Apr 2007

Still no sign of Albert at work - it is sad to think I might not see him again but visiting him in the hospital would be upsetting to him I think, especially when we have to leave him there. No classes this week due to Holy Week (the run up to Easter) so it is just one long playtime with the kids, kinda nice for our last few days.

Went downtown afterwards and sat in Bo's Coffee shop for hours, it was great place to chill out (literally) because the water is ice cold, it is airconditioned and there are magazines to read.

A house mother at the orphanage had asked us to buy some floor cleaner as it is quite expensive so we bought that today as well as some other baby bits - doesn't feel like a very exciting donation but if they need it, it's good.

Happy anniversary Mum and Dad! 30th wedding anniversary today :o)

Worked this morning and we got in as the kids were finishing their prayers. Got loads of hugs when they were finished which makes me sad knowing its our last week. Also found out Albert has gone to hospital as he was vomiting blood, I hope he is OK, might try to find out where so I can visit. Or will this just upset him? I don't know.

No classes for the kids this week as it is holidays but playing is more exhausting than teaching!

Joy and and I went for lunch with the doctor that goes to the orphanage today to his sisters fast food restuarent - Joy ate a whole chicken practically! He seemed nice and friendly and also managed to get himself invited to our leaving dinner by Nanay Marlyn when he dropped us off!

Also - discovered that I have a hyper-sensitivity to mosquito bites -hurrah! Got 8 new bites in the last 24 hrs (in addition to the 15ish I already had) and (stop reading if you are eating or drinking!) now they have started to blister and a ridiculously large area around each one has gone bright, bright red! Yep, this is even though I am using repellant that is meant to be extra strong. Man, my legs look gross...

Another day off and I miss those kids. What am I going to be like when we leave?

We got up late and had breakfast at around 10:30am. Decided to say farewell to Stefan before going downtown but we all ended up going for lunch at a Filipino/Indian restaurant. As I had just eaten breakfast, I just had ice-cream! We then went to the airport to see him off and Joy and I were both thinking - it's us next :o(

Had another ice-cream stop on the way home!

Popped downtown to get some bits, screwdriver for the bubble gun and batteries for the camera as we had found out that the nuns sometimes allow photos to be taken of the kids and we wanted to make sure the battery didn't die for this...

Today we went to a beach that I can't remember the name of! I know we went through Tacloban Golf course and another house that Imeda Marcos built was there though! Anyway, it was a day out with our 'sponsored kids', these are mainly local children. We had met ours around the centre a few times and asked if a few of their friends could come too and also a few of the volunteers came along. The beach was lovely and the sea was beautiful to swim in, the waves weren't as rough as the last beach we went too. Joy was determined to get a tan but ended up going a little pink after falling asleep in the sun (she has gone brown now luckily!).

My cough still felt pretty bad and it was stopping me from sleeping but I hoped the day out would help. (OK I just wanted to go to the beach!) Also started to get earache everytime I coughed or swallowed - I'm falling apart!

In the evening, we went to watch Shay-Shay and Salvie (who are in the family we stay with) in their school show. Then we made a late entrance to Stefans (a Dutch volunteer who lives in Japan) leaving dinner and drunk some tuba - it is good but not without coke!

The VFV organised an excursion for us on the 31st and as we would usually work on that day, we made up the hours today and worked ALL day! Don't laugh - but we were knackered! Got there at 7:30am and had usual class etc and then we went downtown for lunch to Matts 2nd home - Shakeys. We hadn't been there before which was good and the pizza was yummy! Back to work for 2pm and there was a doctor there visiting the kids. We got talking and he invited all three of us to lunch at his sisters fast food joint the following Monday.

A new kid arrived at the orphanage this week - Albert who is about 3 years old. He is really worried looking and I picked him up this morning as he was crying. I couldn't put him down for the rest of the day as he would start crying again so I spent all day with him, even when he saw the doctor, he wouldn't let go of my hand. I tried to get him to play with the other kids which he did but always came back to see me every few minutes. About 1/2 hr before leaving for the day, I put him in his cot and he literally screamed the place down. I had to hide round the corner to avoid upsetting him even more when he saw me. I know I should have put him down sooner really so he didn't get used to me but it is so hard when they are upset. Sometimes it feels like you are making things worse when you leave a kid crying. I want to add him to the list of kids to take home.

I never thought I would say that staying in bed til 8am is a lie-in but compared to 6am, it is! It was our day off today so we just mooched around in the morning, then went downtown for shopping and internet cafe etc. Decided to go to the cinema, only Ghost Rider was showing but neither of us had seen it which was cool and it was just 25pesos each which is about 25p! Bumped into another volunteer in town so he came with us. Made the mistake of sitting too near the air con so couldn't hear that much of the sound during the non-action parts but still enjoyed it on the whole! Bumped into a couple more volunteers afterwards in Dunkin Donuts...and found out that one of them had Ghost Rider on DVD! Never mind.

There are 6 volunteers from the VFV in Bliss at the moment and judging by the huge pile of welcome packs that we helped sort, the org is getting more well known which is good.

We also bought some DVDs for the family and ended up watching Cars in the evening. The kids fell asleep but we enjoyed it!