on a bus, said my goodbyes to my beloved barkada and made the 9 hour
journey to the absolute middle of nowhere. I had an obscene amount of
luggage because instead of packing it I just decided to buy the worlds
hugest plastic bag and emptied my closet into it, still haven't had
time to unpack it so like true survivors, I've been living on the
small rationed luxury items I managed to find in the rubble. Got to
the bahay, no electricity, and no water, standard. So all day we were
up and down the so steep they should be illegal steps of our apartment
to pump water from the well so we could shower, eat and wash dishes.
Eventually it came back so now we can happily go back to showering out
of the massive garbage bin in the bathroom, but none of the taps work
so were still washing the dishes by pouring water out of an old cup of
two minute noodles. All in all, Cagayan means great times and I do
love it here. About a ten second walk from the house is the church,
and about another ten seconds past is the beach, so I've been dragging
my companion out for beach runs every morning which she seems to be
hating less now which is good! Haha.
This week was just getting to know the place and the people, and then
I realised that I basically already knew all the places and the
people. We had a meeting with the District President to discuss goals
and he talked to me as if I was the veteran here. What I really like
is everyone here is super motivated, the Zone Leaders are awesome, and
everyones stepping it up, there are different trainings happening for
all different leaders and there is a real focus on missionary work.
Blessed to be here for real!
Had interviews at the chapel on Saturday so while we were waiting we
watched the Primary Talent show. Talent shows are always awesome here
because Philippinos are obsessed with dancing and are all awesome at
it. The final act was a bunch of the 10 & 11 year old kids going a
very suggestive dance to a very inappropriate songs. I couldn't
believe everyone was just sitting there watching it happen, and then I
realised absolutely nobody understood the words. They then played the
song again over and over when the kids played musical chairs
afterwards. I had to leave the room.
And for the third mind blowing time, we were filling out records for
some investigators who are about to be baptised, when we asked when
the birthday was of the 9 year old daughter. '2006' they said. I
literally face palmed myself in the lesson before I realised what I
was doing. I couldn't believe I was saying this again. 'Your child is
not 9 years old, shes 8.' In Tagalog, siyempre. Everyones mind is
blown. At least she can still be baptised, thats the main thing! But
ever since then whenever somebody asks her how old she is I have to
try drag her away really fast. She tries to say 9 still but her
parents give her that look and she has to really disappointedly say 8.
P-day in Apparri today, which name you would recognise if you're a
true Survivor fan. After email we're going to squish into the worlds
smallest burger place and watch the Polynesian elders smash down a
burger challenge without even thinking, if they're still allowed to do
it. If they complete the challenge they get it for free, so a bunch of
them have been bannned.
Love you all,
Sister McKim
The flash on my camera is broken so the pictures are super dark!
Pictures are, my barkada in Santo Domingo. We had a forever flowing
fountain of YSA fellowshippers that often we had to turn people away
because we had too many people in our entourage. Almost all of them we
baptised or reactivated and now they're all preparing for missions!
My lovely companion Sister Mente having what we call a "Lehi's dream"
on the jeepney this morning.
And me at Dunkin Donuts. I literally couldn't believe my eyes, I've
never seen one in the city here let alone in the middle of nowhere
Cagayan. It was delicious.
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