Well, we survived our night, and woke to Sis Conchita in the kitchen cooking us breakfast. It felt very nice to see daylight again, things don't seem so scary when it's light.
After breakfast, Sis Conchita, Silas and I went to the markets to get the food supplies for today. She certainly lives by “give us this day our daily bread”. It was interesting to see the markets here, everywhere they are a little different, but the smells are the same – salted fish still smells gross no matter how nice the markets might be. We were stared at and spoken about, although I could not understand what they were saying. One thing I am looking forward to when we return to Australia is not being stared at because you look different. Silas was a trooper, carrying a very heavy shopping bag (an old rice sack with handles sewed on at the top). We walked there, and caught a trike back, and Silas sat behind the driver once again. The look on his face showed he was really pleased to be the only one behind the driver, no adult there to keep him safe, so he really was a big boy this time.
Other than going to the market, we spent the morning at the hall, the children played lots of games, drew pictures and we read more chapters from “On the banks of Plum Creek” - we are enjoying the books even more the second time round.
The children played well during the afternoon. Mum drew pictures with Noah, and we read more chapters from “On the Banks of Plum Creek”. Lots of school children came to the fence to say hello to our children. Our children imitated them using rocks for mobile phones and talking in gibberish.
We are staying in the hall by ourselves again tonight. Before Sis Conchita left, she gave us the number of the police in case of any “untoward happenings” such as drunk people being noisy. The children were still up, and I think Silas was kind of hoping something would happen so we could call the police and have something exciting happen.
So another uneventful day has ended...now for Matt's exciting adventures:
I woke early and did not spend too much time lazing on the floor as, it wasn't all that inviting. A coffee hepled start the day, the Felcris and I went for a walk around. We are staying amongst the hills and the scenery is very nice. We walked past some small farms, coconut plantations and terraced rice fields. We stopped to watch the rice being threshed and take in the views. Then we watched a female caribou bathing in the water while her three day old calf watched on. Eventually we returned to the house for breakfast. Breakfast was complimented with Pepsi, in fact every meal was accompanied with Pepsi, there was no water that I could drink.
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| Rice Terraces |
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| More rice terraces |
After breakfast we walked to one of the natural springs to have a wash and swim. A wonderful waterhole for swimming, cool clean water. There ware rocky outcrops to use for diving platforms and a large rope (vine) swing. Unfortunately the rope swing broke after a couple turns, and I was the one holding on when it broke. The brave amongst us climbed up to a ledge about 15metres up to jump in, in my wisdom I decided to take photos instead.
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| Very nice way to take a morning bath |
We diverted on the walk back to go up a hill and take in more views of the countryside. Across the valley was a Philippine army outpost that apparently is to keep the local communist rebels under control. Then we walked back to the house for a rest before lunch.
The rain came in very heavy after lunch and this delayed the afternoon's activities. Finally we could leave to travel back to Ubay where we held a memorial meeting with a couple who live there. We waited almost an hour for a bus to arrive, and then the trip into Ubay took another 45mins. Once again it was dark and we were all hungry. So we bought some bbq chicken and took that with us to the home of Bro Verola and his wife. They live in a traditional nipa hut without electricity and we ate our dinner with the aid of two kerosine lamps.
After tea we walked to Bro Verola's daughters house to hold the meeting, there is electricity there! Another coffee afterwards to keep us awake for the homeward journey.
We hired a trike to take us back to Canawa. There were eight adults in total on the trike and the journey took us about an hour and a half. It started raining on the way back so we used tarps to keep us dry. This was probably the most painful seating position that I have been in for an extended period of time. We arrived back at the house after 11:00pm.
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| The room used for meetings |
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| The Dining Room |
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| Waiting for the bus to Ubay |
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