What a week we have had!!! We had three turnover celebrations, visits to more schools and a wonderful break in El Nido. So first things first: Turnovers! We have been working with the external partnership person at the Puerto Princesa (in Palawan) School Division and now we have more or less finished with all of the requests she gave us. The first was for 20 desktop computers for their Alternative Learning System . They were so much grateful because they have never had any computers for these learners. These are students who weren’t able to finish their high school degree for whatever reason. We held the turnover at the church, so that was nice. The next day, Tuesday, we had two turnovers so got started very early in the morning. The DepEd had two vans of us traveling to these remote schools. The superintendent spent the entire day with us, so it was great getting to know her as well. She was easy to talk to and we were so impressed with her involvement. She is brand new here, so it was good for her to get out and see these schools as well. We were able to tell her some horror stories of past donations (not necessarily from the church) that have been sitting unused because they no longer work, etc. I think as a result of these conversations, she emphasized to the schools that they MUST be good stewards of these donations and make sure things are working. So if the solar panels stop working, please let the division office know. Our first visit was to the little school up in the mountains called Labtay- Pag-ASA annex. Pagasa means hope, which is very appropriate. The solar system seems to be working very well up there. They had all the fans running, a sound system and tv to show their video they produced, etc. Their video was so fun! They had the students acting out how hot they were before they could run their fans. They would look ready to drop as they glanced longingly at the ceiling fans that weren’t running. Then when they had power, a boy went and flipped the switch and on came the lights and fans and they all cheered and looked refreshed! It was awesome! The students performed their traditional dance and the PTA furnished some excellent looking food (which I didn’t dare eat). Cristina Ferriol was actually the high school teacher of one of the teachers at this school and they had a teary reunion. I love this tiny school of just 4 teachers and 80 students. I think this will be a ray of hope for them and their village, which also doesn’t have electricity.

Next was a long drive to the next school, but going through some gorgeous scenery along the way. We stopped at a beautiful beach just so I could see it and to take a short break. The next stop was San Rafael elementary. Here we had a groundbreaking for a two classroom building and restroom building. Their previous classroom building was destroyed by a recent typhoon. Since we have some emergency response money left for the response from this typhoon, we were able to use the money for this building. In the past, they haven’t wanted to really do building projects, but as long as we don’t provide the labor (legal issues) they are okay with it. So the school’s alumni association, the local barangay and the PTA are all working together to provide the labor and hire experts when needed. Once again, the superintendent charged them with following through and getting this built! She wants to see it completed by September!!! It started to rain really hard, so it was quite muddy and miserable out at the site where it will be built. We quickly retreated to a classroom where they had things set up for the food and the MOA signing. Once again, I didn’t dare eat the food, so I snuck out and visited the children. I found some children playing a fun tag game that involved putting a hat over the it person’s face and trying to tag people. Then I went to a first grade classroom and we sang a couple of action songs. I love being with the kids!

The next part of our trip involved us making our way up north, first through Roxas. We took a public van for this part of the journey. Never again! We had to wait, wait, wait for people along the way, including a long wait at the airport. Then we had a lunch break that was only 10 minutes away from our final destination. Everyone else was continuing on to El Nido. We stopped in Roxas so we could visit the rural health center that we visited way back in November and still had questions about as well as visiting some schools that we gave the literacy program materials to. We had fruitful visits with the hospital and schools, but we didn’t get to see the tutoring in action. For the next part of the trip we had a private van and driver to go up to El Nido. We had been with these guys before, so it was great- not to have to wait for people and to have more space. Finally, we were in El Nido, our R&R destination for two and a half days. El Nido is one of the most popular resort towns in the Philippines. I can see why! It’s breathtakingly beautiful up there. We did two different island hopping excursions- one on Friday and another on Saturday. Friday was overcast, so we didn’t get the brilliant blues that you can sometimes get, but it was a delightful day, with beauty all around . Our highlight was kayaking in the Big Lagoon, which really was a large area and very peaceful as we went way to the end of the lagoon before anyone else had gotten there. Surrounded by jungle sounds and nothing else! It’s also fun to meet the people on the boats and get to know people from all around the world. On Saturday, we weren’t sure about the weather. It was supposed to be rainy, but it ended up being very sunny (in fact I got a bit sunburned). This was a welcome treat, and made for some extremely intense blues and greens in the waters. We just about had a disappointment though. I knew we were supposed to go to this place that was excellent for snorkeling and we ended up going to a place that didn’t even have any coral! I voiced my opinion and got some others on board and he did make an extra stop at a place that had some excellent coral and lots of fish. So it turned out just fine in the end. They had to change some things in their route since they can no longer serve a buffet lunch on the beach (since so many people were getting sick).

Now for the stranded part. We were supposed to fly out of El Nido and back to Manila on Sunday, but the small airline, Air Swift, had cancelled ALL of their flights for four days due to a voluntary maintenance. WHAT???? Oh well, time to readjust our plans. We decided to just take a van ride back to Puerto Princesa and stay here for three extra days since we have to be back here for the two turnovers that got postponed last week. So one more unpleasant van ride. We had 13 people smashed together in this van with a driver that could have driven for the Fast and the Furious. Plus a lady sitting on my row of seats was throwing up pretty much the entire 5 hours. Needless to say, I took a Dramamine to survive the journey. Which meant I was a zombie again for the next day or two. Trade-offs! The good news, though, is that we are back here staying at the Carpe Diem, which is truly paradise! It’s so peaceful here, with only 8 rooms, brand new, beautiful pool right outside our door and natural light coming in. The perfect place to get a lot of work done. So no complaints here!!!