alright, so sorry for not updating these few days. was too tired to do so the last 2 nights. well tonight our curfew got pushed back by an hour. so that's how i'm blogging now. Mel and Daniel are currently hogging my laptop so i'm using the university desktop computer, whose keyboard is seriously very unfamiliar for me to use. hahah.

anyways, day four was my group's trip to Masarawag Elementary school. another school, more autographs to sign. Yes, we were bombarded with notebooks, pens and screaming children even when we had JUST stepped into the school compounds. we took a taxi to the school where i sat behind the driver again with Michelle. haha the journey up to the school was weird. We were the second taxi to leave, but we ended up being the last to arrive because we stopped for gas, and we got stuck in a ditch on the way up a hill on a road covered by volcanic ash. and the area was like, flooding. and they had to pry us out the hole. after which i got splattered with the volcanic ash on my bag and my shorts. sad life. when we got there, the bunch of us were welcomed by a VERY rousing crowd who seemed to love the fact we were there. they planned out a performance and welcoming programme specially for us and we performed the national anthem and some other randon weird songs. they sang for us some traditional songs and danced to a song "sarong bangi" which, by the way, i want to learn before i leave this place. and there was the one guy named "brayan" who sang "wake me up inside" by Evanesence. which was weird. but admirable. because he managed to hit most of the high notes even though he mispitched a lot too. it was cool, the entire school joined him in singing the song too. after that, we were delegated to the different classrooms. Michelle, Cecilia, Lizzie and I were put in the Grade 5 class. so we initially wanted to tell the kids some stories from the bible like, walking on water, wedding at cana and feeding of the 5000. we decided after a while that we were just being irritating. so we ended up teaching them like 5 new action songs. which worked marvelously to kill a hellalot of time. haha. so we ended up extended past dismissal time which they didn't exactly care about at all it seems.
the moment we left the classroom, the entire class ran for our signatures and emails. so we were signing for about an hour before we began eating lunch. after lunch, it was another 2 hour signing session where i actually managed to get them to line up for my autograph [oh, i feel like a SUPERSTAR]. and then the paints and pails arrived. so we went to paint one of the classrooms. which caused me to turn white within half an hour. thanks to liz and timothy and mel. pfft.

after our work, we washed up at the pump behind the library. and then we were all called to gather in the library whilst all the children were shooed to go home. turns out there was a typhoon alert number 1. which isn't that serious but they wanted to take all precautions anyways. the mission blog is updating info on the whole typhoon thing. it's kinda irritating to talk about it. so yeah. had dinner where i managed to force Anne to eat Vegetables! :D i rock. now to make Jamie eat some too.

Yesterday was our trip to Tagaytay. it's this little village that's along the slopes of Mt Mayon. and btw, the view was so freaking awesome! i'm still trying to find a time to upload photos somewhere. no luck so far. anyways. we had two rounds to get there by bus. i was on the first bus because i carried the amplifier and the projector. so when i got there i was pretty much like, dead from sitting my back facing the front of the bus above the engine. it was hot, itchy and i was nauseous. not a good feeling. but i went to set up the projector and the amp. so we tried to entertain the kids with some action songs and such, thanks to the help from the university volunteers Abon and Mark. they translated for us. the stupid amp kept giving off static though. and i was mostly on the receiving end since i had to carry it. irritating. so when the power was finally turned on, we were able to carry out the movie plan. so we watched Lion King. or at least most of it until someone kicked the cable and the entire movie got cut off. i was watching the beginning part of it before i realised i was so tired i was about to fall asleep. so i got up and walked around. had a very nice chat with Mark, the volunteer. haha. he's a very nice guy. though he was the one who didn't allow me to carry anything that auntie julianna bought from the market. he did wish me a happy belated birthday. and so i was just exchanging some stuff about singapore and about philippines. talked a bit about the typhoon thing too. it's scary when you think about the floods. because according to him, the floods can actually reach up to your neck. the last typhoon that hit[which was just a few months back], killed about a thousand people in the Guinobatan area. Mark was also talking about being afraid of drowning too.

well on a happier note. when the power cut, the fun really began with praise and worship and action songs coming out. we played musical chairs, house child and storm and hap hap hooray. and after a while we each ended up carrying a small kid of our own and playing with them. haha it was so fun to teach them how to high five, low five and everything. they were seriously, adorable. we didn't want to let go of them. and neither them, us. so at the end of the day daniel was just screaming at people to let go of their child and help out. no one wanted to. :p we simply sang from where we were, sitting on the stage with the children playing and laughing around on our laps. hilarious. curfews were pushed back to 1am last night. haha. not really much, and most people didn't sleep till 2am either way.

and then today came and after i showered i began waking everyone up with a philippino[sp?] accent. and i couldn't get rid of it! i began having the accent in every sentence i said. GAH! and as usual everyone complained about waking up half an hour before the time to meet. it's kinda sickening when you get scolded for waking people up so they'd be on time and not late. in the end, people were still late and i could see the stress on uncle al's face, even though it's RnR day today. and all through the day i continued receiving complaints. i'm beginning to consider not even caring about waking people up tomorrow. they can go sleep all day for all i care now. (i apologise, i'm feeling kinda, pissed).

so we rode on these bus-ish like things. and visited about 4 churches? it was pretty cool and each church was special in their own way. at our last church stop, we were allowed to buy things from the bookshop. and so i did. and i bought like, nearly 2000 pesos worth of it? heh heh heh. then it was off to pacific mall for shopping. i thought it'd be fun, but i ended up feeling really sian after a while. bought a t-shirt from a hang ten sale which screams out "POKE ME!". and then i ended up sitting at Macdonalds reading archie comics that i bought from a bookshop. i managed to get jamie and rae addicted to them too. :D then we came back and something really hilarious happened on the bus which i will not share here. :D and now we're back at the hostel. and i have officially spent about an hour trying to type all this out. MUAHAHAH. i rock. and i'm only saying that because it's true. :D

tally-ho!