I definitely did not get much sleep, but the highlight of the whole flight was the sun! For almost 16 hours we were in total darkness. I looked out the window once, long enough to see a few stars and marveled at how clear it was. About 2 hours before we landed in Manila, the sun started to rise. This had to have been one of the most gorgeous sunrises I have ever seen. (The picture does not nearly do it justice.) The clouds were like pillars in some places and a little bit puffy in others. The colors in the sunrise were incredible and I sat back and thanked God for what an amazing creation He has made!
We are now staying at AGMF here in Manila and have met a couple of the missionaries that will be with us this next week in Bohol at the missionary conference, and ones that we will be working with later this month. The Philippines is an incredible country and reminds me a lot of the time that I spent in Guatemala. There are the dirt poor and the rich, there is not really any middle class, you are either one or the other. I have never feared for my life more than when we are in the car driving, there is no speed limit and people just drive where ever they want, literally. One second there are 2 lanes and the next second there are 3, 4, or 5 lanes. Oh, and don't stick your arm out the window, probably not even a finger or you will lose it! They drive within inches of each other. People also just run across the road whenever, so you have to be careful. Oh and 1 more thing, people stand in the middle of busy roads and try to sell things . . . just waiting to see one get hit by a car.
I have experienced a couple different local foods here already today. I won't even attempt to spell any of them, maybe on a later posting. We were too full tonight, but I think that we will be trying balut sometime in the couple days. (That is duck egg embryo, about 14-16 days fertilized) We also rode in a fun little tricycle, quite interesting.Well, it has been a long day, it is finally 8:40pm here on Sat. June 5th (5:40am Sat. June 5th) I have been up for almost 48hrs with about 4 hours of horrible sleep on the plane, I can finally go to sleep. We are getting up early to fly to Bohol in the morning and will be there for a week.
From the Philippines,
Jinnae
