The children ruled this week. We had some sweet experiences with a diverse range of children. First, I was able to go to Mabuhay House after not going there for awhile. I had an open morning, so quickly figured out a craft and got two doctors’ wives to go with me. They loved it, of course, and the little kids were really cute and into it this week. I decided to have the theme of “bees” since it is Mabuhay Deseret, after all. I taught them that Deseret means honeybee and they are all helping to make sweet things happen there. The kids made bees out of toilet paper rolls and I had the adults write on a poster- different ways they can help make it a better place by “beeing” kind, patient, helpful, etc. On Thursday, we had a sudden opportunity come up to go to the Angono School District, where we gave them the literacy program last year, around February, and the 5 schools are just now getting their program launched. They wanted us to be there when they had their tutor launching and giving out some of the materials to some of the less fortunate kids. We didn’t really have it in mind that they would give the tutor kits to the tutees, rather the tutors, but oh well.

The kids were so cute in their uniforms. Also, can you imagine going into a third grade classroom with 47 students? They were jam packed in there! So many of the students did the “blessing” thing where they take your hand and put it on their forehead. It was so sweet! During the ceremony, I had the students do the hokey pokey and talked about being “all in” as tutors. It was fun. After that, while they were giving out the kits, the MC played “hokey pokey” that he found on YouTube! It was pretty awesome! After leaving the school, I decided that we couldn’t drive all the way out there and not find some place nice where we could maybe walk. And we did! First we went to see the Angono Petroglyphs. This is probably the oldest rock art in the Philippines and might be as old as 3,000 years. In the same area was a casino and resort, along with a golf course. We had a lovely (but stinking hot) walk on wide roads with vegetation and NO CARS!!! We ended up walking on part of the golf course, then a guy in a cart saw us and of course we weren’t supposed to be there, so he rode us back to the club house (which saved a long hot walk, so it was awesome too). Sometimes it pays to act innocent when you are breaking some sort of rule. After our hot walk, we ended up driving up a hill where there was a chic outdoor cafe that overlooks the metro Manila area. It looks like cyclists go up there a lot. So all in all a great, unplanned day. Until we had to be in awful traffic on the way home and almost ran out of gas. Ugh!

On Friday, we did something that actually was planned in advance! We had a turnover of donation scheduled in Cabanatuan- about 4 hours North and East of here (supposed to just be 3 hours) at the Bahay Pag-Asa Residential Care Center, which is a home for boys who have been in conflict with the law or boys who have been rescued from abuse. When we went there before, it was dark (no electricity) late and the boys seemed so morose. This time the boys were happy to see us, and genuinely seemed to be okay. I thought the turnover ceremony was just at the boy’s home, but when we got closer, the social worker called and asked if I knew where the office was. She then told me it would be at the City Hall office. Yikes! The mission president’s wife, stake president and others were at the Boy’s Home. We were late getting there, then had to wait for the others to come back from the Boy’s home. The mission president’s wife was NOT happy! That is how communication has gone for this project. Frustrating at times, and many changes!

I forgot to mention that we took Sister Furbank up there with us. She and her husband were mission office workers and she is the one who set this project up- along with Sha Ron, the police officer who is also a member of the church. Her husband nearly died of a serious heart attack a few weeks ago, but he made it in an ambulance (a few scary days later) to St. Luke’s in Manila and had expert care there. He is now well enough that they can go home to England on Sunday (if all continues to go well) so she really wanted to go back up and see the boys one last time. She had little packs of tick tacks for them and you would have thought it was Christmas morning. She is such a delightful woman. She is a people magnet and just glows. It was fun to be with her and good to have this project come to fruition. But a lot of driving in one day!