When we arrived at Rehoboth Children’s home in the little hours of the morning it was very quiet. It was around 2 am and everyone was asleep, and we wished that we could be sleeping. That is one thing that a 24 hour journey will do to you, with little rest and uncomfortable confines. This is my first major trip outside the United States, so I am getting a whole new perspective on the world as we go. Jess and I were so tired during our Tokyo to Manilla flight that we slept through most of it, except the meal and when the loud little guy next to us turned it up to eleven (side note: noise canceling/suppressing headphones are amazing!). We even slept through the flight attendant giving us our customs paperwork. Manilla was an interesting city, as far as what we could see from our van-window view, but it didn’t take long for the lack of sleep and travel fatigue to once again pull us all into a desperate sleep mode. The van ride from Rehoboth was about two hours. We arrived, unpacked the van, prayed and quickly headed off to bed, where I had a wonderful three hours of sleep.
Upon waking the next morning, I felt the excitement for a completely unknown day. We started with a wonderful breakfast (the cooks are amazing), then went to work on the medical center. Dirt work was the key focus of the day as we spent most of the day moving dirt away from the building. Some of our other team members helped plaster the walls and dig in plumbing lines. I will be trying to post pictures, but the upload speeds here are a little slow. We worked until 5:00 and enjoyed a nice relaxing evening. We have met a lot of new people and look forward to meeting more. I apologize if this update is a little disjointed, but I am still feeling the effects of jet-lag. Hopefully tomorrow will bring a more coherent post. Good night from the Philippines!