Sending Mass in Manila

Signifcant sun burn

Another Boat

Boat

Day 16

We had today off until 5:30 when we had Mass and then left by boat for Cebu. Spent the morning catching up with sleep, packing and then filling in some missing Blog entries..

Day 15

Got up really early to visit a market, it was so hot! even some of the local missionaries were sweating and moaning about the heat! The market was packed with people, there was a stench in the air coming from a variety of foods which were overheating in the sunshine. As we walked round the market we found people asleep on cardboard boxes in the gutter. While we were looking at some of the goods we were accosted by numerous beggars. The whole scene was quite horrifying.
In the evening we travelled by the light railway network into the University of Santo Tomas for a Verbum Dei fund raising event held in the medical auditorium. This was a very impressive space, seating about 600+, fully air conditioned with a large stage and sophisticated lighting system. The concert was very good, it featured Bukas Palad Music Ministry from Ateneo University. After the concert we had a brief opportunity to talk to some of the members of the Verbum Dei family who we had met on the first two stages of the trip. We got back quite late....

Day 14

Today we attended a Verbum Dei 1 day retreat at a retreat house belonging to the the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, this was situated in another district of Manila. There was time to reflect on the trip so far, in a really cool air conditioned room. The day was split into group and individual reflections, several talks, Mass and confession.

Signing SAID

SAID (Deaf School)

This is a group of Photo taken on the last day at Southeast Asian Institute for the Deaf.

Day 13

This was our last day at the Deaf School. We got up at 7:30 so we could be at the school by 8:00. The day started with a mini Olympics in the morning. We were split up and put in teams with the children from the school. There were 5 activities: Basketball shots; sack race followed by finding four coins in a tray of flour...very funny pictures to be uploaded shortly; hoop-la with elastic bands and a paintbrush; lime and spoon relay race and knocking over a Can by throwing flip flops at it. Most of them were actually quite tricky and most of us were shown up by the kids. We then had an amazing traditional Lunch, which meant eating with our hands. There was so much food. We had fish, meat, rice, vegetables.....amazing. After a short break to catch up on some sleep (1 hour) we returned to the school to visit 3 different Philippine festivals that the students had created for us in their class rooms. This was great fun, most of them had fantastic costumes and face paints. After this we had the final goodbye presentation, this was held inside because it was raining. Some of the students spoke about how much the time we had spent togther meant to them. This was quite a sad by joyful moment. After the final address given by Carol we all piled out into the "quadrangle" for "picture picture" This lasted a long time as so many of the students wanted pictures and so did we!. (some of the pictures to follow), We have the rest of this evening off before starting a day retreat tomorrow.

Day 12 Continued

Walked to the local parish Church for Mass at 6pm. It was stunning(..currently there are no pictures to upload as I forgot my camera.) Mass was said in English, with homily alternating between English and Tagalog. After Mass we got in some cars which had been sent by Carol (the headteacher of the Deaf school) our hostess for the evening. We arrived after a 20 min trip and entered an executive compound. We were warmly welcomed by members of her family and ate very well. Yet again we cracked out another rendition of London's Burning (its steadily getting more tuneful!). the rest of the evening passed with only two things worth mentioning. One was Emily's disagreement with some food which ended up in gutter and the other was the massive fish in a tank.

Day 12

Got up early at 7:30 and managed to get some breakfast (for the first time in Manila). We all piled back into the jeepney we had used the day before and went to a state school with 8000 pupils! It was huge! Half the students were taught in the morning and half in the afternoon. We went to visit the SPED (special education needs section). We visited all the different classes but spent most of the time with the deaf children, as equipped with our new sign language we could communicate most effectively with them. After taking photos of each other and watching a dance by some of the students we finished the tour of the school by visiting some of the students in a standard class of 65 students! :). We were driven back to Campus for free time until the evening........