Day Six: Wednesday 7th June

Today was a doing nothing day so there is nothing to write!!!
Ok, so that's not quite true! Richard seemed to have a fairly productive day at the church, changing light bulbs and taps, but for Sarah and I there were no specific tasks for us to do in the homes, meaning that we spent most of the day chilling in our room (sleeping or sewing, but you will have to guess who did what!!!) We did clean our room- changing the sheets and washing the floor, which was fairly useful I guess!
During the day we did manage to have good conversations with some of the housemothers, talking about where they come from, how they became a christains, and how they came to be housemothers. When the children are home there is not much of an oppourtunity to do this, as they are so busy and you are likely to be interupted by one of the children! As a result we feel that we know them a bit better now, and know more about how the houses are run. We learnt that some of the children who are slower learners have extra tutorials to help them keep up with their classmates.
We also found out about what happens when the children are too old to live in the homes on the Mecena site. (The home in Mecena are for girls up to the age of 17/18) What happens is that, if they do not go back and live with their families, then they will go to another house also run by CCM while they continue to study, until such a time as they are able to move out.
So the morning wasn't entirely wasted!!
In the afternoon Heather, Sarah and I, (Richard was still at the church), went to a market just down the road from where we are staying to have a look around. Sarah brought half a coconut shell! (I can't remember if we have already explained, but here they use this to polish their floors) Then we all went and got ice-creams of various different flavours from 7 eleven. I think I ended up with a cheese flavour one!! It actually tasted quite nice, in fact I didn't even realise it was cheese until Sarah looked at the ingredients and told me there was processed cheese in it! As there didn't seem to be anything else that could be a flavour we assumed it must be cheese! I did notice bits of cheese in it, which was weird for an ice-cream, but it still tasted Ok! I don't know that I would of chosen it if I had known the flavour though!
When we got back to the home some of the children had come back from school, and they had another session taking hundreds of pictures with our cameras!
CRBC have their prayer meetings on a Wednesday Evening and so left for the church at about 6, after our dinner.
The prayer meeting was almost entirely in Tagalog, so it was very hard to understand what was going on, but I think that we were able to get the jist of it! (I'm speaking for myself here, I'm assuming the others understood a little at least!) The hymns were in English so we could join in with them, although they seem to sing a lot slower than we do at home! They also wrote the matters for prayer on a whiteboard in English. The Bible Study was from Genisis ch 4- about Cain and Abel, and how as christian brothers and sisters we should care for each other. (that's the general idea of it, i think, from what I understood, but I'm not entirley sure of the details) They have a slightly different way of organising their praying, (at least to what happens in my church), giving a couple of matters for prayer, praying about it and then giving a few more matters, then praying, and so on.
After the meeting we were taken along the road, with some of the members of the church to hand out tracts to passers by. (that sounds a little forced according to Sarah but I assure you that we were happy to do it!) People seemed happy to take them and people were looking at them, not just throwing them away. Pray that people will take notice of what they read and that God will work in their lives.
Having done that we continued down the road and met with some of the people who live on the streets in that area. It was a real eye-opener to see these people for real, to meet them and learn their names. Suddenly they are no longer pictures of people, images on the T.V, or cold statistics, but real living people with names, personalities and lives. Despite their bleak situation I noticed smiling faces; they seemed pleased to meet us and wanted to know all about us and to tell us about them and to show us their children (including a one month old baby who was lying asleep by the side of the road). I found it was a hard thing to see, but I am glad that I have, as this will help me to see things differently now when I see pictures or statistics. Hopefully I will be reminded of this experience and be able to see the human side.
Richard then stayed with them and the people from the church whilst those of us who needed to get back to the homes took a Jeepney to Mecena.
Riding in a Jeepney is definately an experience! There is always loud music playing and, although when we got on it was empty, it soon started filling up! Just when you think it's full someone else gets on, and then another, and another! I think at full capacity there can be 24/25 sitting and another two hanging on the back! Not to mention the driving and the fact you get on and off in the middle of the road!!!!
That was about It really! Not bad, I managed to write quite a lot for a day when I said there was nothing to write!
TTFN Becci x