Orientation: Day 1

Today was the first day of orientation. Edna is our placement organizer and guide during this week. She and her husband spent 24 years in Colombia and most recently, 10 years here in the Philippines. They seem to me like a mix of my mentor/friend/professor RuthAnn from home and Colin’s grandpa and grandma Helton… very wise in their years and surprisingly hip.

Joining us was a family of four from North Carolina who have served with our organization in the past. Also, a mother and her son Gage who is 5 and super duper energetic. Along with a few other people, we all spent the first part of the day learning about the SIL Philippines office and some important things about engaging in cross-cultural communication.

Soon, the “book work” was over and it was time for another Filipino adventure!

Introductions, Foodventures and Community

We have finally met our host family the Criostomos's! They are a wonderful family and we can't wait to move in with them! We met Ate Eloi and Kuya Cris at a chinese restaurant with our new friends Oliver and Ann. We had already tried the salmon head soup and things so we got very adventurous at this meal.

These are pictures from the meal, Click the read more button to hear all about what is in the pictures and what we have in store this next week.

Click on the images to see them bigger!

Rachel's First Filipino Post

Yeah. That's a Typhoon!

Hello from the Philippines! Colin has been doing most of the updating because I've been sleeping in due to jet lag. He said it was like I was in a coma... and he was right was a few exceptions. The first of which is that I WAS able to be woken up; however,  because I DID NOT WANT to be woken up I was mean and whiney.

Anyway.

Yesterday we did more than just eat an amazing lunch. There was a whole adventure beforehand beginning with the realization that we had no food, drinkable water, or pesos to get it. Because we had no pesos, we couldn't even pay for a taxi to take us to a bank to exchange our currency.

Needless to say: it was time for an adventure.

...read more!

Manila, Day 1

So we are happy to report that we are boldly fighting jet lag! Yesterday we got up and decided to visit the office where we will be working! Ann our internship coordinator took us out to lunch at a very nice restaurant called Mesa.
They served Filipino food there. We decided to be adventurous so we ordered Duck Adobo, which is basically duck stewed in vinegar and some spices, which was DELICIOUS! Then we had pinapatok Tiliapia which was basically fish steamed in banana leaves with tomatoes and onions on top. Our soup was Sinigang, a Salmon head soup. Its literally a tamarind based soup with a floating salmon head in it that you pick the meat off of. I was told that the eyes are tasty so I went for it and it was true! They were juicy!
All in all it was a wonderful first meal here in the Philippines! Thanks Ann!
We also went to Mega Mall. There we were at the supermarket and it was interesting how they had a lot so similar things to the states, but a few differences. For instance, Milk is not in a refrigerated section. It's all down an aisle where they keep rice and soy milk, thats where they even keep cows milk. They keep it in a box, So we thought that was interesting. Later we saw a box of milk at Aileens house that said lactose free on the front, and then on the side of ingredients it listed lactose. That was funny.
Rachel will post more later about all the things we did yesterday, we had quite the packed day!
Thanks,
Colin

We have arrived!

Well, after literally 24 hours of non stop travel fun we have arrived at the SIL Guesthouse here in Manila. This morning I am writing to you at 9:30 am Manila time, and Rachel is fast asleep. I think I must have slept more on the plane than she did because I am wide awake and she is practically in a coma.

I wanted to share a little bit with you about our travel experience, since we asked many of you for tips and tricks on how to survive a long flight. You will have to click the read more button because this is a long post, so enter at your own risk!

We Fly Tommorow!

Check out our newsletter! We will send it out monthly, so if you would like to be added send us your email at the whitehursts@att.net. Click the image to see full size and Enjoy!

The Last Three Days

Wow! Things are getting crazy around here! We want to share with you a bit of what we have been experiencing these last few days.

On saturday we got these little cameras called a Digital Clover. These little guys will be able to fit on our keychains so we can have a camera everywhere we go! We are pretty excited about these and have been playing with them! (Pictures coming soon!)

Sunday we got to have the great pleasure of going back to Chicago to Vist with Colins family as we all celebrated his grandparents 50th anniversary party! It was a lot of fun and we enjoyed meeting so many new people, and enjoying the company of those we haven't gotten to see in a while.

Today! We began packing and taking care of random loose ends! We didn't realize we had this much junk! Crazy! We are getting tired quick and it seems a bit overwhelming, however it's also exciting because we are getting more and more ready to get to the Philippines!

Please Pray For-
-The interns already arrived in Manila, and their orientation process
-Or need to continue to raise financial support
-That we get everything packed up in time and that our apartment will find another tenant by thursday to move in so we don't have to pay early cancellation fees on our lease
-That we would be able to find time to rest as we have a lot to do before we take off

As always thank you for your prayer support, financial support, and encouragement as we go down this path. We couldn't be doing this without the Grace of God, and his spirit moving you, so thank you for your faith!

Colin & Rachel