At 5 a.m., Eyel (CG staff) pulled up and Chan was off...at 8 a.m., JP was here to work on cleaning up the yard...after filling 14 garbage bags ...yup it was that messy...we headed to CG. Since it was Saturday, boys were doing chores & washing clothes...but soon a few joined me for computer learning games. Rog & I took turns helping Jhanno (9th gr) work on his extra credit English work. It was extremely hard...often the question or answer selection made no sense...Jhanno worked almost 4 hours on it! Rog & Billy (USA vol) started working on designing homemade bunk beds. They think they can make them for 1/4 the cost of purchased ones. Best treat of the day was fried bananas with caramel sauce. Love the cook here! On Sunday, Rog located a nearby bakery so after tasting their ware, we went to CG. The boys were dressed up & the CG van was filling up fast with many local people as well as the boys. With 3 boys, we caught a jeepney and went to church where we met up with the rest. The pastor was Sharon's uncle & former CG house parent. He introduced us to the 1st CG grade who later sang in the praise band. The pastor also runs a building business and has 10 CG grads working for him. First hymn was in English & one DUMC sings, Blessed Be the Name...sang with amazing gusto...next several hymns were in Tagalog but since the boys had been teaching me, I could could along...without understanding the meaning. The sermon title displayed on the large screen was Called to Serve. Typical here, the past spoke mostly in Tagalog with some English here & there...so I heard bits & pieces. I heard: many are hiding that you are Christians from Mon-Sat... why are you living if you don't serve... and our names & some of the other names of volunteers. The congregation was mostly youth and less than 100. We met a young Dutch girl who is with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) which emphasis is training and mercy to underprivileged. She said YWAM is a widespread organization with lots of volunteers in many countries. What would this world be like if there were no local and international volunteers??? We spent the afternoon playing learning computer games and encouraging the boys who took turns playing basketball. Don't think that basketball had a minutes rest since we got home from church. No soccer around here! Around 6, we went with Billy & Sharon to Cloud 9--a restaurant on the top of a mountain. We hung tightly to the sides of the swinging ladder that went another 500' up to a tower & from there...after we caught our breathe...we could see the lights of Manila. We took the steps down and then had a delicious meal as we visited. On the way back, we stopped at the newest mall around. I can't figure out who shops in these malls...surely there must be many neighborhoods we have not seen! The grocery store there was as nice as any I've seen in USA--yet you walk a block from it and there are the little shops selling food items & other odds & ends...such contrast. Contrast seems to be a constant in many of the countries we've traveled. Though I see contrast in USA...it doesn't compare to depth & magnitude. I pray it never does.
