Hmm...where do we begin...

Nini, our little helper, gives us some pointers as we write todays blog.
Lol.

Wow. Sorry it's been SOOOO long. We have no idea where the week went! Where, oh where, do we begin....

The remainder of our week was fairly basic (or what we're learning as a basic week) Thursday Sam and Wendy met with some of the Health workers to talk to them about their patients and to distribute medications to them.

Click on pictures to enlarge.

 Friday morning we picked weeds again and then the remainder of the day, for Allison anyways, was spent cooking. We are suppose to have our meals planned and pretty well prepared for the weekend because we are so busy during these days that we don't have time to prepare meals. One of the recipes Allison cooked was a Vegetable Quiche. Pretty basic, right? WRONG! The crust was actually made of Brown Rice and the filling was not egg, but a blend of cashews, seasonings, and water to form a cheese-like substance. The vegetables inside were also quite out of the ordinary. (It turned out amazing btw) After trying it, Michiel, one of our fellow missionaries, told Allison that she could now get married...lol, if only it were that simple ;)

Saturday was a very busy day. It was Fellowship Sabbath which is where all the surrounding villages come together to enjoy a church service. But since the villages are all about 20 miles apart and most of the people don't have vehicles, it is up to us to go and pick everybody up. So we drove to the different meeting locations and picked people up and they loaded into the back of the Toyota Hilux.

Since they put us on the spot so many
times we only thought it fair to put
them on the spot for a quick picture.

Singing up front. Thank goodness
grade school prepared us for this!

     The church service was nice. But we were constantly put on the spot to either sing songs or share testimonies. And by on the spot, I literally mean the elder stands up front and says (in Tagalog, mind you) and now the missionaries from America will perform a song. Wow! But thankfully we were able to pull a couple songs and stories from our sleeves.

Hungry Filipinos go around to see if
anyone has leftovers to share.

We find a nice shaded spot to sit
and eat.

Afterwards we have a Filipino version of potluck, which is basically where everyone brings food for their own families and if they have leftovers they share with one another. Our mission group, of course, brings PLENTY of food to share with everyone because alot of the people can't afford to feed their families, let alone bring enough to share.

The kids started coming by in small
groups and then began to swarm us.

Playing some sort of handslapping
game with Sam.

All day long the little children in the church were watching our every move and smiling at us. So after lunch Sam began to use the Tagalog that she knows to ask the children "What is your name?" (Ano ang pangalan mo?) and "How old are you?" (Ilan ang idad mo?) The kids, of course, thought this was the coolest thing since sliced bread and then began to follow her around like little ducklings. Sam Po! Sam Po! lol. (Po is a sign of respect. It's like saying Mam or Sir) They were amazed with the fact that we were sisters and when they asked what Allison's name was it was immensely difficult. They have a hard time saying/remembering her full name. So she started introducing herself as Ally. But, as we found out from the constant giggles, Ally means 'Uncle' in Tagalog. So we decided on Al. But Al is a common boys name in the Philippines. So we tried to get creative and chose Allis but that means "GET AWAY!" in Tagalog. So it looks like the poor kids of Palawan will just have to suffer through her full name. lol. But they loooovvvveee Sam. lol During the afternoon they hold a AY program for all the youth in the church.

Wendy asked Allison to drive the Hilux to
the village....God help us all! lol, jk.

Click on pictures to enlarge.

Kids LOVE being able to help put
the felts on the board.

Allison passes out crayons.

Sam gives a health lecture on Germs.

Sunday we held our very own children's program in Imunolod. Last week there were about 13 kids, so Allison planned her children's story and activity accordingly. However, this week we get there and there were over 30 kids there! But we sang a couple songs, and taught them a couple songs in English and then Allison did the story of Creation with Felts. The kids were SOOO into the story and were always very excited when we would select one of them to put a felt on the board. We had printed off coloring sheets for them to use afterwards, but since we weren't expecting so many they all had to share papers and crayons. They were still very excited. After the program, one of the adults told us that twice as many kids were planning to come next week......So it looks like we have to plan alot more for next weeks program. Sam did a health lecture for the adults after and the kids all stayed and paid close attention to everything she had to say. At the end of program Sam made even more friends with her Tagalog questions. It is alot of fun being able to meet everyone. We drove a family of 10 home and the mother told us that they had left at 6am to get to the program (which is at 2 in the afternoon) CRAZYNESS!! But we were touched by the extreme dedication of this family, so we offered to pick them up every Sunday.

Kids had to share color sheets :(

However, they still got really into their pictures

Kid gets a lice check from
the village pet monkey. lol

They had a pet monkey in this village!
But he was a mean monkey....

Did you know that monkeys are scared
of chickens?? And cats?? Who'da thunk?

Wow, sorry this post is Supppeeerrr long. I guess that'll teach us to skip so many days between blogs, eh? Thanks for reading!! Till next time...

~Me and Her