Sunny with a Chance of Heat Stroke

Terra Rica on Saud Beach

Me looking for shells

Philippine countryside

Passing out Pamphlets in our matching shirts

A picture that looks like it could be on ADRA. This little boy is from a very poor family.

So I just checked the weather. Here is the weather forecast for the next 5 days in Pagudpud:

Sunny(Humid) Sunny(Humid) Sunny(Humid) Sunny(Humid) Sunny(Humid)

86 86 87 87 88

And Summer here doesn't actually start until March. Oh good.

Last Sabbath we spent the morning handing out pamphlets. My group was me, Kim (guy SM), Odette, and several other church members. We went up a ways in the mountains, past Pancuin. It was very tropical and pretty, we saw monkeys (they were pets...we gave one a pamphlet, and he promptly ripped it in half) and a mountain dam. On the way back down, we stopped for coke and sticky rice. Odette laughed at one of the other church ladies for eating so much sticky rice. "That's why you're so fat!" She exclaimed. Kim and I just looked at each other incredulously. Like, did she really just say that? But here, calling someone fat doesn't hold the same weight (ha) as it does in the Philippines. It is more like an observation than an insult.

Later, we went to build a bonfire on the beach with a bunch of other AY members (adventist youth). Uncle Elly, Uncle Rizal, Rhea, Auntie Noemi, and Pastor Mark also came. It was completely pitch black out, until we got the beach. The stars were absolutely incredible. It was one of those moments that you wish you could just capture and show it to everyone you know. There were more stars than I have ever seen in my life, and the milky way was so clear. All along the horizon, clouds had gathered and a crazy lightening storm was going on. The ocean was dotted with the lights of fishing boats and looked like something off of Pirates of the Caribbean. The sky looked like a giant dome had been opened; I don't know how to describe it...the world just looked extra round and big and vast. For awhile, everyone just sat quietly around the fire and watched and listened and looked.

There are times here where I feel so alive, and times when I feel so apathetic and lethargic

On the way home from the beach, I rode in between Noemi and Rhea on the motorbike, while everyone else rode with Uncle Rizal. This is when I feel alive, when I am riding through a dark, warm Philippine evening, with the wind blowing in the hair. This is when I feel like I am on an adventure, when I feel like I am living in some crazy, amazing life. I wish I could keep that high. Really, I was just a white girl sandwiched between two Filipinos on a motorbike. We probably looked like an Oreo rolling down the street.

Many things happened this week. We went to our first Necrological service (a viewing of a dead person's body before the funeral). It was an experience, and the body looked....well, especially pickled. We went to Laoag and saw Despicable Me in the theater ($2.50!). We all walked out of the theater kind of dazed...it felt so American and normal being in an air-conditioned theater again, it felt like we should just walk back out into our regular lives. We celebrated Justin's birthday at Saud beach, and Odette's birthday at her house, where we were served Fungus Stew and hot pink cake and got to watch an American movie on TV. Heather and I got to listen to a fetus's heartbeat and watch a tooth be pulled today while we were volunteering in the clinic. It was blazing hot today (as always) so us girls went and played in the ocean for awhile. I found a really sweet looking dead crab on the way back with really long red-striped spindly legs. I stopped by Rhea's house to show it to her, and she promptly told me it was poisonous. Oh good. Later, the boys made dinner: mashed potatoes, beans, grapefruit, and vegetables, and now here we are. Thursday night. Another week has almost gone by.