Day One: Friday 2nd June- Safe Arrival

We arrived safely in the Philippines 19 hours after starting our long journey! For those of you who don't know we flew with Malaysian Airlines from Heathrow to Kuala Lumpa and after a three hour wait from there to Manila- the capital of the Philippines. Apart from the length everything else was good, from the in-flight entertainment to the food!
One of the first things we noticed on arriving in Manila was the heat, which was apparently around the 35 degrees C mark! We had no trouble getting through immigration, baggage claim and customs (they didn't even check what Sarah declared!!!) We waited outside (in the heat!) for the people who were meeting us for about half an hour and were met by two of the housemothers and two of the children from the homes. The journey to our respective lodgings was long because of the busy traffic and interesting driving techniques that people here seem to have!!! Richard is staying in an apartment on the church site and Sarah and I are in a room on the roof of the girls homes. We are thankful that most of the rooms have fans or air-conditioning as we are not used to the heat yet!
The main homes are on the same site and are divided into four houses holding roughly ten girls each, although it varies from house to house. The houses are called Galilee, Hebron, Bethany and Emmaus. We are mainly involved with the Emmaus house. On arrival we were intoduced to the housemothers in Emmaus and all of the children, although with so many names to remember and us being tired from the journey we had some difficulty rembering names! We were also introduced to Heather who is also staying here. She is from Kentucky in America and has been helping us to understand what is going on, as she has been here eight days already and has a little more knowledge of the things that go on.
Richard joined us for a meal that the children had cooked for us. All the children are involved with helping out with the various chores around the house and the older ones prepare all of the meals. This is to encourage and teach the children to be independent, so that they are able to look after themselves when, eventually, they have to leave the homes.
During the evening we had our first experience of rain in the Philippines and when it rains here it pours!!! However we didn't mind the thunderstorm too much as it didn't last that long and makes the air cooler which is nice!
Everyone here is very friendly and the girls very affectionate and call us Ate Sarah and Ate Becci, (pronounced ah-tae) which means older sister and is a term of respect. You use this term to address any female that is older than you, so we also use the term when adressing the housemothers.
Take Care
Becci x