Friday was a team building activity for the youth group, and Cliff and I were asked to help lead the activities and to take pictures (Rae). The day started pretty good, even though it was early (5:30!). We all met at the church, then took a bus up into the mountains to Sierra Madre Resort. The kids were already divided into teams, Black, Red and Blue. They played all kinda of games in the morning, including a picture scavenger hunt, a game where they had to cross a field as a team using only 3 long boards. They could only step, walk or stand on the boards or they had to start over, and a relay game that included running backwards which was really funny to watch. Then we all had lunch. Each team had been given p500 ($12.50) to make something to contribute to lunch, so there were all kinda of dishes. I mostly ate rice. I don't like fish eyeballs or unknown meat stew. Everyone said it all was good though. After lunch was a devo in Tagalog so I have no idea what it was about. Then the had more games, and even a team cheer competition. They had a lot of fun with that one! The best game though was egg volleyball. Each team had a small, lap sized blanket that they all had to have a hand on, and a raw egg was tossed from one team's blanket to another's. It was quite entertaining. If you missed the egg, the other two team scored, so you didn't want to miss, but there was also a chance of getting egg all over you. It was hilarious!
The kids had a great time, and so did the adults. There were 6 of us, and 35+ kids so were were really outnumbered but the kids behaved pretty well.
Some of the kids were going to a friends house for an overnight pool party, and Cliff and I had been invited. After the fact we wished we hadn't gone, but at the time it sounded fun. Once we got back to the church and some of the kids left we got ready to go to the overnight thing. By get ready I mean we stat around for an hour, then decided to go to take a tricycle to the mall for another hour, then spent 45 minutes trying to get a cab big enough for 20 people. They finally found a mini bus that in the states would have sat 12, for them is was 18, and we crammed 21 people in it. Reminded me of high school. Anyways, once we were finally on the way we found out it was an hours drive in stop & start traffic. When we got there I had a headache. We finally got to the church members house and had supper (at 9:30) and then walked to the swimming resort next door. It was a really nice pool, and was only p100 ($2.50) to swim as long as we wanted. We were both sunburned (me a little more pink than usual on my arms, Cliff looking like a lobster on his face, neck, and arms) so the cool water felt pretty good!. We were tired though, and only lasted a few hours before we went back to Gemma;s house (where we were staying). We were very kindly given the master suite, lots of cold water, and left alone to sleep. It felt glorious! We slept till after 9, then went down to breakfast. None of the kids were up (they had been out another few hours swimming after we left) so we went into the living room and sat down to stay out of the way in the kitchen. In about two minutes we had hot chocolate, and a coffee table covered with more food then we could possible eat. That's Filipino hospitality, always giving the guest the best room and the most food. After breakfast we watched a badly bootlegged copy of the fast and furious 6 (i don't like movies like that but the boys put it on) and then we were finally ready for the hour long drive back to Manila. We took a couple of taxis into the city proper, and then took a jeepeny the rest of the way to the church. Needles to say, we were very happy to get back to the church, and even more happy to get home and take a shower and have a nap. Overall is was a good experience... But not one we want to repeat anytime soon.
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