Fun with the Filipinos

We have had a fun few days!  We went to the Crystal Waves resort for a little break before leading our first big meeting with the communities.  The resort was complete with 2 pools and a water slide, one pool was a wave pool and the other (greenish) one had many frog families taking it over.  Needless to say, we did not get into the second pool.  Overall, we had a fun time at the resort laying out and playing in the wave pool and slide.  We also hung out with a group of Filipinos who were there celebrating one of their friend's birthday.  It was a great time to spend with each other as well as a great time to prepare for the meeting.

We were only at the resort for a day and woke up early to travel back into the communities.  This meeting was lead by SIFE and OPI and included each of the communities.  We identified each of the needs for their Rice Loan projects and headed in the direction of some potential solutions.  And we can't forget the different ice breaking games played, which brought lots of laughter and bonding within the group.  It was wonderful for us to hear from the different communities and to hear their ideas on how to solve the issues going on in their community.  SIFE really focused on having the community members think outside the box to come up with some new solutions to these projects.  This meeting lasted into the evening and our team had built up an appetite!  OPI surprised us by taking us to Pizza Hut, which was a treat.  I think we all ate WAY too much that night!  After pizza we were all satisfied, full and ready for bed!

Here are some pictures from that day!

The next morning we woke up early and rounded up the team for a trip to the beach!  The beach is about a couple hours away from our hotel so we wanted to get an early start.  Once there, some of us went straight to the beach, while others headed to the Ocean Adventure with dolphins and seals.  It was such a nice day out and wonderful to be on the beach and by the ocean! (Sorry to rub it in for all of you back home in the snow)  Ian, Hilary and I had the chance to go snorkeling right off the beach and were very impressed with the beautiful fish and coral we saw!  When the sun went down, we headed for dinner and back to our hotel.

 The view :)

 Fun in the sun!

      Teamwork!!

We got to sleep in a bit this morning and are now getting ready to prepare for another big meeting we have on Tuesday!  Shout out to our families, we miss you guys!  Also, shout out to our fellow SIFE team members in Africa--you guys are doing great work!! 

Until next time, agay!

Team Asia

SIFE FOR LIFE!