Dec 29 blog

By: Shannon Krueger

What a busy day! So much happened today that it’s hard to summarize it in one short blog. We started the day by going to Asociacion De Damas De Filipinas, the settlement house. The orphanage’s philosophy is Settlement house believes that a young child be nurtured and guided. Teach him, love him, and implant in his mind what is still vital, necessary, and righteous, as soon as possible. Delay may mean defeat, and to wait will be to make the task harder and perhaps even hopeless. On the way to the orphanage Paula explained to us how it was run. The orphanage is fully funded by donations. The orphanage coordinator is Mina, a Mary Johnston school of nursing graduate.  She gave a brief history and orientation before we met the children. Currently the orphanage has 11 resident children who live there full time and the rest are either dependent children, meaning their parents can’t financially support them, or abandoned children.  Another option was for children to be left for a daycare service. Upon arrival to the orphanage, the children were a bit shy, but by the time we left we couldn’t go anywhere without them by our side. The children love to sing and dance so they performed multiple songs for us and even had us join in and dance; Yes, Gina and Paula were out on the dance for doing the cha cha too! We played on the playground with the children as well. Before we left, we helped serve them lunch and gave them each a stuffed animal to have. Hannah’s grandmother sewed some pillowcase dresses to share with the girls as well. It was so enlightening to see that even though they were in an orphanage these children were as happy as could be. There was so much laughter that filled the room the entire morning…although maybe it was partially because we were so tall and some of us had “white” hair. It was hard to say goodbye to the children, but it made me happy knowing we could make their day just a little bit better. We used some of the money donated as a gift to the orphanage.

               After leaving the orphanage, we went to Max’s for lunch. It was a nice little sit down restaurant known for their fried chicken; they literally fry a chicken whole and bring it out on a plate. We tried many different things during our meal including a peanut butter based soup with ox tail, tendon and part of ox large intestine.  The second soup was a tamarind based stock with whole prawns (eyes and legs) Filipino spinach and okra. There was also fried boneless milk fish. Some of us had a whole young coconut cut to be served as a drink. Needless to say it was an interesting but, yet again, delicious meal! Although I think I could go without ever trying intestine again!

               When we got done eating we left and went to The City within the Walls known as Fort Santiago. It is a Filipino monument where national hero Jose Rizal was killed. One of the interesting things was walking into the wall. There were golden footprints on the ground where Jose Rizal took his final footsteps. It was an intense feeling to be in such a historical place. There was a lot of history to take in, but it was very interesting to hear about how the Filipino culture came to be. On our horse drawn carriage tour, we also got to see two gorgeous cathedrals, San Agustin church and Manila Cathedral. While we were around the cathedrals, there were three different wedding parties that we saw. People reserve these cathedrals a year in advance, and there can be as many as six weddings per day in a cathedral. This final stop on the tour was the gift shop, and I think there were only three people who made it out of there without buying pearls. The Philippines is known for their pearls and they are gorgeous here.

               Next we headed to Shakey’s for pizza and a locally brewed beer called San Miguel. I felt like we were back in the US, but none the less the food was delicious and we all had fun chatting about the days events.

               To finish the night we headed to the Bayleaf skydeck bar. The rooftop had an amazing view of the city’s skyscrapers and lights. The beautiful scene made for a relaxing end to a very busy day. I think we’ll all sleep well tonight.

By Shannon Krueger