Day 11, from Colleen

Today we got up early for our outing with the all the kids from WHY. We drove across the causeway to Lapu Lapu City on Mactan Island. From there we rented a boat for the day to take us island hopping. Neither pictures nor words do the beautiful scenery here justice.

We basically would just stop at different locations and get out to swim. The first stop was pretty great. We had a blast collecting seashells, starfish, and sand dollars. We also taught the kids how to have “chicken fights”.

The next place was not as great. The bottom was a bit slimy. Plus, there were a lot of sea urchins there, which you do not want to come into contact with. Michelle from our team got one little splinter in her foot from one, and it hurt her pretty much the rest of the day.

Then we stopped at another island to pick up some lunch. Jocelyn, Boboy, and I got off the boat to carry the food back to the kids. Well, the tide got low as we were waiting, so our boat drivers said they needed to take the boat further out. Once we had the food, then we had to find a way to get it and ourselves back to the boat. This man had a small boat, so he offered to take us. He only had 1 small paddle and some bamboo poles for maneuvering. It was quite humorous watching us attempt to steer this boat. At one point, the boat was pointed the wrong direction completely. All the Filipinos on the other boats near the place we were trying to reach were staring at us. We were giving them quite a show. We made it though, and the kids from WHY said we could be on “Survivor – Philippines”. Ha! We got to eat our lunch, and we discovered if we threw a little bit of rice in the water, some beautiful tropical fish would swarm around our boat to come eat it.

Then we went to the island of Olongo to go to a Bird Sanctuary. We fit as many people from our group as we could into two tricycles (motorcycle with a side car). We had to pay about $10 for the ride there and back, and then it was about $10 to get in. What they don’t tell you until you get there is that the birds all migrate to Japan during this time of year and don’t come back until around September. That might have been nice to know before we paid our money to see birds. Our tour guide showed us about 3 birds through a telescope, and that was about it. So now we call it the “Birdless Sanctuary”.

We were riding on the tricycles back from the “Birdless Sanctuary” when I saw something that made me about spit my sides from laughing. We passed a school named “Poo Elementary”. I don’t know if “Poo” is an acronym for something else, but I’m really wondering what people were thinking when they selected that name. I tried to get a picture, but we were speeding by too fast.
We went back to Lapu Lapu to return the boat. Again, the tides were too low for the boat to take us all the way to the shore. This time, though, we had to wade to the shore. This was a challenge because the strong pull of the water kept making my flip flops come apart.
Everyone was pretty wiped out from our day of fun, and the kids all fell asleep on the ride home. We did still manage, though, to have our devotional and worship time before bed. We had thought about taking the night off since everyone was so tired, but all the girls had gone to their room to get their Bibles that we gave them. It’s so awesome to see them motivated and excited about reading God’s Word and singing His praises!
Tomorrow we will sing some songs at church. The kids are really excited, and I think they are a bit nervous too. Pray that their worship will make an impact on the people there.
Please pray for Jonathan, one of our team members, as he speaks tomorrow at church as well.