We have had an eventful two days! Yesterday our team had the pleasure of meeting the OPI (Outreach Philippines Inc) staff. We got to ride on tricycles (motorcycles with side cars attached) in Cabanatuan City, which is a common form of transportation in the Philippines. Now transportation is a loose term...the dividing lines on the road are meaningless. Each intersection is a competition to see who can make it through first...we are basically playing "Chicken" the whole time. Don't worry mom, I would wear my seat belt...if they had one. There was a valuable lesson learned that day concerning the origin of the word bumper; after all..."bumpers are made for bumping."--Andy Betts
We then went to the OPI headquarters for introductions and to go over the outline of our trip with the staff. After a long day of meetings we got to experience a very unique Filipino cuisine--pizza :) Which was located in one of the largest malls in Cabanatuan. After dinner we returned to the Amada hotel for a much needed sleep because 7am breakfast (hot dogs, rice and eggs) was going to come fast!
Today we were aquatinted with the Jeepney: a colorful, elongated, seat belt-less, open doored ride! (Pictures to come) We took our pimped out ride to each of the different communities passing many beautiful rice fields and village workers transplanting seeds on the way.
We visited 5 different communities today meeting the various elected men and women leaders in each different community. Our team learned about the projects in each community and their prioritized needs. We were very impressed to visit these places and to see what great influence Outreach International has with these people. We quickly learned that the culture of the Filipino people embraces visitors and welcomes them into their homes with a friendly face. The children were especially quick to interact with us and weren't afraid to show a big smile.
We are looking forward to these next two weeks with all of the wonderful people we met today.
It is way past our bedtime here, so I am going to leave you with a picture of one of the native dishes we ate for lunch. Pig blood soup aka PBS.
Until next time,
Lololong!
Team Asia
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