Noah woke up very hungry this morning, and we got up at the same time as Sis Conchita arrived. Mum, Silas and Eden were still asleep, so I thought it was very early. Turns out, Mum had not slept well, and had gone back to sleep, so it was actually about 6.00am.
Sis Conchita and Bro Belvic prepared another huge breakfast for us, and then Bro Belvic was off to uni, today he has to do a teaching demonstration.
After breakfast, Sis Conchita went to the markets, again, and we started the washing, again. By the time we had all the washing out on the lines, the sky looked grey, and we were sitting out the front of the hall reading the final chapters of “On the Banks of Plum Creek” when it started raining, so we raced to get the washing under cover, and then we saw someone was up the very tall coconut tree next door.
We watched this man climb to the very top, cutting notches for his feet on the way up, and then the coconuts came tumbling down, landing with great thuds. You wouldn't want to get hit by one of those, you wouldn't be alive to see another one fall down! Ouch, I can just imagine it. We continued watching as the leaves were cut off and sent flying to the ground. When he had finished, the man tied a rope around the top and then climbed down about halfway, cut some notches for his feet, tied a rope around him and the tree and then started cutting wedges out of the tree, while the man on the ground holding the other rope waited, ready to pull on the rope to pull the tree down. It took a long time, doing everything manually requires a lot of patience. Finally, after about 1 hour, the tree came down. The man came down the tree and then started up another one, and then another one. It was a great way to entertain us this morning, as we wait for the others to return from Bohol.
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| There is a man at the very top of the tree. Not a very good photo, but you get the idea. |
With our little excitement over, and our washing back out in the sun, we returned to the last chapters of our book again, and this time were able to finish it without interruption. Not long after we finished, the table was “ready”, and again Bro Belvic joined us for lunch before returning to uni again.
Noah went to sleep just before lunch, which helped make the meal a quiet, enjoyable one. I had a short sleep after lunch, and was woken to the sound of large raindrops hitting the iron roof. Quick as a flash, I was outside, bringing the washing in out of the rain, along with Mum and Silas.
The rain must have disturbed Noah, as he woke up not long after. Silas and Eden decided it would be great fun to play in the rain, and got themselves absolutely saturated. I told them to stay outside until they dried off. We are leaving tomorrow, and I don't want to get more clothes dirty. Anyway, they are cool now.
Late afternoon we heard a chainsaw start up and went outside to watch the rest of the coconut trees being chopped down. It's a lot quicker with a chainsaw, naturally. The leg muscles on those men are amazing, climbing up the tree trunk to attach the ropes. Matt tried climbing a coconut tree at Sis Emma's place. He got about 2 metres up, but found it very hard to do.
Silas and I helped Sis Conchita peel and cut the vegetables for tea. Noah helped splash water over the sweet potato pieces. Noah ate about 3 servings of rice and tomato sauce and some pineapple, so he had a good tea, and then we read from the children's Bible until just before Matt arrived. I let the kids stay up to see him as they have been missing him, and as soon as they heard they were here, they rushed down the driveway to greet them. It was very nice to see Matthew again. So that was our day, and now for Matt's adventures:
Woke early to the sound of the music from the local Catholic church. I am sick of sleeping on the floor and am looking forward to getting back to Cebu.
After breakfast and packing we did our goodbyes and were taken to the main road. This time we took a van that went to the provincial captial of Tagbiliran. Ferry's regularly leave here bound for Cebu city. We still had to wait about three hours, then we had a nice high-speed catamaran to Cebu city. A short taxi ride to the bus terminal and then onto a bus for a two hour ride down to Argao.
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| Saying goodbye in Bohol |
At about 8:30pm we arrived. All the children came out to give us a warm welcome, it was a nice feeling to see the family again. They had tea waiting for us, the children were put to bed and the rest of us followed soon after.
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