the Philippines continued...

Hello. Things have been pretty good since the last time I blogged-- I haven't been sick again and I am slowly starting to feel a lot better. However, no matter how much sleep I get I still seem to always feel tired. I don't know if I will ever feel 100% rested on this trip because there is always so much going on. Anyway's, I guess you may be wondering what has been happening. Well when I got home from the hospital I went back to my home-stay and had a pretty good sleep that night which was very needed. Tuesday was spent in lectures learning about Filipino History and both about past and current economic challenges-- I found the second lecture really interesting (I developed a bit of an interest in economics over the summer while I was in Australia). I got home Tuesday and spent the evening playing with a bunch of kids, man it was a fun evening. There must of been about 10 or more kids, they speak a bit of English (they learn it in school) but we seemed to be able to communicate alright with each other regardless. They were all calling me Americano Americano however, I corrected them by saying I was not Americano but Canadian-- from Canada. They all giggled, we all laughed quite a bit. We were having relay races, dancing, playing games and they were trying to teach me a Filipino song with actions they laughed when I tried to learn the words... they are all so beautiful and I love them all!!! There is this one little girl who it just the cutest, she is maybe only 1 years old. She is often around with her older sister who looks after her because her mother is away living and working in Hong Kong. There are a lot of Filipino families where the mothers or fathers go overseas to work because they can make better money and in turn send it back home to their families. I felt sad when she came and sat next to me and took my hand and put it to her tiny little belly-- I thought she must miss her mama so much. I am sure her father and siblings give her heaps of love but there is no love like the love of a mother... I have a heap of pictures I took of the children playing... and ones of the little boys swimming in the trenches filled with water which I think is used as some sort of irrigation system from the rice padies. Wednesday we went to the Eco-Park and Botanic Gardens which was really beautiful. 78 hectares of plants and wildlife of the Philippines-- over 2000 species!! It was a really lovely morning and we finished up there by having lunch. We came back to the university in the afternoon and had a lecture on Philippine Traditional Family Dance and Music-- when the lecture was over a bunch of the students put on a show for us showing us 6 of the different types of dances. At the end a few of us got to try them out-- I tried the one where you put a pot on your head and move around... I did it without dropping the pot... they were pretty impressed!!! It was fun. Our home-stay lady took us to the city afterwards and we visited a few shops, went to the night markets and met up with a friend of hers from church for dinner and went home after that. Thursday we went on an "Educational Field Trip" to a dragon fruit farm and tried some delicious dragon fruit ice cream. Next we stopped at a point where you walked up stairs to a lighthouse. The view was stunning of the cliffs and the ocean-- the surf looked spectacular. We saw a place where salt is made (natural mineral salt) then went to this resort on a beach and had an amazing lunch. Next we went on a hike to some waterfalls where we got to swim-- very beautiful and refreshing. And our last stop was at this beach which had a heap of windmills all along it that are used for power. Sadly we could not swim and I don't think you would have wanted to because the waves were soooo big and really really strong. Honestly, you would have drowned if you went in. It was super hectic. We got back and went home. Played with some of the kids for a bit and met some more neighbors (cousins of our home-stay lady) and then had supper. At present I am just at the university, we had lectures all day and are waiting around for a bit until the social event tonight that we are having with the students-- should be fun. Both groups (us and them) have prepared some entertainment-- we are going to do some singing and reading of poetry. Hopefully it goes well. Anyway's, looking forward to spending the weekend with my home-stay family, it should be fun! Will write more soon. Thinking of you all. Much love --Nikki :) xox PS: I cannot wait to put pictures on FB-- probably won't be until I get home unless people post some on my wall or tag me in them hehe