Last night, two of the Surf the Nations team arrived in Cebu. David led Janelle, Jonathan, Katy and me on a 10 minute walk over to the beach this morning. Katy and I have been here for over a week, but we haven’t been to the beach yet. Now, you have a beautiful sandy place in mind when I say beach. This place was sandy, but I didn’t so much feel like swimming at this beach.
It has the potential to be a beautiful place for the community, but instead, it is full of all sorts of trash. We saw an assortment of things. We walked by these little water front houses. I’m not sure how well they’d stand against typhoon.
We walked by a small sheep farm too.
Then there were the more normal sites. Fishermen and boats.
These kids followed us a little way down the beach too. They would reach out and take your hand and place it on their forehead. It was a sign of blessing and respect.
We were hoping to stop at Orange Brutus for a mango shake on our way home, but they didn’t open until 11 am and we didn’t so much feel like hanging out for an hour. When we arrived home, Carol and the helpers were making lunch.
On the left is Luna (26) and the right is Ami (27).
This is a foreign idea to most middle class Americans, but in Filipino culture, it is expected that you have helpers if you can afford them. It is a societal expectation to provide a jobs if you have the ability to do so. Almost all Filipinos employ helpers, unless you are the poorest of poor.
Luna and Ami are first cousins. They share a room in the house and they cook and clean. Ami has been with the family for about ten years and Luna has been with them for three. The Johnsons treat Ami and Luna like family and have really supported the girls and their families. Both girls have been able to help their families with the money they earn working here. Ami and Luna both come from a family of fishermen up north. The Johnsons were able to help them out when her father had cancer (he’s been in remission for the last 4 years). Ami has done a lot for her family; she was able to pay for electricity to be installed in her family’s house, and cement the floor and help pay for siblings’ schooling. Luna’s dad died about five years ago and her family needed her to work, so she wasn’t able to finish school. In June, Luna started taking night classes and will be finishing her first year of high school. Ami is also taking night classes; starting on her first year of college. These are two of the nicest girls you’ll ever meet here in Cebu!
We were getting ready to go over to the tutoring center and stumbled over Frosty in the doorway...we were worried that Frosty bit the dust, but he was just taking a cat nap.
Today at the tutoring center we some Moms and Tots play time. We sang songs and played musical instruments...
and then we all did some yoga.
While we were doing activities for the moms and tots, some of the older kids were monkeying around outside.
The moms got to have some time to crochet...
…while the tots had some free play time. The kids like to pretend cook over an open fire like they see at home. They make wood block fires under their little cook pot. This girl is making some Chicken Adobo.
I had some conversational English time with some of the older kids. They were a couple of first year college students (16-17 year old) who wanted to talk about music and movies. They were eager to find out what happens in the fourth Twilight book because they don’t read the books but have watched the first three movies. They were very excited to hear that I lived in the same state that the vampires live in and wanted to know if I had met Robert Pattinson or Kristen Stewart. Nice try.
With the littler kids, we got out the pop-up books and crayons. When I told the kids that we were going to write a story, they all automatically went to the library section of the tutoring center to get the book they would copy into their book. I had to stop them, "No, we're going to make up our own stories!" They wrote about themselves, all their favorites...color, animal, game, etc.
Katy's younger brother Brendon and the rest of the Surf the Nations team arrived from the airport late at night.
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