June 28, 2010 - Talibon

My lizard woke me up again last night. I had just fallen asleep and he started scratching and scratching. I turned on the lights and took out a book, knowing I wouldn't be able to sleep. I could hear him, above the AC blowing, walking around, dragging his belly across the ceiling. About an hour and a half later, I was able to turn off the lights and go to sleep. This lizard is not my friend!

The school we visited today is our longest drive, more than 2 and a half hours. However, I love this school. They are always very well behaved and respond to our purpose there. Also, my 2nd sponsor child is there, Joselle. Here she is, playing a game in the parachute. It's always such a joy to see her again! I started sponsoring her 2 years ago. She had just started Preschool, as a 7 year old. She couldn't communicate... couldn't even tell me her name or age. Now she is able to tell me about her family and ask me about mine. What joy! We were there just a short time, but it was time well spent. As we were leaving, as we normally do, we took a group picture with everyone. In the process, the picture taker dropped my hand-held camera and it broke. I have my bigger, more expensive camera that I can use, but I'm not able to download anymore pictures for you all until I return to the US.

We then drove to Loboc Elementary, a school with 400-500 kids. With such a large group, and us being so small, we have learned to only play games with them and then perform our dramas. We do not do crafts with this group. However, when we arrived at the school, it was closed. They were celebrating their fiesta, which is a 2-day holiday for them to spend with family and friends. We were bummed but now had a free few hours. We drove just down the road to the Loboc tarsier reserve. Tarsiers are the smallest primate in the world, and can only be found in the Philippines. They are cute but kind of remind me of an ewok with really big eyes.

We drove home for a while before heading to Along and Endi's house for dinner. These two are the pastor's of the barrio. They are also the caretakers of the house we stay in. Every year they invite us to their house for dinner and it is my favorite meal consisting strictly of Filipino food. So yummy!