Climate: 35 degrees C
Good morning! Oh sorry, afternoon. Or is it evening?
It's been a very long last 2 days, but things have gone amazingly and we've finally arrived in the beautiful place that will be our home for the next 10 days.
So, we started our adventures by meeting at the church at half 9 in the morning of Tuesday 6th July. After a little prayer from Pastor Dan and teary goodbyes, we filed into the minibus, donned our Philippines 2010 t-shirts and set off to Gatwick. With Evans as the minibus dj, the journey was a lot of laughs, but there was also a bit of tension as one team member was missing...
Martin Jnr Doyle sent off for his South African passport renewal many months ago, but due to a certain tre annoying sports tournament, it had been very delayed. Two weeks ago an urgent prayer request was sent out, asking for the passport to fall through the Doyle letterbox asap. Six days ago Michiel and the Doyles were frantically calling every South African courier company that google listed, hoping and begging that the passport could be shipped over here before Monday the 5th. Five days ago (Sat the 3rd) it was confirmed that the passport would arrive too late, and so Martin would not be able to join us on the adventure. Very sad times.
Back to the epic journey:
After a little drive, and our second attempt at the correct terminal game we rocked up to check in. While doing final checks of baggage, luggage tagging and distracting baby Bear we got a lush surprise - Doyle turned up, with his brand spanking new passport!!!!!
Martin senior and junior had left their house at 6am that morning to meet the beautiful new document from a 11am flight at Heathrow airport. After a quick dash through the London traffic, they made it with time to spare. The excitement grew to crazy amounts as the team was complete!
This was miracle numero uno.
Amazing.
We checked in our very light luggage (with Jacobs winning the lightest luggage competition at a ridiculous 10kg!!!) and got through customs without any hitches and in perfect timing to head straight to the gate. After a little play on the conveyor-belts we climbed onto the plane and discovered the immenseness of flying with Emirates - just toooo many films and games to count!!!!
At 2.45pm we took off, and then enjoyed a smooth 6 and half hour flight over to Dubai.
At midnight (Dubai time) we walked out of the plane and into the 36 degree heat.
At midnight. Crazy!
We then had 3 hours to explore the pretty impressive Dubai airport. After filling our tummies with the local cuisine (Burger King and Starbucks) we kicked back on the shiney floor until we wandered down to the next gate.
This plane was a little smaller, with less games and films, but still Emarites, so still very cool.
On this 9 hour flight we tried our very hardest to sleep. Most of us failed pretty shockingly, Milan Bear being a great example, but we all landed in Manila with biiiig sleepy smiles as the anticipation grew.
We thought the hour's queue through customs was a clever little taster of the toasty climate, then we stepped outside. It was 6pm local time, and literally the heat of a sauna!
Ramil had traveled from Cagayan that afternoon to meet us in the capital. His smiley Filipino self greeted us all and arranged for us to stay on night there, before jetting south the following day.
We all jumped into 2 mini-buses and enjoyed our first view of the country: the capital, Manila, at rush hour. With jeepneees (hummer style pimped up buses) honking away, tricycles (mopeds with side cart and canvas roof) beeping past and people crossing the road i.e. walking head first into the traffic, our cute little drivers showed off their crazy driving skills to the max. We all stared out the windows, trying to take in this incredible country: passing giant shopping complexes, hotels and bars contrasting with the river side slums and gorey back alleys, got everybody thinking.
We arrived at our hotel for the evening, enjoyed showers and then all crammed into the boys' room for pizza together, before we all headed for an early night.
Just before midnight we were all woken with a bit of alarm; in the boys' room Nathan Harding had a bit of a panic attack following confusion, over heating and over tiredness. This resulted in the room waking to his scream as he slept walked and then fell out of bed, and finding him lain on the floor. Matt, Niels and Sam sprinted for help, and then we were all woken to pray. All very confused to what hour and what day we were on, we were all wide awake praying and worrying as Nathan laid passed out on the floor. Worries of concussion, serious injuries and more were coming into our minds, when he came round and after a bit of tlc was feeling loads better. He went back to bed and slept a solid 7 hours and was feeling tip top in the morning! Incredible. This was miracle number 2.
