Last night Alana and I were out and stopped at a fruit market. I got mangosteens for breakfast, and she got really good bananas, then we had these guys machete open a green coconut and put the juice and scrapings in a plastic bag. We each got one for breakfast this morning.
So I was ready to have mine, but it's just in a bag and I wasn't sure what to do. I knocked on their door and Jacques handed me a wide mouth Nalgene bottle to pour it into. I decided that might be messy so I went to do it in the bathroom. Good thing! As soon as I poked the bag open it exploded! No joke. I guess it went off during the night and fermented (it didn't smell too good) so it just burst all over the bathroom floor. Messy but no worries. It's one of those asian style bathrooms with no shower curtain, the shower water just goes everywhere.
So I was cleaning up the slimy coconut shavings and mess when I hear an urgent pounding on my door. It was Jacques saying don't open the bag! Alana had hers burst in the middle of their room! Oh no!
So after that it was time to go to church! There's a really huge open air room (it's bigger than a basketball court) with at least 300 people in plastic chairs. These are the families of some of the kids who live in LCP. Not all of the kids are actual orphans. Some of them come from families too poor to feed or care for them--all part of being a Catholic nation.
So there was singing and a sermon by the pastor, all in whatever language they use. I don't think it's Tagalog, but something like that. It's a very consonant heavy language that sounds a bit like verbal popcorn. At the end they had a special ceremony to honor Alana and Jacque who have been there for two years. The staff all got up and sang songs. They made Alana and Jacque get up on stage to say a few words. It was sweet.
Then to my surprise I heard my name mentioned and the lady was smiling and pointing at me, thanking me for coming to teach the Eeeeeee Efffffff Teeeeee (our workshop is tomorrow) and they all sang me a welcoming song! She also invited these 14 community leaders to come and (Alana told me) offered to pay their transport...people are really poor, remember.
So I felt like a big wig and had three hundred people looking at me. I waved and a number of people shook my hand at the end.
The best thing here though is the girls. We had another movie night last night and it was just the 13 girls. I'd brought some caramels from Trader Joes and they each got two. VERY well received. The movie was god awful! Some short Disney flick called The Young Black Stallion. But I stayed just to hang out with these wonderful kids.
They want to know all about my own daughters and my wife and have tons of questions. One of the questions was whether I was sponsoring a kid already. Alana explained later that means sending $35 a month to help pay for their keep and school books and such. I'm sorely tempted.
There is so much poverty in the world that we can't ever hope to do much, but then sometimes something comes right across our path.
It's been raining here a lot. Sometimes it just hammers down and will be extremely muggy. But you just walk around in the rain and get a bit wet and it's no big deal at all. It's actually cooling. I guess when it's really pelting down we haven't gone out in that.
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