Yesterday, we went “behind the wall” into the small barangay (village) right next to our beautiful bubble of Eastwood and into the “real” Philippines. We had an amazing experience there. Elder Steve Leininger (he and his wife have been humanitarian missionaries here for a year now and have been helping us get settled etc,) took us on a walk through this village. We had a great time looking at the various fruit stands and little restaurants and watching the people go about their business. Then it started raining. A LOT! And HARD!!! And of course, we didn’t have our umbrellas with us. We took shelter under a roof at the side of a street and stood there for quite a few minutes, watching the kids play in the rain. After a few minutes, the owner of the home where we were sheltering came out with an umbrella and invited us into his garage, found some chairs and started talking with us. Then he invited us into his home and introduced us to his mother-in-law and wife. We had such a great visit with them and they even brought out some canned pineapple juice and cookies. We asked him all kinds of questions about his barangay, the politics there, etc. We were surprised at how nice his home was. Turns out he is one of the wealthier residents and started out with a small restaurant. From the proceeds of his restaurant he had an apartment building built and now makes money from the rental units. Anyway, we had a wonderful time getting to know more about life in a barangay and experiencing the fabulous hospitality of the Filipino people. After all, we were complete strangers! We even left with a prayer on their household.