There we go!

Now I'm back into the swing of things! Sweet beans!

It is wet. Everything, everything is wet! The humidity is currently at 94%, and as I lay in my bed I feel like it's been rained on or peed on or just somehow drenched with water. My sheets feel damp, but I promise I haven't peed the bed! It's such an awful feeling to try and fall asleep to... So there's my complaining. I try not to complain about the weather as much as possible, because I love it here and I want to be here. And really, the truth is, most of the time I don't mind the heat or the rain. I'm pretty content. But at times like right now, I just want to complain to someone that my clothes aren't drying, and my towel isn't drying, and my bed feels wet and my face feels oily. Haha. It's funny to read that.

Despite the rain, we went to Gruar and did our ministry under some shelter. It was good. There was one interesting moment worth sharing, but especially worth remembering. I was watching the kids lining up to receive their food, and I noticed a tiny little girl sitting on the ground, pressed up against the wall and being kicked by some of the children as they passed by. I had my camera in my hand, and thought for a moment of grabbing a photo of her... to my eyes it was an interesting image- of this small girl barely visible through the legs of kids older than her, sat on the ground by herself. But I didn't try to photograph her, I just watched her for a minute. Then as if I had snapped my fingers, I thought, "what the heck am I doing? Why don't I just go pick her up?" So I did just that, moving through a mini sea of children to get to her. I asked her name, pulled her up to stand, and lifted her into my arms. She looked surprised at first but then got a cute little shy smile on her face. Mae Mae got a little jealous when she saw me holding another child, but I kissed her and tried to reassure her that it's fine and I love her just the same! I want her to understand that yes, she's so special to me, but I need to pour love on the other kids there as well.

Ate Monz invited me to eat dinner with her family tonight, since she was making spaghetti :) The spaghetti most Filipinos serve is made reeeally sweet, and it's not enjoyable at all for me. I grew up on the tastiest homemade tomato sauce in the whole wide world, and I like it salty- not sweet! Mama's sauce is the best, but Ate Mona's is really good also! It was so nice to taste something familiar to me, it kind of reminded me of home. There isn't much I crave from Canada, not much at all. But it was a real treat to eat some salty spaghetti tonight!

I worked a bit on what I'm going to share on Sunday night, and watched some of One Litre Of Tears with Mark until midnight. Now I'm almost falling asleep as I write this! It's 1:15 and I have an early morning for nutrition day tomorrow.

One more complaint before I go... there are mosquitos everywhere!!! Every time I walk into my bathroom it's like I've disturbed some hive or something, all of a sudden there are ten of them in the air. Crazy!

And also a sweet little something I've just stumbled upon.

One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. "Which road do I take?" she asked. "Where do you want to go?" was his response. "I don't know," Alice answered. "Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter."

— Lewis Carroll

well now that I've broken the ice...

I guess I should write again! Even though nothing super exciting has occurred... I need to remain in the habit of posting. Can't get lazy! Urgh!

I headed out of my kwarto (bedroom) at 9:00 this morning to begin my grade 3 reading class. Pastor Ding intercepted me before I could get there though, and said that because of the rain, the City Hall might be closed down tomorrow, and since my visa extension was about to expire, it really would be best if we went right then. So, go we did. It's only in the next city over, and it took us all of ten minutes to get there, which is lovely compared to the 2 hours it took us to get to the Immigration Office downtown. One of the workers there even served me coffee! He must have somehow known the way to my heart is through a hot cup of coffee.... So I renewed. I'm cleared to stay in the Philippines until September 30. After that I'll renew again until November 30, then fly away. It cost me 7, 500 pesos today!!! For those who are mathematically challenged like me, allow me to make the calculation for you! It came out to be 170 dollars. Not cheap any time, but especially on a missionary budget! Wow. It's a darn good thing I'm in the clear for two months now.

We made it back to the church in plenty of time for me to eat some snacks, and then proceed to my grade 2 class. They copied out Isaiah 40:29-31 (one of my long time favourite scriptures) into their notebooks, then after my checking to make sure they copied correctly, they wrote out the scripture again onto a clean piece of white paper. On monday we'll color and design our papers, and I plan to bind them together to make a book. Bukas, (tomorrow) is our 'Nutrition Day'. Each grade will prepare part of our lunch, and along the way we'll discuss the nutrition values of different foods. My responsibility is to prepare dessert with the preschoolers. We are going to make a delicious banana dessert :) You simmer sugar, water, and salt. A syrup starts to form. Then you add your neeners and simmer longer. Then you serve your yummy neeners with sauce overtop. It's ma sarap!

So now I'm resting before we go to Gruar. Please keep us in your prayers that our students homes won't be flooded in all this rain, and that classes will continue. Also, this sunday I'll be sharing for youth group. Mark and I will play the song we wrote together, meaning I'll be singing in front of a hundred or so, depending on if it's raining. Much less people will show up if it's still raining hard. I'm nervous! But what I want to remember is that this song isn't about me, or how well I sing it, but it's all about testifying to what God has done in my life. That's really all it's about. Him. I'll also be sharing a portion of my testimony and speaking out something I feel God has placed on my heart for the youth. I pray that lots of the new kids will come, and that they won't be stopped by all the water.

Funny how I managed to write a few paragraphs, mostly about nothing!

Ingat kayo... (take care!)

oh my...

Typical Angle: if I've neglected something for long enough, I determine somewhere within myself that I'll just keep sooo much distance. I force that THING from my mind- whatever I've been ignoring or neglecting. Until it gets to be such a big thing in my head that I can't imagine possibly returning! Sounds dramatic, I know... Anyway that's why I haven't written. I went for a few days, then I went for a week, and as the days went by I'd think to myself "Oh shoot! I should write a blog! But it's already been so long... how can I know what to write..?" and then I just put it off. So I'm writing right now to break the ice!

ha!