Longest Day Ever-In a Good Way!!

Ohmygosh. Where to begin....

I will take you through a rundown of our activities today mostly via photos. This was a very active day but a great one.

I very much enjoyed everything we did today and would like to thank our gracious hosts: President "Baby", President-Elect Alex and last but not least Past-President "Rolex." They were so hospitable and accommodating. They truly made our day fabulous.

OK. So first we went to P. Bernardo highschool where they were giving pneumonia vaccines to senior citizens. Cindy was then asked to cut the inaugural ribbon on their "reading hut." It is similar to a gazebo where the children can go to read some of the books.

Next stop was P. Tuasom elementary school for their milk feeding. Most of the kids only get 1 meal a day so certain kids on certain days get to go to the milk feeding. We sang the kids a song then they sang one f0r us.

We then headed to the smallest Borangay in their area which is called Borangay Matang Ubig. New Manila Heights rotary club sponsors this squatter village. Just to give you an idea, they say this is the nicest squatter village in the area. They also estimate 20,000 people live in this village. This was one my favorite activities of the day although it was also the most disheartening since we saw firsthand the level of poverty that we are dealing with here. The one picture is of a 9 year old boy sewing fabric that he makes into rugs which he then goes and sells on the street. His mom was telling our host that she was so happy because he went out and sold 60 pieces the other day and made 60 pesos. That is the equivalent of a little over $1 US.

After, we went to a delicious Chinese lunch at Kopi Pian. This picture was taken outside of the restaurant. Just a sidenote, they have shrines of the Blessed Mother in almost every building we have been in, including government buildings.

After lunch, we stopped at some monuments around the city. One is the Ebsa Shrine (pictured below).

They then took us shopping at some markets where we were able to test our haggling skills. We went to a pearl market which was like a candy store for me and some of the other girls. I was definitely way overstimulated.

And last but certainly not least, we went to the New Manila Heights Rotary Club meeting where we had our first presentation. I think it went off without a hitch and we were in fact, even entertaining! After an "exciting" ride home with Cindy, I finally made it to bed around midnight. Like I said, it was a long day but well worth it.

*Sorry for the formatting of this post. I had alot of issues posting pictures and for some reason my font change color on me (???) Oh well, we just go with the flow here in Manila :)