough but I love you all and am so grateful to have you all in my life! I am missing you and all your craziness so much!
Just before I finish I want to say a super big happy birthday to my little brother Owen! Have fun being a juvie for a few more years! You are still so annoying and will not grow out of it!
See you all soon! Keep checking the blog! Love and miss you all! xxxxxxxx

NAOMI: hey family: mum, dad, peter, Liz, Phillip, Stephen, Daniel ! Missing you very much. Hope the family is well and healthy and Peter and Brijette are having a beautiful time on their honeymoon. And btw mum and dad I have been adopted by Emily and Evan Peirce and its official and everything (meaning we signed a page in my notebook) love you all xx