Day 11

Dear Parents/Friends & Supporters.

This morning we woke up at six thirty and got ready for breakfast that was very well appreciated. I was so excited for a coffee.  After breakfast we went to the rice fields and I really enjoyed getting in the mud and actually learning how rice grows and how it is harvested, it is a lot like wheat. We then went to the Lovely River and spring to wash the flour bags for reuse. We then headed back to the house we are staying at for lunch, and there was really nice crumbed chicken which I mixed with some sweet chilli sauce.  After lunch we headed to the IRC Church for food distribution and time with the community and making dogs and swords out of balloons. We then went back to the river for our last session of washing clothes, and a swim in the clear, fresh spring. Dinner was a feast of spring rolls, rice, chicken and pork, but little did we know that a food challenge was ahead for the rest of the evening.

My attempt in the food challenge probably wasn't up to scratch, as I barely got to the second level, where I ate chicken liver. Soon enough it became intense and Ben T beat the Balut (14 day old chicken foetus) record from last year which was fourteen, to this year’s amazing amount of twenty seven. My highlight of today was watching the two monkey’s intense curiosity, as one knew how to unzip a bag, and the other was holding my hand. Today I was on the biggest high, I think because I feel so privileged to be on this mission trip.

Just a shout out to everyone at home, I miss you guys and I can’t wait to see you all and tell you all my experiences.

Abbey

This morning I woke up at six o’clock, and then had a shower which was cold. Then we had an amazingly delicious breakfast after the challenging day yesterday, I ate five big pancakes. After breakfast we went to the rice fields to do harvesting and have a couple hours to experience what it’s like to work as a Filipino person. In the rice harvesting fields it is all mud so we were all knee deep in mud, we all just made it better by saying “it’s just like a free mud treatment”. We went to the local spring, which almost looks like it’s off a movie because it’s that beautiful. The spring is where the local people wash their clothes and shower, but we went there to wash off the mud from harvesting and we also washed some flour bags for the people from the IRC can make flour bag shorts.

We then went to the local church to do food distribution and spent time with the community by making balloon animals. After being at the church for an hour we walked to the IRC to paint the orphanage then we washed our clothes in the spring and had a swim. After we had dinner we walked to the local church and did a food challenge which was all the weird local food, I only got to level two because I couldn’t make myself eat chicken liver.

Hey Mumma and everyone else at home, I’m missing you heaps and I can’t wait to see you. I will be home so soon to tell you about my trip, I hope you taking good care of Ezy. I hope you see all of my five people from my family at the airport even my brothers!  I love you and see you soon xxxx

Amy Lee

I was woken up at some ridiculous hour by Pastor Pete snoring sounding  like a steam train so I gave him a nudge which stopped him snoring and I could go back to sleep. Then I woke up at for six thirty when we were meant to wake up and got changed and ready for another marvellous breakfast cooked by the lovely people at the house we are staying at. After we travelled on foot to IRC and while we waited for the buses we played with the monkey. We finally got onto the bus and travelled to the local rice field that needed to be harvested. I collected the rice from the people harvesting the rice then put up onto the machine to be processed. After we had done that for a couple hours we went to a lovely river to clean the flour bags that will be made into shorts. Then we went back to our house where we are staying for another marvellous lunch, after that we went to the local church to distribute for to the community. This was an amazing time being able to give to the community but really hard and sad because there were a few people left but there were no bags left. This was really tough to see this.

After that we went back to IRC to do painting but I had to Christian Ministries work which I found challenging because I wanted to do painting. Then we went to washing our own clothes in the water after back for dinner which was marvellous as always. Then we went to the local church and ate some “interesting” food one of them was balut and I managed to eat eleven of them but after a while I vomited them it all out which was very relieving.

To everyone in Australia hope you are all well and can’t wait to see you and tell you all about the trip.

Ben W