The Traveling Backpack--Cebu City, Philippines

Before you see the beauty of this place, you must understand the reality! Poverty is reality for a lot of people living in the Philippines! I have seen people living in such conditions before, but every time it is like the first time to witness such poverty all over again. I will never be comfortable with the sights I saw today, nor should I ever be!!!!!!!






Wednesday, February 20, 2008--Cebu City, Philippines

The food is good at this hotel, so I am eating as much as I can! There is lots of fresh juice that is very refreshing when you are hot and thirsty! This morning for breakfast they brought me some fresh squeezed pineapple juice! YUMMY!!!!!! The coffee is really good here, too! It is very unusual for me to enjoy coffee away from home, but I am drinking 1 to 2 cups in the mornings! The cream they put on the table is hot when you add it to your cup!

After breakfast, we hired a car and driver to take us to the local UPC church in Cebu City. Up and down these winding streets we went, stopping and asking where the church was located. The driver even got lost for a little while! OK, guess you could say we were lost in the Philippines! Where in the world was Kayla today? I still do not know!

Here are some of the sights we saw on our adventure!

Making and selling brooms! They had very colorful dyed straw on the ends.
Traffic on the streets of Cebu City.
More brooms! A lot of floors are dirt, so I guess they sweep the dirt!

This lady is washing laundry! Thank the Lord for my GE washing machine!

A boy on the street!

The local neighborhood!

We finally found the church after a lot of searching! The church is open air with a tin roof and some of the national pastors and their families are staying there! They are sleeping on the benches and ground! Conference really cost them a lot to to get here, so the money that the church in Laurel, MS sent, went to feed them for the week. $150 will feed around 100 people here for the week!

The Church
National Pastors

Sleeping Arangements
Bro. Mallory with two of the national pastors.Source of water for the church.
Housing in Cebu City! Hope this is not considered prime location!
These colorful jeepneys are local transportation.

Toby did a little shopping at the local Shoe Mart today! He bought several traditional shirts to wear because they are much cooler and comfortable.

Tonight was Songfest, so we all went! The singing was very good, but I started getting a headache and couldn't enjoy it like I wanted! I think it is more fatigue than anything! Even though my head was hurting, I did manage to clap a little and take a bad picture!

LOOK, Bro. Jep is the only one posing!

One of the choirs tonight!
This little girl reminded me so much of Kensli in attitude! She stuck her tongue out at Bro. Mallory along with several other things. What a cutie!
This little guy could really play the keyboard!
Three little kids that loved looking at us strange Americans. After Toby took their picture he showed it to them and they giggled and giggled. After seeing these three, I really miss my kids!!

It is raining tonight! They had a party with a live band out by the pool, but now you can only hear the rain.

Until tomorrow......................

(Please forgive me for any errors in the daily entries. I have jetlag and after just a little typing all the letters start to run together! Thank you! )