So, while Nathan Harding was in sleepy town, the rest of us had a bit of a hard time getting back off to sleep: at 3am Milan Bear had stopped banging his head against the wall and given into sleep, so the Bruggeman room finally got off. Most of the boys were getting there in spite of the temperature of the rooms. But in the girls' room, we were listening to Kings of Leon whilst eating Werther's Originals - we were just tooo awake! When we eventually tried to get off to sleep a bit of spiritual warfare loomed: every time Lisa closed her eyes she was confronted with painful memories and therefore just couldn't settle, and was surrounded by fear. At least an hour's dose of prayer and worshiping God finally caused her to fall into a beautifully peaceful sleep. Immense. This was miracle number 3.
We all awoke in the morning pretty hazed and sleepy, but ready for the next stage of our journey.
At 8.30am we met for breakfast - a delightful choice of watermelon, rice, egg, sweet sausage and fish heads. None of us were in a state to try the fish heads.....the rest of the food was yummy though!
We once again chucked our bags into the 2 mini-buses and headed in the direction of the Domestic Airport to catch our internal flight to Cagayan De Oro.
The 1 and a half hour flight on the 100ish seater plane was lovely and smooth, with views beyond explanation. Such beautiful creation.
We landed in the extremely green Cagayan De Oro with huge anticipation clouded by the sleepyness. Walking off the plane and onto the tarmac, we took in the first glimpses of the place that would be home for the rest of the trip. Heading into the airport, the luggage started carouselling, and all of our bags arrived without any damage or anything missing. Incredible. This was miracle number 4.
We dragged our heavy luggage across the car-park and jumped into an incredibly shiney jeepnie which bounced us down the bumpy road to our hotel, the bright yellow "Golden Pension House".
Once we'd all found our rooms and dumped our luggage, we took a 150 metre stroll around the corner to Ramil and Mary's home. Their bright blue house is situated in a beautiful "village" (basically a walled estate) with lovely neighbours where their 4 kids can safely play in the road. It's a very lovely and safe area.
We met Mary, the kids and the house helpers and enjoyed lunch al fresco on the patio.
That afternoon we took the 500 metre walk to the local mall where we enjoyed amaaazing air conditioning and wifi while exploring the Filipino shops. Best find: fresh chicken heads and feet for sale at a very reasonable price! Once stocked up with nappies, baby food and coke, we stopped for delicious smoothies at a little open air cafe in the middle of the mall.
As the sun set, we slowly plodded back to the hotel to freshen up a bit before dinner.
We then dragged our extremely sleepy selves round the corner to Mary and Ramil's for a scrumptious southern fried chicken and rice dinner on the patio.
After dinner the wash up team (it rotates daily) got to work, while the rest of us chilled or played basket ball in the warm rain, in the street.
We then had our orientation evening where the extremely kind Mary gave out mugs full of sweets, one each, all personalized with a little note. We all introduced each ourselves with our hopes and dreams for the trip, and then went through our timetable and various tips and helpful hints to make the culture difference hopefully a bit less different.
By 10pm we all crashed into bed and slept the night....well, most of us.
This morning we were all up and enjoying toast, eggs and bananas by 8am in the ridiculous heat. We then headed over to the wooden gazebo in the middle of the village to have team time and to spend the morning preparing for the next few days.
After a few hours of praying, singing, laughing at Matt and Jonny, puppetting and practicing skits we're ready for whatever.....hopefully even the afternoon with 200 kids, because that's what we're about to do!!!
I think it's pretty safe to say that we're all loving it so far, and although still quite jet lagged, we're getting there and having amazing laughs along the way!
......will update you all in another couple of days! Take care until then xx
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