Getting ready to leave is bittersweet- hard and yet joyous to spend time with special people here. We did have one last school turnover mixed in with all of the good-bye lunches and dinners. On Monday, we had a turnover of donation for two annex schools in Tondo. We have been working on this one for a few months, so it was good to see it come to fruition. These two schools are located down some very tight lanes, where cars would never be able to travel. They were asking for two tricycles, one for each annex school, so they could quickly go back and forth to the “mother” school. The mother school was very recently finished. It is now an amazingly nice 10 story building . The nicest public school building we have seen, I’m sure. We held the turnover celebration there, but we wanted to take the Gardners to see the annex schools, so we rode in the brand new tricycles to get there. Good thing we did! We discovered the benches in the back don’t have enough support so that anyone can actually sit on them. We had to put plastic chairs in the back! After some long walks to see the schools (the principal didn’t feel comfortable taking the new e-bikes down there with all of us on the back) we returned to the giant big school where the students were waiting for us.

The cute students had signs they were holding and they were so sweet. During the turnover, a 3rd grade student gave her very well rehearsed speech! The best thing ever. My other favorite talk was from the PTA president. She talked about hope and how we aren’t just donating things, but we are giving them hope that things can be better. Quite lovely. We have a few church members who also teach at this school (the big one) and one member accompanied us along with her mother. When we finished with this turnover, we went over to Tondo, along with the Gardners, our replacements, to the Aroma district of Tondo to assess the fire damage and learn how the church can help. When they took us to the fire site, I couldn’t even imagine how no one was killed. The fire burned all night, taking 4 large buildings and displacing over 650 families. Such devastation! The metal roof beams had gotten so hot they were twisted and left hanging. There were so many scavengers there (no surprise ) who were sifting through things, taking away the metal anyway they could. The plan is to get rid of all the rubble, then help the residents build their own small houses , since the buildings (which housed over 150 families each) are gone. Since this is disaster response, it is a bit confusing as to who is actually in charge of this project, so I hope things all get ironed out and they get the items to the people quickly. It is all so sad!

LOTS OF HUGS, LOTS OF FOOD

Now for the fun part of the week: it is time to say our good-byes to many people and foundations we have worked with. On Tuesday we had a real treat: the director of the Ophthalmological Foundation, Glecy and her husband took us to lunch at a very expensive Wagyu Steak place here in Eastwood. By far, the best steak I have had in a very, very long time. So of course, I ate the whole thing and suffered later. We enjoyed the conversation very much. She and her husband are interesting to talk to. They are from a higher social economical class, but very service minded. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Then it was back to the area office to do some things and to meet with Abe and his wife who took us to the Creperie to say good-bye. He was leaving the next day for Hawaii, so we had to squish in our good-bye. We were very full from our lunch, but managed to have my favorite hot chocolate, much to my stomach’s dismay. We really love Abe Pajaro. He is very spiritual, humble, hard-working, super funny and an all-around great guy. We will miss his wisdom and positive attitude.

The next day we had 3 meal events: First, I met up with Melody Ledesma and Kim Morrison from Mabuhay Deseret. These ladies are cherished friends! They work together so well to help so many here. Kim and family are suddenly leaving the Philippines next month, so the great partnership will be breaking up. We had a sweet lunch together, then I went with them to Mabuhay House to say good-bye to the staff. That was hard! I will miss doing vision screenings with them, Wednesday Thrills with the patients at the house, and just being with them. After I left there, Kim’s driver took me back to the area office for a lunch with the staff and missionaries to say good-bye to us and present us with half of our gift. Kenneth will be leaving today for general conference, so we had to say our good-byes this day. His wife was there, so it was good to say good-bye to her as well. I have so enjoyed getting to know her . We will miss them!!! Later that night, we had dinner with Gretchen and Gary Penner, who are in our ward, but actually live here in Eastwood. I don’t think I took any pictures of our time together since we have taken pictures before. Gretchen continues to be a great missionary to her family and everyone around her. She is amazing and we will miss her!!! (and her husband).

That brings us to Thursday, which was the beginning of the Holy Week holiday. Over a month ago, we arranged to take a trip to Batangas with our good friends, Elder and Sister Meyer. We thought for sure we would be all finished with our work and this would be a nice chance to have a last hurrah with them. Well, we aren’t finished with our work and didn’t know how we could actually fit it in, but we are both so, so glad we went. The company was excellent, the snorkeling was amazing and we had a much needed break from everything. We came back on Friday afternoon and Lennie was able to get his taxes done in record time! So all is well!! And I am so glad we got them out for a little fun and relaxation. They deserved it! Last but not least, we had a last minute invitation from Haidi (communications director for the church here) to have lunch with her and her family. Since Lennie helped to bring the gospel to her parents 52 years ago, she really wanted her family to meet us and to ask questions. I loved the questions her kids asked! She has a returned missionary son, a 13 year old daughter and an older daughter who is very autistic. Great family! And it was wonderful for Elder Huff to go down memory lane and remember what it was like to teach them the gospel. He always says if he didn’t accomplish anything else on his first mission, finding them was worth it! Four generations later they are very strong in the gospel and making wonderful contributions!