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!!

Some Misc Pics of the Family

The girls looking sunburnt after a day in the sun. (Another story - I'll let them tell it)
Chocolate covered fruit on a stick!
Note Grace is wearing a sweater - only because of the air conditioning! We are going to be soooo cold when we get back to Canada. The average temp here is 30 degrees C and 75% humidity - day and night.

This was the only pumpkin we saw this Thanksgiving!

Cookie - the Kitten

One morning on the way to school Jeremy found an abandoned kitten so he brought it with him to school.

Teacher Evelyn graciously offered to take the kitten and this particular day she brought "Cookie" to school so Jeremy could see how well he was doing.
These are the kids & teachers from the school (Joy Christian Academy) where Jeremy has been sitting in on classes while he does his school work.

Our Cebu Missionary Team

These three families are the missionary team that we worked with here in Cebu. They are the only team members on the field right now. They have been a huge blessing in our lives, and we have been priviliged to work alongside of them.

Vance & Carol Johnson & youngest son Mark (good friend of Jeremy's). Johnsons live right on the campus of ETCP.
Bob & Jeanne Nelson (both teach at ETCP)
Dan & Amy Bush and daughter Kioni (3). The Bush's are here in Cebu for a two year term, and have about 6 months to go. Dan teaches at ETCP.