Finally Home

Arrival in Vancouver after 13 hours of flying. We were so tired!! We had 1 more flight to go - there were only about 15 people on the flight to Williams Lake. Big contrast from the 747 we flew on to Vancouver. I think our luggage weighed more than the people on board! :)
Home Sweet Home! It was good to get home!! Within 10 min. of arriving home the phone was ringing and soon we had a housefull of teenagers. Although we were travel weary we were glad to see everyone!

Although winter is well on the way now, we are starting to finally make the transition back to the cold weather. It is hard to believe that we were so hot for 5 months. We have been so blessed to have been on this trip, and our memories, experiences, and friendships will last a lifetime. We love you all! Thanks to all of you who made it possible for us to go, and to those who were faithfully praying for us.

With gratitude and love,

Bevan, Grace, Emily, Melissa and Jeremy

Hong Kong - 5 days as Tourists

We enjoyed 5 nights in Hong Kong to finish off our trip to Asia. Hong Kong is a HUGE contrast to Cebu. HK is one of the wealthiest cities in the world - quite a difference from a third world country. HK belongs to China, but it functions as "one country, two systems." We were told there is about 8.5 million people in the space of 430 square miles. It is definitely crowded, but amazingly efficient with their transportation. Between the high tech underground subway, bus system and taxis HK can transport people around in minimal time. It was fun to explore, and check out the sights.


The Subway

Double-decker Buses
Incredible high rises and infastructure

We enjoyed the taste of some great restaurants.

Visited a buddist temple. The temple also has beautiful gardens which were a nice break from the busy city.

We celebrated our 22nd wedding anniversary while in Hong Kong.

We were amazed at the shopping on the world famous shopping strip of Nathan Ave. Our hotel was on Nathan Ave. so we were right in the middle of the tourist area.

Enjoyed shopping in the Temple Street night market.
The days we had in Hong Kong were great, yet the contrast was so huge compared to Cebu City. What extremes we have in our world!

Our Tons of Luggage

Thank you to Bob Nelson who helped us get to the airport with our loads of luggage.
As you can see, there was a lot! After some issues when we checked in, we abandoned one piece and repacked it into our carry on. It was crazy but we finally made it on the plane.

Saying Our Goodbyes

Oct. 18 was our last day in Cebu and we said our goodbyes to lots of friendly faces around us. Above are our 2 great baristas at our local Starbucks.

Our diligent guards for our Greenhills Subdivision. Each one worked a 12/hour shift and they switched days and nights every couple of weeks.

Jeremy's favorite stop - the Sari-Sari store (home-grown corner store) in our subdivision.

The other set of guards at the first subdivision - Rosalina Village.
Stella, our faithful house helper. We will miss her terribly - especially Grace! It was hard to say goodbye! Roland, one of our regular taxi drivers that we hired for more specific trips. He took us to the airport. We will miss the all the friendly faces around us. Often we couldn't speak their language, but their smiles always spoke volumes.

The Girl's Resort Trip

Last Thursday, Melissa and I went on a trip with some of our friends to a resort in Cordova on Mactan Island (where the airport is). Francis and Laarne (I help in Francis' music class at CSC) invited us to come along with some of the staff from CSC. They also invited some students from ETCP. The resort is Francis' lola's (grandma's) so we got a great deal!! Only $7.00 each!!! Charis and Jinxsy (a physical therapist) both work at CSC. Charis is actually in her 4th internship year at ETCP.
Jobby
The trip wouldn't be complete without a little kareoke...or in this case a lot of kareoke!
We got to the resort around 6:30 on Thursday night and then had supper. Mmm...Filipino food. Pork barbecue and LOTS of rice!! Then we went swimming. We were swimming from about 9:00 pm to 2:00 am!! And doing kareoke at the same time. It was very fun!!

We didn't get very much sleep...only about 3 1/2 hours. This is Melissa's I-wish-it-wasn't-morning face! Do we have to get up yet??
JM, Nikho and Naomi
Me and Charis
Jobby and Melissa
Lloyd - a physical therapist at CSC
The resort...there were 2 pools.
We ate true Filipino food and it was delicious! For breakfast: bread, sweet potato, milo (hot chocolate stuff), hard boiled eggs and kalamay (ground sticky rice, coconut, peanuts and brown sugar served in a coconut...it's a sticky paste you stick on bread...yummy and sweet). For lunch: grilled pork (a bit like lechon), swordfish (delicious!!!) and rice of course. It was a great experience!

We swam for most of Friday too. Just because it was SO hot and the water kept us cool. The ETCP students kept swimming cuz it was such a treat for them to be in a pool. You can see on a different blog how sunburnt me and Melissa got! It was funny though cuz, even though we were sunburnt, when we got out of the pool they said, "And you're still white!!"

Aileen, Jobby and Me
Haha...a funny sign!! It's hilarious how much of a difference one letter makes. And nobody else even notices....

Nadia and Naomi
Our squishy jeepney ride back home!
We also took a ferry across the Cebu Channel to get back home. It was fun...and interesting how many people are squished on.

Island Hopping

On Monday we had one last day on the ocean - it's called Island Hopping because you hire a boat and crew to take you out to different islands for a picnic and snorkeling. It was a beautiful sunny day, and we enjoyed it with our friends the Nelsons and Jeremy's friend Mark. The crew took us out by row boat to the bigger boat because of low tide. When we got back we could get right off the boat on to the shore. Our bigger boat is in the background. Below is a picture of what our boat looked like.

Our crewA local fishing boat (more like a raft)Snorkeling was amazing! We stopped at a protected marine sanctuary, and the fish were abundant and beautiful. It was like swimming in a salt water aquarium. The colors on the fish are brilliant. This was a first for the kids and they loved it. The water is soooo warm!This was a huge jelly fish that was swimming around our boat. We kept a safe distance because they are dangerous. This was our picnic island. About the size of a small city block.
Our picnic site with the boat (above) and our picnic hut (below). You have to pay for everything here, so we had to pay our $4.00 to use the hut and then $1.00 /person.All of us soaking up the sun before we head back to the cold weather at home!!