Day 2 -The arrival

Day two – The arrival

Early wake up is what started us off this morning. Except Drew and Evan of course, they were busy doing their make up while the rest of us were piling onto the bus. Our first breakfast in Bacolod was McDonald’s; a good start to the day.

We began our 3 hour drive through winding streets of Bacolod to arrive at our exquisite guest house. We experienced many new things just by sitting on a bus seat such as learning new things about the Philippines and our team members. The bus ride taught us that Filipino drivers have two speeds: stationary and furious. We were shocked at the sights we saw, felt and smelt. One of the many interesting sight that we observed were gold fish being sold in beer bottle. People were actually buying them too! Old men were flashing their bellies to us as we drove past to show their wealth. There was confronting visuals on top of the funny and exciting experiences including the state of living and many without basic needs such as limbs. La Carlotta was our morning tea stop at Jollibee, Filipino maccas where we had coke and ice cream. (Yes we are eating healthy don’t you worry mum!) Many team members got friendly with the local drivers and got group photos, they were pretty excited. Our last long stretch was to the destination of Pastor Day’s luxurious mansion in Beulahland, what a lovely place!!

We took a quick group snap in front of the enormous volcano which is just 12km away from our accommodation and then were allocated our sleeping arrangements. We quickly got settled and grabbed sunnies and hats and drove 2 minutes to IRC (Ikthus Redeemed Communities).

The greeting of the community was overwhelming! Children were running behind the bus with a huge banner reading ‘Welcome team Australia’ and waving ribbons and flags. Greeted by the sound of drums and confetti showers at the IRC gates we felt a rush of royalty. We were spoilt by their hospitality and massive feast of a rotisserie pig (lechon baboy), crumbed fish, hanging rice and sprite and coke in glass bottles. In-between our royal feast and orientation we met the gorgeous children of the community and learnt their traditional nursery rhymes and games. During orientation we got a glimpse of the hard work that is yet to come with manual labour. At 3:30 we stopped and got to play with the children, this included Evan recovery from his sleep in and winning the jumping competition and thong baseball which Emily, Emma, Matt, Georgina and others played. The kids experienced the excitement of hop-scotch for the first time today also. We departed from IRC eager for a nice cold shower and dinner. Which is what we are about to do now!

Tomorrow we are looking forward to church which is a 3 minute walk from our accommodation and introducing ourselves to 1000 people. Talk to you tomorrow night with more exciting adventures, Love Naomi and Rachel xoxox

Rachel- Hello everyone back home! Having such an amazing time already and the food is so good! See you all so soon! Love and miss you! xxxxx

Naomi- Hey fam! Having so much fun and having really good experiences! So many stories to tell already! Miss you so much guys, see you in 2 weeks. Love yous!