Monday, June 29 - Sagabayan & Chocolate Hills

Monday, June 29 - Sagabayan Elementary

Today we traveled to Sagabayan Elementary, about a two hour drive. It was so hot and humid, unlike the cooler, cloudy days we’ve been experiencing. Granted, it was cooler and cloudy for the Philippines, not typical of this time of year. Today was typical Philippines: hot, humid, and sticky! As we went inside the school dorm, to start crafts, it started POURING! Thunder and lightening accompanied soon after. It’s amazing how in the Pacific Northwest, we say, “That’s Washington weather!” when it’s sunny, yet raining. It’s also typical here, in the Philippines, to have bright, sunny, hot days and looking up to the sky, see a black cloud rolling in. Soon, monsoon rain and thunder follow. We didn’t see a black cloud this day, but we were glad to have finished the outside games prior to this monsoon hitting. During the student lunch, we were given fresh mangoes and a rice snack with ginger and cardamom spices. This school is one that I typically take a lot of pictures. They LOVE to have their picture taken, and then want to see it on our cameras. It’s so funny, we always feel like photographers.

As we left, we continued on to the Chocolate Hills, one of the Bohol tourist destinations. We were excited as last year there was a new tourist “trap”. You could walk to the edge of the hill and a photographer would take your picture jumping in the air and print it off… for $3. It looked like you were jumping over a bunch of Chocolate Hills (green grass covered hills that look like Hershey kisses). We were excited for another opportunity to take the pictures. We climbed the 214 steps to the top of the hill and were met with a chained link fence. You could no longer use natural scenery to take a picture, but had to use a fake background that consisted of two canvases taped together. We were SO disappointed!